The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody

by Will Cuppy, William Steig (Illustrator)

Overview

A New York Times–bestselling, comical take on world history from the beloved New Yorker humorist.

So, you think you know most of what there is to know about people like Nero and Cleopatra, Alexander the Great and Attila the Hun, Lady Godiva and Miles Standish? You say there’s nothing more to be written about Lucrezia Borgia? How wrong you are, for in these pages you’ll find Will Cuppy footloose in the footnotes of history. He transforms these luminaries into human beings, not as we knew them from history books, but as we would have known them Cuppy-wise: foolish, fallible, and very much our common ancestors.

When it was first published in 1950, The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody spent four months on The New York Times bestseller list, and Edward R. Murrow devoted more than two-thirds of one of his nightly CBS programs to a reading from Cuppy’s historical sketches, calling it “the history book of the year.” The book eventually went through eighteen hardcover printings and ten foreign editions, proof of its impeccable accuracy and deadly, imperishable humor.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567924732
Publisher:	David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date:	12/18/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	165
Sales rank:	506,088
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Will Cuppy was a literary critic and humorist, known for his funny and satirical articles and books about nature and history.  He wrote for The New Yorker and other magazines, and his articles have been collected into books that are both amusing and factual.

William Steig drew over 2,600 cartoons and 117 covers for the New Yorker during his nearly fifty-year career. His children’s books include Godine's Rotten Island and Shrek!, the basis for the animated film series.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
Part I	It Seems There Were Two Egyptians
	Cheops, or Khufu	7
	Hatshepsut	17
Part II	Ancient Greeks and Worse
	Pericles	29
	Alexander the Great	38
	Hannibal	46
	Cleopatra	55
	Nero	61
Part III	Strange Bedfellows
	Attila the Hun	71
	Charlemagne	78
	Lady Godiva	86
	Lucrezia Borgia	96
	Philip the Sap	106
Part IV	A Few Greats
	Louis XIV	113
	Madame DU Barry	122
	Peter the Great	132
	Catherine the Great	141
	Frederick the Great	149
Part V	Merrie England
	William the Conqueror	159
	Henry VIII	166
	Elizabeth	172
	George III	180
Part VI	Now We're Getting Somewhere
	Leif the Lucky	189
	Christopher Columbus	194
	Montezuma	200
	Captain John Smith	206
	Miles Standish	212
Part VII	They All Had Their Fun
	Some Royal Pranks	219
	Some Royal Stomachs	222