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How Did It Begin?: The Origin Of Our Curious Customs And Superstitions (2011)

by Rudolph Brasch(Favorite Author)

2.78 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1606710729 (ISBN13: 9781606710722)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

MJF Books

review 1: There's just no way I could finish this book. The author doesn't even try to pretend to be objective and everything is in sore need of footnotes. How can you cover pink and blue for baby colors without even a hint that they were originally swapped?This morning was the final straw, no way I can keep reading this book. Kissing as the possible vestige of bacterial conjugation? I think the authors are in serious need of drug testing, or at the very least, not writing the book 20 minutes before deadline.
review 2: I set the date to 1994 so this wouldn't count towards my 50 books, because I don't think I read this book as much as mentally raged against its existence. I most certainly didn't finish it. My time would be better spent watching the post-midnight fuzz on t... morehe public access stations.I bought this book on a whim and because I thought it would be fun. I should have been more careful and checked the author, who is not a historian at all. Just a "ooh that sounds fun."His "history" of superstitions is full of just made up facts, complete nonsense, and outright errors. I found this out in the first chapter when he discusses our superstitions about number 13. According to Brasch, ancient man could not count above 12. Um...what?Brasch's ever-convincing proof? That after the number 12, we use "compound words" for numbers. Forget that in both Latin and Hebrew (as well as many other languages) the "compound" nature of numbers begins at 10. This really isn't hard to figure out as we have ten fingers.This mistakes continue on from there, and crazy theories are put forth as fact with no citation, no sources, no further information. The only thing I can think is that Brasch was sitting in a room throwing darts at a wall to come up with this stuff.What makes the book even worse is the pathetic editing. Take this classic example:“In the sixteenth century, breakfast was a snack, with no fixed menu. It’s only purpose was to break the fast. Two thousand years later it had become a sumptuous meal, not just for the family, but for plenty of guests as well.”You'll be happy to know that in the 36th century, we can look forward to sumptuous meals. Later today, I'm handing the book over to my child to use for art projects--because goodness knows it's not good for much else. less

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