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The Museum of Hoaxes
Presents an entertaining collection of hundreds of documented historical hoaxes, pranks, deceptions, and stunts that have fooled the public from the Middle Ages to the present day, from Edgar Allan Poe's literary deception to P. T. Barnum, the master hoaxer, discussing the origin of April Fool's Day, providing a Gullibility Test, and more. 50,000 first printing.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
12 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
Alex Boese
7 books53 followersAlex Boese holds a master's degree in the history of science from UC San Diego. He is the creator of museumofhoaxes.com. He lives near San Diego.
source: http://us.macmillan.com/author/alexboese
source: http://us.macmillan.com/author/alexboese
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
May 9, 2022
It reads almost as easily as a book of trivia, but it's richer, as it explores the influences of historical influences and of human nature on what hoaxes work best or are most popular when or where.
For example, " we can only assume that the popularity of... [eg Gog and Magog, Prester John] travel lies was another manifestation of the medieval preference for allegorical truths over literal ones."
"*The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion*... was written by Maurice Joly as an attack upon emperor Napoleon the third... hoaxers simply substituted Zionist conspirators for Napoleonic ones." Leading to misery and death for millions of Jews.
The section about Joe Knowles will resonate with 'green' and 'back to nature' people today. Many bits will, including just a few pp later the exploration of the effects of early mass culture. Humans are really bad at learning from history. Unless we citizens conclude that the power-hungry look to history for ways to get what they want to the detriment of all the rest of us.
Excellent book for the interested, esp. for teen reluctant readers as it's so easy to read but also so educational.
For example, " we can only assume that the popularity of... [eg Gog and Magog, Prester John] travel lies was another manifestation of the medieval preference for allegorical truths over literal ones."
"*The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion*... was written by Maurice Joly as an attack upon emperor Napoleon the third... hoaxers simply substituted Zionist conspirators for Napoleonic ones." Leading to misery and death for millions of Jews.
The section about Joe Knowles will resonate with 'green' and 'back to nature' people today. Many bits will, including just a few pp later the exploration of the effects of early mass culture. Humans are really bad at learning from history. Unless we citizens conclude that the power-hungry look to history for ways to get what they want to the detriment of all the rest of us.
Excellent book for the interested, esp. for teen reluctant readers as it's so easy to read but also so educational.
May 9, 2022
Hoaxes, pranks, etc. have been around for a long time and the author regales us with examples starting before 1700. It is most interesting to see what these hoaxers came up with and a bit frightening to see how many people fell for them. A few hundred years ago it might have been a bit easier to pull the wool over the public's eye but as the book continues we find that with the modern media age it might be even more easy to create a hoax. I was amazed to find out that some well known figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain were not above spreading a tall tale or two.
From forgeries to assumed identities, from jackalopes and the traveling stones of Pahranagat Valley (this story would continue to be believed even after it was touted as a hoax) to the Silent City and an iceberg in Australia there is a whole gamut of wild and wonderful deceptions contained within the covers of this book. One that tickled my fancy was the flypaper reports of Hugh Troy sent to military headquarters when he found his job a bit too boring.
From forgeries to assumed identities, from jackalopes and the traveling stones of Pahranagat Valley (this story would continue to be believed even after it was touted as a hoax) to the Silent City and an iceberg in Australia there is a whole gamut of wild and wonderful deceptions contained within the covers of this book. One that tickled my fancy was the flypaper reports of Hugh Troy sent to military headquarters when he found his job a bit too boring.
February 6, 2022
Jak sam autor stwierdził, jest to "muzeum" fałszerstw, czyli tak naprawdę dostajemy setki przykładów, ale opisanych w skrócie, bez zagłębiania się w szczegóły. Po prostu dowiadujemy się o ich "istnieniu" - jak coś nas interesuje, to musimy sami doszukać informacji. Całkiem szybka lektura, nie była ani zła, ani dobra.
July 2, 2024
A short but very interesting and funny read. I agree with the statement: 'On the Internet, every day is April Fools''. Still, even before the invention of world wide web, hoaxes, pranks, fake news and mistifications were as popular as they are nowadays. And they always will be.
January 5, 2017
This is such a cute little book.
