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| image1 = Jewish prisoners forced to work for a Sonderkommando 1005 unit pose next to a bone crushing machine in the Janowska concentration camp.jpg |
| image1 = Jewish prisoners forced to work for a Sonderkommando 1005 unit pose next to a bone crushing machine in the Janowska concentration camp.jpg |
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| caption1 = ''[[Sonderaktion 1005]]'' was a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] project with the explicit goal of hiding or destroying any evidence of the [[mass murder]] committed under [[Operation Reinhard]]. This was one of the earliest attempts at [[Holocaust denial]], taking place while the [[Final Solution|genocide of the Jews]] was still ongoing. Scholars consider [[Genocide denial|denial]] to be an integral part of [[genocide]] itself.<ref>{{cite book |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey |author-link1=Jeffrey Herf|title-link=The Jewish Enemy |title=The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during the World War II and the Holocaust |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674038-59-2|page=127 }}</ref> |
| caption1 = ''[[Sonderaktion 1005]]'' was a [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] project with the explicit goal of hiding or destroying any evidence of the [[mass murder]] committed under [[Operation Reinhard]]. This was one of the earliest attempts at [[Holocaust denial]], taking place while the [[Final Solution|genocide of the Jews]] was still ongoing. Scholars consider [[Genocide denial|denial]] to be an integral part of [[genocide]] itself.<ref>{{cite book |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey |author-link1=Jeffrey Herf|title-link=The Jewish Enemy |title=The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during the World War II and the Holocaust |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674038-59-2|page=127 }}</ref> |
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| image2 = Confederate |
| image2 = Battle flag of the Confederate States of America (3-5).svg |
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| caption2 = The [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]] is a [[Historical negationism|negationist]] ideology which falsely claims that the spread of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] was not the [[Origins of the American Civil War|central cause]] of the [[American Civil War]] |
| caption2 = The [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]] is a [[Historical negationism|negationist]] ideology which falsely claims that the spread of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] was not the [[Origins of the American Civil War|central cause]] of the [[American Civil War]] |
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| image3 = IgdirGenocideMuseum.jpg |
| image3 = IgdirGenocideMuseum.jpg |
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| caption3 = The [[Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum]] in [[Turkey]] promotes the false narrative that [[Armenian genocide denial|Armenians committed genocide against Turks]], rather than vice versa |
| caption3 = The [[Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum]] in [[Turkey]] promotes the false narrative that [[Armenian genocide denial|Armenians committed genocide against Turks]], rather than vice versa<ref name=Igdir> |
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* {{cite book |last1=Marchand |first1=Laure |last2=Perrier |first2=Guillaume |title=Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide |date=2015 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-9720-4 |pages=111–112 |language=en|quote=The Iğdır genocide monument is the ultimate caricature of the Turkish government's policy of denying the 1915 genocide by rewriting history and transforming victims into guilty parties.}} |
* {{cite book |last1=Marchand |first1=Laure |last2=Perrier |first2=Guillaume |title=Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide |date=2015 |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's Press]] |isbn=978-0-7735-9720-4 |pages=111–112 |language=en|quote=The Iğdır genocide monument is the ultimate caricature of the Turkish government's policy of denying the 1915 genocide by rewriting history and transforming victims into guilty parties.}} |
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* {{harvnb|Hovannisian|2001|p=803.|ps={{nbsp}}"... the unbending attitude of the Ankara government, in 1995 of a multi-volume work of the prime ministry's state archives titled ''Armenian Atrocities in the Caucasus and Anatolia According to Archival Documents''. The purpose of the publication is not only to reiterate all previous denials but also to demonstrate that it was in fact the Turkish people who were the victims of a genocide perpetrated by the Armenians."}} |
* {{harvnb|Hovannisian|2001|p=803.|ps={{nbsp}}"... the unbending attitude of the Ankara government, in 1995 of a multi-volume work of the prime ministry's state archives titled ''Armenian Atrocities in the Caucasus and Anatolia According to Archival Documents''. The purpose of the publication is not only to reiterate all previous denials but also to demonstrate that it was in fact the Turkish people who were the victims of a genocide perpetrated by the Armenians."}} |
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* {{harvnb|Gürpınar|2016|p=234|ps=. "Maintaining that 'the best defence is a good offence', the new strategy involved accusing Armenians in response for perpetrating genocide against the Turks. The violence committed by the Armenian committees under the Russian occupation of Eastern Anatolia and massacring of tens of thousands of Muslims (Turks and Kurds) in revenge killings in 1916–17 was extravagantly displayed, magnified and decontextualized."}}</ref> |
* {{harvnb|Gürpınar|2016|p=234|ps=. "Maintaining that 'the best defence is a good offence', the new strategy involved accusing Armenians in response for perpetrating genocide against the Turks. The violence committed by the Armenian committees under the Russian occupation of Eastern Anatolia and massacring of tens of thousands of Muslims (Turks and Kurds) in revenge killings in 1916–17 was extravagantly displayed, magnified and decontextualized."}}</ref> |
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⚫ | '''Pseudohistory''' is a form of [[pseudoscholarship]] that attempts to distort or misrepresent the [[Recorded history|historical record]], often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly [[History|historical research]]. The related term '''cryptohistory''' is applied to pseudohistory derived from the [[Superstition|superstitions]] intrinsic to [[Occult|occultism]]. Pseudohistory is related to [[pseudoscience]] and [[pseudoarchaeology]], and usage of the terms may occasionally overlap. Although pseudohistory comes in many forms, scholars have identified many features that tend to be common in pseudohistorical works; one example is that the use of pseudohistory is almost always motivated by a contemporary [[Political agenda|political]], religious, or personal agenda. Pseudohistory also frequently presents sensational claims or a [[big lie]] about historical facts which would require unwarranted [[Historical revisionism|revision]] of the historical record. |
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⚫ | '''Pseudohistory''' is a form of [[pseudoscholarship]] that attempts to distort or misrepresent the [[Recorded history|historical record]], often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly [[History|historical research]]. The related term '''cryptohistory''' is applied to pseudohistory derived from the [[Superstition|superstitions]] intrinsic to [[Occult|occultism]]. Pseudohistory is related to [[pseudoscience]] and [[pseudoarchaeology]], and usage of the terms may occasionally overlap. Although pseudohistory comes in many forms, scholars have identified many features that tend to be common in pseudohistorical works; one example is that the use of pseudohistory is almost always motivated by a contemporary [[Political agenda|political]], religious, or personal agenda. Pseudohistory also frequently presents sensational claims or a [[big lie]] about historical facts which would require unwarranted [[Historical revisionism|revision]] of the historical record.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Joseph Goebbels On the "Big Lie" |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Another hallmark of pseudohistory is an underlying premise that scholars have a [[Furtive fallacy|furtive agenda]] to suppress the promotor's thesis—a premise commonly corroborated by elaborate [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]]. Works of pseudohistory often point exclusively to unreliable sources—including [[Myth|myths]] and [[Legend|legends]], often treated as literal historical truth—to support the thesis being promoted while [[Special pleading|ignoring valid sources that contradict it]]. Sometimes a work of pseudohistory will adopt a position of historical [[relativism]], insisting that there is really no such thing as historical truth and that any hypothesis is just as good as any other. Many works of pseudohistory conflate mere possibility with actuality, assuming that if something ''could'' have happened, then it did. |
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Notable examples of pseudohistory include [[British Israelism]], the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], the [[Irish slaves myth]], the [[witch-cult hypothesis|witch-cult]], [[Armenian genocide denial]], [[Holocaust denial]], the [[Myth of the clean Wehrmacht|clean Wehrmacht myth]], the 16th- and 17th-century [[Black Legend (Spain)|Spanish Black Legend]], and the claim that the [[Katyn massacre]] was not committed by the Soviet [[NKVD]]. |
Notable examples of pseudohistory include [[British Israelism]], the [[Lost Cause of the Confederacy]], the [[Irish slaves myth]], the [[witch-cult hypothesis|witch-cult]], [[Armenian genocide denial]], [[Holocaust denial]], the [[Myth of the clean Wehrmacht|clean Wehrmacht myth]], the 16th- and 17th-century [[Black Legend (Spain)|Spanish Black Legend]], and the claim that the [[Katyn massacre]] was not committed by the Soviet [[NKVD]]. |
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==Definition and etymology== |
==Definition and etymology== |
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The term ''pseudohistory'' was coined in the early nineteenth century, which makes the word older than the related terms ''[[wikt:pseudo-scholarship|pseudo-scholarship]]'' and ''[[wikt:pseudo-science|pseudoscience]]''.<ref> |
The term ''pseudohistory'' was coined in the early nineteenth century, which makes the word older than the related terms ''[[wikt:pseudo-scholarship|pseudo-scholarship]]'' and ''[[wikt:pseudo-science|pseudoscience]]''.<ref> |
