Skull-Crushing True Stories of the Most Hardcore Duels

I liked this book mainly because it is unlike what is out there. I expected it to be a bit juvenile from its description but it really, really is juvenile.

Still, fun to read. However, the descriptions seem to blur together after awhile because they are so repetitive.

It found its place by the toilet where it made a fun toilet reader.

Here are some analogies to help readers understand Ben Thompson's writing:

Ben Thompson is to historical writers as...

...Darth Vader is to Sith Lords.
...Julius Caesar is to egotistical dictators.
...Blackbeard is to pirates.
...Patton is to generals.
...Padre Hidalgo is to Catholic Priests.
...Oda Nobunaga is to Daimyo.
...Che Guevara is to Revolutionary guerilla warriors.
...Wolverine is to X-Men.

His book will make you...
...punch through brick walls.
...prepared to take on the Empire.
...ready to conduct raids on the merchant marines.
...scale tall buildings.
...defy death.
...write and speak in heavily sarcastic tones.

Read it!

I only wish Ben Thompson had been my history teacher in school. He's brilliant and I have devoured all 3 of his books in addition to giving them as gifts. His website brightens up my week as well: [...]

Written in the style of someone who is stoned and vaguely remembers reading the Wikipedia article from a couple of days before. I don't mind the language, but the sense that the writer only cares about the gist of the story, and doesn't care if a detail or two is flat out wrong bugs me. Over-priced at two bucks.

This is a fun and light hearted history of heroes, warlords and conquerors.

I enjoyed the fun and entertaining approach; it kept me fully engaged.

The one big irritant....BCE, for all that is right and wrong in the world over thousands of years....WHY?

The author is clearly not concerned with being politically correct (which makes this incredibly fun to read) and then......and then.....he uses BCE instead of the long-held BC.

Why change thousands of years of history using BC to appease a bunch of whiners claiming that BCE is better b/c it doesn't offend anyone?

This book IS offensive and hilariously so.

Fun read, ignore the author's otherwise ball-less choice.

This book is incredible. The writing style makes otherwise tedious subject matter very interesting. Also, the book is sizable with plenty of extremely entertaining material to keep you happy for hours of reading or just a few sections here and there.

I purchased this book through the store. i was expecting a book on the history of the different "badasses" mentioned in the book,what i got is a book written about the "badasses" at a 6th grade level. i guess i was expecting more historical and in depth stories.The book is well thought out and has great potential and overall not terrible,i guess i was just a litlle upset at all the terms used to describe the exploits,I mean how many times can you use the words, ball sack,bff,and his use of the mis-spelled word "pwned" i had to ask someone what this meant. it is a term used by kids. it was started off as "owned" as in "i owned that game" but was mis-spelled so many times it stuck as "pwned".The book is written in a very elementary school level. But as somneone else stated,he doesnt take himself too seriously and sometimes that is good,so this is why i didnt give it a 1* rating.it was worth the used price,but if i had paid the original price,yeah i would have been "pwned"

This is history as told by Lord Kenneth Clark--if Kenneth Clark were a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter jacked up on steroids. Ben Thompson deserves a place of his own in this pantheon of heroes for single-handedly saving History from the dustbin of history. Best book I've read all year!

Warning: this book will suck the estrogen right out of you. I would say it was the chronicles of manliness but some of the people covered are women who are apparently more manly than I can ever hope to be. My pregnant wife read this book and the baby spontaneously turned from a girl to a boy. Just sayin'.

The writing style is humorous and light, but admittedly it sometimes borders on juvenile. There are obvious embellishments (I've never actually seen someone crushed under the weight of testicles, but there are things on earth I haven't seen). However, I give the writing style a thumbs up because the author presented a lot of good history in a form that would even keep the attention of a 13 year old boy.

The author does have an odd fetish with faces. He mentioned "face" 105 times in the book, mainly accompanying words like "crush", "stab", or "burn." Oorah!

The biographies in the book are genuinely interesting and it's definitely worth the read to find out about these men and women that history may have unjustly forgotten. Problem is, the author delivers each story in a style that's so over the top it makes the entire book seem like a joke, which kind of defeats the purpose.

