A Short History of the World in 50 Lies by Natasha Tidd

On this global journey through human history, you’ll discover that the truth really is stranger – and far more dangerous – than any fiction.

In the newest installment of our A Short History of the World in 50... series, Natasha Tidd examines how lies can change the world around us, from Julius Caesar’s deceptive PR machine to the cover-ups that caused Chernobyl.

Spanning forgeries that created centuries worth of conflict and domination, such as The Donation of Constantine, the Protocols of Zion and the mysterious Testament of Peter the Great, to mass political and press cover-ups including Britain’s Boer War concentration camps, a Pulitzer Prize-winning whitewash of the Ukraine Famine and the infamous Dreyfus Affair in France.

Meet incredible people, including Jeanne de Clisson who became the fourteenth century’s most feared pirate – all because of a lie – and discover how historic fibs and dubious retellings continue to impact our lives today.

Review

‘A Short History of the World in 50 lies’ is a brilliant book to dispel the myths and lies that are given as truths. It's a very accessible book with short chapters and they state the basic facts and then give the evidence to disprove the lie that has been portrayed to the world! This is an excellent book to dip in and out of and I spent many an evening reading about another time and place in history!

I am a huge history nerd and love reading historical fiction but it has been a while since I picked an actual history book. But the premise of this one intrigued me as so much of history is misunderstood and presented in a way in which the winners want it! This is a very easy book to pick up and spend a couple of hours being fascinated by the past. It covers a huge time period from before the Romans to the last century. There were certain things that I had no knowledge about which were covered in this book. But it also includes one of the subjects about which I tell people all about! The Boer War and the use of concentration camps. When you think of concentration camps your mind jumps to the second world war and Nazi Germany but no it was the British who ‘created’ them during the Boer War with over 28,000 people dying in them, 80% of them children. Another shameful part of British history. God bless Emily Hobhouse for campaigning against them!

This is would be a brilliant gift for anyone interested in history! Let me know if you read it.