Legends , Lies & Cherished Myths of World History - Softcover

Shenkman, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060922559 ISBN 13: 9780060922559

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 1990

Synopsis

“Was there really a valiant little Dutch boy, a protesting Lady Godiva, a fiddling Nero, or a prudish Queen Victoria? No, says Shenkman ....No person, event, or thing is safe from Shenkman’s corrections.”
—Booklist

Founder of George Mason University’s History News Network and bestselling author of Presidential Ambition and One Night Stands with American History, Rick Shenkman is an historian, a rebel, and a myth debunker par excellence. In Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History, he explodes some of the most honored and long-held misconceptions about kings and despots, wars and empires, religions, inventions, from the glory days of the Roman Empire to the dark days of World War Two. Fascinating, edifying, and irreverent, here is the real world history you were never taught in school—for history buffs and confirmed trivia fanatics everywhere!

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Whistleblowing historian Richard Shenkman skewers the nonsense we were all taught about the world’s revolutions, religions, heroes, and inventors in a whirlwind tour of history.

Queen Victoria may have usually worn black, but she loved to drink and party.

The English were conned during World War II. Winston Churchill’s famous “finest hour” radio broadcast was not delivered by Winston Churchill but by Norman Shelley, an actor hired to be Churchill’s stand-in.

Marie Antoinette did not say, “Let them eat cake,” Churchill didn’t coin the phrase “the Iron Curtain,” and Caesar never said, “Et tu, Brute?”

Scandal in the English monarchy is nothing new: Fifteen kings fathered children out of wedlock. One queen helped depose her husband so her lover could take his place. Three English kings were gay.

Eclectic, eccentric, edifying, and fun, Richard Shenkman’s eye-opening revelations prove that much of history is indeed “but a fable agreed upon.”

About the Author:

Richard Shenkman is an associate professor of history at George Mason University and the New York Times bestselling author of six history books, including Presidential Ambition; Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History; and Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. The editor and founder of George Mason University's History News Network website, he can be seen regularly on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0060922559
• ISBN 13: 9780060922559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320