Hoax
Subtitle: a history of deception : 5,000 years of fakes, forgeries, and fallacies
By: Ian Tattersall and Peter N. Névraumont
Contributors: Névraumont, Peter, author
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780316503723; 9780316503709
Subjects: Errors, inventions; Common fallacies; Deception; Anecdotes; Folklore; Tall tales; Art; History; Hoaxes; Forgeries
Description: "An entertaining collection of the most audacious and underhanded deceptions in the history of mankind, from sacred relics to financial schemes to fake art, music, and identities. World history is littered with tall tales and those who have fallen for them. Ian Tattersall, a curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, has teamed up with Peter Névraumont to create this anti-history of the world, in which Michelangelo fakes a masterpiece; Arctic explorers seek an entrance into a hollow Earth; a Shakespeare tragedy is 'rediscovered'; a financial scheme inspires Charles Ponzi; a spirit photographer snaps Abraham Lincoln's ghost; people can survive ingesting only air and sunshine; Edgar Allen Poe is the forefather of fake news; and the first human was not only British but played cricket. Told chronologically, HOAX begins with the first documented announcement of the end of the world from 365 AD and winds its way through controversial tales such as the Loch Ness Monster and the Shroud of Turin, past proven fakes such as the Thomas Jefferson's ancient wine and the Davenport Tablets built by a lost race, and explores bald-faced lies in the worlds of art, science, literature, journalism, and finance"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-236) and index.
Table of contents: title: Other animals : Evolution of the con; title: Apocalypticism : the end of the world as we know it; title: Pseudoarkeology : The ark at the end of the rainbow; title: Predetermined combat : Gladiators and pro wrestlers; title: Selling empires : The Julian purchase; title: Cryptozoology : The Loch Ness Monster; title: Sacred relics : The precious prepuce; title: Gender bending : Pope Joan; title: Sindonology : The Shroud of Turin; title: Renaissance reprobates : Michelangelo's Cupid; title: Fraudulent ethnicity : Psalmanazar; title: Romantic suicide : Thomas Chatterton; title: Counterfeit wine : Thomas Jefferson's Lafite; title: PseudoShakespeare : The boy who would be bard; title: Cryptoanthropology : The saga of Bigfoot; title: Imaginary lands : Poyais; title: Alternate realities : Faked photographs; title: Aerial feats : Edgar Allan Poe and the great balloon hoax; title: Communing with the departed : Spiritualism and evolution; title: Diddling : The original con man; title: Pseudoarchaeology : The Davenport tablets; title: Ultimate diets : Breatharianism; title: Deathbed conversions : The Lady Hope; title: Forged documents : The Priory of Sion; title: Public credulity : Political lies; title: Political persecutions : The Dreyfus affair; title: Financial fraud : The scammer scammed; title: Fake paleoanthropology : Piltdown; title: Arctic exploration : Robert Peary; title: Quack medicine : Radionics; title: Mythogenesis : the six Mona Lisas; title: Fake music : Fritz Kreisler; title: Pseudoplanetology : Flat and hollow Earths; title: Fake art : Tribute or exploitation?; title: Dialectical biology : Lysenkoism and its consequences; title: Counterfeit cadavers : "The man who never was"; title: Invented identities : Korla Pandit; title: Misguided archaeology : A lion in winter; title: Circumnavigations that weren't : The sad saga of Donald Crowhurst; title: Lunacy : Conspiracy theories; title: Human variation : The fallacy of race; title: Eternal life : the frozen self; title: Homeopathy : The memory of water; title: Pseudopaleontology : "Archaeoraptor"; title: Unreliable memories : Fake memoirs; title: Irrational hysteria : Vaccines and autism; title: Peer review : Jan Hendrik Schön; title: Bogus security : Fake bomb detectors; title: Faked deaths : Pseudocide; title: Fake journalism : Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and their legacy.