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Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions
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304 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 2009
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About the author
Ronald H. Fritze
17 books6 followersRonald H. Fritze is an American encyclopedist, historian, and writer known for his criticism of pseudohistoric ideas.
Fritze earned his BA in history at Concordia College in 1974. He obtained a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a PhD from Cambridge University in 1981. He has worked at Lamar University in Beaumont and the University of Central Arkansas in 2001 as chair of the history department. He is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Athens State University.
Fritze is the author of Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science, and Pseudo-religions (2009) a book which critically examines the pseudohistoric claims of Martin Bernal's Black Athena, Erich von Däniken, Immanuel Velikovsky, Atlantis, Christian Identity, Nation of Islam, and fringe related pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories. According to Fritze pseudohistory is a "charlatan's playground" targeting those too "willing to suspend disbelief" and slip into an "abyss of fantasy". Fritze considers such pseudohistoric ideas to be irrational and misleading the public. The book has received positive reviews.
Fritze earned his BA in history at Concordia College in 1974. He obtained a master's degree from Louisiana State University and a PhD from Cambridge University in 1981. He has worked at Lamar University in Beaumont and the University of Central Arkansas in 2001 as chair of the history department. He is currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Athens State University.
Fritze is the author of Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science, and Pseudo-religions (2009) a book which critically examines the pseudohistoric claims of Martin Bernal's Black Athena, Erich von Däniken, Immanuel Velikovsky, Atlantis, Christian Identity, Nation of Islam, and fringe related pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories. According to Fritze pseudohistory is a "charlatan's playground" targeting those too "willing to suspend disbelief" and slip into an "abyss of fantasy". Fritze considers such pseudohistoric ideas to be irrational and misleading the public. The book has received positive reviews.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 3, 2009
This is a solid, if occasionally unnecessarily polemical, account of what Professor Ronald Fritze, clearly an heir to the liberal Enlightenment, considers to be unacceptable versions of history and of those constructed versions of science and religion that have no basis in the reality in which certainly he and probably most of the rest of us lives. Fritze believes in 'facts' and that the world views of minds should conform to those 'facts' as far as possible.
The book deals successively with that old warhorse, the existence of Atlantis and then with the mythic modern narratives of the discovery and settlement of America. From there, Fritze looks at the use of pseudo-history to sustain extremist models of American politics - first Christian Identity and then the Nation of Islam.
He moves on to the pseudo-science and the pseudo-archaeology of a number of well-known characters in modern popular culture: Velikovsky, Von Daniken, Hapgood and Hancock. He closes with an evisceration of Martin Bernal's 'Black Athena' hypothesis where he finally lets himself down with an onslaught on post-modernism that loses the book a star. Frankly, the rest of us actually want a solid argument based on (ironically) the facts and not yet another air strike in the Culture Wars.
Nevertheless, this book has its virtues - not least the amount of background detail on extremist political movements and some very good material on how writers respond to the market. The notes at the book are a mine of useful references.
What this book teaches most (to the extent that one heartily wishes that Fritze had spent more time on the mechanics of meme-marketing and less on bursts of prissy outrage) is how academics weaken before the blandishments of cynical publishers and how, once a theme proves profitable, a sort of conspiracy of need and pleasure develops between the writer (rarely a member of the formal academic establishment) and a public hungry for sensation. This is brokered by the real villain of the piece, the publisher keen to sell books. It is all rather grubby with the public being by far the least villainous in the author-publisher-public nexus.
The section within the book in which he forensically unravels the marketing operation behind the nonsensical '1421' thesis of Gavin Menzies (which postulates global voyaging by the late-medieval Chinese empire) is well judged. The writer and the public are not the villains here, the publishers are - although if you consider this sort of pseudo-history as a form of popular fiction then maybe we should all loosen up and just enjoy it.
We are aware of a version of the Necronomicon being published as non-fiction (for sales purposes) when its authors were determined on its fictional status. In the same way, the publishers of '1421' must have been fully aware of the thesis' dodgy status as peer-reviewed history and should have had the decency and honesty to publish it as a hypothesis that was questionable at best and openly as pseudo-history at worst. The point is that the publishing industry, like the media in general, marketing and politics, have institutionalised fiction as fact with the effect that we no longer believe what does pass for fact any more.
