Another 'Fire and Fury' book on the best-seller list, but it's not about Trump

Randall Hansen was surprised to see his World War II book surging again.

ByABC News
January 11, 2018, 4:39 PM
Randall Hansen, Canadian political scientist and historian at the University of Toronto is pictured in this undated photo.
Randall Hansen, Canadian political scientist and historian at the University of Toronto is pictured in this undated photo.
Mykola Swarnyk/Wikimedia Commons

— -- Randall Hansen, the director of the Munk School at the University of Toronto, was in Washington, D.C. last Friday when something from his past kept appearing in the news: the title phrase "Fire and Fury."

That same day, Michael Wolff released his political exposé, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," which illustrates President Trump’s campaign and first year in office.

For Randall, however, his first thought was about his own book, released almost 10 years ago, called "Fire and Fury: the Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945."

PHOTO: Pictured (L-R) are "Fire and Fury" by Randall Hansen and "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff.
Pictured (L-R) are "Fire and Fury" by Randall Hansen and "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff.

"I was hearing 'Fire and Fury' all day and perked up in the morning and realized no one was talking about me," Hansen told ABC News. "After dinner I logged onto Amazon and saw it shot up on three best-sellers lists."

People looking to purchase Wolff’s book instead found Hansen’s work about the American and British bombings on Germany during World War II.

Hansen said he felt "completely shocked" when he saw his book's sudden resurgence and he "didn’t see this coming at all."

Some of those who purchased Hansen’s book seemed surprised, as well. One reviewer wrote, "Don't see anything about President Trump! I don't know why the democrats are so happy with this book and makeing a big deal of this!"

While the book has jumped up on of some of Amazon’s best-sellers lists, Hansen said he won’t know how many have sold until he gets a royalty check next month.

"[My publisher] is delighted," Hansen said. "Any publisher appreciates publicity."

As for the book names, Wolff’s refers to comments made by President Trump to North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. Hansen’s title, however, refers to bombings during the second world war.

"I wanted to capture two ideas: Fire in the literal sense because in Germany, and later in Japan, it was actually fire rather than bombs as such that destroyed German cities, and later, Japanese cities,” Hansen said. "The fury referred to what I wanted to capture ... the demonic commitment of the head of the British bombing war, Arthur Harris ... he was the fury. And I like alliteration."