The Forgotten Past.

For people who don't know me: I enjoy knowing things. I am that one Tyrion quote that says "I drink and I know things", but instead of drinking it's eating. I own several books like this, spanning from the whacky kings and queens of England to two separate books on weirdly funny deaths.
That said, I really enjoyed this book. Vinken has a very entertaining writing style and his chosen stories were interesting to read. While I did know several of them beforehand (I may or may not have written a 2k essay on the Winchester house just because I could a few years ago), others were entirely new to me.
So, if you enjoy knowing things just for the sake of knowing, this book may just be the thing for you.


Thanks to Netgalley and Matador for providing this ARC!

It purports to be a book about little known historical facts. Unfortunately it seems like most of the author's research took place on Google, and I don't mean Google Scholar. The sourcing and actual "fact" status of a lot of these is questionable. His writing style is pretty pleasant when he's not find himself to include weirdly chatty asides like "What do you think?" that make more sense on a blog where you have commenters than in a book. Although I was muttering at it a lot so there's that. 2.5/5 sheep, if you have nothing better to do and can get it for free/cheap it's mildly entertaining and will save you the trouble of finding out what silly theories the internet has put out about things yourself.

Written by Andrew Vinken, I have found myself recommending this book to everyone I know. The Forgotten Past is filled with stories, both true and theories based on truth. If you enjoy history, or even if you don't, this is a really great book!

Hands down one of my favorite non-fiction reads, this was easy and moving and had SO MUCH I didn't know about.

Well written, this is written in more in a narrative style than the traditional dry non-fiction style that so many people avoid. Honestly, a really great book for people who don't usually like to read non-fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.
As someone who enjoys history, but sometimes finds a hugh tome a bit of a struggle to get through, i found the bite sized format and variety of subjects covered,much easier to digest.
This is the sort of book that I enjoyed dipping into , and it gives you many interesting facts that you weren’t aware of.
I would recommend this to anyone as a gateway into history reading

A fun and lively collection of tales from the lesser-known side of the history of the western world.

This was a quite entertaining read, even if the writing style was sometimes a little too chatty. Still, the anecdotes were all interesting and easy to read, and I especially enjoyed the sections where events were cross-referenced with each other.

A fun read for history buffs.

I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately, the writing style just didn’t work for me.

The book contains several bite-sized pieces of so-called forgotten history. Each section can be easily read in five to 10 minutes, which makes the content sparse and superficial. It reads more like a series of articles on a website than a history book.

The constant usage of exclamation marks also made the text seem less professional than I would have liked. The author used a folksy, conversational, and, at times, sensationalistic style of writing that’s akin to an article you might find on Ranker. This is going to be the perfect fit for some readers, and I hope they find this book. I’m just not one of them.

On the plus side, most of the stories did have some interesting historical facts. This is also a book that can be easily dipped in and out of because there are so many short history stories contained within the pages.

On the downside, none of the images for the Kindle edition were formatted to work on a Paperwhite. They’re all very tall and skinny, so it’s hard to make out what the images depict.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Learn history from the bottom up. The "little guy" has done more to influence history than you might think. And there are interesting historical stories from places where nothing spectacular has ever happened. Yes that's counter-intuitive, but you will read them in this book. A rather quick read compared to other books I've read recently, but that's due to it being a well-flowing book that's difficult to stop reading.

The first book I finished in June was an e-arc which was released recently and focuses on aspects of history that are often forgotten such as the true inventor of flight (years before the Wright brothers), an audacious conman and Hermann Goring's brother who was such an incredible person (unlike his brother) to the most decorated solider of the first world war who was an extremely brave stretcher bearer, strange coincidences throughout history, the grave robbing of royal tombs and much more.

If you've read my previous book reviews and wrap-ups then you might know that history centric non-fiction reads that focus on a very specific or niche topic are some of my favourite books to read and this one from Andrew Vinken ticks so many boxes. I loved the quick, short chapters each looking at a different event/individual/topic and the easy writing style, although I think it was a little too cheesy and casual at times. I thought it would be a little more academic or formal in it's tone which was disappointing but I would recommend it as an easy and unusual non-fiction read.