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Monthly magazine and British register, Volume 55 (February 1823), [https://books.google.com/books?id=q00oAAAAYAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PA449 p. 449], in reference to John Galt, ''Ringan Gilhaize: Or, The Covenanters'', Oliver & Boyd, 1823.[https://archive.org/details/ringangilhaizeo09galtgoog]</ref> In an attestation from 1815, it is used to refer to the ''[[Contest of Homer and Hesiod]]'', a purportedly historical narrative describing an entirely fictional contest between the Greek poets [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]].<ref>C. A. Elton, ''Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean'' 1815, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RcxfAAAAMAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PR19 p. xix].</ref> The pejorative sense of the term, labelling a flawed or disingenuous work of historiography, is found in another 1815 attestation.<ref>The Critical review: or, Annals of literature, Volume 1 ed. Tobias George Smollett, 1815, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EsUPAAAAQAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PA152 p. 152]</ref> Pseudohistory is akin to pseudoscience in that both forms of falsification are achieved using the methodology that purports to, but does not, adhere to the established standards of research for the given field of intellectual enquiry of which the pseudoscience claims to be a part, and which offers little or no supporting evidence for its plausibility.<ref name="Fritze">{{cite book|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H.|date=2009|title=Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2BrqdFg5AkC&q=Pseudohistory|location=London |
Monthly magazine and British register, Volume 55 (February 1823), [https://books.google.com/books?id=q00oAAAAYAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PA449 p. 449], in reference to John Galt, ''Ringan Gilhaize: Or, The Covenanters'', Oliver & Boyd, 1823.[https://archive.org/details/ringangilhaizeo09galtgoog]</ref> In an attestation from 1815, it is used to refer to the ''[[Contest of Homer and Hesiod]]'', a purportedly historical narrative describing an entirely fictional contest between the Greek poets [[Homer]] and [[Hesiod]].<ref>C. A. Elton, ''Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean'' 1815, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RcxfAAAAMAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PR19 p. xix].</ref> The pejorative sense of the term, labelling a flawed or disingenuous work of historiography, is found in another 1815 attestation.<ref>''The Critical review: or, Annals of literature'', Volume 1 ed. Tobias George Smollett, 1815, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EsUPAAAAQAAJ&q=pseudo-history&pg=PA152 p. 152]</ref> Pseudohistory is akin to pseudoscience in that both forms of falsification are achieved using the methodology that purports to, but does not, adhere to the established standards of research for the given field of intellectual enquiry of which the pseudoscience claims to be a part, and which offers little or no supporting evidence for its plausibility.<ref name="Fritze">{{cite book|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H.|date=2009|title=Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l2BrqdFg5AkC&q=Pseudohistory|location=London|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-430-4}}</ref>{{rp|7–18}} |
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Writers [[Michael Shermer]] and [[Alex Grobman]] define pseudohistory as "the rewriting of the past for present personal or political purposes".<ref name="Shermer">{{cite book|last1=Shermer|first1=Michael|last2=Grobman|first2=Alex|title=Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uACijKy-cbgC&q=Holocaust+denial+pseudohistory&pg=PA237|location=Oakland |
Writers [[Michael Shermer]] and [[Alex Grobman]] define pseudohistory as "the rewriting of the past for present personal or political purposes".<ref name="Shermer">{{cite book|last1=Shermer|first1=Michael|last2=Grobman|first2=Alex|title=Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uACijKy-cbgC&q=Holocaust+denial+pseudohistory&pg=PA237|location=Oakland|publisher=University of California Press|date=2009|isbn=978-0-520-26098-6}}</ref>{{rp|2}} Other writers take a broader definition; Douglas Allchin, a historian of science, contends that when the history of scientific discovery is presented in a simplified way, with drama exaggerated and scientists romanticized, this creates wrong stereotypes about how science works, and in fact constitutes pseudohistory, despite being based on real facts.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Allchin|first=D.|date=2004|url=http://www.tc.umn.edu/~allch001/papers/pseudo.pdf|title=Pseudohistory and pseudoscience|volume=1|journal=Science & Education|issue=13|pages=179–195|doi=10.1023/B:SCED.0000025563.35883.e9|bibcode=2004Sc&Ed..13..179A|s2cid=7378302|access-date=2007-02-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512082518/http://www.tc.umn.edu/~allch001/papers/pseudo.pdf|archive-date=2008-05-12|url-status=dead}}</ref> |
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==Characteristics== |
==Characteristics== |
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* Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism, or because of opposition to its political or religious agenda<ref>Carroll, Robert Todd. [http://www.skepdic.com/pseudohs.html ''The skeptic's dictionary'']. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons (2003), p. 305.</ref>}} |
* Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism, or because of opposition to its political or religious agenda<ref>Carroll, Robert Todd. [http://www.skepdic.com/pseudohs.html ''The skeptic's dictionary'']. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons (2003), p. 305.</ref>}} |
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[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]] prefers the term "cryptohistory". He identifies two necessary elements as "a complete ignorance of the primary sources" and the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims".<ref>Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224,225</ref><ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, ''The Occult Roots of Nazism'', p. 225 (Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005 |
[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]] prefers the term "cryptohistory". He identifies two necessary elements as "a complete ignorance of the primary sources" and the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims".<ref>Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224, 225</ref><ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, ''The Occult Roots of Nazism'', p. 225 (Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005 ed.). {{ISBN|978-1-86064-973-8}}</ref> |
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Other common characteristics of pseudohistory are: |
Other common characteristics of pseudohistory are: |
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* Hypothesising the consequences of unlikely events that "could" have happened, thereby assuming tacitly that they did. |
* Hypothesising the consequences of unlikely events that "could" have happened, thereby assuming tacitly that they did. |
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* [[Sensationalism]], or [[shock value]] |
* [[Sensationalism]], or [[shock value]] |
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* [[Cherry picking]] evidence that helps the historical argument being made and suppressing evidence that hurts it.<ref>Ellis, Joseph J. ''American Dialogue: The Founders and Us''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. p. 168.</ref> |
* [[Cherry picking]], or "law office history", evidence that helps the historical argument being made and suppressing evidence that hurts it.<ref>Ellis, Joseph J. ''American Dialogue: The Founders and Us''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. p. 168.</ref> |
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==Categories and examples== |
==Categories and examples== |
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{{Further|Historical negationism|Pseudoarchaeology}} |
{{Further|Historical negationism|Pseudoarchaeology}} |
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The following are some common categories of pseudohistorical theory, with examples. |
The following are some common categories of pseudohistorical theory, with examples. Not all theories in a listed category are necessarily pseudohistorical; they are rather categories that seem to attract pseudohistorians. |
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=== Main Categories === |
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⚫ | An alternative [[chronology]] is a revised sequence of events that deviates from the standard timeline of world history accepted by mainstream scholars. An example of an "alternative chronology" is [[Anatoly Fomenko]]'s [[New Chronology (Fomenko)|New Chronology]], which claims that recorded history actually began around AD 800 and all events that allegedly occurred prior to that point either never really happened at all or are simply inaccurate retellings of events that happened later.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Novikov |first=S. P. |year=2000 |title=Pseudohistory and pseudomathematics: fantasy in our life |journal=Russian Mathematical Surveys |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=365–368 |bibcode=2000RuMaS..55..365N |doi=10.1070/RM2000v055n02ABEH000287 |s2cid=250892348}}</ref> One of its outgrowths is the [[Tartarian Empire (conspiracy theory)|Tartary]] conspiracy theory. Other, less extreme examples, are the [[phantom time hypothesis]], which asserts that the years AD 614–911 never took place; and the [[New Chronology (Rohl)|New Chronology]] of [[David Rohl]], which claims that the accepted timelines for ancient Egyptian and Israelite history are wrong.<ref>"In his book ''A Test of Time'' (1995), Rohl argues that the conventionally accepted dates for strata such as the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in Palestine are wrong" – in Daniel Jacobs, Shirley Eber, Francesca Silvani, ''Israel and The Palestinian Territories: The Rough Guide'', p. 424 (Rough Guides Ltd., 2nd rev. ed., 1998). {{ISBN|978-1-85828-248-0}}</ref> |
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⚫ | In the eighth century, a forged document known as [[Donation of Constantine]], which supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the [[Pope]], became widely circulated.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Before Jon Stewart |url=http://archives.cjr.org/feature/before_jon_stewart.php |access-date=February 19, 2017 |newspaper=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]}}</ref> In the twelfth century, [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] published the ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae|History of the Kings of Britain]]'', a pseudohistorical work purporting to describe the ancient history and origins of the British people. The book synthesises earlier Celtic mythical traditions to inflate the deeds of the mythical [[King Arthur]]. The contemporary historian [[William of Newburgh]] wrote around 1190 that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from [[Vortigern]] onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thorpe |first=Lewis |title=The History of the Kings of Britain |page=17}}</ref> |
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⚫ | The [[Shakespeare authorship question]] is a [[fringe theory]] that claims that the works attributed to [[William Shakespeare]] were actually written by someone other than William Shakespeare of [[Stratford-upon-Avon]].<ref>Hope, Warren and Kim Holston. ''The Shakespeare Controversy'' (2009) 2nd ed., 3: "In short, this is a history written in opposition to the current prevailing view".</ref><ref>Potter, Lois. "Marlowe onstage" in ''Constructing Christopher Marlowe'', James Alan Downie and J. T. Parnell, eds. (2000, 2001), paperback ed., 88–101; 100: "The possibility that Shakespeare may not really be Shakespeare, comic in the context of literary history and pseudo-history, is understandable in this world of double-agents . . ."</ref><ref>Aaronovitch, David. "The anti-Stratfordians" in ''Voodoo Histories'' (2010), 226–229: "There is, however, a psychological or anthropological question to be answered about our consumption of pseudo-history and pseudoscience. I have now plowed through enough of these books to be able to state that, as a genre, they are badly written and, in their anxiety to establish their dubious neo-scholarly credentials, incredibly tedious. … Why do we read bad history books that have the added lack of distinction of not being in any way true or useful …"</ref><ref>Kathman, David. [http://shakespeareauthorship.com/harpers.html Shakespeare Authorship Page]: "... Shakespeare scholars regard Oxfordianism as pseudo-scholarship which arbitrarily discards the methods used by real historians. ... In order to support their beliefs, Oxfordians resort to a number of tactics which will be familiar to observers of other forms of pseudo-history and pseudo-science."</ref> |