I first read this book years ago, having discovered the wonderful Museum of Hoaxes website online. It's a great website, and goes into far greater detail than this book does from the outset. This book does not go terribly in depth into the facts it supplies, but rather offers tantalizing tastes with options for further reading as one goes along. It whets the appetite, but never quite satiates it.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a taste of the Museum of Hoaxes, a brief overview to help them decide just what to explore more. Or of course, anyone wanting something to dig into and make fun party conversations about - as it is certainly grand for that as well.
I first read this book years ago, having discovered the wonderful Museum of Hoaxes website online. It's a great website, and goes into far greater detail than this book does from the outset. This book does not go terribly in depth into the facts it supplies, but rather offers tantalizing tastes with options for further reading as one goes along. It whets the appetite, but never quite satiates it.
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a taste of the Museum of Hoaxes, a brief overview to help them decide just what to explore more. Or of course, anyone wanting something to dig into and make fun party conversations about - as it is certainly grand for that as well.
February 14, 2013
A cute little book full of hoaxes sorted by date. Lots of references to their website for further details but not a lot of depth on any of the subjects. Also a little maddening to have the book open with a "Gullibility Test" that doesn't tell you the answers are at the end of the book. (Okay, maybe I should've noticed the title has "(Questions)" next to it.) Not a bad read for a quick laugh or some light entertainment (the spaghetti trees were my favorite) but don't expect anything in-depth.
June 19, 2016
Pretty fun to read, but you're probably better off to just go to the original website.
December 4, 2019
Normally, the type of amalgamation of short anecdotes represented in The Museum of Hoaxes is not the type of book I enjoy (for the same reason I rarely enjoy short story anthologies). Yet, the vignettes in The Museum of Hoaxes are tasty bits of curiosity, as well as something of a snopes.com of medieval to modern hoaxes and pranks.
I don’t think I was quite as aware of the extent of hoaxes and “fake news” in the pre-Internet era (with the possible exception of an awareness of “yellow journalism,” though I didn’t realize quite how far that journalistic aberration had proliferated). Boese cites a number of medieval hoaxes, for instance. Medieval hoaxes like the so-called Letter of Prester John, the wishful thinking of Crusaders that there was a hidden Christian kingdom that wanted to bring aid to the Crusaders of the 12th century (p. 15), and The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, describing preposterous “discoveries” of the 14th century like lambs growing in trees, dog-faced people, and a population with only one leg and foot (pp. 18-19), lasted for years and were fairly well-known.
Talk about “fake news?” What about Jonathan Swift’s astrology hoax and Benjamin Franklin’s alamanac stunt? Jonathan Swift created a fictitious astrologer named Isaac Bickerstaff in 1708 whose most significant prediction was of the death of a rival astrologer, John Partridge, at 11 PM on March 29th. Even though Partridge was still alive on that night, Swift took out a framed “Elegy” for Patridge’s life in a newspaper (p. 33) and a pamphlet that came out the next day stating that Bickerstaff was correct about the date, but off by four hours with Partridge dying four hours early (p. 34) in an early demonstration of “The Big Lie” or fake news. Ben Franklin followed Swift’s lead by making a similar prediction and subsequent fake news claim for rival almanac writer, Titan Leeds (p. 38).
In the same century, The Times of London published a travel column where the correspondent wrote about railroads in Georgia having multiple duels with “Monte Christo pistols” where the trains allegedly were halted to help the duelists to take aim. Later, it was discovered that a “Monte Christo pistol” was slang for champagne bottles and, of course, the empties were “dead men.” Hence, there may, indeed, have been “deadly” duels aboard those railroads (pp. 70-71) In another example of 19th century fake news, the November 9, 1874 edition of the New York Herald printed a front page story where all the animals in the Central Park Zoo had escaped. It reported 27 dead and more than 200 injured. A lion was seen in a church and a rhinoceros falling into a sewer. Many New Yorkers came out of their homes armed to defend themselves, but the Herald claimed that they had printed this as a sensational attempt to call attention to the conditions at the zoo (p. 87). Indeed, three (3) Denver newspapers reported in 1899 that China was tearing down the Great Wall to replace it with a modern road. It was said that U.S. firms, including that of Chicagoan Frank C. Lewis, were bidding on the project. Not only was it “fake news,” but a later phony story reported that China was so angry after hearing about the “Great Wall Hoax” that it triggered the anti-Western feeling that launched the Boxer Rebellion (p. 89)
The early 20th century wasn’t immune to such behavior. The Guardian published a story about the discovery of an island republic known as San Serriffe, divided into a province called Upper Caisse and one called Lower Caisse. If you haven’t caught the type-setting references yet, how about the ruler being named General Pica the capitol was known as Bodoni. Texaco and Kodak were both allegedly running contests for vacations in the non-existent islands to “promote” trips to Cocobanana Beach (pp. 162-163).
