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Otto English

Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World Paperback – April 28, 2022

by Otto English (Author)

910 ratings

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'A brilliant and important book ... Five Stars!' Mark Dolan, talkRADIO

'An important new book' Daily Express

An alternative history of the world that exposes some of the biggest lies ever told and how they've been used over time.

Lincoln did not believe all men were created equal.

The Aztecs were not slaughtered by the Spanish Conquistadors.

And Churchill was not the man that people love to remember.

In this fascinating new book, journalist and author Otto English takes ten great lies from history and shows how our present continues to be manipulated by the fabrications of the past.

He looks at how so much of what we take to be historical fact is, in fact, fiction. From the myths of WW2 to the adventures of Columbus, and from the self-serving legends of 'great men' to the origins of curry – fake history is everywhere and used ever more to impact our modern world.

Setting out to redress the balance, English tears apart the lies propagated by politicians and think tanks, the grand narratives spun by populists and the media, the stories on your friend's Facebook feed and the tales you were told in childhood. And, in doing so, reclaims the truth from those who have perverted it.

Fake History exposes everything you weren't told in school and why you weren't taught it.

Language

English
Publisher

Welbeck
Publication date

April 28, 2022
Dimensions

5.08 x 7.95 x 1.02 inches
ISBN-10

1787396428
ISBN-13

978-1787396425
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James W. Loewen
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Welbeck (April 28, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1787396428
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1787396425
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 7.95 x 1.02 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,302,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #179 in History of Books
- #721 in Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
- #5,528 in Communication & Media Studies

Customer Reviews:
910 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

910 global ratings

5 star		59%
4 star		27%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Philsfoods

Light hearted and fun but not a history book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2022

I, like many, was expecting a European or British version of “Lies my Teacher told me”. Well, I was pretty underwhelmed. It’s a light read, nicely written and a bit of fun and I read the whole thing on a long train ride. It passed the time but I didn’t really learn anything. Some of the chapters could really be cut in half by doing away with boring side tracks. The most annoying part was the lack of actual history in it - I guess the author is a journo after all so the whole thing just feels self indulgent. Also there are constant references to todays politics (Brexit etc) which just feel out of place. I get the feeling he wrote the first chapter (demolishing Boris Johnson’s Churchill biography) as a magazine piece, and then thought he could spin it out into a book. Overall, get “Lies my teacher told me” instead, that’s a great book that will actually teach you something.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

sg

Pot calling the kettle black

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2022

I bought this book to be reading some mind-blowing research and facts about some common history myths and the cover and the cleverly worded titles grabbed my attention. Two chapters later, I'm already regretting buying this book and reading it.

The author stood on high pedestal and starts lecturing on how historians have traditionally left out significant achievements of other races and sex, because they couldn't conform to their ideas. And I see the author doing the same. Do we really need to hear about Boris Johnson when talking about Churchill? or about trump when reading about roman or British history? These just distract the reader and comes across as a lazy, internet blogger rants. And you are literally doing the same thing, which is use your own political bias to color events of history to suit your narrative.

Apart from this, I don't see a connection between the title and the contents of the chapters. For the "earth is not round", the author wades into some nazi history arm, then goes into Columbus rant and trump and spends very little time (not even a single page) on how historical facts support that earth was round before 1492. Even I can say Copernicus and Hypatia, based on my ten minute understanding and there is nothing about them in here. Neither is Galileo mentioned...instead, we are seeing pages and pages about Columbus and his life.

I've eight more chapters to go, but my hope on this book being illuminating is hog wash. Its going to be more about the author and his political commentary masked as "history".

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Roy

Lies My Teacher Didn't Tell Me

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 18, 2022

Picked this up at Heathrow and wish I could return it to stop Andrew Scott (there is no Otto English, the book starts with a deceit before you open the cover) earning a penny.

One wonders just what happened to make a certain section of British media loath themselves, their country and history so badly.

