Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History: Debunking Historical Misconceptions from Ancient Rome to WWII

by Richard Shenkman

A humorous take on world history debunks the myths that surround Cleopatra, Nero, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Joan of Arc, and other historical icons.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, World History, Humor, Historical, Audiobook

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the writing style is breezy and the topics interesting, Shenkman isn't as keen on his history either. He tends to choose the opinions of historians he agrees with and claims them as solid fact without offering other legitimate opinions (he's especially guilty of this when it comes to Biblical history as it's quite clear he feels it's all made up and chooses only historical opinions that support his). Also, the tone of the book is part academic and part flippant. For someone trying to debunk historical myths, he errs on the side of sounding either glib or condescending.

[Stryker]

There's some very interesting stuff in here, but the author's personal biases tend to interfere with things. I'm sorry, but making the claim that Alexander the Great's only significant contribution to history was being really good at killing people is a pretty vast oversimplification. Glossing history is one thing, but some of the claims he makes along these lines are damn near revisionist.

[Joseph F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a good dose of humor that gave me a good chuckle now and then, this book shatters many of the things we were told concerning history. It has been criticized by some as getting some facts wrong. All I can say is that the author is right about many of the myths I already knew. Regarding areas of history that I am weak in, I cannot really say.
One area I do know about is the history of the witch persecutions. On page 52 the author says that several hundred thousand witches were put to death during the period of the Inquisition. Well, not really. Modern estimates by scholars place it now as around 50,000. But I can excuse him a bit considering that the number he gives is far better than the 9 million that was once estimated, with poor evidence. My edition is also 20 years old and might be in need of some tweaking.
Still a fun book for history lovers.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absurdly opinionated. A lot of the so called 'truths' aren't really legends - anyone who has read some history knows they are lies or myths. Also, some of the points are just to make a point - having an extramarital affair doesn't not make you a hero potentially. It just means you had an affair. Not being a hero means you didn't do whatever it was that made you a hero.

This is the kind of stuff you read on the internet these days. I especially hated his use of all caps to make a point (because apparently the reader is a moron and needs that) and his weird punctuation. This is like a book you read in the bathroom or in five minute snippets - don't expect to really learn much here. Read a real history book for that.

[m. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly interesting collection of supposed facts (although quite a few are not seen as such outside of the USA), but it felt a bit rushed, as if a first draft had been quickly knocked up from notes where some depth would have been welcome.

[Morgan Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute, irreverent look at popular misconceptions about history. Because I'm already a geek for history, I already knew most of this, and the writing style wasn't always my cup of tea, but I enjoyed it overall.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of 1-2 page stories. Funny, enlightening. Perfect to read when trying to raise a family. Stimulating enough that I felt 'smart', but short enough to read when hiding in the bathroom.

[Charles Bookman · Rating 3 out of 5]

History is written by the victors. We’re relearning that lesson in 2025 as the National Endowment for the Humanities has been redirected to develop a statuary garden of heroes instead of funding researchers, curators and historians who actually do the hard work of history, digging for facts and reshaping and telling stories from our past for modern audiences.

Published in 1993, long before the retelling of history once again became political, Richard Shenkman’s collection of historically accurate and factual anecdotes skewers the conventional history we all learned about revolutions, religions, heroes and inventors. Cleopatra and Jesus didn’t look like white Anglo-Saxon protestants. The Russians had more to do with defeating Hitler than any of the other allies. Churchill drank too much and his famous speech, “We shall fight them on the beaches” speech was read for the radio by an actor. Mel Brooks’ “robin Hood Men in Tights” might be more historically accurate than the valiant man of legend who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.

Collections of anecdotes like this, as interesting as they are, have largely been supplanted by Internet memes.

[Loretta Shively · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do not read if you do not understand sarcasm, however I certainly would not call it world history. (He says little to nothing about Africa, Australia, or South America). A better title would be “Debunking History as it is Portrayed By Movies” as he mentions over and over the errors in the films he watched. Sorry bud, not all of us learned our history from Hollywood! I have never been prone to believe any movie I watched be it historical or otherwise, to me they are all merely entertainment! He does debunk many modern day myths but his ignorance of scripture is laughable, although it is possible he is basing his knowledge off of what he learned in school in which case it is a sad reflection on the ulterior motives of the public school system if according to him, Jesus ministry is summed up by them as simply teaching right and wrong sex practices!! I would say he does a good job of knocking everyone equally so I can’t hate him for that.

