U of T prof's own Fire and Fury book a bestseller thanks to Donald Trump

A University of Toronto professor's 10-year-old book is back on the bestseller list thanks to rampant public interest inCapitol Hilltell-all Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Randall Hansen,interim director at theMunkSchool of Global Affairs, wrote his own Fire and Fury to chronicle an Allied bombing campaign onGerman civilians during the Second World War.

The similarity in titles between Hansen's book andMichael Wolff's instant bestseller about U.S. President Donald Trump meansboth getcalled up in anonline search.

CBC's Heather Hiscox chats with the Toronto author about his book, written a decade before Wolff's Trump book:

Canadian author's Fire and Fury book surges in sales

7 years ago

Duration 4:42

CBC's Heather Hiscox chats with Toronto author about WW II book written a decade before Trump book

While Hansen dug into 1940s military history in his 2008 read, Wolff's book portrays Trump as a leader who doesn't understand the weight of his office and whose competence is questioned by aides.

The latterhas seen"unprecedented demand"running up to its release on Friday, according to the publisher, and has since latched onto the top spot on Amazon's bestseller list.

The similarityapparently also confused or enticed more than a few buyers into ordering Hansen's book, landing it in the top 100 in three of Amazon's sales categories.

'I had a chuckle'

Attending a conference inWashington, D.C., itself when Wolff's book was released, Hansen joked with colleagues about the titular similarities.

"Iwas hearing Fire and Furyleft and centre and perking up a little bit," he said, but aside from gentle amusement thought little of the coincidence.

Later on Friday night, he searched for the title on a whim, surprised to see his 2008 book featured on Amazon alongside Wolff's new release.

"I saw that my book, which came out 10 years ago and had been languishing for quite a while in terms of sales numbers, was suddenly in three Amazon bestseller lists," he said. "I had a chuckle to myself."

'Ironic' coincidence

Hansentweeted casuallyabout his work's resurgence on Friday when he noticed sales were up, but woke up on Saturday toanother surprise the tweet went viral.

Hansen, who describes himself as a "devout critic" of Trump and the president'sformer chief strategist, Steve Bannon, can't put his finger on why, but hehinted at another possible causeof his boosted sales.

Some may have found it amusing, he guessed,"that someone like me wasbenefitingfrom something, published withBannon'shelp, about Trump."

More seriously, Hansen said, the book's renewed popularity might highlight the time-worn risks of relying on military force,even though the two tomes have little else in common.

Hansen argued thatthe bombing campaign against Hitler's Germany that killed half a million civilianswas "needless," and hopesFire and Fury:The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945can highlight the immutable consequences of war for the book's newest readers.

"If at this moment we have this unstable demagogue as president who loves threatening war, and saying, 'My nukes are bigger than your nukes," and all thisrubbish if at this moment people reflect through my book on the utter horror of war, what it does to human bodies, its appalling consequences above all for civilians, then that'll be both politically important but also gratifying."