When Hitler Took Cocaine and Lenin Lost His Brain: History's Unknown Chapters

I’m sure my son will enjoy

Giles Milton is a popular historian with a taste for the strange and bizarre. This book is actually a combination of two volumes, here joined together with their original "for further reading" addenda. It consists of individual stories, each approximately 4 pp. in length. There is a story about Hitler's cocaine use and a story about the removal of Lenin's brain, but they are not the central foci of the book. There are stories about a Japanese sex murderer, an Australian (and a Nazi) prison escape, a story about the woman who impersonated a man so that she could participate in WWI, wartime animal heroes (a dog and a carrier pigeon, to be specific), et al. The stories are all fascinating and the pages fly by. The book can be read "in" and the stories read in any order, since each is separate unto itself.The writing is lively. Some of the stories are 'adult' in nature, but not pornographic in intent. If you like this book, Giles Milton has others and I would highly recommend his recent book, CHURCHILL'S MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE. This is not a set of discrete stories, but a full account of the British units which specialized in sabotage, assassinations and other not-always-dirty tricks utilized in the war against the Nazis.If you have a taste for quirky, sometimes lurid, never dull historiography, it is time for you to read Giles Milton.

The stories are very interesting and quick to read! I can get through one story easily while eating a bowl of cereal in the morning.

I love this book so much I bought another one for a gift. If you like random information, unknown facts of history, or just something fun to read, get this. Makes a great gift! It’s nice for reading anywhere and the stories have a huge variety that are all very interesting. Easy to read because the stories are short but organized into sections which fit well. I really like it and would recommend it for anyone who, like me, says things like “fun fact….” Or “oooh! Did you know….” :)

This is a light reading from history's lost facts and forgotten stories, from late 19th century until mid 20th century. Perfect for laid back weekend read.It consist of 50 short true stories with pretty wide range of topics from forced-canibalism, to adventurer who bought his wife at a white-slave auction, the black people who became an attraction at their zoos, the kamikaze pilot who lived to tell his story, notorious jail breaks, bizarre murder trials, to the richest men in the world, and of course to what happened with Lenin's brain and how Hitler's erratic behaviour was caused by the 80-plus drugs he consumed daily.The author, Giles Milton, is a bestseller author of narrative non-fiction books, which immediately shows since the very 1st paragraph. The true stories read like a gripping novel.I'm already purchasing the sequal of this book as we speak.

It’s a good book to have around for fun. The stories are mostly just a couple pages and fun to have around when just relaxing. I think I might get the other ones too.

An easy read of short stories full of wonder, murder, and various intrigue and mayhem. Definitely keeps one’s interest and is easy to complete in a few days.

I'm surprised this book got such great reviews, but I guess I should have read said reviews before purchasing as it would have told me what I needed to know or should have known...This IS a good book! Very interesting short stories, HOWEVER, "short" being the key word. Each story is only about 2 pages of very easy reading. I appreciated this to some extent, as I've had a hard time digging in to a book for fun lately (I'm an attorney). But, I guess I was just yearning for a bit more. I would have enjoyed this book more there were less stories, but more info presented on each story that was included To the author's credit, there is a list for suggested further reading following each section (approx. 3 titles to pursue with regard to each story presented).This book would probably be appropriate for a high schooler, but I wouldn't recommend for much younger audiences, as most of the stories have to do violence, death, and drugs!

Great

Interesting facts here and there,but not a book.Not literature.Reading material.Some research well done though,but the quirky title is the best piece of the whole book.

Facinating read. Highly recommend.

I loved this book, Its full of history bits that mostly were unknown to me

ジャイルズ・ヒルトンは侍ウイリアムズ以来、何冊も読んできたが、どれも面白い。長編はほとんど読んでしまったので、この短編集に手を出したが、正解だった。表題でも紹介されているヒットラーが、持病を直してくれるようにみえる、薬を処方する医師を重んじるが、じつはその医師の処方する薬は、覚醒剤や、モルヒネなどの麻薬だったという話は特に面白い。感動的なのは、ナチスの支配するポーランドで、ユダヤ人の赤ん坊をそのゲットーから連れ出すイレーナという女性の話だ。2500人もの赤ん坊を、連れ出すが、ナチスに捕まり拷問を受けたが、何も喋らず、死んだことにして助け出される。戦後、共産党支配下のポーランドでは亡命政府との関係を疑われて迫害される。しかし、共産党支配が覆ると認められる。数々の賞を受賞するが2007年にはノーベル平和賞の候補に成るがゴア副大統領に敗れる。