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The Mysteries of History: Unravelling the Truth from the Myths of Our Past
As Napoleon himself once said, 'History is a version of past events that people have decided to agree upon'.
Noted down in historical documents, copied and widely repeated, it doesn't take long for a version of the truth to become accepted as fact. But who invents these false accounts in the first place, and why do they gain traction so quickly?
Far from concerning the obscure and insignificant parts of our history, these fundamental inaccuracies and downright lies colour the depiction of many of those pivotal characters and events we learnt about at school. Cleopatra, Marco Polo, Captain Cook, Joan of Arc; most of us could probably reel off a fact or two about each. But as this intriguing book reveals, a closer examination of these core parts of our social and political history shows that often all was not as it seemed, and that the agendas of those responsible for recording these events had a huge impact on what was reported and what was covered up.
The Mysteries of History is an entertaining romp through the centuries, uncovering the great mysteries surrounding some of the most inaccurate and misleading parts of our past.
Noted down in historical documents, copied and widely repeated, it doesn't take long for a version of the truth to become accepted as fact. But who invents these false accounts in the first place, and why do they gain traction so quickly?
Far from concerning the obscure and insignificant parts of our history, these fundamental inaccuracies and downright lies colour the depiction of many of those pivotal characters and events we learnt about at school. Cleopatra, Marco Polo, Captain Cook, Joan of Arc; most of us could probably reel off a fact or two about each. But as this intriguing book reveals, a closer examination of these core parts of our social and political history shows that often all was not as it seemed, and that the agendas of those responsible for recording these events had a huge impact on what was reported and what was covered up.
The Mysteries of History is an entertaining romp through the centuries, uncovering the great mysteries surrounding some of the most inaccurate and misleading parts of our past.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 19, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
August 27, 2018
Overall a good book, certainly filled with some very interesting details and facts about things I thought I knew but now realise I didn’t. On the negative, it felt at times both like the author had an agenda concerning some of the chosen subjects, and was struggling to find interesting subjects by the end of the book. A few chapters felt a little like padding.
All that being said, it was certainly an interesting read and the good chapters far outweighed the ‘meh’ ones.
A reminder that often history is created, not organically made. We interpret facts to suit ourselves.
All that being said, it was certainly an interesting read and the good chapters far outweighed the ‘meh’ ones.
A reminder that often history is created, not organically made. We interpret facts to suit ourselves.
Did Not Finish
February 11, 2021Each chapter covers a different famous historical figure or event. There's no introduction or common thread between stories; they're just slammed together in what feels very encyclopedia-esque. Facts, dates and names are dumped on the reader right away, with no analysis and frequently, no context either. The tone is unemotional, cold and boring.
Ultimately I'd rather read an entire 250 page book about one of these chapters than 10 pages of name, date and location dumping. DNF
Ultimately I'd rather read an entire 250 page book about one of these chapters than 10 pages of name, date and location dumping. DNF
March 12, 2024
Very interesting read dispelling done popular myths of major historical events
April 25, 2026
A quick and easy read. Parts of it were very insightful, others less engaging. However, I am sceptical. There is no information about the writer to be found on the internet at all. None. Is he a historian? He seems to be British. (His name, and that of the person he dedicated the book to, sound Scottish.) The book was published by a London publishing house. So why are the temperatures given in Fahrenheit, when this measurement is almost exclusively used in the USA?
Graeme Donald introduces us to 28 bite-size chapters of historical misconceptions, yet his bibliography is suspiciously thin (23 listings). So where does he take all his information from – and how much of it is just claim? Can we trust this writer unreservedly?
Be that as it may. If any of these chapters piques your interest, this serves a good introduction. Perhaps they were originally written as a weekly / monthly column for a periodical?
One thing I noticed is how easily people buy into visualisations and other forms of legend-making - films in particular. I know I do. In case of historical films about subjects within my personal interest, I am very much aware how film scripts distort facts in favour of a convenient plot. Yet I remember watching films as a child, naturally without questioning the film script’s veracity, yet it was this viewing experience that has shaped my understanding of, let’s say, “The Mutiny on the Bounty”.
