The Truth About History: How New Evidence Is Transforming the Story of the Past

This is a book I would have loved having ten years ago when I was a teenager - I'm sure I'd still value it today. Short articles and sketches cover human origins, historical personalities, scientific discoveries, famous battles and more. Interesting illustrations, photos and diagrams accompany every topic. The topics are fascinating and unusual, some well-known and of major importance, while others are obscure "believe it or not" type factoids. Anyone intellectually inclined will be inspired to read more about the topics covered. That's a major value of the book: sparking an interest in, for example, books about pre-Columbian America (like "1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus" and "1421: The Year China Discovered America") or Rome or human ancestry or great historical personages. This is a not scholarly work or academic text, and I suspect that a few of the "truths" are controversial and in dispute. I think that does not lessen the book's worth since the book is obviously not a definitive academic text or scholarly work and no one would mistake it for such. If I could time-travel to my ten-year-old self and give me this book, I'm sure it would lead me over the years to read more in-depth about many of history's "truths."

I was pleasantly surprised by this almost comic book of a book. The illustrations are garish, but the information snippets are a delight to read, and the information is up to date (an updated Barnes and Noble version is the one I have, updated in the 2005/2006 timeframe. Although I knew about many of the topics from recent news articles, it's a pleasant way to keep abreast. I even learned a few things - the name of the venerated Narmer, eponymous king of Egypt, means "King Catfish". Scholars will cluck at some minor inaccuracies, or the glossing over of controversies, but it's a truly fun bedtime reading book, and does a great job addressing its general reader audience. For more like this, I would highly recommend "Hidden History" by Brian Haughton (2007) and "Ancient Mysteries" by Peter James and Nick Thorpe (1999). They won't appeal as much to adolescent readers, but they are the meat and potatoes to the ice cream of "Truth About History" Enjoy the whole meal!

Reader's Digest books aren't exactly the most challenging things that you can read, but they are reasonably well written and entertaining. "The Truth About History" consists of sixty short and well-illustrated essays, each laden with interesting takes on the "common wisdom" of history. For example, did the Hindenburg's hydrogen explode--or was there another reason why the great airship crashed and burned in New Jersey in 1937? (And no, it wasn't sabotage.) What happened 70,000 years ago that nearly wiped out the human species? Did Custer and his men make a "last stand"? Was Marie Antoinette really a cold and callous ruler or did she just suffer from bad press? Was there ever a King Arthur? Does the movie "Braveheart" have anything to do with reality? Did Napoleon die of stomach cancer, or was he murdered--and if so, by whom? The essays covering subjects that I already knew about seem to be fairly accurate, if a bit short (but this is a Reader's Digest book, after all). Still, this is "history lite," so take it all with a grain of salt and enjoy the ride! If this sort of book appeals to you, you might also want to take a look at the following: Robert Stewart, "Mysteries of History"; Paul Aron, "Unsolved Mysteries of America History"; "More Unsolved Mysteries of American History"; and "Unsolved Mysteries of History"; Hugh Miller, "Secrets of the Dead" and "More Secrets of the Dead"; David Wason, "Battlefield Detectives"; and Reader's Digest (again) "Great Mysteries of the Past: Experts Unravel Fact and Fallacy Behind the Headlines of History." Despite the somewhat sensational titles, each of these books features fairly balanced discussions of some really interesting questions about history--often with surprising and well-supported conclusions.