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⚫ | Another example of historical revisionism is the thesis, found in the writings of [[David Barton (author)|David Barton]] and others, asserting that the United States was founded as an exclusively [[Christianity|Christian]] nation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Specter |first=Arlen |author-link=Arlen Specter |date=Spring 1995 |title=Defending the wall: Maintaining church/state separation in America |url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/content/article/1027400469.html |journal=[[Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy]] |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=575–590}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Leopold, Jason |author-link=Jason Leopold |date=14 January 2008 |title=House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions |url=http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/011508Leopold.shtml |access-date=30 April 2019 |website=www.baltimorechronicle.com}}</ref><ref name="Pierard">[https://web.archive.org/web/20090317021107/http://www.bostontheological.org/publications/pdf/2004-2005/jan252005.pdf Boston Theological Institute Newsletter Volume XXXIV, No. 17], Richard V. Pierard, January 25, 2005</ref> Mainstream historians instead support the traditional position, which holds that the American founding fathers [[Separation of church and state in the United States|intended for church and state to be kept separate]].<ref name=":1">[[Rob Boston|Boston, Rob]] (2007). [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dissecting+the+religious+right%27s+favorite+Bible+Curriculum.%28Church+&...-a0170729742 "Dissecting the religious right's favorite Bible Curriculum"], [[Americans United for Separation of Church and State]], American Humanist Association. Retrieved on April 9, 2013</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Harvey |first=Paul |date=10 May 2011 |title=Selling the Idea of a Christian Nation: David Barton's Alternate Intellectual Universe |url=http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4589/selling_the_idea_of_a_christian_nation%3A_david_barton%27s_alternate_intellectual_universe |access-date=April 9, 2013 |work=[[Religion Dispatches]]}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Confederate revisionists (a.k.a. Civil War revisionists), "[[Lost Cause of the Confederacy|Lost Cause]]" advocates, and [[Neo-Confederate]]s argue that the [[Confederate States of America]]'s prime motivation was the maintenance of [[states' rights]] and limited government, rather than the preservation and expansion of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]].<ref>{{cite web |author=David Barton |date=December 2008 |title=Confronting Civil War Revisionism: Why the South Went To War |url=http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=92 |access-date=30 December 2013 |work=Wall Builders}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Barrett Brown |date=27 December 2010 |title=Neoconfederate civil war revisionism: Those who commemorate the South's fallen heroes are entitled to do so, but not to deny that slavery was the war's prime cause |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/26/american-civil-war-usa |access-date=30 December 2013 |work=TheGuardian.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=June 15, 2011 |title=Howard Swint: Confederate revisionism warps U.S. history |url=http://www.charlestondailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/201106140917 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231094729/http://www.charlestondailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/201106140917 |archive-date=31 December 2013 |access-date=30 December 2013 |work=Charleston Daily Mail}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Connected to the Lost Cause is the [[Irish slaves myth]], a pseudo-historical narrative which conflates the experiences of [[Irish indentured servants]] and [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved Africans]] in the [[Americas]]. This myth, which was historically promoted by [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] such as [[John Mitchel]], has in the modern-day been promoted by [[White supremacy|white supremacists]] in the United States to minimize the mistreatment experienced by [[African Americans]] (such as [[Racism in the United States|racism]] and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]]) and oppose demands for [[Reparations for slavery in the United States|slavery reparations]]. The myth has also been used to obscure and downplay Irish involvement in the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Linehan |first=Hugh |title=Sinn Féin not allowing facts derail good 'Irish slaves' yarn |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-not-allowing-facts-derail-good-irish-slaves-yarn-1.2644397 |access-date=2021-03-30 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Liam |title=Unhappy the Land: The Most Oppressed People Ever, the Irish? |title-link=Unhappy the Land: The Most Oppressed People Ever, the Irish? |date=2015 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |isbn=978-1785370472 |location=Dublin |page=19 |language=en}}</ref> |
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==== Historical Negationism ==== |
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While closely related to previous categories, [[historical negationism]] / denialism specifically aims to outright deny the existence of confirmed events, often including various massacres and genocides. |
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Some examples include denial of the Holocaust and denial of the Armenian Genocide.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/37362/chapter-abstract/331336915?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Mainstream historians have categorized psychohistory as pseudohistory.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barzun |first1=Jacques |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqW82zyUoVAC&q=clio+and+the+doctors |title=Clio and the Doctors: Psycho-History, Quanto-History and History |date=1989 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226038513 |location=Chicago |page=3 |access-date=30 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hunt |first=Lynn |title=A Companion to Western Historical Thought |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=0-631-21714-2 |editor=Kramer Lloyd S. and Maza, Sarah C. |pages=337–357 |chapter=Psychology, Pschoanalysis and Historical Thought – The Misfortunes of Psychohistory |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2eKDjo4B_IC&q=psychohistory+is+a+pseudoscience&pg=PA339}}</ref> Psychohistory is an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities.<ref>Paul H. Elovitz, Ed., ''Psychohistory for the Twenty-First Century'' (2013) pp. 1–3.</ref> Its stated goal is to examine the "why" of history, especially the difference between stated intention and actual behavior. It also states as its goal the combination of the insights of psychology, especially [[psychoanalysis]], with the research methodology of the [[social sciences]] and humanities to understand the emotional origin of the behavior of individuals, groups and nations, past and present. |
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==== Pseudoarchaeology ==== |
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[[Pseudoarchaeology]] refers to a false interpretation of records, namely physical ones, often by unqualified or otherwise amateur archeologists. These interpretations are often baseless and seldom align with established consensus. Nazi archaeology is a prominent example of this technique.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1970-01-01 |title=What did the Nazis have to do with archaeology? |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/archaeology/nazi-archaeology.htm |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=HowStuffWorks |language=en-us}}</ref> Frequently, people who engage in pseudoarchaeology have a very strict interpretation of evidence and are unwilling to alter their stance, resulting in interpretations that often appear overly simplistic and fail to capture the complexity and nuance of the complete narrative.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fagan |first1=Garrett G. |title=Archaeological Fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public |date=1963 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-30593-4 |page=27}}</ref> |
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(These following examples can belong to a variety of the above mentioned categories, or ones not mentioned as well). |
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{{main|Ancient astronauts}} |
{{main|Ancient astronauts}} |
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In 1968, [[Erich von Däniken]] published ''[[Chariots of the Gods?]]'', which claims that ancient visitors from outer space constructed the pyramids and other monuments. He has since published other books in which he makes similar claims. These claims have all been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|201}} Similarly, [[Zechariah Sitchin]] has published numerous books claiming that a race of extraterrestrial beings from the [[Nibiru cataclysm#Nancy Lieder and ZetaTalk|Planet Nibiru]] known as the [[Anunnaki]] visited Earth in ancient times in search of gold, and that they genetically engineered humans to serve as their slaves. He claims that memories of these occurrences are recorded in [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian mythology]], as well as other mythologies all across the globe. These speculations have likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name=heiser>{{cite web|title=The Myth of a Sumerian 12th Planet|url=http://www.michaelsheiser.com/nibiru.pdf|author=Michael S. Heiser|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120023753/http://www.michaelsheiser.com/nibiru.pdf|archive-date=20 November 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Skepdic">{{cite web|url=http://www.skepdic.com/sitchin.html|title=Zecharia Sitchin and ''The Earth Chronicles''|last=Carroll|first=Robert T|date=1994–2009|work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|access-date=30 July 2017}}</ref> |
In 1968, [[Erich von Däniken]] published ''[[Chariots of the Gods?]]'', which claims that ancient visitors from outer space constructed the pyramids and other monuments. He has since published other books in which he makes similar claims. These claims have all been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|201}} Similarly, [[Zechariah Sitchin]] has published numerous books claiming that a race of extraterrestrial beings from the [[Nibiru cataclysm#Nancy Lieder and ZetaTalk|Planet Nibiru]] known as the [[Anunnaki]] visited Earth in ancient times in search of gold, and that they genetically engineered humans to serve as their slaves. He claims that memories of these occurrences are recorded in [[Sumerian religion|Sumerian mythology]], as well as other mythologies all across the globe. These speculations have likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name=heiser>{{cite web|title=The Myth of a Sumerian 12th Planet|url=http://www.michaelsheiser.com/nibiru.pdf|author=Michael S. Heiser|access-date=30 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120023753/http://www.michaelsheiser.com/nibiru.pdf|archive-date=20 November 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Skepdic">{{cite web|url=http://www.skepdic.com/sitchin.html|title=Zecharia Sitchin and ''The Earth Chronicles''|last=Carroll|first=Robert T|date=1994–2009|work=The Skeptic's Dictionary|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|access-date=30 July 2017}}</ref> |
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The ancient astronaut hypothesis was further popularized in the United States by the [[History (U.S. TV network)|History Channel]] television series ''[[Ancient Aliens]]''.<ref name="Fritze2009">{{cite journal|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H.|title=On the Perils and Pleasures of Confronting Pseudohistory|journal=Historically Speaking|volume=10|number=5|date=November 2009|pages=2–5|issn=1941-4188|doi=10.1353/hsp.0.0067|s2cid=144988932}}</ref> History professor [[Ronald H. Fritze]] observed that the pseudohistorical claims promoted by von Däniken and the ''Ancient Aliens'' program have a periodic popularity in the US:<ref name=Fritze/><ref name=Rorotoko/> "In a pop culture with a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens and pyramids and lost civilizations are recycled like fashions."<ref name=Fritze/>{{rp|201}}<ref name=Rorotoko>{{cite web|last=Fritze|first=Ronald|title=Ronald H. Fritze, On his book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions, Cover Interview|url=http://rorotoko.com/interview/20090708_fritze_ronald_invented_knowledge_false_history_fake_science_pseudo/?page=4|work=July 08, 2009|publisher=Rorotoko.com|access-date=July 17, 2012}}</ref> |
The ancient astronaut hypothesis was further popularized in the United States by the [[History (U.S. TV network)|History Channel]] television series ''[[Ancient Aliens]]''.<ref name="Fritze2009">{{cite journal|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H.|title=On the Perils and Pleasures of Confronting Pseudohistory|journal=Historically Speaking|volume=10|number=5|date=November 2009|pages=2–5|issn=1941-4188|doi=10.1353/hsp.0.0067|s2cid=144988932}}</ref> History professor [[Ronald H. Fritze]] observed that the pseudohistorical claims promoted by von Däniken and the ''Ancient Aliens'' program have a periodic popularity in the US:<ref name=Fritze/><ref name=Rorotoko/> "In a pop culture with a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens and pyramids and lost civilizations are recycled like fashions."<ref name=Fritze/>{{rp|201}}<ref name=Rorotoko>{{cite web|last=Fritze|first=Ronald|title=Ronald H. Fritze, On his book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions, Cover Interview|url=http://rorotoko.com/interview/20090708_fritze_ronald_invented_knowledge_false_history_fake_science_pseudo/?page=4|work=July 08, 2009|date=8 July 2009 |publisher=Rorotoko.com|access-date=July 17, 2012}}</ref> |
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The author [[Graham Hancock]] has sold over four million copies of books promoting the pseudohistorical thesis that all the major monuments of the ancient world, including [[Stonehenge]], the [[Egyptian pyramids]], and the [[moai]] of [[Easter Island]], were built by a single ancient supercivilization,<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheiko|first=Konstantin|date=2012|title=Nationalist Imaginings of the Russian Past: Anatolii Fomenko and the Rise of Alternative History in Post-Communist Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74s0DwAAQBAJ&q=Graham+Hancock+Pseudohistory&pg=PA83|series=Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society|location=Stuttgart, Germany|publisher=Ibidem-Verlag|volume=86|page=83|isbn= |
The author [[Graham Hancock]] has sold over four million copies of books promoting the pseudohistorical thesis that all the major monuments of the ancient world, including [[Stonehenge]], the [[Egyptian pyramids]], and the [[moai]] of [[Easter Island]], were built by a single ancient supercivilization,<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheiko|first=Konstantin|date=2012|title=Nationalist Imaginings of the Russian Past: Anatolii Fomenko and the Rise of Alternative History in Post-Communist Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74s0DwAAQBAJ&q=Graham+Hancock+Pseudohistory&pg=PA83|series=Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society|location=Stuttgart, Germany|publisher=Ibidem-Verlag|volume=86|page=83|isbn=978-3838259154}}</ref> which Hancock claims thrived from 15,000 to 10,000 BC and possessed technological and scientific knowledge equal to or surpassing that of modern civilization.<ref name=Fritze/> He first advanced the full form of this argument in his 1995 bestseller ''[[Fingerprints of the Gods]]'',<ref name=Fritze/> which won popular acclaim, but scholarly disdain.<ref name=Fritze/> [[Christopher Knight (author)|Christopher Knight]] has published numerous books, including ''[[Uriel's Machine]]'' (2000), expounding pseudohistorical assertions that ancient civilizations possessed technology far more advanced than the technology of today.<ref>Merriman, Nick, editor, ''Public Archaeology'', Routledge, 2004 p. 260</ref><ref>Tonkin, S., 2003, [http://www.astunit.com/astrocrud/uriel.htm Uriel's Machine – a Commentary on some of the Astronomical Assertions.]</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=The comforts of unreason: the importance and relevance of alternative archaeology|editor-last=Merriman|editor-first=Nick|title=Public Archaeology|url=https://archive.org/details/publicarchaeolog00merr_661|url-access=limited|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=London|date=2004|page=[https://archive.org/details/publicarchaeolog00merr_661/page/n274 260]|isbn=978-0415258890}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Tonkin|first=Stephen|date=2003|url=http://astunit.com/astrocrud.php?topic=uriel|title=Uriel's Machine – a Commentary on some of the Astronomical Assertions|work=The Astronomical Unit|access-date=21 November 2013}}</ref> |
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The claim that a lost continent known as [[Lemuria (continent)|Lemuria]] once existed in the Pacific Ocean has likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|11}} |
The claim that a lost continent known as [[Lemuria (continent)|Lemuria]] once existed in the Pacific Ocean has likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|11}} |
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Furthermore, similar conspiracy theories promote the idea of embellished, fabricated accounts of historical civilizations, namely [[Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry|Khazaria]] and [[Tartarian Empire|Tartaria]]. |
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{{see also|Blood libel}} |
{{see also|Blood libel}} |
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[[File:1934 Protocols Patriotic Pub.jpg|thumb|upright|American edition of |
[[File:1934 Protocols Patriotic Pub.jpg|thumb|upright|American edition of ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' from 1934]] |
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''[[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]]'' is a fraudulent work purporting to show a historical conspiracy for world domination by Jews.<ref name="ushmm.org">{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion|title=Protocols of the Elders of Zion|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|access-date=May 28, 2020}}</ref> The work was conclusively proven to be a forgery in August 1921, when ''[[The Times]]'' revealed that extensive portions of the document were directly plagiarized from [[Maurice Joly]]'s 1864 satirical dialogue ''[[The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu]]'',<ref>{{cite journal| author = Philip Graves| title = The truth about "The Protocols"| journal = The Times |date=August 16–18, 1921| location = London| url = https://archive.org/details/truthaboutthepro00londiala}} |
''[[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]]'' is a fraudulent work purporting to show a historical conspiracy for world domination by Jews.<ref name="ushmm.org">{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion|title=Protocols of the Elders of Zion|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org|access-date=May 28, 2020}}</ref> The work was conclusively proven to be a forgery in August 1921, when ''[[The Times]]'' revealed that extensive portions of the document were directly plagiarized from [[Maurice Joly]]'s 1864 satirical dialogue ''[[The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu]]'',<ref>{{cite journal| author = Philip Graves| title = The truth about "The Protocols"| journal = The Times |date=August 16–18, 1921| location = London| url = https://archive.org/details/truthaboutthepro00londiala}} |
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</ref> as well as [[Hermann Goedsche]]'s 1868 anti-Semitic novel ''Biarritz''.<ref name = "translated97">{{Citation | last = Segel | first = Binjamin W | title = A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion | editor-link = Richard S. Levy| editor-last = Levy | editor-first = Richard S | page = 97 | year = 1996 | orig-year = 1926 | publisher = University of Nebraska Press | isbn = 0-8032-9245-7}}.</ref> |
</ref> as well as [[Hermann Goedsche]]'s 1868 anti-Semitic novel ''Biarritz''.<ref name = "translated97">{{Citation | last = Segel | first = Binjamin W | title = A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion | editor-link = Richard S. Levy| editor-last = Levy | editor-first = Richard S | page = 97 | year = 1996 | orig-year = 1926 | publisher = University of Nebraska Press | isbn = 0-8032-9245-7}}.</ref> |
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The [[Khazar theory]] is an academic [[fringe theory]] that postulates that the bulk of European Jewry are of [[Central Asia]]n (Turkic) origin. In spite of [[genetic studies on Jews|mainstream academic consensus]] conclusively rejecting it, this theory has been promoted in [[Anti-Semitic]] and some [[Anti-Zionist]] circles, arguing that Jews are an alien element both in Europe and in Palestine. |
The [[Khazar theory]] is an academic [[fringe theory]] that postulates that the bulk of European Jewry are of [[Central Asia]]n (Turkic) origin. In spite of [[genetic studies on Jews|mainstream academic consensus]] conclusively rejecting it, this theory has been promoted in [[Anti-Semitic]] and some [[Anti-Zionist]] circles, arguing that Jews are an alien element both in Europe and in Palestine. |
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[[Holocaust denial]] and [[genocide denial]] in general are widely categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Shermer"/>{{rp|237}}<ref name="Lipstadt">{{cite book|last=Lipstadt|first=Deborah E.|date=1994|title=Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory|location=New York |
[[Holocaust denial]] and [[genocide denial]] in general are widely categorized as pseudohistory.<ref name="Shermer"/>{{rp|237}}<ref name="Lipstadt">{{cite book|last=Lipstadt|first=Deborah E.|date=1994|title=Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory|location=New York |publisher=Plume|page=[https://archive.org/details/denyingholocaust00lips/page/215 215]|isbn=0-452-27274-2|url=https://archive.org/details/denyingholocaust00lips/page/215}}</ref> Major proponents of Holocaust denial include [[David Irving]] and others, who argue that the [[Holocaust]], [[Holodomor]], [[Armenian genocide]], [[Assyrian genocide]], [[Greek genocide]] and other genocides did not occur, or were exaggerated greatly.<ref name="Lipstadt"/> |
