Fake History
From Mozart's Murder to Cleopatra's Asp
Published on 13. May 2021
256 pages
978-1-78929-394-4 (ISBN)
Description
As Napoleon himself once said, 'History is a version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.'
Noted down in historical documents, copied and widely repeated, it doesn't take long for a version of the truth to become accepted as fact. But who invents these false accounts in the first place, and why do they gain traction so quickly?
Far from concerning the obscure and insignificant parts of our history, these fundamental inaccuracies and downright lies colour the depiction of many of those pivotal characters and events we learnt about at school. Cleopatra, Marco Polo, Captain Cook, Joan of Arc; most of us could reel off a fact or two about each. But as this intriguing book reveals, a closer examination of these core parts of our social and political history shows that often all was not as it seemed, and that the agendas of those responsible for recording these events had a huge impact on what was reported and what was covered up.
Noted down in historical documents, copied and widely repeated, it doesn't take long for a version of the truth to become accepted as fact. But who invents these false accounts in the first place, and why do they gain traction so quickly?
Far from concerning the obscure and insignificant parts of our history, these fundamental inaccuracies and downright lies colour the depiction of many of those pivotal characters and events we learnt about at school. Cleopatra, Marco Polo, Captain Cook, Joan of Arc; most of us could reel off a fact or two about each. But as this intriguing book reveals, a closer examination of these core parts of our social and political history shows that often all was not as it seemed, and that the agendas of those responsible for recording these events had a huge impact on what was reported and what was covered up.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
line drawings throughout
File size
2,37 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-78929-394-4 (9781789293944)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Graeme Donald is the author of a number of books about history, the meaning of words and popular misconceptions, including When the Earth was Flat, The Accidental Scientist, The Long and the Short of It and Learn on the Loo. His writing has also appeared in many newspapers.
