Part 1 (1/2)

FORBIDDEN.

KNOWLEDGE.

Shayne, Maggie.

Introduction.

There's no dearth of great literature in the library here at mental_floss. Sure, you've got your heavyweights: Beckett, Proust, even a little section dedicated to obscure Chilean playwrights. But perhaps the most telling t.i.tle on the rack is a dog-eared copy of the picture book The Fire Cat.

From the outset it looks like an ordinary kid's tale. Oversized pages, colorful drawings, easy-to-p.r.o.nounce words. But if you turn a couple of pages in, you'll learn in giant I Can Read Book print that Pickles, who's under the care of Mrs. Goodkind, is neither a good cat nor a bad cat. He is a good and bad cat.

Profound. He also has big paws with which he plans to do big things, but that's neither here nor there.

What we mean to say is that we can relate. See, the cats at mental_ floss often get pegged as a little too good. You know? All toothy grins and saccharine-sweet reputations. And yeah, we've got the good grades to back it up. Not to mention the clean-cut hairstyles, and the finely honed sense for when to insert a please or thank-you without overdoing it. And then there's the press: endless coverage of us helping old women cross streets and plucking kittens out of trees. But don't let that fool you. Look a little deeper and you'll find there's more than a little yin that comes with all this yang.

The truth is, we're kind of bad seeds. Rebels, baby. Catch us when the media's not around and you might see us doing something c-r-a-z-y. Like standing on a moving busyou know, just for the thrill of it. Or going into a library and using our outdoor voices. Sometimes we'll even bite into a piece of fruit without giving it a good rinse first. Does it taste a little sweeter? Oh, you know it does.

Okay. While we might not be as bad as we'd like to believe, there is some comfort in knowing that someone's made up of more than just medals and virtues. And history's exactly the same. It's not the hearts of gold and battles won that are interesting. It's the smirks and quirks. It's juicy anecdotes. It's history's greatest figures telling Jiminy Cricket to shove off, then getting caught on the wrong side of their conscience.

Take Ben Franklin, for instance. Doesn't his whole perfect patriot, Renaissance man act get a little more intriguing when you find out he was sort of a man s.l.u.t? Or Adam Smith's Invisible Hand of Capitalism. Don't the yawns come a little slower when you watch it waving at developing nations with just one finger?

Forbidden Knowledge is exactly that. It's the worst history has to offer, all deliciously broken up into seven sin-tastic chapters. If our first book, Condensed Knowledge, was everything you feel you're supposed to know, this follow-up is the exact opposite: it's all the stuff you shouldn't. It's every bawdy story and dirty secret your history teacher wanted to tell you, but couldn't for fear of losing his or her job. So thumb through the pages. Find a name, person, or place you used to admire. And then read on. We're betting the naughty ending will make you smile.

Enjoy.

Will, Mangesh, and Liz.

PRIDE.

4 Utopian Communities (That Bombed Miserably).

4 Dictator Grooming Tips 7 Pampered Celebrities 4 Greatest Hoaxes of All Time 4 Mandatory Fas.h.i.+on Trends 5 Writers Who Fancied Themselves Peerless 5 Artists Who Were Full of Themselves.

6 Secret Societies That Ain't All That Secret 6 Worst Miscalculations 7 Insane Soviet Projects 5 Bodies That've Never Been Found 4 Structures Built as Symbols of National Pride.

5 World Leaders Obsessed with Their Own Images 6 Recent Cases Where Diversity Would Have Helped 5 Individuals Who Taught Us How to Sing the Blues The Secret Lives of 4 Civil Activists.

9 Famous b.a.s.t.a.r.ds Who Made Their Mark The Dish on 5 National Anthems 6 Ignominious Things Named for Napoleon Bonaparte.

5 Mortals with Minor G.o.d Complexes.

Talk of the Town:.

4 Utopian Communities (That Bombed Miserably).

Every once in a while a proud little community will sprout up just to let the world know how Utopia should be run. With chins raised almost as high as ideals, the community marches forth to be an example of perfection. But in most cases, all that harmonious marching gets tripped up pretty quickly. Here are four ”perfect” communities that whizzed and sputtered thanks to human nature.

_01:: Brook Farm, or Ripley's.

Follow Me or Not.

Probably the best-known utopian community in America, Brook Farm was founded in 1841 in West Roxbury, Ma.s.sachusetts, by George and Sophia Ripley. The commune was built on a 200-acre farm with four buildings and centered on the ideals of radical social reform and self-reliance. For free tuition in the community school and one year's worth of room and board, the residents were asked to complete 300 days of labor by either farming, working in the manufacturing shops, performing domestic ch.o.r.es or grounds maintenance, or planning the community's recreation projects. The community prospered in 18421843 and was visited by numerous dignitaries and utopian writers. However, Ripley joined the unpopular Fourierism movement, which meant that soon the young people (out of a ”sense of honor”) had to do all the dirty work like repairing roads, cleaning stables, and slaughtering the animals. This caused many residents, especially the younger ones, to leave. Things went downhill from there. The community was. .h.i.t by an outbreak of smallpox followed by fire and finally collapsed in 1847.

_02:: Fruitlands: A Utopian.

Community (for Six Months.

Anyway).

After visiting Brook Farm and finding it almost too worldly by their standards, Bronson Alcott (the father of Louisa May) and Charles Lane founded the Fruitlands Commune in June 1843, in Harvard, Ma.s.sachusetts. Structured around the British reformist model, the commune's members were against the owners.h.i.+p of property, were political anarchists, believed in free love, and were vegetarians. The group of 11 adults and a small number of children were forbidden to eat meat or use any animal products such as honey, wool, beeswax, or manure. They were also not allowed to use animals for labor and only planted produce that grew up out of the soil so as not to disturb worms and other organisms living in the soil. Many in the group of residents saw manual labor as spiritually inhibiting and soon it became evident that the commune could not provide enough food to sustain its members. The strict diet of grains and fruits left many of the members malnourished and sick. Given this situation, many of the members left and the community collapsed in January 1844.