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

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Coco Chanel grew up mostly in an orphanage run by nuns. Her flair for fashion was real, and she was industrious, but as she became hugely successful, a pretty dark side to her personality emerged. She was a Nazi collaborator who treated her staff with contempt, was unethical in her business dealings, and had a string of affairs with fellow fascist sympathizers. For those uninitiated, Roland Huntford's 'Scott and Amundsen' is incredibly biased against Scott, and includes falsehoods that have been debunked since, some of which have been merrily repeated in Fake Heroes. *sigh* 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. History evolving though is what I thought was the point that the author could have expanded on more. Fake History can be exclusionary but learning history can be inclusive, hopeful and frankly very cool. Yes, the truth being uncovered will undoubtedly shatter many epic stories which were long embellished about people who have become famous. But the great missing link is getting people connected to the history that is most linked and is relatable to them. Not how the ruling classes lived and made the country, but how the rest of us have. This book dismantles the lazy and pernicious tropes of the past as Otto English sets out to redress the balance and reclaim truth from those who seek to pervert it.

It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.The first rule of propaganda is that the target audience must be gullible enough to believe everything they hear or read.The second is that an attractive lie is always better than the ugly truth, and the third is that even if people realise that they're being brainwashed, they willingly buy it anyway." You can see that all over social media these days, lots of disinformation. 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) The Cost of Living Crisis Byline Times investigates the causes and consequences of Britain’s biggest recession for 30 years

for history geeks like myself this book makes for a very interesting read as i learned a lot of interesting facts reading this book. for anyone who isn’t head over heals in love with history however this book doesn’t fully do what it says on the tin and you’d be forgiven for getting bored of the endless tangents. This is a well-researched and excellently written book on how supposed facts from history and our world are untrue and why humans are so keen to believe them. The desire to buy into enormous lies feeds our brain through its desire to belong. Through many examples over hundreds of years, Otto English (or Andrew Scott, his real name) convinces through asking the questions that he reminds us of at the end of the book: A fun, authoritative and alternative history of the world that exposes some of the biggest lies ever told and how they've been used over time. I regard the improvement of the condition of the British people as the main aim of modern government”

In this fascinating book, journalist and author Otto English deconstructs ten great lies from history.For the most part it was an enjoyable sequel, but I was disappointed to find that the chapter on Captain Scott was based so heavily on Roland Huntford's 'Scott and Amundsen', a book that is known to be incredibly biased, and in the case of some assertions untrue or without evidence (polar exploration history is my main career focus so I do know a bit about this). As in the Huntford, Scott is presented as an overly emotional, sentimental mess who wishes to climb the career ladder purely for his own egotistical reasons, we are not told that he was the sole financial support to his mother and sisters after his father and brother died, so promotion was essential to stop the family becoming destitute. Cronyism and Corruption Byline Times uncovers the nepotism that greases the wheels of British politics. The Crisis in British Journalism Byline Times investigates media monopolies, their proximity to politicians, and how the punditocracy doesn’t hold power to account I liked some of the chapters. The Churchill chapter and the Britain in WW2 chapter were interesting and made me think.

Horribly edited -- if edited at all. Grammatical and punctuational errors abound, as do typos, formatting errors, spacing issues. The rambling essays are often riddled with errors, which gave me pause as to anything I was reading had merit. English characterizes Churchill as a consistent supporter of wanton imperial violence. He can only sustain this claim by ignoring anything that contradicts it. Thus, English mentions that Churchill was involved in the one-sided British victory at Omdurman, but neglects to mention that Churchill criticized the British treatment of enemy wounded. He mentions that Churchill said that the colonization of Australia and America was not in itself a “wrong” but ignores that Churchill opposed imperial atrocities such as the brutal suppression of the Bambatha Rebellion, or punitive expeditions in Nigeria, or the Amritsar massacre. Incidentally Churchill wasn’t “defending the suppression of Aborigines” when he made that infamous remark – he was refuting an argument against Jewish emigration to Palestine. Had Churchill been listened to, more Jewish people would have survived the Holocaust. It is also fanciful to suggest that a majority of white Americans or Australians in the 1930s would have disagreed with Churchill’s view. The John F. Kennedy chapter is unsurprising. He was a voracious serial adulterer who was fulfilling the ambitions of his father by going into politics; this is not new infromation, but I suppose it's good that people feel more free to write about it these days. There's definitely no harm in being real about the actuality of people's lives versus the image projected by their publicists. Democracy in Danger The newspaper’s extensive reporting and analysis of the various threats to democracy from populism, oligarchy, dark money and online disinformation.The best bit about this book is watching the author descend into exactly the things he outlines about others. Lejön az egészről, hogy a prioritás a szerző részéről saját indulata megélése volt. Aminek következtében szó sincs építkezésről. Pedig ha csak a fejezetcímeket nézzük, hihetnénk azt is, English egy ívet kíván létrehozni. Hisz azokban világosan meg van határozva egy állítás (pl.: "Régen az emberek azt hitték, a föld lapos"), amit a szerző bizonnyal cáfolni kíván, valamint ott az alcím is (pl. "A történelemhamisítás története"), ami mintha arra utalna, hogy egy általánosabb tematikus rendbe lesznek illesztve a fejtegetések. Aztán kiderül, hogy ilyen tematikus rend jószerével nem létezik, English csak csapong, össze-vissza hajigálja elénk mindazt a tudást, amit innen-onnan összecsipegetett, nem csoda, ha az ember egyes fejezetek végén őszintén elgondolkodik azon, hogy volt-e itt mondva valami érdemleges, vagy csak ventilált egy jóízűt az író saját magának.