_____________________________
This may be tiresome, but I want to write down what I have gleaned from this book, as a personal reference. Otherwise I will most likely forget most of it within a week, as it usually happens when I read non-fiction books.
So all this, according to Graeme Donald:
• Joan of Arc: mostly fictitious, shaped into a patriotic cult figure in the 19th century, not likely to have died at the stake
• Elisabeth Báthory: an awful person, yet never bathed in virgin blood, propaganda circulated by her enemies
• Dr James Barry: (never heard of this person before) a cross-dressing female who studied medicine, a capable doctor who rose in the military ranks, her true identity was never uncovered during her lifetime
• Black-clad ninjas: I know nothing about Japanese culture, I didn’t know about the origins of ninjas, samurais, geishas, or karate – common perceptions of all of them are clichés bred by the film industry
• Pope Joan: the stuff of legends built on by successive generations, until it became Protestant propaganda
• Tokyo Rose: (never heard of her) a Japanese American stuck in Japan during WWII, became a radio host for an American partisan radio broadcast, who then became a victim of libel in post-war Japan
• Robin Hood: the stuff of legends (no big surprises there)
• Marco Polo: may not have travelled to China, many of his claims are ill-informed and sketchy, physical evidence is missing, he may have spent 17 years at a Turkish trading post listening to other people’s tales of sailing east
• Who discovered America: duh – lots of people before Columbus
• Who discovered Australia: see above. But the English love to believe it was an Englishman (James Cook)
• The Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain Bligh was competent but lenient, Fletcher Christian was pompous and may have been mentally ill
• The Mary Celeste: (never even heard of it) an abandoned ship that carried raw alcohol, a few barrels leaked, the crew was startled by the fumes, panicked and left in a lifeboat, most likely died at sea
• The Easter Island Moai: were wobbled upright from the quarries to their resting place, no palm trees were chopped to roll them into place, the population was decimated by other factors (depletion of the bird population, land erosion, European diseases, slavers, and ship rats)
• Cleopatra: was coerced into suicide, but certainly would not have chosen slow-acting cobra poison
• Mozart: probably died from food poisoning (wormy pork), his funeral was standard at the time, he was only five years younger than Salieri
• Rasputin: despite the legend how difficult he was to kill, his death was swift
• Dr Crippen: (never even heard of him) probably didn’t kill anybody, his wife returned to the USA, the remains found in his cellar may have been there before he moved in
• The Romanows: 1916, shortly after the Easter Rising, the tsar’s cousin, King George V was discouraged by his wife from granting the Romanows exile
• The Tour de France: French artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus was alleged to be a German spy, he was haphazardly court-martialled and deported to a penal colony, the Dreyfus affair was politically divisive, pro and contra Dreyfusards apparently read two different sports magazines, which decided to battle it out in a bike race, hence the Tour de France
• The Great Pyramids: the secret to the meticulously fitting stones is an ancient form of limestone cement, Herodotus claims pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) was hated and employed slave labour, it is more likely that a free Egyptian, possibly / partially Jewish, labour force built the pyramids during the annual Nile floods, who lived in a tent city around the building site
• The Spanish Inquisition: the most harmless form of religious inquisition in all of Europe (films again, Protestant propaganda)
• Stonehenge: a place of conjecture for successive ages, built in several stages spanning about 1500 years, its early 20th century restoration was a “destructive re-imagining”, several archaeologists believe it once had a thatched roof
• The Black Hole of Calcutta: a small underground dungeon made for approximately ten prisoners inside a fort built by the East India Company, an enraged EIC officer claimed more than a hundred employees died there after the fort fell in a local uprising
• The Irish influence in South America: trading relations between Spain and Ireland in the 1500s led to a small Irish diaspora that followed the Conquistadors to South America, the Conquistadors were hardly “Spanish”, but a motley mob of pirates from all over, Spain was not one country in the 1500s, El Dorado was a person covered in gold dust, other Irish fled their country in successive centuries to South America, Che Guevara had Irish roots, Zorro is based on a foppish Irish escapee, etc. The potato blight was most likely imported from South America via ship cargo
• The Light Brigade: during the Crimean war (Russia against Britain and allies), two rivalling British commanders (who were brothers in law) gave contradictory orders, the soldiers died in a silly battle, the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson glorified the venture as heroic
• The Chicago Fire: anti-Irish propaganda, the fire was caused by comet debris
• General Gordon: (never heard of him) this chapter provides important background information without which the film “The Four Feathers” (2002) cannot be understood
• The bombing of Guernica: the Spanish Civil War - the communist-backed Republicans lost against the Nazi-backed Nationalists, today the Republicans are seen in a rather romantic light, both sides capable of multiple atrocities, the magnitude of the bombing by German forces was overstated for propaganda reasons, a famous photo was wrongly attributed, Hemingway corresponded while sitting snugly in a Madrid hotel
Graeme Donald introduces us to 28 bite-size chapters of historical misconceptions, yet his bibliography is suspiciously thin (23 listings). So where does he take all his information from – and how much of it is just claim? Can we trust this writer unreservedly?