Where the story would be perfectly "badass" on its own, we get a constant stream of needless, sophomoric (and sometimes anachronistic) additions such as "wailing ... guitar solos so loud, flaming, and technically challenging that they set off explosions and fireworks in the sky above him" in a passage about a Japanese ninja of the 16th century. We get it, they're great; you don't need to further convince us of the fact.

I can only recommend that you skim the book or get it from the library. One read of this author's writing style was plenty enough for me.

Attention Universe: BADASS: A relentless onlaught of the toughest warlords, vikings, samurai, pirates, gunfighters and military commanders to ever live is the greatest work of literature in the history of the written word.

#1: BADASS is very, very good. So good, it is as though Odin himself reached into Valhalla, chose the 40 best heros of history and penned their history into this wonderfully illustrated tome.

#2: After I purchased BADASS, I opened the book to the Library of Congress page. I was immediately slapped in the face by the sheer awesomeness of it. I was transported through history and witnessed, FIRST HAND, the amazing exploits of the legendary historic characters. Once I regained consciousness I actually read it.

#3: This book is so funny that I laughed until my nose bled. I got blood on the pages of the book (it seemed appropriate), but the blood was absorbed by the pages. I think the book was feeding on it.

#4: The information in this book is all historically accurate. And I should know. I work at a university.

[...]

Badass is a kickass collection of tiny biographies of historical figures from Leonidas of the 300 to the pirate Anne Bonny to the Western legend called Bass Reeves concluding with Jonathan Netanyahu who led a hostage freeing raid on Entebbe. The prose is informative and punchy and well, hilarious. Author Ben Thompson not only researches the people of the period, he gives a look at their equipment as they perform astounding feats. Here is his description of an aircraft used by the super-heroic Irina Sebrova during World War II-

“the Po-2 bomber was like the aeronautical equivalent of a 1978 AMC Gremlin with bald tires, faulty brakes, and a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting every time it got within two hundred yards of an open flame. For starters, these crap-tastic propeller-powered biplanes were originally designed in 1927 to serve as civilian crop dusters, so they weren’t exactly flying death fortresses capable of glassing entire continents with their limitless firepower. Already fifteen years old and technologically obsolete when the war began, these unwieldy machines were made entirely of wood and canvas, meaning that basically anything more serious than lighting a match in the cockpit was going to send this Wright Brothers reject down in flames. Seriously, a friggin’ German soldier standing on the ground firing his submachine gun wildly into the air was a very real danger to these pilots, to say nothing of the antiaircraft flak cannons the Nazis conveniently stationed around every moderately interesting ground target larger than a portable toilet.”

In all, forty totally badass historical figures get profiles. If history classes were this much fun, we would have a better sense of who we are as a people.

I like to read books that will augment my understanding of history, and sometimes much can be gained from an entertaining read that may not be too academically heavy.
Though I should have known from the title, the rhetorical style of the author is something akin to a fourteen-year-old comic book nerd who has learned a few words of how “real men” talk and parrots them ad nauseam in attempt at Spike TV-type “manliness”. A few pages in, it becomes extremely tiresome, and it is sustained throughout the books 300+ pages, for the most part. I bought the book as a review of some interesting figures in history—and it does contain interesting figures—including some of my heroes like Miyamoto Musashi, Khalid bin Waleed, and Bruce Lee. But one cannot help wondering if it is an extended satirical piece mocking those who would worship testosterone. Sadly, it seems to have been written in earnest with an attempt at humor. It rarely is successful in its attempts. Crassness is not the same as humor.

Unfortunately, the majority of his history is nothing but the shallowest of readings in unquestioning military propaganda where the ideological bias of the author is very much in evidence. For me, a clear indication of the author’s truly retarded vision of history is when he calls the Civil War, the “American Civil War of Northern Aggression Between the States” (234).

Annoying misusage of an important term: He misuses even common contemporary terms like “chicana”, applying it to indigenous (or mestizo?—it is unclear who he generally refers to) women during the time of the conquistadors in Central America, while the terms “Chicano” and “Chicana” apply only to Mexican Americans.