I was mostly interested in these early examples of hoaxes, but who could resist the Internet hoax where two 18-year-old virgins agreed to deflower each other on the web? The date was set for August 4, 1998 and would take place at 9 PM, on camera. People began flocking to www.ourfirsttime.com to see the scam. The whole thing was created by a video rental store owner named Ken Tipton. He claimed that it was originally a “free, educational event,” but he intended to let people get right up to the beginning of the consummation and then, collect $5.00 fees from everyone who still wanted to view. Then, just before the act would take place, Mike and Diane would choose to abstain. Even in 1998, a group of savvy Internet users exposed him before he could collect any money (pp. 202-3).
As you can tell, these accounts are short, so 240 pages (with URLs to find more information) is jam-packed with publicity stunts, cruel hoaxes, fake news, tall tales, and irreproducible results. Boese even recounts stock frauds on early stock exchanges to more recent Internet scandals. Not only is this an entertaining book, but it should be enlightening to those of us who get so angry at the misinformation on the World Wide Web that we forget that newspapers have also had a checkered history.
I don’t think I was quite as aware of the extent of hoaxes and “fake news” in the pre-Internet era (with the possible exception of an awareness of “yellow journalism,” though I didn’t realize quite how far that journalistic aberration had proliferated). Boese cites a number of medieval hoaxes, for instance. Medieval hoaxes like the so-called Letter of Prester John, the wishful thinking of Crusaders that there was a hidden Christian kingdom that wanted to bring aid to the Crusaders of the 12th century (p. 15), and The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, describing preposterous “discoveries” of the 14th century like lambs growing in trees, dog-faced people, and a population with only one leg and foot (pp. 18-19), lasted for years and were fairly well-known.
Talk about “fake news?” What about Jonathan Swift’s astrology hoax and Benjamin Franklin’s alamanac stunt? Jonathan Swift created a fictitious astrologer named Isaac Bickerstaff in 1708 whose most significant prediction was of the death of a rival astrologer, John Partridge, at 11 PM on March 29th. Even though Partridge was still alive on that night, Swift took out a framed “Elegy” for Patridge’s life in a newspaper (p. 33) and a pamphlet that came out the next day stating that Bickerstaff was correct about the date, but off by four hours with Partridge dying four hours early (p. 34) in an early demonstration of “The Big Lie” or fake news. Ben Franklin followed Swift’s lead by making a similar prediction and subsequent fake news claim for rival almanac writer, Titan Leeds (p. 38).
In the same century, The Times of London published a travel column where the correspondent wrote about railroads in Georgia having multiple duels with “Monte Christo pistols” where the trains allegedly were halted to help the duelists to take aim. Later, it was discovered that a “Monte Christo pistol” was slang for champagne bottles and, of course, the empties were “dead men.” Hence, there may, indeed, have been “deadly” duels aboard those railroads (pp. 70-71) In another example of 19th century fake news, the November 9, 1874 edition of the New York Herald printed a front page story where all the animals in the Central Park Zoo had escaped. It reported 27 dead and more than 200 injured. A lion was seen in a church and a rhinoceros falling into a sewer. Many New Yorkers came out of their homes armed to defend themselves, but the Herald claimed that they had printed this as a sensational attempt to call attention to the conditions at the zoo (p. 87). Indeed, three (3) Denver newspapers reported in 1899 that China was tearing down the Great Wall to replace it with a modern road. It was said that U.S. firms, including that of Chicagoan Frank C. Lewis, were bidding on the project. Not only was it “fake news,” but a later phony story reported that China was so angry after hearing about the “Great Wall Hoax” that it triggered the anti-Western feeling that launched the Boxer Rebellion (p. 89)
The early 20th century wasn’t immune to such behavior. The Guardian published a story about the discovery of an island republic known as San Serriffe, divided into a province called Upper Caisse and one called Lower Caisse. If you haven’t caught the type-setting references yet, how about the ruler being named General Pica the capitol was known as Bodoni. Texaco and Kodak were both allegedly running contests for vacations in the non-existent islands to “promote” trips to Cocobanana Beach (pp. 162-163).
