Lincoln rewritten: Fellow citizens, we cannot escape pseudohistory. In heroic resistance, Fritze dives into the Augean stables of popular pseudoscholarship on pseudotopics such as Atlantis, aliens who built the pyramids, ancient catastrophes caused by near-misses with Venus, or the Israelite origin of Britons . . . in his tireless analysis of the bloodlines of some of modernitys most successful claptrap from Immanuel Velikovsky to Erich von Däniken to Heavens Gate Fritze does vindicate his claim that Pseudohistory has its historiography and its genealogy of ideas. Nonsense now has its Nietzsche.
Steven Poole, The Guardian
In this new age of intellectual chaos, it looks like being a splendid self-regarding spring for hype-resistant readers. They can relish the prospect of hooting from the sofa as lean and hungry sceptics hunt down the peddlers of pseudo-history or pseudo-science and sink rhetorical incisors into the flabby flesh of their prey . . . Invented Knowledge goes in for a more forensic dissection of modern myths about the past. Fritze . . . selects a few choice myths and fads from the fringes of scholarship. He inspects enduring canards, from the Atlantis tales that took hold after the American Civil War, through the centuries-long quest for the 10 Lost Tribes of Israel, up to todays taste for Chinese eunuch admirals whose fleet toured the entire globe in 1421, or the black-African ancient Egyptians whose profound wisdom gave Greece all its glory.
The Independent
In Invented Knowledge, Ronald Fritze makes a level-headed and well-researched investigation into pseudo-knowledge, revealing the tricks used by purveyors of false and sensational ideas. He also shows how attempts to debunk the myths can add fuel to the fire.
New Scientist
Known knowns, unknown knowns and nonsense: what better time than the post-Bush era to shine a light on the murky world of the unabashedly made-up? Ronald H. Fritze brings a seriously large torch on his journey through spurious narrative, conspiracy theories and bestselling twaddle in a veritable encyclopaedia of folly, Invented Knowledge. Read it and giggle. Or weep.
Times Higher Education
[Fritze] is a careful scholar with a gift for summarizing theories, however crackpot. He takes a historians delight in uncovering connections between the various pseudo-histories he describes.
Times Literary Supplement
From blockbuster films of the Indiana Jones variety to bestsellers such as The Da Vinci Code, pseudohistory is big business. As Fritze shows in this detailed yet readable study, false history can be great fun but it also has a dark side, often becoming a tool of racism, religious fanaticism and nationalistic extremism . . . An intriguing survey of crackpot theories that shows both the power of human imagination and our gullibility.
PD Smith, The Guardian
In this enlightened diatribe, author and historian Fritze takes a hard look at pseudohistory, myths passed off as historical fact by those who confuse the distinction between possibility and probability, either through ignorance or design (usually the latter) . . . Fritze incorporates a wealth of background information and insider baseball while buttressing his own provocative contentions, making this a hearty treat for history buffs.
Publishers Weekly
analyzes pseudohistories, including the fables of Atlantis, the Kennewick skull and related stories about populating the Americas, the Christian identity movement, the separatist cosmogony of the Nation of Islam, Velikovskian (and other) theories that aliens have populated the Earth, and the Bernal Afrocentric model of transmission of classical learning to the West . . . meticulously researched. Recommended.
Choice
This is a fascinating book, full of jaw-dropping details about the extravagant claims and outrageous behaviour of pseudo-historians, scientists and religionists.
Metascience
An entertaining look at how purveyors of pseudo-knowledge of all sorts convince logical people that black is white and vice versa.
The Australian
A useful tool to aid students critical thinking, Invented Knowledge is not just for history buffs. It could also be put to effective use debunking annoying dinner-party conspiracy theorists.
Brisbane Courier Mail
A richly detailed study of pseudo-historical claims such as Atlantis, the pre-Columbian discovery/settlement of the Americas, racist-religious ideas, and ancient catastrophes and alien visitations shows how pseudo-knowledge is created, circulated, and perpetuated over time.
Anthropology Review Database
To visit Ronald H. Fritzes website please click here.
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