His chapter on Musashi erroneously states that he got no martial arts training (he became an autonomous and spontaneous master) which overlooks his own family’s lineage in martial arts and the instruction he received from his own father (read the masterful study “Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings” by Kenji Tokitsu for thoroughly researched evidence on this issue).

Frustratingly sloppy history: “When those crazy Commies started their wacky hijinks in 1966….” (300). Without going over the entire history of our pre-1965 involvement in the Vietnam War, or the fact that it wasn’t necessarily the Commies “hijinks”, but many of ours—a legacy of European colonialism and our ascendancy as arguably the greatest world power—that led to 200,000 American troops on the ground in Vietnam by the end of 1965—I have no idea how any writer can be so disrespectful or any editor so negligent so as to allow this mistake to be published. And it is on the chapter on the great sniper, Carlos Hathcock, whose book I read on the recommendation of my decorated Vietnam veteran father. A historian has an obligation to know his facts well, and to convey them in a clear manner. When Thompson quotes Wilde in his bibliography as saying “Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.”, I think that it has to be remembered that an essential element in greatness is hard work.

I do not often write condemnatory reviews of books, but the ubiquitous bigotry and stupid crassness of the book was disappointing—as well as were the ideological biases of the book—though I understand this is important for creating a humorous effect . A rewritten version, cleaned up, made more humorous without resorting so much crassness, the facts checked more thoroughly, etc. would actually be a great book. The format—providing an engaging brief narrative with well-executed illustrations, a few related facts in boxes in connection with each chapter, etc.—is actually a good format and one that could be beneficial for many age groups—but I definitely cannot say this for this edition.

There are some great and fascinating to read true stories out there. Mostly they get recounted in a boring facts and information type way or in a school teacher/university lecturer boring tone but there are a few people out there who know how to tell a tale. If you're going to teach someone something you've got to be entertaining in your delivery or they'll just tune out and mentally go to sleep or just stop reading. The couple of page synopsises on 40 of history's toughest men and women are great for kids, adults, and well anyone who has any interest in history really. In fact it's probably a great book to get those who aren't to want to learn more about the 40 historic figures inside and others as well!

This book's text is written in a style like you wish you'd been able to do for those history assignments back when you were at school. Humorous in awe hero worshipping slang type text explains the life of 40 individuals from all "sides" in war, genders, and periods of the timeline. Some you will have heard of, others you won't have but all their life stories are interesting.

You'll also learn about other stuff to like that the unicorn in mythology wasn't something for little princesses, it was in fact a much feared unstoppable killing machine and was unbeatable in combat by knights, and other animals. The only way for them to be stopped was for a beautiful maiden to take her shirt off. The different things you can shoot out of a catapult, the difference between the Gauls and the French and much, much more!

Read this book, you'll not only be entertained, but you'll learn something as well!

You've never read a history lesson quite like this, and in doing so you learn about people that you've never heard of in your normal history class. Ben Thompson has been a long time student of history, and you can tell. This book is well researched, with a nine and a half page bibliography, which is badass in it's own right (size does matter here). Infused in this book is enough testosterone to make females change gender in the process. The best part of this book is learning about all these unsung heroes and villains that you really had no clue existed. For Americans, Peter Francisco should be a well known name in school, and yet is never mentioned. This guy was approximately six foot six and kicked ass with a huge broad sword given to him by George Washington himself. Bass Reeves may have been the most badass man from the old west and yet we don't know about him either. One of the most intriguing people in the book is Nikola Tesla who was a mad genius, and may have been an alien. And Jack Churchill, who fought in WWII with a broad sword and a bow and arrow. There are a ton more bad ass people in this book, and if you enjoy history, and shows like 'Deadliest Warrior' then this is the book for you!

This book was purchased for our classroom library and I love it. The historical figures are diverse, though the historiography may be a bit lacking. It just adds to the charm and gets my students interested in researching the History of the people in the book. Makes me laugh each time I pull it out to read a story to my students.

I don't believe the driest recounting of the details contained therein could be more grating than the idiotic adverbiage the author uses in his failed attempt to pump-up these vignettes dedicated to his widely and not-so-widely known BadAsses.