I was mostly interested in these early examples of hoaxes, but who could resist the Internet hoax where two 18-year-old virgins agreed to deflower each other on the web? The date was set for August 4, 1998 and would take place at 9 PM, on camera. People began flocking to www.ourfirsttime.com to see the scam. The whole thing was created by a video rental store owner named Ken Tipton. He claimed that it was originally a “free, educational event,” but he intended to let people get right up to the beginning of the consummation and then, collect $5.00 fees from everyone who still wanted to view. Then, just before the act would take place, Mike and Diane would choose to abstain. Even in 1998, a group of savvy Internet users exposed him before he could collect any money (pp. 202-3).
As you can tell, these accounts are short, so 240 pages (with URLs to find more information) is jam-packed with publicity stunts, cruel hoaxes, fake news, tall tales, and irreproducible results. Boese even recounts stock frauds on early stock exchanges to more recent Internet scandals. Not only is this an entertaining book, but it should be enlightening to those of us who get so angry at the misinformation on the World Wide Web that we forget that newspapers have also had a checkered history.
August 26, 2019
While I’m not entirely sure the author has a firm grasp on the definition of the word hoax, the book isn’t as poorly written as other reviewers suggest. It’s a light, fun book, and honestly, it’s pretty dang readable. Sure, not everything really seems to fall into hoax category, but close enough, and it’s all very interesting. I disagree with other readers that this would be better as a book focusing on fewer hoaxes, but in more depth. The author provides many further reading sources at the end and occasionally links to his website (a little self promotional, but again, not as annoying as others might make it out). It’s fun to be exposed to so many interesting stories, and then go out and look more into the ones that stand out. The title itself calls the book a “museum.” Museums have a brief placard explaining something, but don’t go into profuse detail. This book very much feels like going between exhibits and reading the short informative plaques. In a good way!
February 27, 2018
I think the idea behind this book is really cool. There are some genuinely interesting tales in here. However, the writing and formatting are sub-par. I would have liked to see more written about less hoaxes than the little snippets about a hundred or more in this book. Just when you are really getting into a story, the paragraph wraps up and tells you to visit the author's website. Ugh. It is an okay bathroom reader but not something I would recommend to people.
June 10, 2020
Humans love to lie more than they love being lied to. This book game me a crisis of sorts on what i believe is true or someone's deliberate effort to make me think its true. From hoaxes towards social criticism and enlightenment, to plain cruel jokes, this book lists all sorts. Enjoyed reading all the interesting lies we have collectively believed so far. Makes me want to wear a tin foil hat and ponder over what lies I hold dear truth right now. Didn't expect this book to give me a sweat !
December 22, 2023
An almost chronological history of hoaxes, some of which would be called "fake news" nowadays. Some are crazy like a news story about all the animals escaping the Bronx zoo and people freaking out, some are hilarious like a radio host who convinced his listeners to ask for a book the didn't exist, which eventually had publishers freaking out because if the demand. It's not entirely riveting but still has interesting stories.
March 10, 2025
Self-admittedly playing a little loose with what counts as a hoax, there’re enough topics to be a mixed bag. Some “hoaxes” are more mean-spirited or just bigoted, but there were also some fun ones I had not heard of before. I liked things like the square eggs, the spaghetti harvest, and secret writings.
May 18, 2018
This is a tremendously fun book of short vignettes illustrating the history of hoaxes from antiquity to the present day. I honestly think everyone should read it...we’d be less gullible as a species.
February 23, 2020
An excellent book, based on the author's website, which collects a great number of hoaxes throughout history. Beginning in the middle ages and on up to the digital age, many of them are presented here for the first time. I suspect one or two might be hoaxes by the author himself. A fun read
July 21, 2020
An excellent book, based on the author's website, which collects a great number of hoaxes throughout history. Beginning in the middle ages and on up to the digital age, many of them are presented here for the first time. I suspect one or two might be hoaxes by the author himself. A fun read
July 30, 2020
Very interesting and intriguing book. Extremely well researched, laid out in a concise and clear manner. The historical references with images, where possible, make this one a hard to keep down book. Rarely has a nonfiction work caught my attention as strongly as this book has.