This was a fun little book but I found myself wanting more details out of each story and less exposition. It seems a little lower grade level than I was initially anticipating, however, it would be a great book for middle grade to high school kids. I really wanted to like this more but the use of exclamation points and relatively fluffy voice wasn't ideal for me, personally.

I found this book to be sweet and charming in a way I did not expect at all. It’s filled with little-known anecdotes from history, each chapter only a few pages long. But the key to this book is imagining it narrated by your kind, probably nonexistent, old British grandfather, with glasses perched on the bridge of his nose and a deep, rumbling voice. Maybe like Stephen Fry or David Attenborough (one of the stories is actually about Sir David, so maybe go with that). Imagine sitting by the fire, sipping tea, and listening to these little cheerful anecdotes.

Now, the reason I say this is because this book isn’t told like a regular history book - there will be no formal academic language, no historiographies, no in-text citations here. Initially, I expected all of the above - after all, this is supposed to be a history book. I was unpleasantly surprised in the first few chapters when I discovered the informal tone and exclamation points everywhere. As a history major, I would have been publicly humiliated had I put a single exclamation point in any of my papers. However, within a few chapters, you come to reorient your expectations and appreciate the book for what it is. Vincent cares more about making history fun and interesting rather than factual and boring. He adopts a tone for the people, just to inform you, not to put you to sleep. Here’s an example that I pulled at random - found in an anecdote about how the word “mortgage” comes from the French for “death contract.” “Fortunately, the death bit refers to the demise of the contract, upon either the final repayment, or seizure of the property through foreclosure, rather than to the expiration of the borrower. I am, however, reminded of one or two tightwads I have known down the years who would probably have regarded snuffing it mid-mortgage as something of a result!” Is that not the most old-British-guy humor you’ve ever heard?

In addition, many of these stories could be completely untrue. There are no citations and Vinken often says that he found out any given piece of information just by “doing some research.” But, this quote sums it up perfectly: “Unfortunately, there is no primary source of historical evidence to verify this tale, but never let the truth get in the way of a good story, I always say!” I have to admire that attitude.

Individually, none of the stories are groundbreaking or life-changing, but together, you’ll come away from this book with at least a dozen fun “did you know?” anecdotes to pepper into dull conversations or make you more interesting at parties. Here are just a few: Did you know that, contrary to popular belief, “America” was probably not named after Amerigo Vespucci, but was instead name after the Welsh financier Richard Amerike? Or that the Wright Brothers were actually not the first-ever people to achieve powered flight - that honor should have instead been given to Gustave Whitehead (he just didn’t get the recognition because there was no photographic evidence of his flight). Or how about this one: the truly evil founder of the Gestapo and commander of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering, had a brother named Albert Goering who was a strong anti-Nazi dissident, arrested many times for refusing to acknowledge Hitler’s power or giving the Nazi salute. He saved over a hundred people from concentration camps by procuring travel documents or directly intervening with his brother, Hermann.

This book is truly a delight and would put a smile on the face of any history lover who is completely aware of the unhistorical nature of the book. It’s a fun and charming romp through time and forgotten bits of the past.

I’ve always been fascinated by, as the author Andrew Vinken terms it, the history from below: the stories and lives of everyday people from the past that are untold and so oft-forgotten. Taking the famous and important characters from history, and making them secondary to the characters that history neglects is such a wonderful idea!

This was just a really cool read if you’re a fan of history. I learned some very interesting little-known facts.

I adore little known parts of history! So, of course, this book was perfect for me. Some I had read of before, but quite a bit was new to me. If like me you're a fount of useless knowledge, then this might be right up your alley! I always say that I know a little about everything, but not much of anything in particular! My thanks to Andrew Vinken, his publisher's, and Netgalley. Recommended!

This book was extremely interesting and filled with nuggets of facts that I had never heard before. This is one that I recommend to anyone that loves history!