My stubborn insistence on finishing every book I'm dumb enough to start has never caused me such anguish, honestly.

I really don't know what compelled me to buy this book....no, wait - it was the title!

Egad, what a stupifying waste of time.

I am a history teacher and usually am pretty picky about what I read. I saw this book at my local bookstore and thought it looked really interesting. While the writing is juvenile I find that is what gives the book its greatest appeal. Granted I am a young guy that gets most of the jokes and the words used but I think that this would be an awesome book for some high school kids to read. I would not most likely let my kids read it because of the language but it speaks to them. It teaches the content greatly and I learned about a lot of different badasses that I have never bothered with learning in the past. I really don't see much of a problem with the book at all other than he loves to use face bashing analogies which get a little old but it didn't detract from the book. Overall I would say anyone willing to take a little humor with their history would love this book. If you are looking for what us history lovers are accustomed to reading then you should run away fast!

Written by the best living example of badassitude, this book will save your marriage, cause the blind to see, reverse global warming, and raise the dead. A fun read by an author who describes heroes while not taking himself or his writing style too seriously.

Hilarious and historical! This is fantastic! With well researched historical facts, told with humorous prose and clear prose, this is an excellent way to learn about world events. Thompson clearly has a knack for conveying this sort of information in a way that the layman and amateur historian can understand - and indeed, makes reading this enjoyable. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a hilarious and educational prose.

Overall: hilariously funny insights to the men and women who changed history by their bravery, strength and badassitude. Buy it for that special, albeit seemingly illiterate, man in your life.

A perfect bathroom reader, this book has short sweet chapters that quickly surmise the real-life heroes and heroines lives in spectacular dude vernacular. A great gift for any person in the above stated target audience, I believe Mr. Thompson is what our unread and mostly illiterate generation needs to shake the rust off the old spectacles and get our boys reading again.

I think that this is a great book for a small target audience: 20 to 30 year old men (me). With numerous references to Nintendo game characters and other random stuff from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, the humor is easily missed by people outside of the target audience (eg: my wife).

I suppose the first thing that must be said about this book is that, like most humor books, it will not appeal to everyone. Readers who enjoy ridiculously over-the-top action movies will call this a winner, despite the author's tendency to favor sensationalist fiction over facts when the two overlap. Why would he do this? Well, perhaps because this is a piece of humor, not biography. What sort of humor? It has boner jokes, boob jokes, violent super-hyperbole, alcohol and drug jokes, and a huge extra dose of boner jokes.

As one would expect, language and jokes are repeated fairly often, but the book was adapted from a weekly blog, so it isn't too surprising. I found that the punchlines lost some of their punch without some time between then, but the chapters are fairly short. Needless to say, the humor in this book is targeted primarily towards campus-dwelling college kids, and makes for a good time-killer. It was great for breaks between classes, waiting for roommates to get out of the shower, and the bus ride to work.

As much as this is targeted towards the college crowd, it is certainly not aimed at serious historians or, as one reviewer complained, middle- and high-school-aged kids. If you're considering purchasing this book as a gift, keep in mind that the title is tame compared to some of the content and judge accordingly.

It wasn't perfect, but it was more than entertaining enough to be worth the fifteen bucks I paid for it. If you want your history with a healthy dose of Die Hard, pick this up.

This book has a really odd, but extremely well used combination of humor and fact.
Being a history buff I can say that, at least most of, the information is valid. Everything that isn't true makes itself obvious. It is amusing to be reading something that feels like it is from a full fledged history book, and the next moment an exaggeration to the extreme.
I personally give this book a thumbs up, because it successfully did two things. It educated me while simultaneously adding a flare of style and spontaneity.
I highly recommend this book.

