Fakes and Forgeries: The True Crime Stories of History's Greatest Deceptions: The Criminals, the Scams, and the Victims
Adult/High School–From forged documents to funny money to bogus identities and faux antiquities, Innes captivates readers with tales of intrigue and deception that span the centuries. He offers easy-to-comprehend explanations of scientific investigative techniques such as thermoluminescence, carbon dating, and chemical analysis of ink. The text is richly illustrated with photos, maps, art reproductions, and news clippings, and further supplemented by decorative sidebars (labeled Forger's Files) with biographical sketches of the scam artists and the outcomes of their hoaxes. Famous incidents include the 1908 faked prehistory Piltdown man discovered in Britain, definitively declared a hoax in 1953; the multivolume Hitler Diaries, forged by an East German dealer in Nazi relics who sold serialization rights to major publishers; and the activities of a respected 19th-century Shakespearean scholar who altered existing historical manuscripts by inserting details he made up himself and subsequently published as discoveries. A discussion of the Vinland Map, currently valued at more than $20 million if authentic, represents a continuing mystery. Additional chapters address topics as diverse as Botticelli brush strokes, and the role of desktop publishing and laser printers in counterfeiting. The index facilitates searching for specific events or names, but the contents are equally well-suited to browsing or pleasure reading.–Lynn Nutwell, Fairfax City Regional Library, VACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.