Overview

A History of Dangerous Assumptions features over two hundred illuminating and intriguing case-studies of this fascinating subject, including some of the most disastrous assumptions ever foisted upon the human race. This book began as an experiment, to discover if acting on assumptions could be discerned through the ages. In fact, this matter of assuming... of jumping to conclusions... of lacking sufficient evidence... of taking things for granted... seems to have caused far more problems for civilisation than expected. From Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, to Bonaparte's march on Moscow; from the hubris of Icarus and Phaeton, to the toppling towers of the Tay Bridge; from the maddening phantoms of a Northwest Passage, to the sinking of the Titanic; from the Schlieffen Plan of the First World War, to the creation of assumptions in the approach to D-Day; from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Sherlock Holmes, here lies a highly contrasted trove of stories, episodes and anecdotes, their common link the mysterious mischief of assumption.

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9781913491895

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John Molesworth's fascination with skiing demanded that he investigate its sudden migration into Western Europe, centuries after its origins in Norway. Thus he was asked to write several articles for the Ski Club of Great Britain in their centenary year, 2003, and became steward of their library. He felt the time was ripe to write anew of the exploits of Arnold Lunn and other great Alpine pioneers. But he found that pioneer ski-mountaineers ran into danger through making inevitable false assumptions. The author thus began to ponder the general vulnerability of the human mind to assumption. Could that subject deserve its own history? Thus was born A History of Dangerous Assumptions. Beyond writing, John Molesworth walks or skis in various mountain ranges. A love of music finds expression in singing bass in Anglican choirs, and listening to birdsong.

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