You Said What?: Lies and Propaganda Throughout History

by Bill Fawcett

A fascinating, fun, and fact-filled compendium of the greatest lies, deceptions, propaganda, and frauds ever perpetrated Throughout history—from the dawn of man to the War on Terror—governments, corporations, historians, and high-level braggarts of every stripe have freely engaged in the time-honored pastime of lying for fun and profit. You Said What? is an endlessly entertaining and outrageously edifying look at some of the biggest whoppers of all time, chock-full of deceptions, trickery, and incredible untruths both infamous and obscure. The lies will out! You Said What? is an indispensable treasure trove of true falsehoods, and an irreverent introduction to the world's greatest lies and the liars who told them.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Anthologies, Lie, Humor, World History

317 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2007

About the author

Bill Fawcett has been a professor, teacher, corporate executive, and college dean. His entire life has been spent in the creative fields and managing other creative individuals. He is one of the founders of Mayfair Games, a board and role-play gaming company. As an author, Fawcett has written or coauthored over a dozen books and dozens of articles and short stories. As a book packager, a person who prepares series of books from concept to production for major publishers, his company, Bill Fawcett & Associates, has packaged more than 250 titles for virtually every major publisher. He founded, and later sold, what is now the largest hobby shop in Northern Illinois.

Fawcett’s first commercial writing appeared as articles in the Dragon magazine and include some of the earliest appearances of classes and monster types for Dungeons & Dragons. With Mayfair Games he created, wrote, and edited many of the Role Aides role-playing game modules and supplements released in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, he also designed almost a dozen board games, including several Charles Roberts Award (gaming's Emmy) winners, such as Empire Builder and Sanctuary.

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is a fascinating premise -- a compendium of essays about great lies throughout history -- is spoiled by the fact that each of the mini-essays is fairly shallow and obvious to anyone who's done any study of history greater than the versions they teach you in high school. I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more if it were more in-depth, or if it had tried to be less far-reaching and gone into more detail. Though it's interesting enough, I suppose, and some of the essays' authors have a real gift for entertaining and accessable writing, the overall impression is of tapdancing over the surface of history -- not boring, and certainly readable enough, but nothing fabulous, either. If you're looking for a broad-strokes introduction to US-centric 20th century history, with some digressions here and there for other nations and older tales, this wouldn't be a bad place to start, but if you're already familiar with the topics, this book is probably a waste of time.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I thought it would be. It's meant to be read in little increments but even then it dragged for me. Seemed like a fun read but I felt inundated with information and facts, where it I just wanted to skim but was afraid of missing pertinent parts. Not for me.

[Lucinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went back and forth with this book between being kind of amused by the description of some of these stories, and being frustrated and annoyed with the breezy style and fast-and-loose approach to historical detail, evidence and especially analysis. This book reminds me of those 'Spike tv' shows like 'Ultimate Warrior' or 'Forgotten Planet', that deal with potentially interesting subject matter but invariably go for style and spectacle over substance.

A lot of this material, in the form of mini-essays on each topic, is stuff most readers with a basic knowledge of history would already know, and You Said What? doesn't give much more than superficial detail. I think it assumes that most people's knowledge of history comes from pop culture.Other mini-essays are just silly. For instance 'Cleopatra wasn't a looker'. Or 'Christmas should really be in May'. I am not sure what the point of the 'exposés' on these topics might be, but to simply label them as 'lies and propaganda' is missing the potential for deeper social and historical insight. And the worst of it is that these mini-essays are written by scholars and journalists who are generally specialists in their field, so this superficial approach was most certainly deliberate on the part of the editor. arg.

Overall this book points the reader to some very interesting issues, such as conventions on disclosure between fiction and non-fiction (something which some authors like to play around with today for a variety of reasons, and which historically has been used to achieve ends of all sorts), or when we allow for the glossing of historical facts for the sake of political expediency, etc. but none of this is really taken up in a substantive way by the authors (who, again, would likely have a lot of interesting things to say if the editor had let them).