September 25, 2017
This is a catalog of hoaxes and similar events throughout history. The biggest drawback is that it reads like a catalog.
December 14, 2019
Really cool. Although given the content and the sound advice in the afterword, I would’ve liked to have seen a reference list...
April 21, 2021
Fine concise look at the history of hoaxes, and a perfect book to read right after living through the Trump presidency.
September 17, 2024
spodziewałam się czegoś więcej no a momentami taka trochę wiedza bezużyteczna i w środku była okropna szata graficzna ……
August 3, 2020
2-29-20 – A timely book for our deceptive times, on many different levels. The official definition of hoax is; Hoax n. – To deceive or take in by inducing to believe an amusing or mischievous fabrication or fiction; to play upon the credulity of. — Oxford English Dictionary (1985)
When the deadly international infection known as the coronavirus was recently referred to as a “hoax” by the POTUS (a position that used to be the most powerful and highly respected in the world) at a political rally in South Carolina, it added a bit more seriousness to the reading of what is mostly a very light fun book.
The tome was published in 2002 and traces the historical phenomena of these fabrications pre-1700’s up through post-2000, just following 9-11. It includes well deserved nods to the Grand-Daddy of the Hoax – PT Barnum, as well as historical hoaxers Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Allen Poe, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Clemens.
Included in the book:
Art & Religious Icon Forgeries
The Patagonian Giants
Princess Caraboo
The Feejee Mermaid
The Cardiff Giant
The Jackalope
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – The most historically damaging of them all.
The Piltdown Man
The Cottingley Fairies – At the time, strongly supported by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and later
proved to be a photo fake.
War of the Worlds Radio Hoax
The Autobiography of Howard Hughes
The Hitler Diaries
The Tawana Brawley Case
Crop Circles
Milli Vanilli
Y2K Hoaxes
Many, many more have been perpetrated since the publication of this book 18 years ago. In fact, they occur almost daily now on just about all news media.
Remain vigilant or just hit the Off Button.
When the deadly international infection known as the coronavirus was recently referred to as a “hoax” by the POTUS (a position that used to be the most powerful and highly respected in the world) at a political rally in South Carolina, it added a bit more seriousness to the reading of what is mostly a very light fun book.
The tome was published in 2002 and traces the historical phenomena of these fabrications pre-1700’s up through post-2000, just following 9-11. It includes well deserved nods to the Grand-Daddy of the Hoax – PT Barnum, as well as historical hoaxers Benjamin Franklin, Edgar Allen Poe, Jonathan Swift, and Samuel Clemens.
Included in the book:
Art & Religious Icon Forgeries
The Patagonian Giants
Princess Caraboo
The Feejee Mermaid
The Cardiff Giant
The Jackalope
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – The most historically damaging of them all.
The Piltdown Man
The Cottingley Fairies – At the time, strongly supported by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and later
proved to be a photo fake.
War of the Worlds Radio Hoax
The Autobiography of Howard Hughes
The Hitler Diaries
The Tawana Brawley Case
Crop Circles
Milli Vanilli
Y2K Hoaxes
Many, many more have been perpetrated since the publication of this book 18 years ago. In fact, they occur almost daily now on just about all news media.
Remain vigilant or just hit the Off Button.
April 4, 2009
Based on the author's website of the same name, Alex Boese puts together a collection of popular hoaxes and deceptions against society from the Middle Ages to today. Many are familiar (Swiss Spaghetti trees, Y2K, Milli Vanilli), but some, particularly the older pranks, are new to me. For someone as fascinated with popular culture as I am, this was a decent read, discussing the rise in popularity of postcards at the turn of the century - you know, the ones with old farmers standing in yards with ginormous ears of corn, etc. Interspersed amongst these short examples of famous hoaxes are snippets of April Fool's Day jokes played over the years, some of which are clever, but the rest are just mildly entertaining.