[Don Heiman · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Lies, Legends, and Cherished Myths of World History” by Richard Shenkman was released in 1993 in multiple editions. I read the Kindle e-book edition. While reading the book, I made 138 highlights which I will use to craft discussion notes to share with a friend who recommended the book. The book is surprising and very thought provoking. Before discussing it with my friend, I intend to buy and read the companion Shenkman e-book “Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History.” (P)

[you ness · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب جميل، يعرج فيه المؤلف بمراجعات لابرز الاحداث و الشخصيات التاريخية بلغة انجليزية بسيطة شيئا ما.
طبعا لا يمكن او يستحيل الاتفاق معه في بعض ما ذهب اليه كمراجعته لشخصية عيسى عليه السلام، لكن الكتاب يستحق القراءة

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very fast read. Give yourself a few hours and you will have most, if not all, of it read. I wish there was more detail in some of the sections, but overall it was interesting.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably should have been called “Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of Western History” as opposed to World History of which there is very little.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting tidbits, but I'd rather do a deeper dive into any of the topics vs the superficial skimming of things

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. It was ok. Some stuff was interesting. Didn’t love the format.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light but interesting reading

[Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

more for fun than scholarly, but there is an index and 12 pages of references ... since it is from 1993, it does not show as much depth as one would now -- this inspires me to look for it.

[Adena Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

For even amateur historians and cynics, this book contains very little we did not already know or surmise. What makes this a joy to read is the author's irreverent, sarcastic and downright snarky delivery of the lite tidbits of trivia non-historians of any stripe might not have had tossed at them. Hilarious!

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good compliment to the "Myth America" TV series.

As with most TV series, you get statements without 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 TV with more graphic representations of the different media.

The book is worth reading. However, the format may not be to some people's liking as it is short choppy statements and the chapters are divided into subjects such 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".

[Billie Pritchett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Richard Shenkman's Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History has lots of fun facts. Some I'd never known, others I'd known and forgotten, and still some that I doubt are true. Nevertheless, I think Shenkman has made a noble effort here.

Here's something I didn't know. I didn't know that the England appeased Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War, during Hitler's attempt to reclaim 'German' lands, not out of naivete of his plans but out of weakness. Turns out that England was not strong enough militarily to wage war with Germany and so had to do whatever they could to make tough deals with Hitler. I also didn't know that Hitler's Germany was so inefficient. Prone to factions and unable to get its citizens to do what it wanted, it relied heavily on the propaganda campaign of a unified Germany favouring the Third Reich. Also found out that the extreme German nationalism about how special and superior the German people were preceded Nazi Germany and had long been written up in German history books for schoolchildren.

Something I forgot, for example, was that Catherine the Great was German, and yet she was able to become the Empress of Russia, even being looked upon by the French philosophes as an enlightened ruler and Philosopher Queen. Furthermore, I had forgotten just how unimportant it was for leaders of the past to have the same ethnic identity as the people of the country. It makes sense, when you think about it, because the importance of national and ethnic identity is a very modern, 20th century-and-onward notion, not something any of the leaders of the past would have cared about. And as for the ordinary people of the past, they would have been indifferent to the issue since the only thing they would have wanted out of a leader, if they could get it, was just to be able to live as well as possible.

As for things that might not be true... Well, I've already forgotten what they were and won't bother to go back and check out what these things were. Suffice it to say that there are some moments where it seems Shenkman is just trying to take a contrary position, and then you check the endnote attached to it, and at that point he softens on the position or says that the claim is controversial. Fun little book, although I'm glad I borrowed and didn't buy it.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. It's very short and written in an irreverent, almost flippant voice that makes it fun, quick, and accessible, particularly for readers who may not be interested in the minutia. However, keeping it short and sweet means that a lot of the finer detail is glossed over; often statements are made to the effect that someone did something, no one knows why, they just did. History is way more nuanced than that, and casual readers may get the wrong impression if they read this version of history and take it all as undeniable fact. Also, I think that the author's own biases color his "real" version of certain events quite a few times, giving more false impressions; beyond that, a few of his "facts" are just not quite correct. Sometimes I got the feeling the author just really wanted to be different and provocative. If a reader picks up this book, I hope they give other sources a chance as well and use differing versions and opinions to think critically and make up their own mind.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started listening to this, I really enjoyed it. But as chapters went on, it started to sound like a conspiracy theorist had fallen off his rocker. I'm interested to look into this a bit more and see how credible Richard Shenkman really is....

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

good info

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read. I really enjoyed it.

[Isabella Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting books with lots of unknown facts.

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes a look at the different legends that we tend to believe as "true," but really have no basis of truth in them.

[Broughps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too bad he didn't talk to any bible scholars and gotten some accurate info.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

A whole book to tell you that water is wet.

[Artie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me a bit of Dave Barry and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh....