Title:
Legends, Lies, & Cherished Myths of World History
Author:
Richard Shenkman
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1993
ISBN:
0-06-016803-X

If we are suspicious of the history we are taught in school, says Shenkman, we have every right to be. History is written by the winners, and the winners don't have to be fair.

Shenkman's book is a collection of debunkings of some of our cherished historical facts. The debunkings cover historical events ranging from classical Greece to the second World War, and historical figures from Homer to Roosevelt II. If you are wondering why more recent history isn't debunked as vigorously, I might venture that, first, historians are still busy writing it, so there hasn't been sufficient opportunity for specific myths to become well established, and second, that Shenkman didn't mean to write all that thick a book...

His book is 301 pages of mildly ironic prose, complete with research notes, and a well done index. Shenkman writes in an easily readable style, suitable even for fraternity members.

If you want to find out how the Magna Carta guaranteed the English peasant's rights (it didn't), why the Spanish Inquisition was the cruellest abuse of human rights ever (it certainly wasn't, even in its time), what made Voltaire so enlightened (huh?), and why Japan was able to ignore a peace loving emperor (he wasn't), it's all here.

Some myths are so pervasive that we may not even realize that they are. My own mistake about the Maginot line and Hitler's blitzkrieg strategy against the French, for instance, was brought to light to me by this little gem of a book. (I checked this item, to make certain. I am not easily convinced that I am wrong...)

However, because Shenkman doesn't let the need for clarity interfere with a sarcastic jab, occasionally his debunkings may end up a little less than clear. For example, a paragraph describing King Edward's indiscretions with Wallis Simpson leave us wondering exactly what the significance of the title 'Duke of Lancaster' might be. And when describing van der Lin^H^Hubbe's arson of the Reichstag, Shenkman uses similar wording as he used in an earlier chapter to indicate that the trial may (again, the chapter on Mrs Simpson's paramour) have been less than fair.

In all, I can heartily recommend this book, to grace AFU shelves everywhere. It belongs right next to Nice Guys Finish 7th, and any of the Straight Dope collections, with an AFU bookshelf score of eight.