Perhaps Boese's website is more fun than this book. It wasn't so much that the book wasn't fun, but it was tedious at times. It's best as a reference book, not one with which to sit down and read cover-to-cover as I did. Probably better to just pull out when arguing with someone about such-and-such anecdote to prove them wrong on the validity of the story. Instead of finding a lot of the information funny, I actually found myself depressed by some of them. Milli Vanilli will always make me sad because of their downfall and the outcome, but history's hoaxes are often like that, maybe without the suicide in end. People have lost jobs, status and essentially their names for some of the hoaxes they perpetrated or they were unknowingly the subject of; after reading enough of them at one sitting it was a little too much of a downer.
Perhaps Boese's website is more fun than this book. It wasn't so much that the book wasn't fun, but it was tedious at times. It's best as a reference book, not one with which to sit down and read cover-to-cover as I did. Probably better to just pull out when arguing with someone about such-and-such anecdote to prove them wrong on the validity of the story. Instead of finding a lot of the information funny, I actually found myself depressed by some of them. Milli Vanilli will always make me sad because of their downfall and the outcome, but history's hoaxes are often like that, maybe without the suicide in end. People have lost jobs, status and essentially their names for some of the hoaxes they perpetrated or they were unknowingly the subject of; after reading enough of them at one sitting it was a little too much of a downer.
January 12, 2012
Step right up and enter The Museum of Hoaxes. This book is a collection of some of the exhibits on http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/.
Like any good museum, the book has a logical arrangement for its articles, splitting them up chronologically into eras. Each section gives summaries of the popular hoaxes of that time period. A noticeable trend emerges in these hoaxes. In the earlier sections (the 1700s), we see many religious and mythical hoaxes including animals made of vegetables and records of fantastic creatures on exotic islands. As we progress through the book and through time itself, hoaxes tend to focus more upon scientific and social hoaxes as the common level of knowledge in society continues to rise. Along the way, Boese is sure to mention famous hoaxers like P.T. Barnum and Joey Skaggs for some very amusing tales of deception and trickery.
The most amusing part of this book was the section on the 1990s and 2000s, mostly because I could remember having heard about some of those hoaxes firsthand. That section includes the Y2K bug and several Internet hoaxes.
I'd recommend visiting the website at http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ rather than reading through this book - mostly because the website offers more flexibility and is always up-to-date.
Like any good museum, the book has a logical arrangement for its articles, splitting them up chronologically into eras. Each section gives summaries of the popular hoaxes of that time period. A noticeable trend emerges in these hoaxes. In the earlier sections (the 1700s), we see many religious and mythical hoaxes including animals made of vegetables and records of fantastic creatures on exotic islands. As we progress through the book and through time itself, hoaxes tend to focus more upon scientific and social hoaxes as the common level of knowledge in society continues to rise. Along the way, Boese is sure to mention famous hoaxers like P.T. Barnum and Joey Skaggs for some very amusing tales of deception and trickery.
The most amusing part of this book was the section on the 1990s and 2000s, mostly because I could remember having heard about some of those hoaxes firsthand. That section includes the Y2K bug and several Internet hoaxes.
I'd recommend visiting the website at http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ rather than reading through this book - mostly because the website offers more flexibility and is always up-to-date.
May 16, 2015
I picked this book up when looking for Loch Ness Monster books; I'm easily distracted. The book describes hoaxes from before 1700 to after 2000. It was full of short descriptions of all types of jokes, pranks and tricksters and was certainly a change of pace. Did you ever wonder how April Fools Day got its start? Boese explains that when France changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1582, people who kept celebrating the new year in April had jokes played on them. They were teased as being as foolish as "April Fish" (see page 25).
My favorite trickster was Dick Tuck, who drove Richard Nixon crazy during his campaigns by sending garbage trucks by the convention site with signs that said "Dump Nixon", hiring pregnanat women to carry signs that said "Nixon's the One!", and once, signaling a train to leave the station while Nixon was delivering a speech from its rear platform. What a guy.
I'm old enough to remember the "Paul is dead" episode, but I didn't know that Taco Bell bought the Liberty Bell in 1996 and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell", or tht Microsoft bought the Catholic Church in '94, in order to "make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people". Such creative thinking!
I rated this as a 3 because I'll never read it again. Once is enough.
My favorite trickster was Dick Tuck, who drove Richard Nixon crazy during his campaigns by sending garbage trucks by the convention site with signs that said "Dump Nixon", hiring pregnanat women to carry signs that said "Nixon's the One!", and once, signaling a train to leave the station while Nixon was delivering a speech from its rear platform. What a guy.
