The Museum of Hoaxes (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Today it's become commonplace to declare that we live in the Age of Information..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Boese, the "curator" of www.museumofhoaxes.com, here collects some of the more fascinating hoaxes from medieval times to the dot-com era. After an initial "gullibility test," designed to show how hard it can be to detect actual hoaxes, Boese organizes his entries chronologically, arguing that hoaxing styles and subjects reflect an era's overall mood. Thus, in pre-modern times, the "concept of truth" was treated "allegorically and spiritually," so hoaxes (such as Sir John Mandeville's fantastical beasts) were not as scientifically involved as our modern frauds (Rorvik's 1978 cloning of a man or the 1999 Piltdown Chicken). Happily, Boese minimizes his theorizing, letting readers just have fun browsing through a few centuries of human trickery. While most of these hoaxes are entertaining (England's Mary Toft, who in 1726 "began to give birth to rabbits" or the South Seas fatu-liva bird that laid square eggs "which remarkably resembled dice"), a handful are disturbing (the 1987 Tawana Brawley case, involving an unsubstantiated act of racial hatred) or even deadly (e.g., the case of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, which was used to justify anti-Semitism). While short accounts of a variety of hoaxes won't satisfy aficionados, the general public may find it useful to know how some familiar hoaxes e.g., the Loch Ness monster were unmasked, and Boese's "suggested reading" list will help intrigued readers dig deeper. Photos and illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Times may change, and conventional wisdom may evolve and mature, but one thing people never seem to grow out of is the desire to put one over on unsuspecting victims. Boese's Museum of Hoaxes is an amusing catalog of tricks, pranks, publicity stunts, and outright scams that people have played on each other over the years. From fossils that contradicted accepted science, to the woman who gave birth to rabbits (guess how that trick worked), to newspaper reports of life on the moon, Boese describes each trick's appearance, how the perpetrators did it, and its effect on the general public. The book is organized by time period; each chapter begins with an introduction that puts the hoaxes into context, explaining what was believed possible at the time--a helpful inclusion, since many will seem like obvious frauds to modern readers. Whether it is picked for cover-to-cover reading or occasional browsing, readers are sure to find many laughs. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 2nd edition (November 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525946780
• ISBN-13: 978-0525946786
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #981,526 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cursory Curiosities, April 15, 2004

By	Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I have to admit to being simultaneously disappointed and entertained by Alex Boese's The Museum of Hoaxes. While Boese certainly has researched many pranks, stunts and deceptions and writes in a breezy style, I kept wishing for more information about the hoaxes he reports (not more hoaxes, of which there are plenty). Had I come across this book in a brick-and-mortar store, I probably would not have bought it; and I have to admit that the Amazon reviewer does comment about the lack of detail. For example, the section on The Great Chess Automaton is only two rather small pages long, with no pictures. Look on James Randi's (the Amazing Randi) website for the James Randi Educational Fountation, dedicated to debunking hoaxes, physics, and the like, and you'll find two commentaries dedicated to the same topic, with several drawings which make the hoax perfectly clear. Randi's account is much more engaging, as its detail brings the story to life. Boese discusses the Loch Ness Monster and the "surgeon's photo"--but doesn't include the photo itself. The book makes good light reading, and perhaps it's greatest good is as a testiment to the fact that the media is less in the news and education business than in the entertainment business, a case which Randi also makes repeatedly. You'll probably encounter a few stories you've heard before and not realised were hoaxes or outright frauds, such as the sightings of sea monsters by the passenger ship Mauretania--a report first published in the New York Times and repeated ad infinitum in books on Cryptozoology and Fortean Phenomena, but which has entirely no basis in fact. You'll surely discover things of which you've not heard--my favorite is "The Great Monkey Hoax" hailing from my home state of Georgia, wherein a dead Capuchin monkey was doused in depiliatory cream and left in the road by two boys who claimed they'd struck it while two other "aliens" escaped in a glowing UFO. Boese has a gullibilty test in his book, which I, a confirmed skeptic, didn't do well on. And a number of famous or otherwise interesting hoaxes didn't make it into his book--including Mother Shipton, the psychic more accurate than Nostradamus but who unfortunately didn't exist, or the mermaid story which took place here in Hong Kong less than 10 years ago--a report was widely circulated in the media that a fisherman had caught a mermaid and his boat was bringing her into port. People flocked to the docks, but the boat was delayed and wouldn't be in until the next day. Still people came, but of course, no mermaid ever showed up--I don't remember what the excuse was--I think perhaps he freed the mermaid because she'd threatened him with a curse. Or the monkey man that was running around rooftops in India, supposedly assulting people, also within the last decade. Boese maintains a website where at least some of these hoaxes are written up; but like the book that site lacks detail and seems somewhat flat.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous and astounding!, November 13, 2002

By	Benjamin Self (Takoma Park, MD) - See all my reviews

I've been waiting for this book, and now I'm delighted to have "The Museum of Hoaxes" to take with me everywhere. This is a wonderful collection of hoax stories from the Middle Ages to the Internet era, each an illustration of clever prankstering -- or astonishing gullibility. Well-written and easy to read at a page or two each, these hoaxes sometimes crack me up, sometimes make me feel smugly superior, and sometimes leave me afraid that I will soon get hoaxed myself. When I'm reading, I often find myself wanting to tell somebody about one of the incredible stories I've just found. Because the Museum is so comprehensive and thorough, there's almost a feeling of something useful about the knowledge I've acquired, all this trivia about centuries of hoaxes. It's just enough to make the pleasure entirely guiltless. This book is fabulous -- and that's no hoax!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll be surprised by what you don't know, February 9, 2004

By	shettakaburi (TX USA) - See all my reviews

So are you one of those many people, like I was, who believed the old rumor about subliminal advertising? You know, the one where a group of researchers added a few clever lines like "Hungry? Candy and Popcorn at the Concession" to be flashed during a movie so quickly the conscious mind missed it but the subconscious caught it and the concession stand sold 50% more candy and popcorn. I believed it quite completely for many years, until Alex Boese, our esteemed curator for this Museum of Hoaxes, informed me it was complete hooey. Turns out a researcher did indeed claim to do this and it caused quite a stir 40 years ago, but when scientific colleagues pressed him to reproduce this effect in a more controlled setting, he could not. And, to this day, the receipt of subliminal messages remains unproven.

Interesting stuff, isn't it? You'll be surprised at all the things you thought you knew. Its well written and a page turner, in fact, I tore through this book in less than a day, I simply could not put it down, much to the annoyance of my pretty wife.