Ben Thompson's book does something that I would have considered impossible a couple of years ago when I was taking world history in college: the book made history INCREDIBLY interesting. The beauty of how he writes is that it makes what he is trying to convey digestible to the average reader. I remember in that same history class that I was lamenting, the professor spoke about Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great but did so in a very scholarly, matter-of-factly and (quite frankly) boring way. I was bored to tears in that class and had difficulty retaining information conveyed. Now let us take Ben Thompson's approach. His use of words and being able to relate to the average reader made the very same information not only bearable but outright enjoyable. Thompson's own rendition of Julius Caesar's entry made it so that you could actually see the event in your mind, down to the moment Caesar raises his wine glass and says "Hey, you guys are pretty awesome. It's a shame I'll have to have you all executed when I get back into town. Cheers!" Hearing that same story during the lecture didn't exactly have the same effect and all I got out of it during lecture was "What's this about pirates now?" But yes, I highly recommend this book to not only those who like history, but also those who are looking for examples of real-life super-heroes and super-villains, such as Alexander the Great, Pharaoh Ramses and Vlad the Impaler.

If you like your history lessons with at least an average of 1 hyperbolic metaphor, simile, or pop reference per sentence then you will love this book. These constant, unrelenting, ridiculous references are amusing at first. But once you get through that first paragraph, those chuckles die off pretty quickly when you realize there are 460-or-so more pages to go.

If these don't bother you then you should definitely pick up this book and read a chapter before deciding whether to own it or not.

Thompson knows how to write, and it's a shame he chose this method of battering his readers' patience with superfluous attempts at interjecting humor into pretty much every single sentence... less is sometimes more, and in this case a lot less would have been a lot more.

I give this book 2 stars because despite the tediousness of the hyperbole and unnecessary pop references the content is still interesting as only military history can be. If you are not bothered by that sort of thing, consider it to be 4 stars, easily.

Repetitively written, this one joke pony beats that one pony to death throughout, using misplaced modern similes to jack worthy historical figures and make them into caricatures. Only redeeming value is that this book may encourage readers to seek out more accurate and less grandiose depictions of these real life stories.

Read this book and disliked the repetition, lack of historical accuracy, foul lanquage and poor methods of describing actual battles and duels. I read a great deal of history and just finished a somewhat similar book involving great warriors. There is no comparison between the two books. The lack of historical integrity in this book makes the slang and trite descriptions updated to street lingo of the 21st century beyond intolerable. The only virtue I could find in this book was the light that Thompson sheds on a number of warriors and fighters who have been forgotten by most of history. This could have been a great book since when dealing with relatively unknown people like Tomoe Gozen and Wolf the Quarrelsome, the author would have had a blank slate to create a vivid picture of their contributions. Other entries like Alexander and Julius Caesar have been covered in much greater depth too many times to count. However, the author repeatedy subjects the reader to trite phrases and commentaries such as: "saying that having all of your pubic hair removed with salad tongs would be mildly uncomfortable." THe phase "bitch slapped" is used adnauseum as is the phrase "ass-kicking."

One futher comment. I noticed the reviews were weighted towards the positive. I found this somewhat curious in light of my own experience so I read several 5, 4, 2, and 1. Few of the reviews in the 1 category were rated as helpful despite many of them being (to my mind anyway) quite descriptive of the quality of the book. THe positive ratings (despite often being cursory and lacking analysis) were much more generally given higher approvals in terms of helpfulness. This leads me to wonder how many friends the author had stacking the deck here? I would suggest that any ten good reviewers would be loath to rate this book higher than 1. With so many high ratings, this is a good examples of bias in surveys.

While, yes, the book is presented in a colloquial style ... I loved it. Anyone who reads this book and then goes off to whine about the minor details and/or narrative style has really just missed the point of the work entirely ... and I would go so far as to say that such individuals would instead better spend their time searching for a sense of humor.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in learning the history of true badassitude!

While this book's considerable merits have been praised by a variety of reviewers, I want to point out something about it that is easily ignored yet most exemplary:

Its bibliography.

Author Ben Thompson has clearly done his research. His list of sources stretches for a glorious ten pages, thus granting his work a credibility that most nonfiction books for younger readers lack.

This, combined with the fact that reading this book will make even the most thin-blooded milquetoast reach for his short sword, means that this book rocks like Wolf the Quarrelsome.