Fritze is rightfully outraged by this culture of lies though it is the business side and not the writers who are really at fault here because it should know better. He fails to see that it is culturally systemic and cannot, as the good liberal often does, be laid at the door of a few individuals who push things to the limit. The writers that he castigates are merely the eccentric extreme of a culture that supplies disinformation and misinformation right from its very heart - churches, states, political parties and businesses (although it has to be said that modern business is by far the most ethical of this miserable quadrumvirate of purveyors of absurdity).
So why does this book slightly irritate? On three grounds - it patronises the public's love of sensation, it takes such a rigid position on the question of 'what is truth' that it loses the argument and it makes little attempt to understand the mechanics of these phenomena.
In particular, Fritxe, in his outrage, fails to question why disempowered people choose to lose themselves in fantasy, how it functions as a political tool and why the 'truth' as Enlightenment liberals understand it means bugger all when you are in a vulnerable dead-end job at the mercy of forces that you do not control.
His po-faced rectitude is that of intellectuals for intellectuals and this cuts little ice - especially as the academic world comes out of this story none too well. The story of how academics attempted to censor Velikovsky through some pretty foul means is an object lesson in why we should be wary of any Establishment's claims to truth.
If the public want this material and the market is willing to supply it, then the real question (unanswered by Fritze and by all the liberal tomes expressing shock and horror at irrationalism) is WHY they want it. The implicit suggestion is that the mob is stupid and ignorant and needs to be brought into the light, but the truth is that a choice of the irrational, of pseudo-history, of extremist narratives, of conspiracy and of fantasy is a very rational choice where ordinary people are not given full information.
What information they do receive is filtered, laundered, censored and manipulated by an editorial and intellectual class whose first duty is to the order created by those who pay them.
If information flows are nothing but top-down narratives in which reason has become a tool for control and only 'the best and the brightest' of the disempowered (and less and less of these since the introduction of neo-liberal economics) are let into the kraal through their mastery of these tolls, then the mass of those left behind have not merely a right to their irrationalism. They almost have a duty to considerthe fantastic as an act of resistance and insurgency to a system that has forgotten them, that uses and abuses them and then expects them to be grateful for the exploitation.
There is one other complaint. Martin Bernal's thesis of the Egyptian origins of Greek civilisation does not stand up in its radical version to reasonable peer scrutiny and it has become ridiculously politicised by some dim-witted or manipulative identity politicians but the attack here is excessive and almost, at times, silly.
Without going into the ins and outs of Fritze's argument, he is far too dismissive of Bernal's assessment (which I oversimplify) that the 'silences' in history are as important as the noise left behind by the victors. The whole notion of fact in history is not problematic because there are no facts - of course there are facts - but because not all the facts are there. They have been pre-selected.
This parallels the problem with facts in political or social life. I have written on this issue in relation to political analysis and 'conspiracy' in Lobster 50. Bernal is right to consider possibility as reasonable alongside probability where the probability has been skewed by the way that facts have been left in the record and the way that past interpretations have accumulated a sort of group-think that has permitted 'given' ways of seeing the past that may be a little more unstable than academics like Fritze think. History, in short, is not and cannot be science or be subject to pure reason.
That's enough - in case this review becomes a counter-polemic. The book is one for the library and is useful but it is, ultimately, a disappointment.
The book deals successively with that old warhorse, the existence of Atlantis and then with the mythic modern narratives of the discovery and settlement of America. From there, Fritze looks at the use of pseudo-history to sustain extremist models of American politics - first Christian Identity and then the Nation of Islam.
He moves on to the pseudo-science and the pseudo-archaeology of a number of well-known characters in modern popular culture: Velikovsky, Von Daniken, Hapgood and Hancock. He closes with an evisceration of Martin Bernal's 'Black Athena' hypothesis where he finally lets himself down with an onslaught on post-modernism that loses the book a star. Frankly, the rest of us actually want a solid argument based on (ironically) the facts and not yet another air strike in the Culture Wars.
