Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters
'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle Ages

From the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.


The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.

Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.

Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.

'Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long.' The Tiny Activist

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Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters
'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle Ages

From the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.


The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.

Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.

Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.

'Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long.' The Tiny Activist

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Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters

Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters

by David Mountain
Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters

Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why it Matters

by David Mountain

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Overview

'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle Ages

From the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.


The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.

Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.

Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.

'Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long.' The Tiny Activist


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781785786907
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Publication date: 06/03/2021
Pages: 352
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

David Mountain is a writer, speaker and editor, based in Edinburgh. After studying biology and geology at the University of Bristol he became a scientific editor at an environmental NGO, working across the savannahs of central Kenya and the gardens of suburban Java to tackle the problem of invasive species. He has since studied the politics of nationalism at the University of Edinburgh, devoting more time to exploring, and writing about, history. He is fascinated and infuriated in equal measure by history, politics and philosophy, and can't resist pointing out flaws and contradictions in how we think we understand the world.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Blue beards and white power 1

1 The false dawn of civilisation 13

2 Pythagoras and the cult of personality 41

3 Barbarians, Vandals and other victims of slander 67

4 Light in the Dark Ages 95

5 Columbus didn't discover America 129

6 The real housewives of the 18th century 161

7 How to invent a nation 191

8 The curse of the crystal skulls 221

9 How the West wasn't won 251

Conclusion: The ever-present past 283

Endnotes 289

Acknowledgements 343

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