After reading the negative reviews that some clueless bibliophiles posted, come on! I read, teach and am now writing history and I did not expect a serious series of biographical sketches. I played Dungeons and Dragons, was in a fraternity and love Tarantino. This book is just some serious fun. It gave me some laughs as I needed them trying to steer uninterested teenagers through American history. I found it highly entertaining and enjoyed it very much. I have recommended it to friends and will soon check out the website.
To the reviewer that talked about blogs destroying the "quality" of books, etc. There has always been writing that has appealed to the fist-swinging, sword admiring, dreamy nerd market of fantasy. Ever hear of splatterpunk? Get over yourself!

The title will kick most people's butts as BADASS is a not fiction, but a terrific forty entry short biographical accounts of some of the toughest warriors in history. The book is divided into four sections (Antiquities, The Middle Ages, The Age Of Gunpowder, and The Modern Era) with ten entries in each. The Antiquities and The Middle ages are fascinating for those who are lesser known like Julia "the black widow of Rome" Grippina and Indian Warlord Chandraguupta Maurya although the writings on Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, von Richtofen of Snoopy and music renown and Leonids of 300 Men fame are quite good. The other three sections contain some ass whippers from Napoleon to Pattern to Bruce Lee to Testa. All the entries are fun to read as gender and location is not a prerequisite to warriors entering a butt kicking battle in which the leader knows he or she will leave dead and maimed on the battlefield, but as Ben Thompson cites Mike Tyson with "I want your heart. I want to eat your children". This is what makes a true BADASS and this biography an entertaining read as real persona like Wolf the Quarrelsome barbarian and Bhanbhagta Gurung the fearless Gurkha make this fun for the armchair warrior.
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Harriet Klausner

Short review: I laughed my ass off, and I learned something here today.

Long review: Absolutely hysterical, and a true blue-steel education on badassery. It's like a history book as taught by Professor Dirty Harry and his teacher's aide, a .44 automag loaded with hollow-tip knowledge. Anyone who would give this a one-star review needs to lighten up. Seriously. This is a comedy book that actually teaches about some bad-ass historical figures. These are guys and gals with gigantic, bulletproof brass balls that could be mounted in an industrial slingshot and used to end the Cold War forever, one shot into the Kremlin, and ka-boom -- nuclear face-meltage. Okay, the Cold War is over, but you get my point. Don't lie. You know you get my point.

Just the exchange between King Leonidas and Xerxes is worth the price of the book. Everything else is simply gravy.

Does it use slang? Uh, yeah, that's the point. The book is funny. Hello? One-stars? Refer to paragraph two about the "lighten up" part.

Once again, loved it, and it eviscerated me with history humor.

This book is for pure entertainment. The author exgerates what these historic figures did. It is a entertaining book that introduces readers to several little heard of names in history. Inspired me to read true historic books and papers on some the figures that the author presents in the book. Again do not read this if you are looking for a truely academic piece of work.

The title will kick most people's butts as BADASS is a not fiction, but a terrific forty entry short biographical accounts of some of the toughest warriors in history. The book is divided into four sections (Antiquities, The Middle Ages, The Age Of Gunpowder, and The Modern Era) with ten entries in each. The Antiquities and The Middle ages are fascinating for those who are lesser known like Julia "the black widow of Rome" Grippina and Indian Warlord Chandraguupta Maurya although the writings on Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, von Richtofen of Snoopy and music renown and Leonids of 300 Men fame are quite good. The other three sections contain some ass whippers from Napoleon to Pattern to Bruce Lee to Testa. All the entries are fun to read as gender and location is not a prerequisite to warriors entering a butt kicking battle in which the leader knows he or she will leave dead and maimed on the battlefield, but as Ben Thompson cites Mike Tyson with "I want your heart. I want to eat your children". This is what makes a true BADASS and this biography an entertaining read as real persona like Wolf the Quarrelsome barbarian and Bhanbhagta Gurung the fearless Gurkha make this fun for the armchair warrior.
.
Harriet Klausner

Short review: I laughed my ass off, and I learned something here today.

Long review: Absolutely hysterical, and a true blue-steel education on badassery. It's like a history book as taught by Professor Dirty Harry and his teacher's aide, a .44 automag loaded with hollow-tip knowledge. Anyone who would give this a one-star review needs to lighten up. Seriously. This is a comedy book that actually teaches about some bad-ass historical figures. These are guys and gals with gigantic, bulletproof brass balls that could be mounted in an industrial slingshot and used to end the Cold War forever, one shot into the Kremlin, and ka-boom -- nuclear face-meltage. Okay, the Cold War is over, but you get my point. Don't lie. You know you get my point.

