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58 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
a misnomer of a title, February 23, 2009
This review is from: History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truths Behind World Events our History Books Got Wrong (Paperback)
History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truth Behind World Events Our History Books Got Wrong. The problem is that the title is wrong. There are three main areas that the author rather too generously calls "history books". The first is folklore: folklore is not the same as history by any means. The second is media image: this is also not the same as history. Then, of course, there's actual history-book type history, and here I'm talking about mainstream history, not the propaganda put out by Muslim terrorist groups, the Klan, etc. One of the more egregious examples cited in the book is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. You can indeed find this in lots of history books--but as an example of forgery and antisemitism. To say that history books got this wrong is to suggest that the forgery is indeed true--which is not at all what the author intends. Weir notes that a number of well-known people, including Henry Ford, believed the Protocols to be true. But by the same token, Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies and spiritualism, and at least one former US president believed in astrology--but so what? There are people who believe the Earth is flat, but that hardly qualifies as one of "history's greatest lies" and inclusion in this book.
A lot of the episodes in the book are folklore--such as Robert the Bruce and the spider: this children's tale doesn't qualify as history. History books have shown that the Bastille housed very few prisoners (and housed them quite comfortably, thank you): you are unlikely to find any history book (other than, say, Stalinist propaganda) that claims otherwise. But from the title of the book you could get the impression that you're getting a real revelation here, and that current history books say that the Bastille was an Abu Graib of its day.
Folklore and media imagery blend together in some of the tales of the American West. Jesse James can be seen in some movies as a heroic and noble character--a kind of Robin Hood. But movies and TV shows are not history books. The Earp gang in Tombstone is another example cited in the book--but history books have not treated the Earps kindly at all--at least not to the extent as portraying them as law-abiding and honest lawmen. Look at the entries in Wikipedia for Jesse James and Wyatt Earp--you'll see plenty of blemishes. Movies and TV usually like to have characters drawn in black and white: the good guys are good--very good, and the bad guys are bad--very bad. Someone like Tony Soprano is too confusing! I remember an episode of Richard Boone's Have Gun Will Travel back about 1960, which featured (in just the one episode) a black cowboy. This episode produced a veritable Noah's Flood of angry letters saying that this was totally unrealistic--that there weren't any black cowboys. Of course, there were indeed plenty of black cowboys--but not in the TV and movie westerns at that time, so the public assumed that they didn't exist. Folklore, media imagery, and history are not the same animal: debunking media imagery doesn't qualify as exposing one of history's greatest lies.
There are some chapters in the book which can be categorized as being actual history: some of these are interesting and worthy of inclusion, although the questions remain about who is right--history or the author.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not so much "lies" as myths and misconceptions about key figures/moments in history, February 27, 2009
This review is from: History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truths Behind World Events our History Books Got Wrong (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.
You could say that a historian's job is to wade into the raw sewage of history and try to come back with a sample of pure untainted water. It's a challenge with the effects of the passage of time, interpretation and opinion polluting the water of truth. William Weir's HISTORY'S GREATEST LIES: THE STARTLING TRUTHS BEHIND WORLD EVENTS OUR HISTORY BOOKS GOT WRONG focuses on key figures/moments in history that are common knowledge that are also common myths. I wouldn't call the events that Weir tells us about as being lies per se but myths that have occurred due to biased views and publicity (with the exception of Wyatt Earp where Earp and his biographer clearly meant to deceive the public).
The key events and people that Weir focuses on are the burning of Rome & Nero's role in it, the Robin Hood myth associated with Jesse James, Wyatt Earp's attempt to white wash his role and the events at the OK Corral, Rhames II's earl example of "spin doctoring" in Egypt and the retelling of other historical occurances that were butchered/altered with the passage of time.
Weir then goes back, examines the sleight-of-hand that some of these key figures have used to bolster their reputations and/or miscoceptions that were popularized by other writers. For example, Nero didn't fiddle while Rome was burning because the violin wasn't invented until the 16th century. While he wanted to rebuild Rome and rumors floated around at the time in the senate that he started the great fire of Rome, he didn't and was, in fact, behind a great deal of building that added to Rome's luster. Jesse James was a paranoid, vicious killer NOT a Robin Hood who gave back to the poor. Wyatt Earp, his brothers and Doc Holiday shot the Clanton's some of whom were unarmed and while the Clanton's weren't sqeaky clean, neither was Earp who tried to convince Clanton to fake a robbery to help Earp get elected sheriff. He also separated from his common law wife in favor of of actress/department store heir Julie Marcus.
History, like comedy, isn't pretty (to paraphrase Steve Martin)but the facts behind the myths are often far more fascinating than the myths themselves. Weir's book is quite good focusing on a few myths and correcting them but I was a bit disappointed that he didn't tackle a wide variety of other myths including those associated with contemporary history (such as World War II, the Civil War, etc.). Weir's prose is breezy and inviting never taking for granted the intelligence of his readers.
HISTORY'S GREATEST LIES: THE STARTLING TRUTHS BEHIND WORLD EVENTS OUR HISTORY BOOKS GOT WRONG is a well written good book but I do wish that he had focused but that's no fault of Weir--that was just my expectation that he would cast a bigger net to capture a wider variety of urban myths posing as history.
This coffee table book is nicely designed with terrific illustrations, side bars on various people from history related to the events that he focuses on. If you're looking for gossip about historical figures this would be the wrong book but if you're looking to learn the truth about key figures from history often poorly painted in novels, films and other history books, you'll enjoy Weir's trip into the river of history.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy research, July 28, 2009
This review is from: History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truths Behind World Events our History Books Got Wrong (Paperback)
Though `History's Greatest Lies' is an inspired title, this book by William Weir has two of the classic hallmarks of a book that was hurriedly written to meet a publisher's deadline.
Firstly, it is riddled with mistakes that not even a first year history major would have made. For a supposedly top quality history publication, this is unforgivable. Three examples will suffice to give a sense of how sloppy the research has been. In the Battle of Kadesh chapter, it is stated that Rameses II was the longest reigning pharaoh of ancient Egypt, at some 67 years. Even a cursory glance at any mainstream pharaoh list will quickly show that Egypt's longest reigning pharaoh was Pepi II, reigning for 94 years.
In the Nero chapter, it states that Caligula was assassinated in 49 A.D. Again, any decent revision of the text would have highlighted that Caligula was assassinated in 41 A.D. Finally, the claim that Nero was the only emperor who was declared a public enemy by the Senate. Well, he was... if you ignore Maximus, Didius Julianus, Albinus or Maxentius...
And so on and so forth.
The second clear sign of a hurried development cycle is the selection of historical events that have been described as history's greatest lies. One would be hard pressed to identify exactly how Lasseter's Reef, or Dillinger's death were earth shattering enough, revolutionary enough, or frankly even interesting enough to make a list of history's greatest lies. For more modern examples how about Watergate or Weapons of Mass Destruction... or even John F. Kennedy's stage managed Camalot façade?
No, my sense with this book is of an opportunity well and truly wasted. My advice, don't waste your money on it and wait for someone else to come along and take a shot at it.
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