I would only recommend this book to those types who actually like those Spike tv shows (or their slightly less offensive brethren on the History channel). Or to younger readers who have very little knowledge of history- this type of book might draw them in to find out more about these historical events.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bathroom reader for armchair historians - too detailed for casual reading but not fleshed out enough for folks interested in more depth. The book also has a problem with tone - sometimes light & snarky, sometimes deadly serious.

Finally, the author mixes actual lies (the show trials of the USSR, for example) with deception (Operation Quicksilver) and misunderstood history (the reason that Christmas is celebrated in December). Color me not impressed.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it was interesting, it felt like it was just basics, skimming the surface of each of the stories. I felt that there was not a lot of information provided that a history buff wouldn't have already had an idea of. It simply doesn't seem all that effective. I did enjoy some parts of the book, but overall it was disappointing in its lack of depth. I had also hoped for more of the promised propaganda. Delivered less than hoped for.

[Dj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe not quite what I was expecting, but a good book that was well worth the reading.

[Masoud · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, the title of the book grasped my immediate attention for a new read, so I just started reading it. After a while, the approaching method of the book in interpreting the historical facts and the boring and superficial details of evidence frustrated me and made me only skimming through the remaining pages.

Although, all mini-essays are written by journalists or experts, nonetheless, the editor’s style inadvertently and ironically made the book not suitable for someone with basic knowledge in history and just propagate lies and misinformation.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, even people with a pop culture attitude to history.

[Greg Vandermeulen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid read in the style of a bathroom reader. This is not a book that will delve deeply into any one story. It's not even one that contains many surprises for people who have an average amount of historical knowledge. But there are tidbits of new information, coupled with a way to read all these old stories in one place. It's entertaining and delivered in bite-sized pieces.
Because it doesn't immerse you in any single story line, it's the perfect length. When I got to the end of this book I was happy to put it down and move on.

[David Szatkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun, history examination of liars and propaganda. The various authors (each author has a chapter) sets out a particular lie, deceit, or propaganda and the actual truth that it tried to obscure. This is just a fun, quick read (think beach, summer, etc). Also a great source for quick pub trivia questions.

[Vinayak Malik · Rating 4 out of 5]

just a microcosm of humanity's greatest hits

[Kyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting! Some of the biggest, history-changing lies ever told. A good read for history buffs.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope

[Jbussen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love me my BR readers! But this one suffers from each of it's stories is pretty much common knowledge. Unless you are like some of my friends who have read more off cereal boxes than books.
For the layperson (my friends = no school & Radio/TV & talking heads do their thinking) this book is too much and for the Plebian or college grad, not enough. Also, Not enough because it is either wrong, or wrong by omission/over-simplification.
But because I just love me my BR readers, I've now read this second time. Damn! I got to get off the pot!

[Jansen Wee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utter waste of time! Quite a few of the contributing writers are either ignorant of the historical facts they're dealing with, or don't do their homework, or both. The editor himself didn't seem to be doing his job, and inadvertently and ironically, the book is one that propagates "lies" as much as pointing them out. If you're contemplating buying this book ....... DON'T. Really.

[Kim Denning-Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I've only read a few of the entries, but it's an interesting read so far. Pair them with primary source documents when possible for a fully engaging experience.

[David R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A major disappointment: this one promises more than it delivers. For one, the lies are mostly tame and there's not much "propaganda", for another there's a suspicious absence of footnotes and other proofs for claims.

[Brady · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not much new in this book, and the presentation seems geared for an entry-level reader. Another reviewer on this site (Denise) pretty much nails it exactly.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book revealing some of the lies that have been perpetuated throughout history. Great for armchair historians and written in a breezy style that makes it easy to read.

[daniel dirnfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book,easy to read.

[Calvin]

Some interesting topic, but the writing was a bore