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History's Greatest Lies: The Startling Truths Behind World Events Our History Books Got Wrong (2009)

by William Weir(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1592333362 (ISBN13: 9781592333363)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Fair Winds Press

review 1: I really liked this book and thought it was a fairly good read. The book is about how some "truths" told to people by history textbooks, famous people, etc. were actually false or misinterpreted. The author covers a wide range of different time periods and topics including the Great Fire of Ancient Rome, the Horrors in the Bastille and the Shoot out at OK Corral (Earp Gang vs. the "Cowboys" Gang). The author had a fairly good style and voice in the book, using a plethora of words and phrases, but at times the book seemed to become rather dry. I actually found myself losing interest in some chapters, wanting to skip over them quickly, but I refrained myself. That being said, the entire novel did have some rather interesting chapters and lines that made me want to read the e... morentire chapter all at once, wishing the entire book was as exciting as this certain chapter. The author writes the book in a third-person limited omniscient point of view, giving us a small amount of insight on some characters thoughts whilst a certain historical event was going on. This view allowed the reader to know a bit more about characters that most history books seemed to rather briefly cover. The plot of the book, although changing topics completely after each chapter, is very well defined and well developed due to the author's use of introducing each topic to us very well by covering both the myth and factual aspects of each historical legend. Being a historical book, however, the plot of some chapters did lack some basic storyline aspects such as a climax, but this is to be expected in this genre. Overall, I did enjoy this book because it covered a topic I liked and was decently written. My rating has to do with an average star rating based on how much I enjoyed the topic (4/5), how well I thought the story was written (3/5), and how well I felt the author kept my interest (3/5); a total score of 3/5 stars
review 2: The revelations in the book shock and amaze by exposing veiled motivations and convenient inaccuracies in well-documented events by established leaders that often have a continuing affect on the world. Each chapter points out a lie that is held as a common truth in history, and summarises what we think we know. Then the author shreds the lie to academic ribbons using the latest findings on each subject. Each true story sets the record straight, revealing timeless ulterior motives, and introducing important personalities who successfully (and suspiciously) avoided responsibility in common history texts. less

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