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⚫ | An alternative [[chronology]] is a revised sequence of events that deviates from the standard timeline of world history accepted by mainstream scholars. An example of an "alternative chronology" is [[Anatoly Fomenko]]'s [[New Chronology (Fomenko)|New Chronology]], which claims that recorded history actually began around AD 800 and all events that allegedly occurred prior to that point either never really happened at all or are simply inaccurate retellings of events that happened later.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Novikov|first=S. P.|title=Pseudohistory and pseudomathematics: fantasy in our life|journal=Russian Mathematical Surveys |
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{{see also|Historiography and nationalism|National mysticism}} |
{{see also|Historiography and nationalism|National mysticism}} |
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Most [[Afrocentrism|Afrocentric]] (i.e. [[Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories]], see [[Ancient Egyptian race controversy]]) ideas have been identified as pseudohistorical,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2001/clarence.html |title=Clarence Walker encourages black Americans to discard Afrocentrism |access-date=2007-11-13 |last=Sherwin |first=Elisabeth |publisher=Davis Community Network }}</ref><ref name="Ortiz1997">{{Cite journal|author=Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo & Gabriel Haslip Viera & Warren Barbour|year=1997|title=They were NOT here before Columbus: Afrocentric hyper-diffusionism in the 1990s|journal=Ethnohistory|pages=199–234|volume=44|doi=10.2307/483368|issue=2|publisher=Duke University Press|jstor=483368}}</ref> alongside the "[[Indigenous Aryans#Pseudoscience and postmodernism|Indigenous Aryans]]" theories published by [[Hindu nationalists]] during the 1990s and 2000s.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Meera|last= Nanda|title=Response to my critics''|journal= Social Epistemology|volume= 19|issue=1|date= January–March 2005|url=http://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/Nanda_SocEpist.pdf|pages= |
Most [[Afrocentrism|Afrocentric]] (i.e. [[Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories]], see [[Ancient Egyptian race controversy]]) ideas have been identified as pseudohistorical,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2001/clarence.html |title=Clarence Walker encourages black Americans to discard Afrocentrism |access-date=2007-11-13 |last=Sherwin |first=Elisabeth |publisher=Davis Community Network }}</ref><ref name="Ortiz1997">{{Cite journal|author=Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo & Gabriel Haslip Viera & Warren Barbour|year=1997|title=They were NOT here before Columbus: Afrocentric hyper-diffusionism in the 1990s|journal=Ethnohistory|pages=199–234|volume=44|doi=10.2307/483368|issue=2|publisher=Duke University Press|jstor=483368}}</ref> alongside the "[[Indigenous Aryans#Pseudoscience and postmodernism|Indigenous Aryans]]" theories published by [[Hindu nationalists]] during the 1990s and 2000s.<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Meera|last= Nanda|title=Response to my critics''|journal= Social Epistemology|volume= 19|issue=1|date= January–March 2005|url=http://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/Nanda_SocEpist.pdf|pages=147–191|doi=10.1080/02691720500084358|s2cid= 10045510}} |
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{{Cite book| last =Sokal | first =Alan | author-link =Alan Sokal|chapter=Pseudoscience and Postmodernism: Antagonists or Fellow-Travelers?|editor-last= Fagan|editor-first=Garrett|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year= 2006 |isbn=0-415-30592-6}}</ref> The "crypto-history" developed within [[Ariosophy|Germanic mysticism]] and [[Nazi occultism]] has likewise been placed under this categorization.<ref>[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]]. 1985. ''[[The Occult Roots of Nazism]]: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935''. Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. {{ISBN|0-85030-402-4}}. (Several reprints.) Expanded with a new Preface, 2004, I.B. Tauris & Co. {{ISBN|1-86064-973-4}}</ref> Among leading Nazis, [[Heinrich Himmler]] is believed to have been influenced by occultism and according to one theory, developed the SS base at [[Wewelsburg]] in accordance with an esoteric plan |
{{Cite book| last =Sokal | first =Alan | author-link =Alan Sokal|chapter=Pseudoscience and Postmodernism: Antagonists or Fellow-Travelers?|editor-last= Fagan|editor-first=Garrett|title=Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year= 2006 |isbn=0-415-30592-6}}</ref> The "crypto-history" developed within [[Ariosophy|Germanic mysticism]] and [[Nazi occultism]] has likewise been placed under this categorization.<ref>[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]]. 1985. ''[[The Occult Roots of Nazism]]: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935''. Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. {{ISBN|0-85030-402-4}}. (Several reprints.) Expanded with a new Preface, 2004, I.B. Tauris & Co. {{ISBN|1-86064-973-4}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite web |last=Kristkoiz |first=Suzanne |date=2021-04-21 |title=The Utilisation of Historically Revisionist Narratives by the FPÖ and the AfD |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2021/04/21/the-utilisation-of-historically-revisionist-narratives-by-the-fpo-and-the-afd/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=E-International Relations |language=en-US}}</ref> Among leading Nazis, [[Heinrich Himmler]] is believed to have been influenced by occultism and according to one theory, developed the SS base at [[Wewelsburg]] in accordance with an esoteric plan. |
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The [[Sun Language Theory]] is a pseudohistorical ideology which argues that all languages are descended from a form of proto-Turkish.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Aytürk, İlker |date=November 2004 |title=Turkish Linguists against the West: The Origins of Linguistic Nationalism in Atatürk's Turkey |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=1–25 |location=London |publisher=Frank Cass & Co (Routledge) |doi=10.1080/0026320042000282856 |issn=0026-3206 |oclc=86539631|url=http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/11693/49528/1/Turkish_linguists_against_the_West_the_Origins_of_linguistic_nationalism_Ataturks_Turkey.pdf |hdl=11693/49528 |s2cid=144968896 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The theory may have been partially devised in order to legitimize Arabic and Semitic loanwords occurring in the Turkish language by instead asserting that the Arabic and Semitic words were derived from the Turkish ones rather than vice versa.<ref>[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil'ad]] (2003), [[Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew]]. [[Palgrave Macmillan]]. {{ISBN|978-1403917232}} [http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781403917232], p. 165.</ref> |
The [[Sun Language Theory]] is a pseudohistorical ideology which argues that all languages are descended from a form of proto-Turkish.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Aytürk, İlker |date=November 2004 |title=Turkish Linguists against the West: The Origins of Linguistic Nationalism in Atatürk's Turkey |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=1–25 |location=London |publisher=Frank Cass & Co (Routledge) |doi=10.1080/0026320042000282856 |issn=0026-3206 |oclc=86539631|url=http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/bitstream/11693/49528/1/Turkish_linguists_against_the_West_the_Origins_of_linguistic_nationalism_Ataturks_Turkey.pdf |hdl=11693/49528 |s2cid=144968896 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The theory may have been partially devised in order to legitimize Arabic and Semitic loanwords occurring in the Turkish language by instead asserting that the Arabic and Semitic words were derived from the Turkish ones rather than vice versa.<ref>[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil'ad]] (2003), [[Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew]]. [[Palgrave Macmillan]]. {{ISBN|978-1403917232}} [http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781403917232], p. 165.</ref> |
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A large number of nationalist pseudohistorical theories deal with the legendary [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of ancient Israel. [[British Israelism#Claims and criticism|British-Israelism]], also known as Anglo-Israelism, the most famous example of this type, has been conclusively refuted by mainstream historians using evidence from a vast array of different fields of study.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melton|first1=J. Gordon|title=Encyclopedia of Protestantism|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaprot00melt_306|url-access=limited|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|isbn=0-8160-5456-8|year=2005|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaprot00melt_306/page/n656 107]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cross|first1=Frank Leslie|last2=Livingstone|first2=Elizabeth A.|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn= |
A large number of nationalist pseudohistorical theories deal with the legendary [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of ancient Israel. [[British Israelism#Claims and criticism|British-Israelism]], also known as Anglo-Israelism, the most famous example of this type, has been conclusively refuted by mainstream historians using evidence from a vast array of different fields of study.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Melton|first1=J. Gordon|title=Encyclopedia of Protestantism|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaprot00melt_306|url-access=limited|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|isbn=0-8160-5456-8|year=2005|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaprot00melt_306/page/n656 107]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cross|first1=Frank Leslie|last2=Livingstone|first2=Elizabeth A.|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0192802903|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA241|language=en|year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Shapiro|first1=Faydra L.|title=Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border|publisher=Cascade Books|location=Eugene, OR|year=2015|page=151}}</ref> |
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Another form of ethnocentric revisionism is nationalistic pseudohistory. The "[[Antiquization|Ancient Macedonians continuity theory]]" is one such pseudohistorical theory, which postulates demographic, cultural and linguistic continuity between Macedonians of antiquity and the main ethnic group in present-day [[North Macedonia]].<ref>Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. |
