Overview: When History Had Other Plans consists of 12 stand-alone chapters which immediately furnish the reader with attention-grabbing one-liners, as evidenced in its choice of chapter titles - Hitler Ended Racism; More Environmentalism, More CO2; The West Encouraged Putin by Discouraging Him - ensuring that it will pique interest and stir up debate.

One line, one story, one chapter. There are no abstractions, no theories, no musings; just verifiable facts.

Verdict: In what is an incredibly page-turning, chapter-devouring new prose from authors Vladislav Bogorov and Allison McKenzie, When History Had Other Plans may well be a thick book to physically hold at over 350 pages, but it is, and without a shadow of a doubt, an engrossingly fleet of foot read for those invested.

With a central theme that courses throughout being that whilst real engineering is still very much an experimental science honed via en masse of real-world experiments, social engineering is solely based on connective hope and abstract theory. To a lot of people, that right there summons the smoke signals of why things, in general, fail to materialize.

And so whilst engineering is an applied science that uses scientific methods to solve real-world problems, it is obviously not a science itself, but it is closely related to science and often involves collaboration between the two fields.

However, at its heart, social engineering is the art of exploiting human psychology, rather than technical hacking techniques, to gain unauthorized access to buildings, systems, or data by convincing individuals to unintentionally give up information through confidence games and manipulation tactics.

Thus this thoroughly engrossing, dutifully engaging new book eagerly invokes immediate critical thinking within the reader, along with a passion to learn more and understand our past and contemporary world.

Not pulling any punches, and going straight for the literary jugular, the prose opens in 1914 and never lets go, and as much as it does have a tendency to bog down for patches, do not stop, always maneuver through, and keep your mind open and, at times, perhaps even observantly malleable.

About the Authors - Vladislav Bogorov is a published author with a background in journalism. He was conscripted into the Bulgarian Army as a tankman. He is probably the only person who is a certified welder and who has won four cases before the European Court of Human Rights as a lawyer. Having been born in Bulgaria, Vladislav now resides in Glasgow, United Kingdom. He has an MSc in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and an MSc in Law.

Having written many shopping lists and lottery tickets over the years, Allison McKenzie is no stranger to writing. With only high school education, she learned about the Nazis from Allo, Allo! and Indiana Jones, and was surprised when Vladislav invited her to join in this book project. It was her ignorance of history that enabled her to edit the book so that it may be enjoyed by everyday people. She lives in Glasgow, UK.

Official Book Purchase Link