Most of you already know that our next book, The History of the World from a Gambler’s Perspective by Mason Malmuth (that’s me) and historian Antonio Carrasco will soon be released with our official publication date being June 10, 2020. At the time of this writing, we’re on schedule to meet that date, and for those of you who prefer Amazon kindles, that should happen about half a month later.
A few months back, we released some information relative to the Table of Contents, and since the manuscript is now finished (and the text is with our index builder) the final Table of Contents is now available, and it appears below.
We believe that this book will be an enjoyable read and also are sure that history has never been looked at in this way before. If you’re interested in ordering it now, here’s the Amazon page.
Table of Contents
| Illustration List | ix |
| About Mason Malmuth | xv |
| About Antonio Carrasco | xvii |
| The Front Cover | xix |
| Introduction | 1 |
| Part One: Initial Ideas | 7 |
| Introduction | 8 |
| Definitions | 9 |
| Expectation | 9 |
| Variance and The Standard Deviation | 9 |
| Gambling | 11 |
| Non-Self-Weighting Strategies | 13 |
| The Greatest NFL Bet Ever: Joe Namath Distorted Everything | 16 |
| Part Two: Expert Gambles | 21 |
| Introduction | 22 |
| In The Beginning: Goliath Never Had a Chance | 23 |
| A Quick and Glorious Victory: How Xeres Gave Up a Sure Thing at The Battle of | |
| Salamis | 26 |
| Being the Queen in a World of Kings: The Success of Isabella I of Castile | 29 |
| Treachery as an Art Form: How Francisco Pizarro Go His Guest Incas to Disarm | 36 |
| Saving the Union: How Daniel Webster Sacrificed His Career to Save the United States | 43 |
| Freedom for All: Lincoln’s Great Gamble — The Emancipation Proclamation | 46 |
| Resuming the U-Boat War: Starving Britain Before the United States Entered World War I | 50 |
| Trotsky to the Rescue: Gambling that Pragmatism was Superior to Bolshevik Ideology | 52 |
| The Einstein - Szilard Letter: Time to Produce an Atomic Bomb | 55 |
| The Blitz: How Churchill Gave Britain a Chance | 59 |
| The Decoy Fleet: The Great Japanese Gamble at Leyte Gulf | 62 |
| Fasting for Peace: Mohatma Gandhi Brings Peace to India | 66 |
| The Tet Offensive: How to Lose the Battle but Win the War | 69 |
| Peace in the Middle East: Anwar Sadat and The Israeli Peace Treaty | 71 |
| Finding a Reliable Partner: De Klerk Gambles on Mandela to End Apartheid | 73 |
| Part Three: The Role of Luck | 75 |
| Introduction | 76 |
| Divine Wind: Bad Weather Saves Japan from the Mongols | 77 |
| Hernn Cortz: The Luckiest Man Ever | 80 |
| Don Carlos: The World’s Unluckiest Man | 91 |
| Starving in New England: An Unlikely Source Provides Help | 97 |
| A Rainy Night in Washington D.C.: How a Storm Saves the Nation’s Capital, and Possibly the United States, in the War of 1812 | 99 |
| Time for a Smoke: How Three Lost Cigars Changed the American Civil War and Helped to Free the Slaves | 101 |
| Better to Be Lucky Than Good: Confederate General Braxton Bragg and The Battle of Chickamauga | 104 |
| It’s Even Better to be Lucky and Good: Luck and Skill On Display at The Battle of Midway | 110 |
| Part Four: Poker Plays | 117 |
| Introduction | 118 |
| The Dueling Future President: Andrew Jackson and the Advantage of Acting Last | 120 |
| Winning by Retreating: Napoleon and The Grande Armée Starve in Russia | 123 |
