Oops: 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes That Shaped America

Americans' failures are as spectacular as their successes: bridges that collapse; flying cars that crash; sports promotions run amok; deodorant that nearly destroyed the earth; and even failures that failed to happen!

Veteran journalists Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger select twenty miscues, goofs, complications, and failures that shaped modern America and reveal the life lessons these gaffes teach, including:

• Accentuate the Positive: How Thomas Edison Invented Trash Talk
• Understand the Market: The 1967 Monkees–Jimi Hendrix Concert Tour
• Desperation Is the Cradle of Bad Ideas: Cleveland Indians' Ten-Cent Beer Night
• Sweat the Details: The Sixty-Story John Hancock Guillotine

Enriched by handy clip-'n'-save "Recipes for Disaster," Oops proves that when it comes to failure, truth is stranger than fiction!

Martin J. Smith is an award-winning journalist and magazine editor. He is a senior editor at the Los Angeles Times Magazine and lives with his family in southern California.

Patrick J. Kiger is a journalist whose articles have appeared in GQ, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, and other publications. He lives near Washington, D.C.