Be that as it may. If any of these chapters piques your interest, this serves a good introduction. Perhaps they were originally written as a weekly / monthly column for a periodical?
One thing I noticed is how easily people buy into visualisations and other forms of legend-making - films in particular. I know I do. In case of historical films about subjects within my personal interest, I am very much aware how film scripts distort facts in favour of a convenient plot. Yet I remember watching films as a child, naturally without questioning the film script’s veracity, yet it was this viewing experience that has shaped my understanding of, let’s say, “The Mutiny on the Bounty”.
_____________________________
This may be tiresome, but I want to write down what I have gleaned from this book, as a personal reference. Otherwise I will most likely forget most of it within a week, as it usually happens when I read non-fiction books.
So all this, according to Graeme Donald:
• Joan of Arc: mostly fictitious, shaped into a patriotic cult figure in the 19th century, not likely to have died at the stake
• Elisabeth Báthory: an awful person, yet never bathed in virgin blood, propaganda circulated by her enemies
• Dr James Barry: (never heard of this person before) a cross-dressing female who studied medicine, a capable doctor who rose in the military ranks, her true identity was never uncovered during her lifetime
• Black-clad ninjas: I know nothing about Japanese culture, I didn’t know about the origins of ninjas, samurais, geishas, or karate – common perceptions of all of them are clichés bred by the film industry
• Pope Joan: the stuff of legends built on by successive generations, until it became Protestant propaganda
• Tokyo Rose: (never heard of her) a Japanese American stuck in Japan during WWII, became a radio host for an American partisan radio broadcast, who then became a victim of libel in post-war Japan
• Robin Hood: the stuff of legends (no big surprises there)
• Marco Polo: may not have travelled to China, many of his claims are ill-informed and sketchy, physical evidence is missing, he may have spent 17 years at a Turkish trading post listening to other people’s tales of sailing east
• Who discovered America: duh – lots of people before Columbus
• Who discovered Australia: see above. But the English love to believe it was an Englishman (James Cook)
• The Mutiny on the Bounty: Captain Bligh was competent but lenient, Fletcher Christian was pompous and may have been mentally ill
• The Mary Celeste: (never even heard of it) an abandoned ship that carried raw alcohol, a few barrels leaked, the crew was startled by the fumes, panicked and left in a lifeboat, most likely died at sea
• The Easter Island Moai: were wobbled upright from the quarries to their resting place, no palm trees were chopped to roll them into place, the population was decimated by other factors (depletion of the bird population, land erosion, European diseases, slavers, and ship rats)
• Cleopatra: was coerced into suicide, but certainly would not have chosen slow-acting cobra poison
• Mozart: probably died from food poisoning (wormy pork), his funeral was standard at the time, he was only five years younger than Salieri
• Rasputin: despite the legend how difficult he was to kill, his death was swift
• Dr Crippen: (never even heard of him) probably didn’t kill anybody, his wife returned to the USA, the remains found in his cellar may have been there before he moved in
• The Romanows: 1916, shortly after the Easter Rising, the tsar’s cousin, King George V was discouraged by his wife from granting the Romanows exile
• The Tour de France: French artillery captain Alfred Dreyfus was alleged to be a German spy, he was haphazardly court-martialled and deported to a penal colony, the Dreyfus affair was politically divisive, pro and contra Dreyfusards apparently read two different sports magazines, which decided to battle it out in a bike race, hence the Tour de France
• The Great Pyramids: the secret to the meticulously fitting stones is an ancient form of limestone cement, Herodotus claims pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) was hated and employed slave labour, it is more likely that a free Egyptian, possibly / partially Jewish, labour force built the pyramids during the annual Nile floods, who lived in a tent city around the building site
