Legends & Lies of World History

Rating:
Summary: Trades one set of myths for another
Review: The author warns in the introduction that he is not to be trusted, and it is a good idea to heed his advice. Indeed, the book does identify some facts that need to be debunked, as do similarly themed books such as Myth Information by J. Allen Varasdi and Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. And Shenkman is an amusing writer with a reader-friendly style. But Shenkman doesn't deal primarily with specific factoids that are simply incorrect. He sprinkles historical facts into a highly subjective view of history. True, some subjective views may not fit the facts well, but Shenkman often settles for exploding an old hasty generalization by substituting a generalization of his own. Too often, he cites "no evidence" as permission to draw conclusions that themselves have no support. If you know something about history, this book is apt to frustrate you. If you don't know much history, this book is no place to start.

Rating:
Summary: The Biggest Piece of Boloney I Ever Heard!
Review: This author writes one lie after another! The author makes a living off of lying to thousands of readers. He through the entire book demotes heros and heroines like Joan of Arc and Cathrine the Great to dust, and raises evil demons like Nero and Hitler to gods. A quote from the book is, "Nero was not ALL bad, sure he slaughtered his wife, but all the other women he slept with he never lad a finger on!" It also has to attack Christians and Jews by insulting the Bible! Sure some maybe true, but not much. History is my favorite subject, and this is not history. It's just a bunch of lies.