Nevertheless, this book has its virtues - not least the amount of background detail on extremist political movements and some very good material on how writers respond to the market. The notes at the book are a mine of useful references.
What this book teaches most (to the extent that one heartily wishes that Fritze had spent more time on the mechanics of meme-marketing and less on bursts of prissy outrage) is how academics weaken before the blandishments of cynical publishers and how, once a theme proves profitable, a sort of conspiracy of need and pleasure develops between the writer (rarely a member of the formal academic establishment) and a public hungry for sensation. This is brokered by the real villain of the piece, the publisher keen to sell books. It is all rather grubby with the public being by far the least villainous in the author-publisher-public nexus.
The section within the book in which he forensically unravels the marketing operation behind the nonsensical '1421' thesis of Gavin Menzies (which postulates global voyaging by the late-medieval Chinese empire) is well judged. The writer and the public are not the villains here, the publishers are - although if you consider this sort of pseudo-history as a form of popular fiction then maybe we should all loosen up and just enjoy it.
We are aware of a version of the Necronomicon being published as non-fiction (for sales purposes) when its authors were determined on its fictional status. In the same way, the publishers of '1421' must have been fully aware of the thesis' dodgy status as peer-reviewed history and should have had the decency and honesty to publish it as a hypothesis that was questionable at best and openly as pseudo-history at worst. The point is that the publishing industry, like the media in general, marketing and politics, have institutionalised fiction as fact with the effect that we no longer believe what does pass for fact any more.
Fritze is rightfully outraged by this culture of lies though it is the business side and not the writers who are really at fault here because it should know better. He fails to see that it is culturally systemic and cannot, as the good liberal often does, be laid at the door of a few individuals who push things to the limit. The writers that he castigates are merely the eccentric extreme of a culture that supplies disinformation and misinformation right from its very heart - churches, states, political parties and businesses (although it has to be said that modern business is by far the most ethical of this miserable quadrumvirate of purveyors of absurdity).
So why does this book slightly irritate? On three grounds - it patronises the public's love of sensation, it takes such a rigid position on the question of 'what is truth' that it loses the argument and it makes little attempt to understand the mechanics of these phenomena.
In particular, Fritxe, in his outrage, fails to question why disempowered people choose to lose themselves in fantasy, how it functions as a political tool and why the 'truth' as Enlightenment liberals understand it means bugger all when you are in a vulnerable dead-end job at the mercy of forces that you do not control.
His po-faced rectitude is that of intellectuals for intellectuals and this cuts little ice - especially as the academic world comes out of this story none too well. The story of how academics attempted to censor Velikovsky through some pretty foul means is an object lesson in why we should be wary of any Establishment's claims to truth.
If the public want this material and the market is willing to supply it, then the real question (unanswered by Fritze and by all the liberal tomes expressing shock and horror at irrationalism) is WHY they want it. The implicit suggestion is that the mob is stupid and ignorant and needs to be brought into the light, but the truth is that a choice of the irrational, of pseudo-history, of extremist narratives, of conspiracy and of fantasy is a very rational choice where ordinary people are not given full information.
What information they do receive is filtered, laundered, censored and manipulated by an editorial and intellectual class whose first duty is to the order created by those who pay them.
If information flows are nothing but top-down narratives in which reason has become a tool for control and only 'the best and the brightest' of the disempowered (and less and less of these since the introduction of neo-liberal economics) are let into the kraal through their mastery of these tolls, then the mass of those left behind have not merely a right to their irrationalism. They almost have a duty to considerthe fantastic as an act of resistance and insurgency to a system that has forgotten them, that uses and abuses them and then expects them to be grateful for the exploitation.
There is one other complaint. Martin Bernal's thesis of the Egyptian origins of Greek civilisation does not stand up in its radical version to reasonable peer scrutiny and it has become ridiculously politicised by some dim-witted or manipulative identity politicians but the attack here is excessive and almost, at times, silly.
Without going into the ins and outs of Fritze's argument, he is far too dismissive of Bernal's assessment (which I oversimplify) that the 'silences' in history are as important as the noise left behind by the victors. The whole notion of fact in history is not problematic because there are no facts - of course there are facts - but because not all the facts are there. They have been pre-selected.
