Rivals Frenemies who Changed the World by Scott McCormick

Narrated by Prentice Onayemi, Samantha Turret, Khristine Hvam, Gabriel Vaughan and Josh Hurley

An Audible Original

I found this to be both interesting and entertaining. I love history and science, well, the history of science and invention. This is a collection of short stories about people in history who were both friends and competitors. The competitions often became quite violent, even deadly. They were also rather ridiculous, at least in retrospect, and costly.

Cope or Marsh, the jerks (I’d use another word, but I’ll keep it pg) who discovered many of America’s dinosaurs. It’s a wonder we have anything correct with the two of them inventing things just to one-up the other.

Hamilton and Burr, who political rivalry was rather bizarre and truly could have been more beneficial if they’d remained friends. It’s funny how Burr is often portrayed as the bad guy when the facts are somewhat different.

Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, oh what a bloody mess that was.

Adidas and Puma, brothers battling over shoes and dividing a town as well as a family.

This is a side of history we’ve not seen before and I found it fun and interesting. There were definitely stories that will stay with me for years to come and others I’ll want to research further.

If you like history with a little twist, check out Rivals.