- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow & Company; Reprint edition (July 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060922559
- ISBN-13: 978-0060922559
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,944,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good compliment to the "Myth America" TV series.,
By
This review is from: Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History (Paperback)
As with most TV series you get statements with out support. So I tracked down the Richard Shenkiman book to get some background to the statements about American myths. I was not disappointed. It is as if he was reading this book on the TV with more graphic representations for the different media.
The book is worth reading. However the format may not be to some peoples liking as it is short choppy statements and the chapters are divided into subjects as, Discoverers and Inventors, Presidents, Sex, and Art. There is a fair set of footnotes to lead you to further reading. You may need this as he sometimes stretches a point. Final analysis, you are better off reading this to give a better perspective on reality. Read it to your kids and save them a lifetime of "Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews) 49 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Please, sir, can I have some more?,
By G. Bonine-Giles - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History (Paperback)
All in all, it's a pleasant read. The problem is that Shenkman seems to get carried away with the sound of his own voice, forgetting to fill in little things like details, attributions, etc. And sometimes, his "debunking" is unnecessary.For example, Shenkman spares great pains to tell us that works of fiction (Shakespeare, Hans Brinker, etc.) aren't true at all - they're fiction! (Perhaps in the sequal he can inform us that Harry Potter isn't a real person). Although he admits his biases up front, this doesn't give him carte blanche to revel in them. Shenkman is unabashedly Ameri-centric, and his prejudice against other nations is sometimes appalling. For example, he denigrates the British for not being completely stoic during the Battle of Britain in WWII. His evidence? One person's diary shows that he (gasp) went to two luncheon parties during one week! Horrors! He denigrates heroes of France, England and India because, basically, they were human. God forbid! The book isn't all bad. Shenkman (when he actually quotes his sources and doesn't prattle on about minutia) does a great service by asking us to examine our history instead of getting it spoon-fed to us. As such, this book makes a nice starting point for the re-exploration of history. If only he'd given us more to chew on, instead of a thin, sarcastic gruel. 35 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible, terrible, terrible,
By Jordan M. Poss - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History (Paperback)
As a professional historian I was appalled by this book. I have a pretty generous sense of humor, but Shenkman's weak attempts at debunking popular conceptions and his "breezy" wit were too much. He propogates just as much bad history as he purports to correct, oversimplifying such complex subjects as Alexander's conquests and the fall of Rome, and his section on Judaism could easily be called anti-Semitic. It should come as no surprise that he skips over relgions that it's not okay to ridicule--only Jews and Christians are the butt of jokes, here. As another reviewer said, Shenkman seems to like hearing himself talk--so true. His narrative style reminds of me those self-important people you hear dominating restaurant conversation so often.
If you really must have something historical to laugh at, check out The Lowbrow's Guide to History, which, at least, doesn't pretend to be telling the truth. 27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Trades one set of myths for another,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History (Paperback)
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.
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