This parallels the problem with facts in political or social life. I have written on this issue in relation to political analysis and 'conspiracy' in Lobster 50. Bernal is right to consider possibility as reasonable alongside probability where the probability has been skewed by the way that facts have been left in the record and the way that past interpretations have accumulated a sort of group-think that has permitted 'given' ways of seeing the past that may be a little more unstable than academics like Fritze think. History, in short, is not and cannot be science or be subject to pure reason.
That's enough - in case this review becomes a counter-polemic. The book is one for the library and is useful but it is, ultimately, a disappointment.
November 15, 2023
Are there more things in
our philosophies than in
heaven, Horatio…?
I read a first-hand account by a reputable historian who was appalled by a comment he heard after watching the film adaptation (2006) of Dan Brown’s preposterous thriller The Da Vinci Code: “It makes you think, doesn’t it?”
He wanted to scream, that such banale make-believe based on allegations of ‘hidden’ history concocted by conspiracy theorists should be given any credence or even entertained as a possibility.
The many case-histories presented in Invented Knowledge may well induce similar paroxysms in rationalists, and could well warrant a health warning on the cover.
This is a study of examples of pseudohistory or ‘false’ history that have emerged or re-emerged in recent years, told particularly from a North American viewpoint (in 2009 the author was, and apparently now still is, Professor of History at Athens State University in Alabama, and currently Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences). In seven chapters (plus an introduction) it covers the development of the Atlantis myth, invented narratives of the peopling of the American continent, contrasting racist cosmogonies evolved from ‘white’ and ‘black’ perspectives, catastrophe scenarios and maverick academic theories as illustrated by the Black Athena controversy.
Fritze covers a lot of ground and raises a number of issues, all backed up by plentiful references and a select bibliography. The text is easy to read (despite a handful of typos) and makes its several points cumulatively (though occasionally with some repetition).
The chosen topics in Invented Knowledge deal substantively with answers to the questions Who? What? When? Where?, and that is fascinating enough; but I equally would have liked more on answers addressing How? and Why? To be sure, Fritze does treat with these at times: for example, he quotes L Sprague de Camp on why the concept of Atlantis might provide “mystery and romance for those who don’t find ordinary history exciting enough”, and his analysis of the eager reception of the invented histories for followers of Christian Identity, the Nation of Islam and Afrocentrism touches on the social, economic, cultural and personal imperatives that drove individuals and groups to espouse invented narratives that gave a sense of identity and purpose to their lives.
However, the thrust of what he outlines comes across as an easy dig at ignorance and irrationality, and the lack of a final chapter with conclusions means the reader is left in a kind of limbo. Favourable reviews quoted on the back cover provide value-judgements on the beliefs that Fritze parades: folly … crackpot … claptrap … nonsense. Much more useful would have been suggestions as to how to effectively counter sincerely-held and often dangerous beliefs rather than merely holding them up to ridicule.
And I also wonder why he stopped short of pointing out the fallacies inherent in more established religions, as some of these are as worthy of critical comment as beliefs in aliens in UFOs impregnating humans, advanced technologies in ancient civilisations, and comets turning into planets.
So, it’s easy to laugh at or be appalled by these largely irrational beliefs, but we miss the deeper discussion following the fact-checking. But perhaps the good professor is waiting to publish those separately — or maybe he already has. But we have to beware the siren call that echoes Hamlet’s observation that “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, | Than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” for dreamers are often apt to mistake their own dreams for empirical facts or rational philosophising.
Now, several years after Fritze’s book first appeared we know that ‘invented knowledge’ is of course just another term for what we’ve unfortunately become far too familiar with: misinformation – or rather disinformation, when false details are deliberately given out – fake news, and ‘alternative facts’. It’s all very understandable when invented narratives offer a sense of identity, or emerge out of either wilful ignorance or irrational beliefs, but there’s another possible origin we mustn’t forget – a penchant for pure mischief-making.
The Romans had a pertinent query now applicable in relation to such malicious acts: Cui bono? Who stands to gain? To which an addendum might be, What exactly do they gain, and is it ever worth it?
