Review: Fake History – 101 Things that Never Happened, by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse

I heard this author interviewed on the Professor Buzzkill podcast recently and loved what she had to say, especially about medieval Europe. Her book is good and entertaining. But she avoids controversy, not really dealing with problematic examples of ‘fake history’ that are widely believed today. For example, while she talks about how Hitler did not invent the autobahn, she doesn’t grapple with any of the other myths circulating around the Nazi dictator. So contentious issues are not really addressed, and we stay very much on the light entertainment side of the debunking business. That having been said, this was a fun book to read.