• The Spanish Inquisition: the most harmless form of religious inquisition in all of Europe (films again, Protestant propaganda)
• Stonehenge: a place of conjecture for successive ages, built in several stages spanning about 1500 years, its early 20th century restoration was a “destructive re-imagining”, several archaeologists believe it once had a thatched roof
• The Black Hole of Calcutta: a small underground dungeon made for approximately ten prisoners inside a fort built by the East India Company, an enraged EIC officer claimed more than a hundred employees died there after the fort fell in a local uprising
• The Irish influence in South America: trading relations between Spain and Ireland in the 1500s led to a small Irish diaspora that followed the Conquistadors to South America, the Conquistadors were hardly “Spanish”, but a motley mob of pirates from all over, Spain was not one country in the 1500s, El Dorado was a person covered in gold dust, other Irish fled their country in successive centuries to South America, Che Guevara had Irish roots, Zorro is based on a foppish Irish escapee, etc. The potato blight was most likely imported from South America via ship cargo
• The Light Brigade: during the Crimean war (Russia against Britain and allies), two rivalling British commanders (who were brothers in law) gave contradictory orders, the soldiers died in a silly battle, the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson glorified the venture as heroic
• The Chicago Fire: anti-Irish propaganda, the fire was caused by comet debris
• General Gordon: (never heard of him) this chapter provides important background information without which the film “The Four Feathers” (2002) cannot be understood
• The bombing of Guernica: the Spanish Civil War - the communist-backed Republicans lost against the Nazi-backed Nationalists, today the Republicans are seen in a rather romantic light, both sides capable of multiple atrocities, the magnitude of the bombing by German forces was overstated for propaganda reasons, a famous photo was wrongly attributed, Hemingway corresponded while sitting snugly in a Madrid hotel
April 10, 2019
Overall good and enlightening. My only complaint is that sometimes the auteur does not seem to be impartial and it’s hard to see past his judgments.
June 10, 2018
A really enjoyable read and very interesting. It opened my eyes to a few things.
May 25, 2024
What can I say, I just wanted a silly little book. Some of these were actually really interesting too (particularly re the materials that were used to build the pyramids), so it was worth the read!
November 19, 2024
Fun to read.
July 19, 2024
Here we have the truth about infamous people, did they exist or not, the true stories of the voyages of discovery, to famous plots, murders and events, the riddles of ancient legends and monuments.
This is a well researched and very accessible guide to the myths and mysteries of the past. There is also an underlying humour that makes this so much fun!
This is a well researched and very accessible guide to the myths and mysteries of the past. There is also an underlying humour that makes this so much fun!
November 9, 2025
This was an informative and interesting read. There were equal parts history I had heard of and history that was new to me, which kept me turning page after page to see what I would learn next. These types of history books are thought-provoking, but I also find myself questioning the accuracy and truths. It seems to me at times that if something so historically profound were to come to light, it would be bigger news than simply being found in some random history book. Overall, I enjoyed the information and perspectives presented in this book. I may seek out more of this author's books to read in the future.
December 6, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It dispels many myths from ancient and more modern history, from Stonehenge to Cleopatra to Joan of Arc to the Dreyfuss affair and pointed out that many of the myths were fabricated to fulfill some political aim at the time.
Makes one realize that what we know of history, many times supported by "trusted" sources including textbooks and media and etc. is often just spin for a political faction. So who can we trust?