October 24, 2023
This is an excellent history/examination of some of the more persistent and pernicious of the pseudo/bogus history, science and religions that are out there blighting lives and wasting everyone's time with ridiculous and fatuous ramblings. What appeals to me is the revelation of the very unattractive roots of so much of this stuff. For example the considerable number of fantasists who think there were Vikings in the mid-west of the USA were and very often still involved in efforts to strip away the history and rights of the native Americans. Either the remains are not theirs or the stories paint them as interlopers who destroyed earlier civilisations which justifies their extinction and theft of their land. Although they downplay this now the Mormon churches 'bible' is based on this sort of pseudo-history. It is, and the Mormons early history is replete with attempts to justify the elimination of Native Americans, the theft of their lands, etc. by presenting them as manifestations of evil or as alien beings. The 19th is replete with stories like this promoted by any number of crackpots, many of them ministers, teachers, newspaper editors, etc.
That these viscous lies were all the rage in the 19th century is shocking ,that well into the mid twentieth century the Mormon Church still preached these as the divine revelation is appalling. These doctrines were only abandoned when the church received 'new revelations' that allowed them to ignore the rabid racism of their foundation stories and recruit new members from black, Native American and other once despised and excluded minority groups.
The areas covered by this book are still relevant and important. But in terms of bogus history and pseudo science it would take volumes to cover all the asinine rubbish and general bull shit that is out there so this intelligent and interesting book only scratches the surface.
The great tragedy is that none of the people who should read this book will. Still it is as well for the rest of us to be armed with real knowledge and information. We may not defeat the rising level of stupidity but at least this may help us avoid drowning in it.
That these viscous lies were all the rage in the 19th century is shocking ,that well into the mid twentieth century the Mormon Church still preached these as the divine revelation is appalling. These doctrines were only abandoned when the church received 'new revelations' that allowed them to ignore the rabid racism of their foundation stories and recruit new members from black, Native American and other once despised and excluded minority groups.
The areas covered by this book are still relevant and important. But in terms of bogus history and pseudo science it would take volumes to cover all the asinine rubbish and general bull shit that is out there so this intelligent and interesting book only scratches the surface.
The great tragedy is that none of the people who should read this book will. Still it is as well for the rest of us to be armed with real knowledge and information. We may not defeat the rising level of stupidity but at least this may help us avoid drowning in it.
August 9, 2011
I was extremely disappointed with this dry-as-dust tome. Based on the title, I had hoped for an engaging look at how and why we tend to invent and believe in certain historical and scientific ideas with little or no basis in actual rational thought. Instead, Fritze seems to have devoted most of this book to an in-depth analysis of the creators of a handful of pseudohistorical constructs, regaling us with every detail of their life histories rather than analyzing their creations and why they have gained traction in the minds of the public. If you're looking for an intriguing overview and examination of this topic, I suggest you look somewhere else entirely.
August 11, 2013
Good balance to some of the more "way out there" books I have read.
March 3, 2014
The most interesting single fact I learned from this book was that the mysterious "Nation of Islam" founder, Wallace Fard, was likely originally from New Zealand. (You're welcome, America.) This covers a selection of pseudo-historical beliefs (and there are a huge amount to choose from), starting with the most enduring, the "lost continent" of Atlantis (only mentioned in passing in a scrap of verse from Plato), to some Euro-centric origin theories of the peopling of America, "Black Athena", and various theories about past hidden civilisations (with alien contact often thrown into the mix). What they all have in common is the search for some kind of hidden or magical past, which many still readily consume, not least of all because of the surprising popularity of this kind of "history" in well known Hollywood products (Indiana Jones, X-Files, Stargate). Fritze provides a great case study of the best selling book "1421: The Year China Discovered America" which claims to have found evidence that a Chinese fleet did a circumnavigation of the entire world, including the Americas (yet somehow managed to miss Europe, the kingdoms of which would have been able to record the arrival of something as novel as a Chinese flotilla). Sometimes Fritze gets too immersed in the case studies and does not have an overview chapter to draw together this curious phenomenon of pseudo-history and its enduring appeal; but generally this book is well worth it.