| The Battle of San Jacinto: How Sam Houston Used No-Limit Poker Tactics to Defeat Santa Anna and Gain Texas Independence | 126 |
| The World’s Greatest Semi-Bluff: Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his Defense of the City of Richmond Early in the American Civil War | 130 |
| Bluffing at Antietam: What to Do When You Can’t Fight Anymore | 138 |
| More Robert E. Lee: Defeating a Superior Army at The Battle of Chancellorsville | 140 |
| The Most Important Hand Ever Played: How Union General William T. Sherman Understood What “Nary a Pair” Meant | 144 |
| Who’s The Real Tough Guy? How Wyatt Earp Ran Ike Morris Out of Town | 149 |
| Poker in the Caribbean: Saving the World From Nuclear War | 152 |
| Part Five: Foolish Gambles | 157 |
| Introduction | 158 |
| Julian’s Persian War: Gambling that the Sassanid Empire Would Fight | 159 |
| Pope Joan: Gambling to be a Man | 162 |
| Al-Mutamid Allies Himself with Yusuf ibn Tasufin: Only to Discover that Tasufin is Actually His Enemy | 165 |
| Lots of Errors and a Little Luck: Columbus Discovers the New World | 169 |
| Part of a Civilized Army: How British General John Burgoynne Lost Much of his Army During the American Revolutionary War | 177 |
| The Trail of Tears: Let Justice John Marshal Enforce His Decision | 180 |
| Looking for Action: How Davy Crockett Ended Up at The Alamo | 183 |
| Misjudging Your Opponent: How Stephen Douglas won the Senate but Lost the | |
| Presidency | 186 |
| A Leopard Doesn’t Change Its Spots: How Confederate General Earl Van Dorn Lost The Battle of Pea Ridge | 189 |
| Defending Atlanta: Confederate President Jefferson Davis Gambles on Offense Over Defense | 193 |
| The French Connection: The Second Mexican Empire and the Monroe Doctrine | 196 |
| Conquering Yellow Fever: Jesse William Lazear Gambles his Life | 200 |
| The Hated Jack Johnson: Middle Weight Champion Stanley Ketchel Gets Flattened by a Jack Johnson Punch | 203 |
| The Kerensky Offensive: Gambling that a Now Inept Russian Army Would Still Fight Well in World War I | 207 |
| The Polish-Soviet War: The Ukrainians Didn’t Like Anyone | 211 |
| “Peace for Our Time:” Not Understanding Your Opponent | 214 |
| Victory Disease: Why Japanese Premiere Hideki Tojo Took On the United States | 217 |
| Stalin’s “Not a Step Back:” Increasing Morale by Killing Your Own Soldiers | 220 |
| Never Retreat: The Stalingrad Airlift | 222 |
| The “Live One:” Mussolini Couldn’t Quit When It Was Time to Do So | 227 |
| Bugsy Bets on Vegas: And Losses His Life as the Flamingo Losses Money | 231 |
| The Partition Plan: Would the Arab Countries Accept the U.N. Decision | 233 |
| More Victory Disease: MacArthur Gambles that China Would Stay Out of North Korea | 236 |
| Using the Army as Bait: Disaster at Dien Bien Phu | 240 |
| Leaving the SAM Umbrella: Could an Egyptian Offensive Save Syria? | 243 |
| The Fall of Idi Amin: Keeping the Army Busy in Tanzania | 246 |
| Part Six: Self-Weighting Disasters | 251 |
| Introduction | 252 |
| The Invincible Navy: The Spanish Armada Didn’t Have a Chance | 254 |
| Just Keep Charging: The Battle of Fredericksburg in the American Civil War | 265 |
| Shoot-Out at The O.K. Corral: The Cowboys Never Had a Chance | 269 |
| No End to the Killing: World War I Trench Warfare | 275 |
| Unlimited Wealth: The 1929 Stock Market Crash | 278 |
| Rumble in The Jungle: Foreman Throws too Many Punches | 281 |
| Running for President: How Hillary Clinton Blew It in 2016 | 284 |
| Conclusion | 287 |
| Index | 291 |
