Primrose Kitten

Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History.

What would you say if somebody told you the curse of history could be dramatically changed just by removing one or two elements from a specific moment in time? You would think they were crazy, right? Well, not so much. At least not how you’d think.

The truth is, many of the most historically significant moments that shape the world and set it to be what it is today could be entirely and different if it weren’t for something as little as the molecules that were involved in the whole situation.

We don’t tend to overthink about it. Still, there are some chemical reactions, some elements reacting with one another that is responsible for the turnout of many of the most significant historical moments that ever happened.

In Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History, author Penny Le Couteur shows us this is hugely true by talking about one of the most critical moments in history ever to go wrong: Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign… That ended in a disaster.

You see, the whole premise of the book is how, in the middle of the mission, when the temperatures dropped to unbelievable degrees, would history have been different in the buttons on the soldier’s coats (and boots) wouldn’t have disintegrated?

It seems quite odd to think such a small thing as a button could define the curse of history, but the thing is, it could, and as a matter of fact, it did. Their buttons froze, disintegrated, leaving them freezing to death out of the open.

Author Penny Le Couteur presents us with this incredible idea about how these 17 different molecules changed history. And how if it weren’t because they were all present at the same time, during the same circumstances, the world as we know it today probably wouldn’t exist at all.

As the book progresses, we are witness to how these 17 molecules heavily influenced the curse of history (we aren’t going to tell you what those molecules are, you’ll have to read the book) and how they make many, many things possible.

It is, without a doubt, an exciting book that makes you pay special attention to things you didn’t pay attention before. Reading Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History is a fresh air into reading about past events like you’ve never seen before. If you are looking to read a one of a kind book, this is your chance.