April 21, 2024
muchísimos datos todo el rato; capítulo a capítulo. pero una cosa chulísima!!! lo empecé porque el último capítulo me servía como referencia bibliográfica pero terminé leyéndolo todo
‘A praying mantis and a sperm whale would have a genetically better chance of producing a child than'a human and an extraterrestrial even though the Star Trek series has programmed viewers to accept that inter-species dating is both possible and really sort of fun.’
‘A praying mantis and a sperm whale would have a genetically better chance of producing a child than'a human and an extraterrestrial even though the Star Trek series has programmed viewers to accept that inter-species dating is both possible and really sort of fun.’
May 8, 2019
I would not recommend this book to anyone. It reads like a diatribe against what is called pseudohistory whether than offering real scholarship to support the thesis of this work. It was just simply terrible.
April 9, 2023
I came to this book via the footnotes from a more pop history book (Greg Jenner's very fun Ask a Historian), and my enjoyment in reading it varied quite immensely between the chapters. Fritze definitely has the academic rigour and diligence of a serious historian, as well as the passion to take on these pseudohistories, but for the reader the output is uneven.
Fritze takes on six topics over six chapters, and leads with what should be the most interesting, Atlantis. Unfortunately, this chapter, like the one on the settlement of ancient America immediately after it, has a tendency to resort to simply listing sources which either agree with or disprove the pseudohistory on display. It gets a bit dull at times.
Then there's chapters 3-5 which are the book's best bits. Two companion chapters on fascist rightwing American Christians and their distortion of history (VERY 2023) and on the Nation of Islam and their own strange take on history. I definitely want to read more on Nation of Islam now, and both chapters were engaging, worrying and better written for the reader. They even show a droll sense of humour at times, one which isn't there in the earlier parts, but which comes out to the fore quite marvellously in the fifth chapter, a survey of late c20th pseudohistorians which includes one laugh out loud comment about peguins.
Sadly, just when it looks like Fritze has hit his stride, we get the last chapter, on the Black Athena hypothesis. The whole chapter comes across less as a debunking of pseudohistory, and more like Fritze is putting across his side in a contemporary (2000s) dispute between historians, where a lot of his points actually seem a bit myopic, even if he is correct about the actual Black Athena hypothesis (it's been 13 years since this book came out and it looks like the BA has been disproven largely).
Honestly, it's worth reading those middle three chapters, and probably the introduction, but a good half of the book is either too dry or too much academic squabbling.
Fritze takes on six topics over six chapters, and leads with what should be the most interesting, Atlantis. Unfortunately, this chapter, like the one on the settlement of ancient America immediately after it, has a tendency to resort to simply listing sources which either agree with or disprove the pseudohistory on display. It gets a bit dull at times.
Then there's chapters 3-5 which are the book's best bits. Two companion chapters on fascist rightwing American Christians and their distortion of history (VERY 2023) and on the Nation of Islam and their own strange take on history. I definitely want to read more on Nation of Islam now, and both chapters were engaging, worrying and better written for the reader. They even show a droll sense of humour at times, one which isn't there in the earlier parts, but which comes out to the fore quite marvellously in the fifth chapter, a survey of late c20th pseudohistorians which includes one laugh out loud comment about peguins.
Sadly, just when it looks like Fritze has hit his stride, we get the last chapter, on the Black Athena hypothesis. The whole chapter comes across less as a debunking of pseudohistory, and more like Fritze is putting across his side in a contemporary (2000s) dispute between historians, where a lot of his points actually seem a bit myopic, even if he is correct about the actual Black Athena hypothesis (it's been 13 years since this book came out and it looks like the BA has been disproven largely).
Honestly, it's worth reading those middle three chapters, and probably the introduction, but a good half of the book is either too dry or too much academic squabbling.
February 12, 2020
A structured account of pseudoscientific theories and their authors. The book offers an interesting glimpse on how these works were received by both the general public and within academic circles. The writing is somewhat dry and the book contains a lot of names, but is nevertheless concise in its aim to untangle the web of people with agendas and fringe ideas.