Another form of ethnocentric revisionism is nationalistic pseudohistory. The "[[Antiquization|Ancient Macedonians continuity theory]]" is one such pseudohistorical theory, which postulates demographic, cultural and linguistic continuity between Macedonians of antiquity and the main ethnic group in present-day [[North Macedonia]].<ref>Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. {{doi|10.1080/00905992.2010.532775}} Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Todorović |first1=Miloš |title=Nationalistic Pseudohistory in the Balkans |journal=Skeptic Magazine |date=2019 |volume=24 |issue=4 |url=https://www.academia.edu/41295763 |access-date=26 January 2020}}</ref> Also, the Bulgarian medieval dynasty of [[Cometopuli dynasty|the Komitopules]], which ruled the [[First Bulgarian Empire]] in its last decades, is presented as "Macedonian", ruling a "medieval Macedonian state", because of the location of its capitals in Macedonia.<ref>Svetozar Rajak, Konstantina E. Botsiou, Eirini Karamouzi, Evanthis Hatzivassiliou ed. The Balkans in the Cold War. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World, Springer, 2017, {{ISBN|1137439033}}, p. 313.</ref> |
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[[Dacianism]] is a Romanian pseudohistorical current that attempts to attribute far more influence over European and world history to the [[Dacians]] than that which they actually enjoyed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Boia|first1=Lucian|title=Istorie și mit în conștiința românească|date=1997|publisher=Humanitas|location=Bucharest, Romania|pages=160–161}}</ref> Dacianist historiography claims that the Dacians held primacy over all other civilizations, including the [[Roman people|Romans]];<ref>{{harvnb|Boia|1997|pp=149–151}}</ref> that the [[Dacian language]] was the origin of [[Latin]] and all other languages, such as [[Hindi]] and [[Akkadian language|Babylonian]];<ref name="George Pruteanu">{{cite web | date=26 March 1996 | title=Doar o vorbă SĂȚ-I mai spun | website=George Pruteanu | url=http://georgepruteanu.ro/4doarovorba/emis000-protv-960325-traco-daci.htm | language=ro | access-date=21 January 2020}}</ref> and sometimes that the [[Zalmoxis]] cult has structural links to Christianity.<ref>{{harvnb|Boia|1997|p=169}}</ref> Dacianism was most prevalent in [[National Communism in Romania|National Communist]] [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]], as the [[Nicolae Ceaușescu|Ceaușescu]] regime portrayed the Dacians as insurgents defying an "imperialist" Rome; the [[Romanian Communist Party|Communist Party]] had formally attached "protochronism", as Dacianism was known, to [[Marxism|Marxist]] ideology by 1974.<ref>{{harvnb|Boia|1997|pp=120, 154–156}}</ref> |
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⚫ | In the eighth century, a forged document known as [[Donation of Constantine]], which supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the [[Pope]], became widely circulated.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archives.cjr.org/feature/before_jon_stewart.php| |
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⚫ | The [[Shakespeare authorship question]] is a [[fringe theory]] that claims that the works attributed to [[William Shakespeare]] were actually written by someone other than William Shakespeare of [[Stratford-upon-Avon]].<ref>Hope, Warren and Kim Holston. ''The Shakespeare Controversy'' (2009) 2nd ed., 3: "In short, this is a history written in opposition to the current prevailing view".</ref><ref>Potter, Lois. "Marlowe onstage" in ''Constructing Christopher Marlowe'', James Alan Downie and J. T. Parnell, eds. (2000, 2001), paperback ed., 88–101; 100: "The possibility that Shakespeare may not really be Shakespeare, comic in the context of literary history and pseudo-history, is understandable in this world of double-agents . . ."</ref><ref>Aaronovitch, David. "The anti-Stratfordians" in ''Voodoo Histories'' (2010), 226–229: "There is, however, a psychological or anthropological question to be answered about our consumption of pseudo-history and pseudoscience. I have now plowed through enough of these books to be able to state that, as a genre, they are badly written and, in their anxiety to establish their dubious neo-scholarly credentials, incredibly tedious. |
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⚫ | Another example of historical revisionism is the thesis, found in the writings of [[David Barton (author)|David Barton]] and others, asserting that the United States was founded as an exclusively [[Christianity|Christian]] nation.<ref>{{Cite journal| |
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⚫ | Confederate revisionists (a.k.a. Civil War revisionists), "[[Lost Cause of the Confederacy|Lost Cause]]" advocates, and [[Neo-Confederate]]s argue that the [[Confederate States of America]]'s prime motivation was the maintenance of [[states' rights]] and limited government, rather than the preservation and expansion of slavery.<ref>{{cite web| |
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⚫ | Connected to the Lost Cause is the [[Irish slaves myth]], a pseudo-historical narrative which conflates the experiences of [[Irish indentured servants]] and [[Atlantic slave trade|enslaved Africans]] in the [[Americas]]. This myth, which was historically promoted by [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalists]] such as [[John Mitchel]], has in the modern-day been promoted by [[White supremacy|white supremacists]] in the United States to minimize the mistreatment experienced by [[African Americans]] (such as [[Racism in the United States|racism]] and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]]) and oppose demands for |
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{{main|Matriarchy}} |
{{main|Matriarchy}} |
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The consensus among academics is that no strictly matriarchal society is known to have existed.<ref>Goldberg, Steven, ''The Inevitability of Patriarchy'' (William Morrow & Co., 1973).</ref><ref>{{harvp|Eller|2000}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Donald Brown (anthropologist)|Donald Brown]]'s list of [[cultural universal|human cultural universals]] (''viz.'', features shared by nearly all current human societies) includes men being the "dominant element" in public political affairs,<ref>Brown, Donald E., ''Human Universals'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), p. 137.</ref> which is the contemporary opinion of mainstream [[anthropology]].<ref name=":0" /> |
The consensus among academics is that no strictly matriarchal society is known to have existed.<ref>Goldberg, Steven, ''The Inevitability of Patriarchy'' (William Morrow & Co., 1973).</ref><ref>{{harvp|Eller|2000}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Donald Brown (anthropologist)|Donald Brown]]'s list of [[cultural universal|human cultural universals]] (''viz.'', features shared by nearly all current human societies) includes men being the "dominant element" in public political affairs,<ref>Brown, Donald E., ''Human Universals'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), p. 137.</ref> which is the contemporary opinion of mainstream [[anthropology]].<ref name=":0" /> |
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Despite this however, some [[second-wave feminist]]s assert that a matriarchy preceded the patriarchy. The [[Goddess Movement]] |
Despite this however, some [[second-wave feminist]]s assert that a matriarchy preceded the patriarchy. The [[Goddess Movement]] |
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and Riane Eisler's [[The Chalice and the Blade]] cite [[Venus figurines]] as evidence that societies of [[paleolithic]] and [[neolithic]] Europe were matriarchies that worshipped a goddess. This belief is not supported by mainstream academics.<ref name="Nelson">Ruth Whitehouse. "The Mother Goddess Hypothesis and Its Critics," in ''Handbook of Gender in Archaeology'', Sarah Milledge Nelson (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=EtIQUpgo2cEC&q=mother+goddess+hypothesis pp. |
and Riane Eisler's [[The Chalice and the Blade]] cite [[Venus figurines]] as evidence that societies of [[paleolithic]] and [[neolithic]] Europe were matriarchies that worshipped a goddess. This belief is not supported by mainstream academics.<ref name="Nelson">Ruth Whitehouse. "The Mother Goddess Hypothesis and Its Critics," in ''Handbook of Gender in Archaeology'', Sarah Milledge Nelson (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=EtIQUpgo2cEC&q=mother+goddess+hypothesis pp. 756–758]</ref> |
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===Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories=== |
==== Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories ==== |
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{{main|Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact}} |
{{main|Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact}} |
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Excluding the [[Norse colonization of the Americas]] and other reputable scholarship, most theories of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact have been classified as pseudohistory, including claims that the Americas were actually discovered by Arabs or Muslims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hnn.us/article/23662|title=Did Muslims Visit America Before Columbus?|website=hnn.us}}</ref> [[Gavin Menzies]]' book ''[[1421: The Year China Discovered the World]]'', which argues for the idea that Chinese sailors discovered America, has also been categorized as a work of pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|11}} |
Excluding the [[Norse colonization of the Americas]] and other reputable scholarship, most theories of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact have been classified as pseudohistory, including claims that the Americas were actually discovered by Arabs or Muslims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hnn.us/article/23662|title=Did Muslims Visit America Before Columbus?|website=hnn.us}}</ref> [[Gavin Menzies]]' book ''[[1421: The Year China Discovered the World]]'', which argues for the idea that Chinese sailors discovered America, has also been categorized as a work of pseudohistory.<ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|11}} |
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==== Racist pseudohistory ==== |
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⚫ | [[Josiah Priest]] and other nineteenth-century American writers wrote pseudohistorical narratives that portrayed [[African Americans]] and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in an extremely negative light.<ref name=Williams>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Stephen|title=Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory|url=https://archive.org/details/fantasticarchaeo00will|url-access=registration|location=Philadelphia|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|date=1991}}</ref> Priest's first book was ''The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed'' (1826).<ref>{{cite book|first=Josiah|last=Priest|title=The Wonders of Nature, and Providence Displayed|publisher=E & E Hosford|location=Albany|year=1826|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJsRAAAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref name=Williams/> The book is regarded by modern critics as one of the earliest works of modern American pseudohistory.<ref name=Williams/> Priest attacked Native Americans in ''American Antiquities and Discoveries of the West'' (1833)<ref>{{cite book|first=Josiah|last=Priest|title=American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West |publisher=Hoffman and White|location=Albany|year=1835|url=https://archive.org/details/americanantiqui05priegoog}}</ref><ref name=Williams/> and African-Americans in ''Slavery, As It Relates to the Negro'' (1843).<ref>{{cite book|first=Josiah|last=Priest|title=Slavery, As It Relates to the Negro|publisher=C. van Bethuysen & Co|location=Albany|year=1843|url=https://archive.org/stream/slaveryasitrela00priegoog#page/n7/mode/1up}}</ref><ref name=Williams/> Other nineteenth-century writers, such as [[Thomas Gold Appleton]], in his ''A Sheaf of Papers'' (1875), and [[George Perkins Marsh]], in his ''The Goths in New England'', seized upon false notions of [[Vikings|Viking]] history to promote the superiority of [[white people]] (as well as to oppose the [[Catholic Church]]). Such misuse of Viking history and imagery reemerged in the twentieth century among some groups promoting [[white supremacy]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Regal |first=Brian |date=2019 |title=Everything Means Something in Viking |magazine=[[Skeptical Inquirer]] |publisher=[[Center for Inquiry]] |volume=43 |issue=6 |pages=44–47}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Mainstream historians have categorized psychohistory as pseudohistory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barzun|first1=Jacques|title=Clio and the Doctors: Psycho-History, Quanto-History and History|date=1989|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago |
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A recent but unfounded claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that the Holocaust was promoted and encourage by Palestinian Muftis, rather than Nazi Germany. This claim has come under strong criticism from historians across the world.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Botelho |first=Greg |date=2015-10-21 |title=Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu criticized for saying Holocaust was mufti’s idea, not Hitler’s |url=https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/21/middleeast/netanyahu-hitler-grand-mufti-holocaust/index.html |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-10-22 |title=Germany tells Netanyahu: We are responsible for the Holocaust |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34599706 |access-date=2024-04-01 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> |
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⚫ | [[Josiah Priest]] and other nineteenth-century American writers wrote pseudohistorical narratives that portrayed [[African Americans]] and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] in an extremely negative light.<ref name=Williams>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Stephen|title=Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory|url=https://archive.org/details/fantasticarchaeo00will|url-access=registration|location=Philadelphia |
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====Communist pseudohistory==== |
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{{Main|Mass killings under communist regimes}} |
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[[Communism|Communists]] and [[Putinism|Putinists]] deny, downplay, or justify the [[Mass killings under communist regimes|mass repressions]], [[Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union|artificial famines]], and [[Gulag|concentration camps]] in the [[Soviet Union]] and other communist regimes that claimed millions of human lives, saying that while such events took place, they have been exaggerated by opponents of the [[Russia|modern Russian state]] to discredit the legacy of Communism and the Soviet Union.{{CN|date=April 2024}} Supporters of this viewpoint claim, among other things, that [[Joseph Stalin]] and other top Soviet leaders did not realize the scope of the killings, that the executions of prisoners were legally justifiable, and that prisoners in concentration camps performed important construction work that helped the Soviet Union economonically, particularly during [[World War II]]. Scholars point to overwhelming evidence that Stalin directly helped plan the mass killings, that many prisoners were sent to concentration camps extrajudicially, and that prisoners were often simply isolated in remote camps or given pointless and menial tasks.<ref>[https://meduza.io/cards/mne-govoryat-chto-repressiy-v-sssr-ne-bylo-kak-s-etim-sporit Мне говорят, что репрессий в СССР не было. Как с этим спорить?]</ref> |
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==== Anti-religious pseudohistory ==== |
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{{see also|Bible conspiracy theory|Christ Myth Theory}} |
{{see also|Bible conspiracy theory|Christ Myth Theory}} |
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⚫ | The [[Christ myth theory]] claims that [[Jesus]] of Nazareth never existed as a historical figure and that his existence was invented by early Christians. This argument currently finds very little support among scholars and historians of all faiths and has been described as pseudohistorical.<ref name="Ehrman285">In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, [[Bart Ehrman]] (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 ''Forged : writing in the name of God'' {{ISBN|978-0-06-207863-6}}. p. 285</ref><ref>[[Robert M. Price]] (an atheist who denies the existence of Jesus) agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars: Robert M. Price "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in ''The Historical Jesus: Five Views'' edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2009 InterVarsity, {{ISBN|028106329X}} p. 61</ref><ref name="GrantMajority">[[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]] (a [[classicist]]) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in ''Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels'' by Michael Grant 2004 {{ISBN|1898799881}} p. 200</ref><ref name="Burridge34">[[Richard A. Burridge]] states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that anymore." in ''Jesus Now and Then'' by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (2004) {{ISBN|0802809774}} p. 34</ref><ref>[[Did Jesus Exist? (Ehrman)|Did Jesus exist?]], [[Bart Ehrman]], 2012, Chapter 1</ref><ref>Sykes, Stephen W. (2007). "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus". Sacrifice and Redemption. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–36. {{ISBN|978-0-521-04460-8}}.</ref><ref name="Powell1998">{{cite book |author=Mark Allan Powell |url=https://archive.org/details/jesusasfigureinh0000powe |title=Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-664-25703-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jesusasfigureinh0000powe/page/168 168] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Houlden2003">{{cite book |author=James L. Houlden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjvmQgAACAAJ |title=Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: Entries A–J |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57607-856-3}}</ref><ref name="VVoorst14">{{cite book |author=Robert E. Van Voorst |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwzliMSRGGkC |title=Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8028-4368-5 |pages=14–16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dickson |first1=John |date=24 December 2012 |title=Best of 2012: The irreligious assault on the historicity of Jesus |url=http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/12/24/3660194.htm |access-date=17 June 2014 |website=Abc.net.au}}</ref> |
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⚫ | ''[[Holy Blood, Holy Grail|The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'' (1982) by [[Michael Baigent]], [[Richard Leigh (author)|Richard Leigh]], and [[Henry Lincoln]] is a book that purports to show that certain historical figures, such as [[Godfrey of Bouillon]], and contemporary aristocrats are the lineal descendants of [[Jesus]]. Mainstream historians have widely panned the book, categorizing it as pseudohistory,<ref>{{cite book |first=Damian |last=Thompson |title=Counterknowledge. How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History |publisher=Atlantic Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84354-675-7|title-link=Counterknowledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Jarnac |title=Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château |location=[[Saleilles]] |publisher=P. Jarnac |year=1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Jarnac |title=Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château |publisher=Editions Belisane |date=1988 |quote=Describing ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' as a "monument of mediocrity"}}<br>{{cite book |first=Jean-Luc |last=Chaumeil |title=La Table d'Isis ou Le Secret de la Lumière |publisher=Editions Guy Trédaniel |year=1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Marie-France |last1=Etchegoin |first2=Frédéric |last2=Lenoir |title=Code Da Vinci: L'Enquête |publisher=Robert Laffont |year=2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jean-Jacques |last=Bedu |title=Les sources secrètes du Da Vinci Code |publisher=Editions du Rocher |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Bernardo |last=Sanchez Da Motta |title=Do Enigma de Rennes-le-Château ao Priorado de Siao – Historia de um Mito Moderno |publisher=Esquilo |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Neville |last=Morley |title=Writing Ancient History |page=19 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-8014-8633-5}}</ref><ref name="Miller2004">{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Laura |title=The Last Word; The Da Vinci Con |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E0DD103AF931A15751C0A9629C8B63|date=22 February 2004 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> and pointing out that the genealogical tables used in it are now known to be spurious.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Secrets of the Code|year=2006|publisher=Vanguard Press|isbn=978-1-59315-273-4|author=Laura Miller|editor=Dan Burstein|page=[https://archive.org/details/secretsofcode00dani_0/page/405 405]|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsofcode00dani_0/page/405}}</ref> Nonetheless, the book was an international best-seller<ref name="Miller2004"/> and inspired [[Dan Brown]]'s bestselling mystery [[Thriller (genre)|thriller novel]] ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]''.<ref name="Miller2004"/><ref name="Fritze"/>{{rp|2–3}} |
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Likewise, some minority historian views assert that Muhammad either did not exist or was [[Historicity of Muhammad#Minority views (Muhammad as mythical figure)|not central to founding Islam]]. <ref>{{Cite journal |title=Review of: Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2004/2004.02.33 |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |issn=1055-7660}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Although historians and archaeologists consider the [[Book of Mormon]] to be an anachronistic invention of Joseph Smith, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) [[Archaeology and the Book of Mormon|believe that it describes ancient historical events in the Americas.]] |
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==== Religious pseudohistory ==== |
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⚫ | [[Searches for Noah's Ark]] have also been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fagan|first1=Brian M.|author1-link=Brian M. Fagan|last2=Beck|first2=Charlotte|year=1996|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ystMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA582|location=Oxford, England|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-507618-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cline|first=Eric H.|author1-link=Eric H. Cline|year=2009|title=Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwNIDHSPsSMC&pg=PA72|location=Oxford, England|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-974107-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Feder|first=Kenneth L.|author1-link=Kenneth Feder|year=2010|title=Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlRz2symkAsC&pg=PA195|location=[[Santa Barbara, California]]|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-0-313-37919-2}}</ref><ref name="Rough Guides">{{cite book|last1=Rickard|first1=Bob|last2=Michell|first2=John|author1-link=Bob Rickard |author2-link=John Michell|date=2000|chapter=Arkeology|title=Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MO-TWKwyEh0C&pg=PA179|location=London |