I'm old enough to remember the "Paul is dead" episode, but I didn't know that Taco Bell bought the Liberty Bell in 1996 and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell", or tht Microsoft bought the Catholic Church in '94, in order to "make religion easier and more fun for a broader range of people". Such creative thinking!
I rated this as a 3 because I'll never read it again. Once is enough.
April 26, 2010
I've had this on my shelves for some time...and there are a lot of books ahead of it on my "to read" list. but I picked it up and started reading in it and just continued. It's not a long read and is fairly "diverting" (yes I know...I sound like an old British movie, possibly Edwardian).
The book goes into Hoaxes, why "we" fall for them, how they've changed over the years and "of course" gives many well know and semi-well known hoaxes. I found some I wasn't aware were hoaxes. As an example, lemmings do not rush in mass off cliffs periodically and the Disney "nature" film that shows this was the result of the film crew driving the animals off a cliff in order to film this "well known" behavior. Depending on your age and where your from there will be hoaxes you know of, have heard of, or even remember. I remember very well the Beatles and the "is Paul dead" hoax from 1969 when I was in high school. Mostly this is a book to read for fun, but there is a serious side to it of course. Just ask the people who invested with Bernard Madoff.
The book goes into Hoaxes, why "we" fall for them, how they've changed over the years and "of course" gives many well know and semi-well known hoaxes. I found some I wasn't aware were hoaxes. As an example, lemmings do not rush in mass off cliffs periodically and the Disney "nature" film that shows this was the result of the film crew driving the animals off a cliff in order to film this "well known" behavior. Depending on your age and where your from there will be hoaxes you know of, have heard of, or even remember. I remember very well the Beatles and the "is Paul dead" hoax from 1969 when I was in high school. Mostly this is a book to read for fun, but there is a serious side to it of course. Just ask the people who invested with Bernard Madoff.
June 18, 2014
I picked up this book on a whim at thrift store. I actually paid $2 for it. It was more of a 50 cent book. It was ok, fairly interesting, but not really all that exciting.
This book details the history of hoaxes, from the Middle Ages to 2002. Each hoax gets, at the most, a few paragraphs, just enough information to leave the reader (or at least this reader) wanting more. Some of the entries do include web addresses where one can go to learn more. (This is the first book I’ve ever seen including web addresses so the reader can learn more. I guess that makes sense since this book started out as a website.)
There’s a fun “Gullibility Test” at the beginning of the book, with answers in the back. Also in the back is a lengthy section of suggestions for further reading, a list of hoaxes by category, and an index of story titles.
This is a good resource to use as a beginning for exploring hoaxes.
This book details the history of hoaxes, from the Middle Ages to 2002. Each hoax gets, at the most, a few paragraphs, just enough information to leave the reader (or at least this reader) wanting more. Some of the entries do include web addresses where one can go to learn more. (This is the first book I’ve ever seen including web addresses so the reader can learn more. I guess that makes sense since this book started out as a website.)
There’s a fun “Gullibility Test” at the beginning of the book, with answers in the back. Also in the back is a lengthy section of suggestions for further reading, a list of hoaxes by category, and an index of story titles.
This is a good resource to use as a beginning for exploring hoaxes.
January 16, 2014
This is a great, fun read. I've always been fascinated with the cons and pranks people have committed over the years. I was most surprised to find out about how hoaxing can be used for the betterment of society, like when Ben Franklin played a few tricks to get people to pay attention to certain social issues. I really enjoyed hearing about the hoaxes of Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe. The thing that surprised me is how some hoaxers had the best of intentions, but people wouldn't believe their confessions later on. There is a gullibility test in the front of the book, which I passed, but I still got a few wrong. It goes to show you how sometimes, even the truth is outlandish and many lies seem quite reasonable. Everyone should read this book.
September 11, 2014
Museum of Hoaxes: a Collection of Pranks, Stunts, Deceptions, and Other Wonderful Stories Contrived For the Public From the Middle Ages to the New Millenium by Alex Boese (Dutton 2002)(001.95). This book is taken from the author's website, and it gathers and presents information about a historical collection of documented hoaxes. Hoaxes have surprised and taken in the celebrated, the famous, and the infamous. This book is pleasant reading. My rating: 7/10, finished 2004.
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