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

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Let's get the problems out of the way first: this is a really inadequately edited book. There are numerous typos and other errors scattered throughout it, which no publishing house worth its salt should have let through. The writing is uneven at times and seems almost as if it was rushed, while the narrative is also fascinating in places. The overall premise of the book, however, is difficult to argue with, that "History, much like modern life, is in short full of bullies, self-promoting charlatans, bigots, bastards, and liars." Another way of putting it is that "the person who shouts the loudest gets all the acclaim," which is mentioned by way of explaining why Thomas Edison is widely regarded as the inventor of the light bulb, when it's not really that simple. Nem először tapasztalom azt az ambivalens érzést, hogy egy olvasmányom gondolatiságával mélységesen egyetértek, de a megírás módja egyenesen taszít. Hisz végtére is mit állít English? Elsősorban azt, hogy aki hülye, az többnyire annyira hülye, hogy nem is tudja, hogy hülye. Ez egy nagyon alapvető igazság. Aztán még azt is állítja, hogy vannak emberek, akik nem annyira hülyék, viszont morális hulladékok. Ők aztán elmennek politikusnak vagy politikai tanácsadónak, és megélnek a hülyékből. Azt mondják nekik, amit hallani akarnak - például hogy a hülyék igazából nem is hülyék, hiszen az angol (magyar, piréz, stb.) nemzethez tartoznak, és egy angol (magyar, piréz, stb.) szervileg nem lehet hülye, mert ha hülye lenne, akkor franciának vagy németnek születik. No most ami a morális hulladékokat illeti, hát igen, valóban kitapintható egy ilyen tendencia. Csak az van, hogy English ebből az egészből két következtetést von le: Culture History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity. Fact Articles predominantly based on historical research, official reports, court documents and open source intelligence.

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.To be frank, I like the accessible language the author used to write the book. There is no pretension in how he makes his arguments, which I can appreciate. While those best examples, just named, were well equipped to survive the 1945 Marxist landslide to Westminster and its catastrophic consequences were specially bad for others which were not yet ready. From an audiobook perspective, I didn't find Otto English's narration particularly engaging. And, as a bilingual German speaker I found his butchering of German pronunciation particularly hard to stomach. Hearing him struggle to pronounce German, French, Nahuatl, and other languages was hard on the ears and I do wish a bit more time and effort had been put into learning the correct pronunciations out of respect to the cultural heritages that those languages represent.

After a very brief period he had accelerated the morale of the officers and men to an almost unbelievable degree. It was sheer personality …. No detail of our daily life was too small for [Churchill] to ignore. He overlooked nothing…. I have never known an officer take such pains to inspire confidence or to gain confidence; indeed he inspired confidence in gaining it” Almost two decades and countless reality shows later, we’re still hostage to the cult of celebrity. Only now there’s a new buzzword in town: fake.Nem mondom, hogy a fenti metódus olyasvalami, amit én sose követtem el, mert de. Ugyanakkor megiscsak jó lenne hinni, hogy ennél többre vagyunk hivatva. Mert végtére is nem az a gond, hogy mások mást gondolnak, mint mi - hisz az ember sokféle. Hanem hogy hajlandóak-e ezek mellett a gondolatok mellett úgy érvelni, hogy a másikat is embernek tekintik. Mégpedig olyan embernek, akiről feltételezik, hogy respektálható céljai és motivációi lehetnek. Jó, hát igaz, ami igaz, ez a fajta hozzáállás meglehetősen energiaigényes, néha meddő is**. De az semmiképpen sem jó módszer, ha a másik oldal leegyszerűsítő populizmusára válaszul mi meg megteremtjük annak tükörképét: a mi leegyszerűsítő populizmusunkat. This is a mixed bag that deconstructs "great lies" of history and attempts, with varying degrees of success, to find parallels with the current political reality. The brilliant chapters on the hyper-mythologised version of Winston Churchill and weaponising of WWI/WWII memory in modern Britain will resonate with any Brit who has had the misfortune to question Churchill's legacy or, heaven forbid, neglected to wear a paper flower. I even liked the chapter on the dubious origins of "curry."