Just the exchange between King Leonidas and Xerxes is worth the price of the book. Everything else is simply gravy.

Does it use slang? Uh, yeah, that's the point. The book is funny. Hello? One-stars? Refer to paragraph two about the "lighten up" part.

Once again, loved it, and it eviscerated me with history humor.

This book is for pure entertainment. The author exgerates what these historic figures did. It is a entertaining book that introduces readers to several little heard of names in history. Inspired me to read true historic books and papers on some the figures that the author presents in the book. Again do not read this if you are looking for a truely academic piece of work.

This book read as if Quentin Tarantino and Hunter S. Thompson got hold of a high school history text, or maybe a compilation of biographies, and said, "Hey! This is boring! Let's rewrite it!" It is heavy on over-the-top comparisons of historical death dealing to pecker jokes. That doesn't detract from its mission, to talk about well known military figures and not so well known sidelights and why they kicked butt. Our gaming group passed it around, with lots of laughter.

Shallow and repetitive. A lot of the same, old boring foul language and short on history. I had high hopes for this book. Stories are short, 3-4 pages and seriously lack historical depth. Wish I'd stuck to just reading the website.

Most entertaining historical chronicle ever written. Bonus, a new word has been added to the vernacular; Badassitude. If you are a pedantic, obsessive, compulsive literary critic this book will twist your knickers into an eye-bulging wad. However, if you have a set, you will love it!

This is a great and entertaining book that holds up through multiple readings. A hodge-podge of history, it gives just enough information to make the book flow quickly and leave the reader thirsty for more information. The writing style is fantastically funny as well, with it's use of sarcasm and modern cultural references.

This is how history (or anything, really) should be! It gives history's greatest figures new life through a reasonably detailed overview in a very fun and informative way. Allowing people to laugh at such things makes it easier to read and also makes you want to keep reading it! Five stars!

Even if you are not into badasses, this author is such a great humour writer that you will begin to appreciate tightless heroes. He makes me laugh, which is a feat not a lot of writers can do. And it's great reading about great historical figures that have faded into obscurity until this book brought them to light.

Juvenile. Gross. Lewd. Inappropriate! This should not dissuade you from purchasing this book. However, it is written for a certain demographic. If you like 300 the movie and are fascinated with Spike network's "Deadliest Warrior:, even though you know how ludicrous it is, then this book is perfect. Ben Thompson has found a way to creatively combine historical intellectualism with illustrated novel like machismo and violence. His ability to take artistic license with history is utterly fascinating. I can't wait until the second volume. His ability and skill to make history this kind of fun is unparalleled!

On page 25 of this truly relentless onslaught, which is as far as I got before throwing it away, the author makes the statement , "He was obviously a little more eloquent than this, but you get the idea." Which describes the entire book. The author put that statement in parentheses, I suppose, to fence it off from the endless references to crotch-ripping, face-tearing, ass-kicking and variations on these themes and remixes of these terms, throughout his absurdly simple-minded and inaccurate little thumbnails of history. Also, "eloquent" might be the only three-syllable word IN the book. If Mr. Torque from Borderlands 2 suffered a closed-head injury and was trying to explain history in a way to keep the attention of a grown-to-juvenile-delinquent-age Bam-Bam, he'd probably talk like this. He certainly couldn't WRITE it.
Like "Reality TV", I don't know what's scarier- That somebody would write and somebody else would publish this, or that there are so many people out there that actually gave it 4- and 5-star reviews. The only positive part of the experience was I got my copy from a clearing house on ebay, so I only wasted 4 bucks, which I still think Ben Thompson should reimburse me for. I immediately understood why they had so many copies of it in brand-new condition for that price. I love and cherish books and the ideas of books, and I know that some I haven't liked for whatever reasons might make somebody else's life different. There have been very few I made sure went to the recycle bin and considered it a contribution to society; this is one of them.