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

Otto English’s fake history is an interesting read. Living in the age of fake news and disinformation this book provides an insight into how history intertwines with myths and how it is carried on from one generation to another. Though the book is well researched and informative the language used is very simple and ideas articulated in a way that everyone can relate to. The book is structured around ten lies and discusses and how and why these lies were crafted and what effects it had on people and society. The ten lies he debunks in the book are:

1.     Winston Churchill was Britain's Greatest prime Minister (How We Deliberately Misremember the Past)

2.    Ancient people thought the Earth was Flat (The Story of Fake History)

3.     Britain Could Have Lost the War (Why Nationalism is Irrational and Counterproductive)

4.     The Royal Family is German (How Unreliable Family History Blinds us to Reason)

5.     Curry Comes from India (The Great Deceit of Language and Food)

6.     The Aztecs Were Slaughtered by the Conquistadors (How Political Apologies are Weaponised)

7.     Abraham Lincoln Believed That "All Men Are Created Equal" (Education and Indoctrination)

8.  Hitler was a Failed Artist (The power Of Creating Your Own Mythology)

9.  If Napoleon had Won, we’d all be Speaking French (Propaganda)

10.  Genghis Khan was a Pitiless Barbarian (The Importance of Being Enemies)

 These ten lies and the associated themes shape the ten chapters of the book’s core, supplemented by an introduction and conclusion. The arguments are based on a wide range of evidence types, from family myths to national myths the book never lets you get bored. The author examines how much that we think of as historic fact is actually fiction. From the myths of WW2 to the false stories of Columbus, from self-serving legends about 'great men' to the origins of curry, fake history is everywhere, affecting us in new ways. The book does give the reader an alternative perspective of history and the dominant narrative, however the book carries a political frequency from the beginning right up to the final pages. This will in some places throughout the book be problematic specially for objective readers. Ignoring the political discourse the book helps one to look at history and narratives from different perspectives and angles thus helping the reader to think critically. 

 I have found the following quotations form the book to be interesting and thought-provoking: 

Statues are not harmless artefacts. They deliberately contrive to shore up narratives that attribute all of history and its deeds to a carefully selected group of mostly male individuals.

 In short, 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.

 When evidence is not critically evaluated, but instead used to shore up an existing theory or discarded because it disproves the original assumption or belief, confirmation bias has occurred. Or "lying", as we call it in the ordinary world.

 Columbus also wasn't much of a hero, or a navigator. In 200 BCE, Greek polymath Eratosthenes had calculated the size of the Earth to within a margin of 1%. When Columbus set off from Spain in 1492, he made the same calculation, but misjudged it by 25%, meaning that when he arrived in what became known as the West Indies, he thought he was in mainland China, or somewhere off the eastern coast of Japan. Columbus was like one of those annoying drivers who won't switch on the sat-nav but who insist they know where they're going even as they drive around in circles.

Lists Of "greats", as encouraged by that 2002 BBC poll that put Winston at the top of the pile of Britons, are reductive. History is not the iTunes chart or some dance-off between the icons of the past.