I had been hoping that this was going to be the English version of the brilliant "Lies My Teacher Told Me" but sadly no. Because although the chapters are clear the writing is not and the arguments when they can be deciphered are rambling.

The basic theme is self loathing. History has been written by white men, about white men for white men (just like Andrew!) and this book is a tirade against white men.

If you were hoping to learn anything about Napoleon (who is now a romantic hero that could have saved Britain from a future full of Tories, gasp!) or Lincoln (another loathsome white man made worse by being Islingtons Guardian readers most hated thing, an American!) then bad luck.

All I could think reading this is that post Andrew's children must have grown up hearing this bilge from angry dad. I hope that they find out that the only real thing fake is this book and almost everything in it.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Glyndower

'Woke' at its Worst

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

This might make a passable toilet read if you take it page by page and put them to a more practical use but reading it through is like being trapped in Covid lockdown with the worst Guardian columnist being lectured about the wonders of BLM and the necessity of re-joining the EU. Most of the 'new' facts in the book are common knowledge amongst anyone with the slightest interest in history and English (presumably a ironic pen-name) commits the same errors as the people he attacks, furthering myths and failing to give evidence for his assertions. Referencing is non-existent and the footnotes patronising statements of the blindingly obvious.

One of the worst sections is on British food where the author repeats the myths about its awfulness, the earwax olive oil being a particularly persistent one. I was a student in the early 1970s and it was possible to eat well and cheaply at numerous Italian restaurants and cafes as well as the ubiquitous 'Indian' and 'Chinese' restaurant and if you wanted to impress a date there were plenty of good up-market restaurants available. He is most correct when it comes to coffee, my parents had a percolator given as a wedding present in 1943 and never used, but even then you could get a good cappuccino (known as 'frothy coffee') or espresso ('expresso') in Italian run cafes. English would no doubt berate Starbuck's as a symbol of US cultural imperialism but it did at least stimulate the development of small cafes producing good coffee.

The book is most irritating in its Guardianesque assumption that everyone who voted to leave the EU is a Faragist racist. I voted to leave not because I hate foreigners but because as a socialist I objected to us being members of a capitalist club that has Neo-liberal economics at its heart. The Communist Party and other genuinely socialist groups argued for a Lexit but this of course has been ignored!.

Don't waste your time on this pointless, repetitive and inaccurate book.

112 people found this helpful

Candia T. Peterson

A great idea rendered rather dull.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

Some amusing parts but very put-downable and I gave up bothering to try and pick it up again. A political agenda runs through and as the politics of that agenda are out of step with my own, I found it quite irritating. It entertains me that a writer on fake history uses a fake name to do so, Otto English being a nom de plume.

39 people found this helpful

Andrew Scripture

Interesting, informative and irreverent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 30, 2021

Verified Purchase

I wasn't quite sure what I would find when I opened this book, but I was delighted with it. A light-hearted journey through the histories of numerous people and events, showing that many of us - especially me - had been clinging onto (and retelling) stories that turn out to have been embellished or totally false. As usual, every day's a schoolday. I would highly recommend this to anyone with any interest in politics, propoganda, or straightforward history.

38 people found this helpful

M T TOMBS

A fascinating and brilliantly entertaining read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

We all think we know our history, certainly our British history. But it's amazing how so much of it is complete bunkum and the assertion that rings truer and truer through Otto English's wonderfully forensic and funny book is that real actual history is often not entertaining or interesting enough. In today's language "the optics aren't good enough". Therefore, so much of what we believe to be true is either totally made up or multiple incidents are artificially aligned in order to make the 'story' better. Read this book. It's a great read but will also open your eyes to the many moments of fake history that we still spout and naively believe.

39 people found this helpful

Perus

This is a cracking good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

It is a cracking read. It is informative, it makes you think and in places it is laugh-out-loud funny. Contrary to one review and in agreement with another, I thought it was a real page turner. What more do you want from a good book? More please!

34 people found this helpful

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