Overview
Did a collector with a knack for making sensational discoveries really find the first document ever printed in America? Did Adolf Hitler actually pen a revealing multivolume set of diaries? Has Jesus of Nazareth's burial cloth survived the ages? Can the shocking true account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination be found in lost pages from his murderer's diary? Napoleon famously observed that ""history is a set of lies agreed upon,"" and Edward Steers Jr. investigates six of the most amazing frauds ever to gain wide acceptance in this engrossing book. Hoax examines the legitimacy of the Shroud of Turin, perhaps the most hotly debated relic in all of Christianity, and the discovery of fossils confirming humanity's ""missing link,"" the Piltdown Man. Steers also discusses two remarkable forgeries, the Hitler diaries and the ""Oath of a Freeman,"" and famous conspiracy theories alleging that Franklin D. Roosevelt had prior knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor and that the details of Lincoln's assassination are recorded in missing pages from John Wilkes Booth's journal. The controversies that Steers presents show that there are two major factors involved in the success of a hoax or forgery -- greed and the desire to believe. Though all of the counterfeits and conspiracies featured in Hoax have been scientifically debunked, some remain fixed in many people's minds as truth. As Steers points out, the success of these frauds highlights a disturbing fact: If true history fails to entertain the public, it is more likely to be ignored or forgotten.
Full Product Details
Author: Edward Steers ,
Joe Nickell
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Imprint: The University Press of Kentucky
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.472kg
ISBN: 9780813141596
ISBN 10: 0813141591
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 01 April 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
Steers previously wrote the entertaining and enlightening 'Blood on the Moon, ' and he brings the same lively yet thoroughly researched syle to this winning volume. -- Courier-Journal --
<p> By demonstrating the wide variety of historical hoaxes, from forgeries of documents to prehistoric remains, Hoax reinforces that they are a widespread problem for historians as they attempt to separate fact from fiction. -- Thomas Turner, editor of the Lincoln Herald --
Steers previously wrote the entertaining and enlightening ' Blood on the Moon, and he brings the same lively yet thoroughly researched syle to this winning volume. -- Courier-Journal
Author Information
Edward Steers Jr. is the author of numerous books including Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of President Lincoln, Lincoln Legends: Myths, Hoaxes, and Confabulations Associated with Our Greatest President, and The Lincoln Assassination Encyclopedia. He lives in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), is the author of more than twenty investigative books, including Secrets of the Sideshows and Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal.
