They had power, position, and a moment to act. Instead, they flinched.

From emperors who fled their collapsing kingdoms to politicians who shrank from truth, from generals who left their troops to die to CEOs who ran at the first sign of scandal — this is the definitive catalog of history’s most disgraceful retreats.

Yellow is not about monsters or fools. It’s about the men and women who knew better — who had a duty — and chose to run. Drawing on public records, media accounts, and unflinching analysis, this book exposes the cowards whose names are etched in infamy not for what they did, but for what they refused to do.

Spanning five centuries and twenty-five years of modern media, Yellow names names, prints the quotes, and scores the shame.

Because history doesn’t just remember the bold. It remembers the ones who blinked.