eBook Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-religions download

I have always been interested in why people believe certain ideas and why they support them with facts that many would point out are not facts, are not logical, and don't make any sense outside of a court of law. Lawyers, as we all know, deal with more emotional arguments than logic and reason. The author explores, examines, and explains about such ideas that have appeared in history. Why do people search for Atlantis for example? The book is amazing in detail, somethings adding a touch of humor to what is, sad to say, very dry stuff. And as many reviewers have pointed out, many of the topics he chooses to talk about may not interest you or, in some cases, are truly old debates that nobody even talks about anymore. The sad fact is that science and the general knowledge of how the scientific method works has gone downhill. The fact is that people, in general, have lost interest in what happens outside their front door and care nothing for science, the planet, even understanding other religions. Too busy on Face Book posting images of Grumpy Cat, or working on their web sites, watching the History Channel with its UFOs (not to be confused with the International History Channel which had some REALLY good programming), or writing raving negative reviews on here to defend their own myths. Still, for the scholarly or those with a interest in all things history it is a good book to read on a rainy day. But warning - 300 so pages of very dry humor at best. Just a dry lecture at worst.

Who is to say what is real history and what is false, faked, or otherwise bogus? The historian Carl Becker once famously wrote of "everyman [as] his own historian," suggesting that we all individually choose what to assign value to in the episodic past and we construct a usable history to satisfy ourselves. Mostly that is fine, but sometimes it takes strange turns. This book, by one of my graduate student colleagues of many years ago, explores how bizarre some of this construction of the past may become. It is an outstanding analysis of the strange and weird in history.

"Invented Knowledge" is mostly about conspiracy theories and concepts of supposedly "repressed" truths in human history. Fritze begins with a lengthy discussion of the possibility of a lost continent of Atlantis. It is certainly one of the most persistent of beliefs held by people of all times and places despite the lack of hard evidence supporting its existence. Fritze appropriately calls it the "mother of pseudohistory." Chapters follow on myths surrounding the discovery and settlement of ancient America. My personal favorite is the so-called Welsh Indians, a group supposedly led to America by Prince Madoc in the twelfth century which formed its own tribe. Many expeditions sought to find this group, and Lewis and Clark and others believed that Mandan tribe in the upper Midwest were the descendents of these pioneers. Of course, different populations reached America in different ways and there is much speculation and only modest hard evidence. Accordingly, it is easy for pseudohistory to emerge when evidence is minimal and conflicting.

Ron Fritze also expends considerable effort, two full chapters, discussing the construction of racist cosmogonies. His explanation of the rise of racist perspectives among both white and black separatists is illuminating and frightening. Those chapters make up the heart of the book and offer a fascinating analysis of radical subcultures in modern American society. Additional sections of the book explore the catastrophism of Immanuel Velikovsky, the ancient astronauts theories of Erich von Dänikan, the vanished of ancient ice age civilizations, and the "Black Athena" debate launched by Martin Bernal in 1987. That last chapter has the scintillating main title, "Professors Gone Wild."

The takeaway from "Invented Knowledge" is that while there is credible historical analysis on all of these subjects and respectable theories have been offered, that there is still are those who prefer pseudohistory predicated on poor sources, outrageous assumptions, unrealistic theories, and in some cases insane connections. There is not lack for promoters of these wild explanations, some of whom are clearly unhinged and some of whom are charlatans. In every case Fritze debunks the outrageous and offers legitimate explanations.

But does evidence and argumentation really make a difference to what one believes about the past? For many people it does. For believers in conspiracy and many of the weird ideas discussed here it probably doesn't. This leads to the question, who has the authority to decide what the history says? An old baseball joke is apropos here. Three umpires were discussing how they call balls and strikes behind the plate. The first said, "I call them as they are," a pre-modern, absolutist position. The second said, "I call them as I see them," a position reflecting rationality and modernity. The third opined in a fit of post-modern existential angst, "They ain't nothin' til I call them." It seems that this last perspective is the critical element in considering the stories told in "Invented Knowledge." Perhaps the reality of what happened does not matter all that much; the only thing that is truly important is the decision about its meaning. That may well be an intensely personal decision predicated on many idiosyncrasies and perspectives. I find that a fascinating issue to ponder. My thanks to Ron Fritze for raising these issues and exploring their meaning in modern America.

Fritze's "Invented Knowledge" is a useful overview of several different themes in pseudohistory. Not surprisingly, the book begins with Atlantis. In the 19th century, the theory of Atlantis was a novel idea that purported to explain the apparent connections between the old world and the new--it was edgy, but not wildly implausible given what was known at the time. Plate tectonics ultimately proved to be the better model for how the world actually worked, so Atlantis and its progency (Mu in the Pacific and Lemuria in the Indian Ocean) should have disappeared. But they didn't--a loyal cadre of devoted believers embellished the theory, turning Atlantis from a lost Bronze Age civilization into a hyper-advanced, crystal-driven world of high technology and magic. As Fritze carefully explains, Atlantis and other lost lands remain nonsense.

"Invented Knowledge" also explores a grab bag of odd theories about the origins of Native Americans and who (besides them, of course) "discovered" America. Gavin Menzie's "1421" and "1434" come in for scathing and evidently well-deserved criticism, along with plenty of other strange ideas about the First Americans. Other chapters explore the racist pseudohistory of the Christian Identity movement, and the equally racist beliefs of the Nation of Islam. The theories of Immanuel Velikovsky, Erich von Daniken, Graham Hancock and others concerning historical cosmic catastrophes, advanced ancient civilizations and extraterrestrial contact are thoroughly debunked in the aptly entitled "Professors Gone Wild."

The final chapter, on "Black Athena," is an interesting exploration of an academic debate about which I have only passing knowledge. However, it struck me as being a bit out of place in this book--the Black Athena books are controversial and pseudohistorical, yes, but small beans compared to Atlantis, "Chariots of the Gods," "1421," "Worlds in Collision" and "Fingerprints of the Gods."

Of course, Fritze focuses for the most part on the relatively tame silliness that emerges from the authors of popular and even scholarly books. The pseudo-academic discourse is often quite mellow compared to the applied weirdness that true acolytes come up with. For an entertaining look at the folklore of the fringe, see "Weird Science and Bizarre Beliefs: Mysterious Creatures, Lost Worlds and Amazing Inventions." For a discussion similar in spirit to Fritze's work, see "Archaeological Fantasies" (ed. Garrett Fagan).