Fabulous Fallacies

by Tad Tuleja

More than just trivia, Fabulous Fallacies is a collection of more than 300 popular beliefs, unceremoniously debunked! If you think Noah took animals on the ark only in twos, you'd better read this book.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Tad Tuleja (b. 1944) is a graduate of Yale, Cornell, and the University of Sussex. He has been a journalist, editor, and researcher, and has authored numerous short-entry reference books. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Reviews

[Nancy]

I liked this book but it is not easy to read in one sitting. Because it is broken up into paragraphs about so many different misconceptions we were sometimes taught in school, it never seems to "flow" the way a biography or fiction book would. That broken up tidbit style always feels like it takes longer to get through but this one is worth it. I knew about the Baby Ruth candy bar being named for the creators granddaughter but there were so many other things I did not know. I had a great uncle that used to tell me that history is written by the victors so take it all with a grain of salt and read first hand accounts as often as you can and accounts from both sides. SO many things we assume we know are from someone else having better marketing PR or because the winner writes the history. If you teach history in any way to kids you need to read this book! If you like learning history then you need to read this book!

[Ramona]

As a trivia pursuit player and lover of odd facts and oddities, I had to grab this book for my own collection. A great book to pull out with friends to have an impromptu game of "Fact or fiction"! You don't read this book in one or two sittings. You can only take so many fallacies, at one time, before your head is spinning. So, pick this book up and have your own, "believe it or not" talk fest!

[Richard]

It was really a choice between two and three stars. The book is OK, but it's not as advertised. Some of the fallacies turn out to be what you thought they were - even though the author is clever enough to word them in such a way that the actual question is not what you think. A number of others are not so universally believed as the author seems to think.

It's not a bad book, but if you're interested in learning something in detail, this book will not help you.

[Dave/Maggie Bean]

It's hardly fabulous, and many of Tuleja's alleged "fallacies" are suspect. The book also suffers the modern, infinitely wearying obsession with Nazis (in Tuleja's alternate universe, the canonic version of the holocaust is the sole dogma of which no element must ever be questioned or challenged -- this timidity is both incongruous and noteworthy in a fire-breathing debunker) and contains a few fallacies of its own. Example: Although Tuleja is apparently a New Yorker, and thusly can't be expected to understand "red tides," he declares all shellfish safe to eat at any time of year -- provided that they've been properly refrigerated.

Wrong, Tad. Try spending a little time in Florida. Two words for ya: Red tides.

Having said all that, I'll now add that it's a good book, for the most part. Much of the research is rock-solid, and most of Tuleja's conclusions are sound. Worth reading -- but let's call it "Decent Debunking" or "Reasonable Revisionism."

[Pamela(AllHoney)]

Hmmm! Really? That's not true? Entertaining and makes a great bathroom read for those times that you are going to be there for a while.