One In The Eye For Harold: Why everything you thought you knew about history is wrong: The Lies, Myths and Distortions that Shape History

by PhilMason (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2012

  $3.40

  The problem with history is that much of what you learn in school simply isn't true! For instance, King Harold was NOT shot in the eye with an arrow at the Battle of Hastings, Neanderthals were not as dumb as you'd think, Britain had an Indian curry restaurant years before it had fish-and-chip shops and the American 'Wild West' really wasn't that wild. In many ways the history we casually accept as truth is full of mistakes. One in the Eye for Harold is a riotous romp through the centuries with revelations about the untruth of large swathes of history. It shows us how fictions have coloured our views of religion, politics, war and society - and shows us how some of our most solidly held beliefs are entirely false. We learn, among other things: How golf originated not in Scotland but in China, and baseball was invented by the English. How tartan was invented in Austria and bagpipes in Greece. Why Lady Godiva did NOT ride naked through Coventry. How the democracy of the Greeks was actually a dicatatorship . Why nobody really thought the world was flat when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.