Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World

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Harvey, Paul (10 May 2011). "Selling the Idea of a Christian Nation: David Barton's Alternate Intellectual Universe". Religion Dispatches . Retrieved April 9, 2013. Of course all societies have myths, and they always have done. But a myth isn’t the same as a lie, unless you are seriously going to argue that all societies since the Egyptians and the Persians have been barefaced liars. Is it a “lie”, as English suggests, that the Little Ships were crucial at Dunkirk? Surely not. At worst, it’s an exaggeration, a patriotic myth, central to the national narrative both at the time and afterwards. And in any case, there are already hundreds, perhaps even thousands of history books putting Dunkirk into a wider context, and gently debunking the Little Ships story. Is English really so arrogant that he thinks he’s breaking new ground?

the ‘dominant narrative’ of history has, for the last thousand years at least, been dictated by ‘the dominant people’ and that means that it has been written by white males, about white males, for white males.” Fake History

Like celebrity, fake tells the story of us. “Fake news”, Donald Trump spluttered into his presidential covfefe in 2017 – and a meme was born. Meanwhile, suspicions about the validity of the letter were raised, and enquiries ensued. When it was determined that the letter was indeed a forgery, the Treasury sent the following press release to the editors of the London evening papers:

Dobbs, Gregory. "Otto English on the myths of 'Fake Heroes' ". Good Reading . Retrieved 8 October 2023. Professor Margaret MacMillan charts how the rise of nationalism in the 19th century spurred on the creative reinterpretation of past events to give young and fragile countries an identity to rally around.Arguably this should at least be qualified by class or wealth. Along with the working classes, there are very few women in Fake History. Both have been written out or excluded from public record. Of course, he’s not alone in twisting history to further his political goals. In Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey, school books have been modified to de-emphasise Ataturk, the founder of the secular republic. It’s all part of an effort to reverse that legacy and glorify the Ottoman past, as Erdoğan carves out ever more powers for himself. Lakshmi, Rama (4 January 2015). "Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago — and other startling claims at the Science Congress". The Washington Post . Retrieved 30 April 2019.