The Museum of Hoaxes : The World's Greatest Hoaxes - Hardcover

Boese, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 075285772X ISBN 13: 9780752857725

Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Lt, 2004

Synopsis

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About this title

About the Author

Alex Boese is the creator and curator of the website www museumofhoaxes.com which began in 1997 as research notes for his dissertation.

From Publishers Weekly

Boese, the "curator" of www.museumofhoaxes.com, here collects some of the more fascinating hoaxes from medieval times to the dot-com era. After an initial "gullibility test," designed to show how hard it can be to detect actual hoaxes, Boese organizes his entries chronologically, arguing that hoaxing styles and subjects reflect an era's overall mood. Thus, in pre-modern times, the "concept of truth" was treated "allegorically and spiritually," so hoaxes (such as Sir John Mandeville's fantastical beasts) were not as scientifically involved as our modern frauds (Rorvik's 1978 cloning of a man or the 1999 Piltdown Chicken). Happily, Boese minimizes his theorizing, letting readers just have fun browsing through a few centuries of human trickery. While most of these hoaxes are entertaining (England's Mary Toft, who in 1726 "began to give birth to rabbits" or the South Seas fatu-liva bird that laid square eggs "which remarkably resembled dice"), a handful are disturbing (the 1987 Tawana Brawley case, involving an unsubstantiated act of racial hatred) or even deadly (e.g., the case of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, which was used to justify anti-Semitism). While short accounts of a variety of hoaxes won't satisfy aficionados, the general public may find it useful to know how some familiar hoaxes e.g., the Loch Ness monster were unmasked, and Boese's "suggested reading" list will help intrigued readers dig deeper. Photos and illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Lt
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 075285772X
• ISBN 13: 9780752857725
• Binding: Hardcover