This radical reappraisal of human history will change the way you look at the past. In this expansive yet abridged volume, academic pariah and pseudo-historian Fin Taylor re-writes the human story, from the Big Bang to the Second Plane (minus all the stuff we can skip in between).

Interest in history is at an all time high, but in the midst of this panicked gold rush my fellow academics have lost sight of why. What is it about the past that sets pulses racing? Is it really the “structural homophobia of Victorian Architecture?” Or is it the exploits of a tub-thumping madman with medals strapped to his chest?

This ground-breaking and entirely unsupervised work argues we have been indoctrinated with an incorrect view of past events. Is 1066 really important? Or is it, in fact, really boring? Maybe the Battle of Hastings is just inspiration for the Francosphere’s largest tea towel? Is the Renaissance significant or was it just Italians learning how to draw?

It’s time to restore order, to revision the revisionists, to re-colonise the curriculum. It’s time for a brave anti-intellectual to meet the intellectuals head on. Because what is history but entertainment for middle-aged men looking to escape the drudgery of their own domesticity. From Henry VIII to Hitler via Cromwell, Caligula and The Anglo-Zulu War, this is a historical PhD gone rogue.

© Fin Taylor 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026