August 28, 2022
A fascinating exploration into the development of different ideas of pseudohistory. The chapters on the British Israelites, Atlantis, and Nation of Islam are reason enough to pick up this book. I do wish that there was more on the psychology behind why people believe in pseudohistory in here but that can be a work of writing in its own right.
April 16, 2023
Did a Chinese fleet discover America before Columbus? Were there ever extraterrestrials on Earth who taught early humans how to build pyramids? Did the ten lost tribes of Israel take up residence in England and the United States? Some quite odd plainly weird theories are investigated in this book.
June 22, 2019
Ω - for academics only
August 2, 2019
Interesting in places but a bit long winded.
July 22, 2024
Niektóre rozdziały bardzo mi sie podobały -- rozdział o "starożytnych astronautach" bardzo zgrabny. Ale niektóre mniej, np. rozdział o "Black Athena" nieporównywalnie bardziej rozbudowany.
December 25, 2015
Fine, for what it is.
Fritze offers an overview of what he calls pseudohistory and pseudoscience. He admits early on that these are difficult concepts to define, then forgets that. He also remarks--in the introduction--that these ideas developed mostly in the nineteenth century and after--which makes sense, as that is when science and history itself developed.
But then in the chapters at hand, he goes on to root all the various tales he is telling in deep history.
Frtize covers Atlantis (rooted in Plato, for example); preColumbian discoveries of North America; Christian Identity; Nation of Islam; Velikovsky and the return of catastrophists theory of history; and the debates of Bernal's "Black Athena."
It's a grab-bag of topics, probably originating in various lectures. (He mentions that he has given the At;antis lecture on cruise ships.)
He is vaguely worried that some of these ideas might lead to bad politics, but there really is no other theme tying these together.
Otherwise, the stories themselves are unremarkable; mostly intellectual histories with no attempt at broader explanations for why these gained purchase beyond hand-waving towards nationalism and religious pride.
The cover is very nice, the paper very good, and the text font very readable.
Fritze offers an overview of what he calls pseudohistory and pseudoscience. He admits early on that these are difficult concepts to define, then forgets that. He also remarks--in the introduction--that these ideas developed mostly in the nineteenth century and after--which makes sense, as that is when science and history itself developed.
But then in the chapters at hand, he goes on to root all the various tales he is telling in deep history.
Frtize covers Atlantis (rooted in Plato, for example); preColumbian discoveries of North America; Christian Identity; Nation of Islam; Velikovsky and the return of catastrophists theory of history; and the debates of Bernal's "Black Athena."
It's a grab-bag of topics, probably originating in various lectures. (He mentions that he has given the At;antis lecture on cruise ships.)
He is vaguely worried that some of these ideas might lead to bad politics, but there really is no other theme tying these together.
Otherwise, the stories themselves are unremarkable; mostly intellectual histories with no attempt at broader explanations for why these gained purchase beyond hand-waving towards nationalism and religious pride.
The cover is very nice, the paper very good, and the text font very readable.
February 10, 2013
skimmed most of this, concentrated on some parts that specifically interests me. Lots of detail, depth there if you want it, some parts really are fascinating, I cant help thinking if revamped /edited down has the makings of a best seller, somewhat dry and slow moving :(.
August 30, 2014
There are so many more pseudohistories than books about pseudohistory. So it's good to find one that deals with the subject. Fritze could have gone a little deeper into the philosophy of history, but overall this is a good book on the subject.
December 23, 2015
A refreshing read ...
Searching for a healthy antidote to all the 'Ancient Aliens' and 'Doomsday Apocalypse' nonsense you encounter on The History Channel and elsewhere? Look no further than this well-researched tome ...
Searching for a healthy antidote to all the 'Ancient Aliens' and 'Doomsday Apocalypse' nonsense you encounter on The History Channel and elsewhere? Look no further than this well-researched tome ...
May 9, 2013
Slightly boring. Gave up on the last chapter.
December 10, 2013
Slightly boring. I did not read or learn nothing new.
January 3, 2015
Uno a uno desmontados grandes mitos y falacias que surgen por doquier. Libro básico para todo escéptico que se precie.
April 12, 2016
Excellent review of pseudohistory, odd ball religions, and characters engaged in downright fraud. Highly recommended.
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