About History That Rattles: Strange and Dark True Stories of Survival They Never Taught in School (The Rebel History Book 1)
Do you want history that entertains instead of bores you?
Or stories that make you marvel — not yawn?
History That Rattles is for readers who crave strange, dark, and true stories about how ordinary people survived the past. Not shallow trivia, not academic essays — just vivid, bite-sized tales told by a historian who writes for the curious public.
Inside you’ll discover:
Knights paying their rent with a single falcon.
Peasants freezing in the Little Ice Age while witch hunters warmed their hands.
Surgeons racing the clock against their patients’ screams.
Tuberculosis turning into a fashionable tragedy.
Some of these stories are absurd enough to make you smile, others unsettling enough to make you shiver — all of them reveal the darkly fascinating side of human survival.
Unlike books stuffed with recycled facts, this collection gives you gripping micro-histories with a sharp narrative edge. It’s deeper than average trivia, but never heavy; written by historian Barbora Jirincová, PhD, with wit, irony, and a flair for storytelling.
If you want a book that’s engaging without being shallow, dark without being depressing, you’ve found it.
Buy the book, and follow the author on social media:
Learn more about the writer. Visit the Author’s Website.
Author Bio:
Barbora Jiřincová is not the kind of historian who buries herself in dusty archives and leaves it at that. She believes history is alive — a collection of stories that once changed everything and still shape our lives today.
That is why she tells the essential stories.
There are stories of things that changed everything, yet we take them for granted, not realizing that our civilization would fall apart without them.
Like electricity, cars, effective treatment of diseases, or afterbirth childcare.
But first and foremost, she knows history is fun. Because the stories that mattered rattle our minds and read better than the textbooks!
Thus, she strives to give voice to people of the past, to show their minds so that they win our hearts.
Her story?
Born in 1986, she grew up in the tumultuous 1990s.
Then, businesses grew, money flew, and the nation slowly got used to freedom and democracy after 50 years of Communism.
However, as her country’s journey to absolute freedom was difficult, she struggled to become a professional writer.
Finishing her first book at nine, she soon gave up her writing career. She found a reasonable one, becoming a historian.
In 2019, she earned her Ph.D. in history.
After 5 years, she reached her goal. And with a sense of horror, she realized that she had never dreamt beyond getting the degree.
As 2020 revealed to us all that nothing is certain, she had to learn new things. We all did. And she discovered that contrary to what she thought, real writers didn’t starve. She focused on more creative writing, wrote for magazines like The Collector, and started writing books.
Finally, in 2021, she set on a journey that would lead her here: to becoming a professional author who shares her stories with the world.
SOME REVIEWS:
⭐ “Great storyteller with a brilliant sense of humor.”
Alice Bennet, Editor, The Collector
⭐ “Jiřincová’s book brings to life the princely characters of medieval Slavic books and manuscripts, exploring Slavic folklore through custom, material culture, and oral culture.”
Dr. Alexandra Vukovich, Assistant Professor at King’s College London