Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered the Course of History

Product Information

Szerintem nem érdemes azzal az előfeltételezéssel olvasni, hogy ez történelemtudomány. A történelemtudománynak (és minden tudománynak) ugyanis valahol feltétele, hogy az ember összegyűjti az adatokat, aztán levon belőlük valamilyen következtetést. Ha van is előzetes hipotézise, azért csak az adat az úr. Englishnek viszont van egy karcolhatatlan elképzelése arról, hogy a nacionalizmus hülyeség, a nemzetek története merő hazugsággyár, a Brit Birodalom pedig szégyellje össze magát. Amivel egy csomó ponton egyet is értek. Ebből kiindulva a szerző összegereblyézik mindenféle kis színest, elegyíti őket némi jópofáskodással*, egy kis csúsztatással, aztán az egész masszát áradó lendülettel az arcunkba tolja. Történelmi evidenciákat úgy ad elő, mintha azok egy általa felfedezett földrész partvidékei lennének, és úgy megy neki a nemzeti panteon legendáinak, mintha személyes sérelmeket akarna megtorolni rajtuk. Ez amúgy nem feltétlenül rossz - lehet ebből szórakoztató, sőt: intelligens kötetet építeni. Csak hát ez nem tudomány - sokkal inkább rokon a propagandával. De végtére is az is egy műfaj. I have finished reading “Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World” by Otto English. It's all nonsense. I don't think that's a spoiler because I think that the word "Fake" in the title gives the game away a little. Our decisions, like Brexit, are not based on our national character but on our made up history.

Guevara himself comes across as somewhat politically naive. His upbringing was quite well to do, and such were the class divisons in the Argentina of his day that people of his class thought nothing of the teenage Guevara routinely raping the family maid. This was regarded as a part of the function of maids at the time in Argentina, apparently. So we can dispense with the notion of the romantic revolutionary hero who loved the working classes quite readily, then.Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World is both important and timely. It looks at the stories we tell both on a personal and political level, and how they shape the society in which we live. Essentially, almost everything is built on lies, but it's important not to let a good story get in the way of the truth. Hard to convey how truly appalling this book is. One thing it isn't is a history book. It's a rambling disjointed collection of hobby-horse baseless opinions. The episode on 'Hilter wasn't a failed artist', is prime territory. The author even lets slip that Hilter was a failed artist, (after all he was twice rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts!), but he still carries on trying to undermine this historical fact. As though this fact would in some unfathomable way lead us to humanize the monster. The author then goes on to tell us that Mein Kampf is not a good book. Well thanks for that, without you we would have all thought it was wonderful. That said, despite the moments of personal bias, I felt it worked well overall - especially since the subject itself encourages readers to do their own thinking and their own research to counteract it. There is a lot of value in Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World, and the chapters on family stories and the ultimate conclusion of the book were where it really shone. English cunningly sets the whole book up to showcase the bias that each of us holds. Is there really a difference between the giant statue of a golden dog unveiled in Turkmenistan, and Britain's own statue of Petra, the Blue Peter dog in Manchester? What we perceive as foolish and grandiose in the context of other countries somehow become accepted and normalised in our own. This was a lesson sorely needed, and one that English spends his entire book setting up. The Cost of Living Crisis Byline Times investigates the causes and consequences of Britain’s biggest recession for 30 years

This book is longer than Fake History, but it has to be. The attention to factual detail (apart from the re-printed paragraph ;-) it doesn’t warrant the loss of one star) is quite extraordinary for what cannot avoid being a fairly general overview of a number of historical figures.The grandly described Prologue is funny, albeit unintentionally. Its like a cross between Monty Python, and a 14 year old trying to copy Orwell. Although his snobbish contempt for his grandparents would embarrass the adolescent Pip from Great Expectations. Where as Andrew Scot is a full grown man (hes writing this under a fake name by the way. Who knows why? Your guess is as good as mine). English, Otto (2021). Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World. London. ISBN 978-1-78739-639-5. OCLC 1246540717. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link)

Overall, Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World was an excellently researched and written work of non-fiction. Unfortunately, I feel the audiobook was not the best way to experience it. With that in mind I will talk about what I didn't like about the audiobook, but note that it didn't affect my rating of the book overall. 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. Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World [9781787396395]". A Great Read . Retrieved 27 December 2021.

Now, to the dogs: Scott took dogs on the Discovery having taken Nansen's advice, and their diet of fish was also recommended by Nansen (not Scott). According to the late great Wally Herbert, it takes a person around two years to become competent at running dogs, Scott had no chance of managing this, whereas the Norwegians would have been running dog teams for years, due to, y'know, living in the Arctic. I was really looking forward to this book because I loved Fake History, and for the most part this was an entertaining and informative sequel. However, as soon as I saw that there was a chapter on Captain Scott my heart sank a little bit, and I thought to myself "I bet he's only used the Huntford". Guess bloody what, I was right! Sandbrook, Dominic (27 May 2021). "How the culture wars came for history". UnHerd . Retrieved 27 December 2021. In the end, it felt like ranting of a disgruntled old-man by Otto English (Andrew Scott), expunging history while evolving into banality.