Fake Heroes: Ten False Icons and How they Altered the Course of History

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A quote from Cherry-Garrard is then cut down to make Scott appear hopeless and emotional, the full quote being "He [Scott] cried more easily than any man I have ever known. What pulled Scott through was character, sheer good grain which ran over and under and through his weaker self and clamped it all together." We only get the bit about him crying. Secondly, I get the main message of his book. Fake History and the promotion of it is dangerous and serves certain agendas. I also agree that statues are political statements. Frankly, Edward Colston and his tasteless statues can go to hell. They should be constantly debated and challenged. History isn’t concrete. We find out more pieces of it’s puzzle and it evolves. Fake Heroesis not only awash with fascinating anecdotes, but is also rife with details that effectively give the flavour of the times being recounted. This further brings home the point that so much worth remembering is often forgotten, misrepresented or deliberately falsified. For while Thomas Edison may well have said, ‘I have not failed, not once. I have discovered ten thousand ways that don’t work’, there’s little evidence he uttered any of the other pithy quotes attributed to him.

I was really looking forward to this book because I loved Fake History, and for the most part this was an entertaining and informative sequel. However, as soon as I saw that there was a chapter on Captain Scott my heart sank a little bit, and I thought to myself "I bet he's only used the Huntford". Guess bloody what, I was right! Dobbs, Gregory. "Otto English on the myths of 'Fake Heroes' ". Good Reading . Retrieved 8 October 2023. for history geeks like myself this book makes for a very interesting read as i learned a lot of interesting facts reading this book. for anyone who isn’t head over heals in love with history however this book doesn’t fully do what it says on the tin and you’d be forgiven for getting bored of the endless tangents. Some of the individuals covered in this book became icons by accident or by dint of their good looks. Che Guevara was one of these. Had his face not been made famous by the promulgation of his image across the world, he might have been just another guerilla allied with Castro whose name was only known by far-left devotees. Instead, he happened to have a face that had icon written all over it and ended up incessantly emblazoned on middle-class bedsit walls and t-shirts across the world, as much of a capitalist consumerist brand as Coca Cola. There is something especially timely about this book as well; witness the recent fall from heroic grace of Ben Roberts-Smith – a man whose trajectory has gone from preeminent Australian hero to suspected terrifying war criminal. Like English’s earlier book, the excellent Fake History, Fake Heroes makes a major contribution to combating misinformation and he makes this contribution in a highly readable and informative way.Guevara himself comes across as somewhat politically naive. His upbringing was quite well to do, and such were the class divisons in the Argentina of his day that people of his class thought nothing of the teenage Guevara routinely raping the family maid. This was regarded as a part of the function of maids at the time in Argentina, apparently. So we can dispense with the notion of the romantic revolutionary hero who loved the working classes quite readily, then. Having exposed some of the greatest lies ever told in Fake History , journalist Otto English turns his attention to some of history's biggest (and most beloved) figures. This is a mixed bag that deconstructs "great lies" of history and attempts, with varying degrees of success, to find parallels with the current political reality. The brilliant chapters on the hyper-mythologised version of Winston Churchill and weaponising of WWI/WWII memory in modern Britain will resonate with any Brit who has had the misfortune to question Churchill's legacy or, heaven forbid, neglected to wear a paper flower. I even liked the chapter on the dubious origins of "curry." What surprised me in reading about these people was not just how they did not live up to the hype, but in fact how evil, selfish and nasty some of them were, from Nazi collaborator Coco Chanel to Mother Teresa amassing wealth while people in her care starved. And then there’s Thomas Midgley, who knowingly helped poison the world with lead. The list goes on. In a way you may think of this book as a kind of horror story, and so it is.

I do however have issues with the structure of the book. I found the chapters somewhat misleading in their titles. Each seem set up to discuss a certain historical myth, and yet only a small fraction of those chapters actually discuss what is stated that they are there for. I am aware that the author doesn’t owe me anything and my annoyance with this may be down to my Autism. But my experience in debating taught me the value of getting to the point. But in fairness some of the stories and arguments laid down by the author in those chapters were entertaining and informative. His discussion about food and language was absolutely fascinating and taught me a lot.When I was at school, we were challenged to question everything. I became a pain throughout my career and wider life as a result. I can't help it but am amazed at the vast majority that are willing to accept the most nonsensical of lies. Mivel a másik oldal hülyéi úgyis hülyék, ezért nyugodtan szálljunk bele a mítoszaikba páros lábbal. Küldjük el Churchillt a búsba, például. Meggyőzni ezzel se fogjuk őket, de legalább szórakozunk rajtuk.