Armchair Digest: The Fascinating Book of History

The Fascinating Book of History, from the much-loved Armchair Digest series, is a lively collection of the most compelling, bizarre, chilling, and hilarious stories from world history. In 304 packed pages, you ll read about an array of stuff that they didn t teach you in school, such as:

Elizabeth of Bathroy, the insane Hungarian countess and real-life vampire who tortured and killed more than 600 people before authorities locked her up in her own castle
Animals dressed up and put on trial for their crimes in the Middle Ages
The shortest war ever, a 38-minute face-off between Great Britain and Zanzibar
The mysterious Voynich manuscript, a bizarre medieval book filled with indecipherable code, drawings of plants that botanists still haven t identified, and illustrations featuring naked nymphs cavorting around
Hatshepsut, the lady pharaoh who ruled Ancient Egypt dressed as a man -- complete with a fake beard

Written for the curious mind, The Fascinating Book of History gives you an inside look at hundreds of odd episodes and eccentric figures.