Makes one realize that what we know of history, many times supported by "trusted" sources including textbooks and media and etc. is often just spin for a political faction. So who can we trust?
January 10, 2019
Pretty fun book to read. Covers various historical events and people like the Mutiny on the Bounty and Joan of Arc. You can also learn about history you never heard of. I did have some difficulty understanding some of the stuff in various chapters, mostly in histories I have no knowledge of and I felt some of the chapters closer to the end of the book weren't too interesting but I kept reading. Some might even interest you to look it up more. When reading about Tokyo Rose for instance, I ended up looking up this person and found out more about her and the injustice that happened to her after the war.
Overall, I am really happy with this book. I would read a chapter or two a day and look forward to the next one each time. I paid $12 for this and as a person who is starting to read again (I would say beginning to read more seriously and for fun instead of just required high school/college reading), this book was pretty informal and fun.
Overall, I am really happy with this book. I would read a chapter or two a day and look forward to the next one each time. I paid $12 for this and as a person who is starting to read again (I would say beginning to read more seriously and for fun instead of just required high school/college reading), this book was pretty informal and fun.
January 29, 2019
Excellent little book... fascinating and myth-shaking. A great book to keep with you for reading in small pieces (waiting rooms at doctor/dentist's office). It is done in bite-sized portions, but still juicy and rich with good research. A great history intro for a class, too. Lots that lessons could be made out of! I have already recommended it and loaned it to someone... and as a history buff myself, that's saying something!
February 13, 2025
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 by Graeme Donald is an interesting book which tells you that misconceptions that people have in major events of history in a very simple way. The book was interesting at first but as the later chapters came, Mr. Donald failed to make things interesting and the 'unknown truths' that he was stating was already a common knowledge to me. So in conclusion, this book is an easy read, and interesting at beginning, so I would give it a 3 out of 5.
January 18, 2019
This was and excellent book for any history buff. It covers the different myths that have become popular and even taught in schools. They cover how Christopher Columbus didnt discover America. And Cleopatra didn't die from a cobra bite. The most popular myths are debunked in this book. I recommend this book to middle to high school kids to all history buffs. This is a fanitating read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2019
Some things I had never heard of, some fixed ideas repudiated, some conventional thoughts rearranged- all in all this was a short kind f fun read. Topics- Easter island, the Pyramids, a pope named Joan(?), the real Tokyo Rose, Captain Bligh, the British secret service and Rasputin, and many more.
April 3, 2019
Very interesting. I new some of the facts and others were new to me. If you read this one you'll probably learn something about history as well as the fact that not everything you've been taught is the truth.
April 3, 2021
I enjoyed this book. (Honestly, I almost always enjoy books these days. I tend not to finish the ones I don't.) I learned a lot! I love its size- it's not too long or intimidating. I just want more! Graeme, I need more of this book!
November 7, 2024
Short chapters about historical figures or events that most often get confused or misconstrued. Some of them were more interesting than others, and I would recommend reading this one bit by bit rather than in one sitting because it can become a bit tedious.
May 3, 2019
I saw this on sale at Chapters and decided sure mysteries I like. I learned some new stories but it wasn't mindblowing.
3/5
3/5
November 25, 2019
A book I might revisit from time to time just to keep facts fresh. Not the best written and lacking in depth, but interesting and can lead to research on my own.
October 16, 2020
Love, love, love this book. Lots of interesting information that makes you rethink what you thought you knew.
October 19, 2022
Reasonably interesting to see someone elses perspective on history.some chapters better than others,use it as a guide to fo further reading.
July 17, 2023
Short essays on various topics. Interesting read.
March 27, 2024
Simple and fun book about infamous and some not so famous 'moments' in time.
A great start for those who are starting to tread the waters of history.
A great start for those who are starting to tread the waters of history.
January 4, 2026
Enjoyable, bite size bits of historical debunking. Fascinating, absorbing - looking forward to more books like this
April 26, 2026
3.50 / 5.00
Want to Read
April 5, 2023Not what I expected at first, thought it would be more in depth. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews