Abstract

This incredible exploration of the murky world of pseudo-history reveals the mix of proven facts, informed speculation, and pure fiction behind lost continents, ancient super-civilizations, and conspiratorial cover-ups—as well as the revisionist historical foundations of religions such as the Nation of Islam and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Drawing on the best scholarship available, Ronald H. Fritze shows that in spite of strong, mainstream historical evidence to the contrary, many of these ideas have proved durable and gained widespread acceptance. As the examples in Invented Knowledge reveal, pseudo-historians capitalize on and exploit anomalies in evidence to support their claims, rather than examining the preponderance of research as a whole.

"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
"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). . . . Fritz 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

"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

"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 today's 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

— The Independent
"In his tireless analysis of the bloodlines of some of modernity's most successful claptrap--from Immanuel Velikovsky to Erich von Däniken to Heaven's 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

Ronald H. Fritze is dean of arts and sciences and professor of history at Athens State University in Alabama.