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⚫ | ''[[Holy Blood, Holy Grail|The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'' (1982) by [[Michael Baigent]], [[Richard Leigh (author)|Richard Leigh]], and [[Henry Lincoln]] is a book that purports to show that certain historical figures, such as [[Godfrey of Bouillon]], and contemporary aristocrats are the lineal descendants of [[Jesus]]. Mainstream historians have widely panned the book, categorizing it as pseudohistory,<ref>{{cite book |first=Damian |last=Thompson |title=Counterknowledge. How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History |publisher=Atlantic Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84354-675-7|title-link=Counterknowledge }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Jarnac |title=Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château |location=[[Saleilles]] |publisher=P. Jarnac |year=1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Pierre |last=Jarnac |title=Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château |publisher=Editions Belisane |date=1988 |quote=Describing ''The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail'' as a "monument of mediocrity"}}<br>{{cite book |first=Jean-Luc |last=Chaumeil |title=La Table d'Isis ou Le Secret de la Lumière |publisher=Editions Guy Trédaniel |year=1994}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Marie-France |last1=Etchegoin |first2=Frédéric |last2=Lenoir |title=Code Da Vinci: L'Enquête |publisher=Robert Laffont |year=2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Jean-Jacques |last=Bedu |title=Les sources secrètes du Da Vinci Code |publisher=Editions du Rocher |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Bernardo |last=Sanchez Da Motta |title=Do Enigma de Rennes-le-Château ao Priorado de Siao – Historia de um Mito Moderno |publisher=Esquilo |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Neville |last=Morley |title=Writing Ancient History |page=19 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-8014-8633-5}}</ref><ref name="Miller2004">{{cite news |last=Miller |first=Laura |title=The Last Word; The Da Vinci Con |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E0DD103AF931A15751C0A9629C8B63|date=22 February 2004 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> and pointing out that the genealogical tables used in it are now known to be spurious.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Secrets of the Code|year=2006|publisher=Vanguard Press|isbn=978-1-59315-273-4|author=Laura Miller|editor=Dan Burstein|page=[https://archive.org/details/secretsofcode00dani_0/page/405 405]|url=https://archive.org/details/secretsofcode00dani_0/page/405}}</ref> Nonetheless, the book was an international best-seller<ref name="Miller2004" /> and inspired [[Dan Brown]]'s bestselling mystery [[Thriller (genre)|thriller novel]] ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]''.<ref name="Miller2004" /><ref name="Fritze" />{{rp|2–3}} |
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⚫ | Although historians and archaeologists consider the [[Book of Mormon]] to be an anachronistic invention of Joseph Smith, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) [[Archaeology and the Book of Mormon|believe that it describes ancient historical events in the Americas.]] |
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⚫ | [[Searches for Noah's Ark]] have also been categorized as pseudohistory.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fagan|first1=Brian M.|author1-link=Brian M. Fagan|last2=Beck|first2=Charlotte|year=1996|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ystMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA582|location=Oxford, England|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-507618-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cline|first=Eric H.|author1-link=Eric H. Cline|year=2009|title=Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwNIDHSPsSMC&pg=PA72|location=Oxford, England|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-974107-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Feder|first=Kenneth L.|author1-link=Kenneth Feder|year=2010|title=Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlRz2symkAsC&pg=PA195|location=[[Santa Barbara, California]]|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-0-313-37919-2}}</ref><ref name="Rough Guides">{{cite book|last1=Rickard|first1=Bob|last2=Michell|first2=John|author1-link=Bob Rickard |author2-link=John Michell|date=2000|chapter=Arkeology|title=Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MO-TWKwyEh0C&pg=PA179|location=London|publisher=[[Rough Guides]]|isbn=1-85828-589-5|pages=179–83}}</ref><ref>Dietz, Robert S. "Ark-Eology: A Frightening Example of Pseudo-Science" in ''Geotimes'' 38:9 (Sept. 1993) p. 4.</ref> |
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⚫ | In her books, starting with ''[[The Witch-Cult in Western Europe]]'' (1921), English author [[Margaret Murray]] claimed that the [[witch trials in the early modern period]] were actually an attempt by chauvinistic Christians to annihilate a [[Witch-cult hypothesis|secret, pagan religion]],<ref name="Purkiss1996">{{cite book|last=Purkiss|first=Diane|author-link=Diane Purkiss|year=1996|title=The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations|url=https://archive.org/details/witchhistoryearl00purk|url-access=limited|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, England|isbn=978-0415087629|page=[https://archive.org/details/witchhistoryearl00purk/page/n70 62]}}</ref> which she claimed worshipped a [[Horned God]].<ref name="Purkiss1996"/> Murray's claims have now been widely rejected by respected historians.<ref>{{citation|last1=Russell|first1=Jeffrey B.|last2=Alexander|first2=Brooks|year=2007|title=A New History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans|publisher=Thames and Hudson|location=London |
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⚫ | In her books, starting with ''[[The Witch-Cult in Western Europe]]'' (1921), English author [[Margaret Murray]] claimed that the [[witch trials in the early modern period]] were actually an attempt by chauvinistic Christians to annihilate a [[Witch-cult hypothesis|secret, pagan religion]],<ref name="Purkiss1996">{{cite book|last=Purkiss|first=Diane|author-link=Diane Purkiss|year=1996|title=The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations|url=https://archive.org/details/witchhistoryearl00purk|url-access=limited|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, England|isbn=978-0415087629|page=[https://archive.org/details/witchhistoryearl00purk/page/n70 62]}}</ref> which she claimed worshipped a [[Horned God]].<ref name="Purkiss1996"/> Murray's claims have now been widely rejected by respected historians.<ref>{{citation|last1=Russell|first1=Jeffrey B.|last2=Alexander|first2=Brooks|year=2007|title=A New History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans|publisher=Thames and Hudson|location=London|isbn=978-0-500-28634-0|page=154}}</ref><ref name="Simpson1994">{{cite journal|last=Simpson|first=Jacqueline|author-link=Jacqueline Simpson|year=1994|title=Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?|journal=Folklore|volume=105|issue=1–2 |pages=89–96|doi=10.1080/0015587x.1994.9715877|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Purkiss1996"/> Nonetheless, her ideas have become the [[Origin myth|foundation myth]] for modern [[Wicca]], a contemporary [[Modern paganism|Neopagan]] religion.<ref name="Simpson1994"/><ref name="Rabinovitch2002">{{cite book|last1=Rabinovitch|first1=Shelley|last2=Lewis|first2=James|title=The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism|date=2002|publisher=Kensington Publishing Corporation|location= New York|isbn=0-8065-2407-3|pages=32–35|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuvLRbKvyGEC&q=Burning+Times+debunked&pg=PA35}}</ref> Belief in Murray's alleged witch-cult is still prevalent among Wiccans,<ref name="Rabinovitch2002"/> but is gradually declining.<ref name="Rabinovitch2002"/> |
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⚫ | The [[Christ myth theory]] claims that [[Jesus]] of Nazareth never existed as a historical figure and that his existence was invented by early Christians. This argument currently finds very little support among scholars and historians of all faiths and has been described as pseudohistorical.<ref name=Ehrman285>In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, [[Bart Ehrman]] (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 ''Forged : writing in the name of God'' {{ISBN|978-0-06-207863-6}}. p. 285</ref><ref>[[Robert M. Price]] (an atheist who denies the existence of Jesus) agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars: Robert M. Price "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in ''The Historical Jesus: Five Views'' edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2009 InterVarsity, {{ISBN|028106329X}} p. 61</ref><ref name="GrantMajority">[[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]] (a [[classicist]]) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in ''Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels'' by Michael Grant 2004 {{ISBN|1898799881}} p. 200</ref><ref name=Burridge34>[[Richard A. Burridge]] states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that anymore." in ''Jesus Now and Then'' by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould ( |
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====Hinduism==== |
===== Hinduism ===== |
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The belief that Ancient [[India]] was technologically advanced to the extent of being a nuclear power is gaining popularity in India.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://undark.org/article/indian-scientists-confront-pseudoscience/|title=The Threat of Pseudoscience in India|website=Undark|first=Ruchi|last=Kumar|date=12 October 2018|access-date=2 March 2019}}</ref> Emerging extreme nationalist trends and ideologies based on [[Hinduism]] in the political arena promote these discussions. [[Vasudev Devnani]], the education minister for the western state of [[Rajasthan]], said in January 2017 that it was important to "understand the scientific significance" of the [[Cattle|cow]], as it was the only animal in the world to both inhale and exhale oxygen.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cow-only-animal-to-inhale-and-exhale-oxygen-rajasthan-minister/story-a8nPi8XDxpvO8YKwibN5RJ.html|title=Cow only animal to inhale and exhale oxygen: Rajasthan minister|date=16 January 2017|newspaper=Hindustan Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427022930/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cow-only-animal-to-inhale-and-exhale-oxygen-rajasthan-minister/story-a8nPi8XDxpvO8YKwibN5RJ.html|archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref> In 2014, Prime Minister [[Narendra Modi]] told a gathering of doctors and medical staff at a [[Mumbai]] hospital that the story of the Hindu god [[Ganesha]] showed [[genetic science]] existed in ancient India.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/indian-prime-minister-genetic-science-existed-ancient-times|author=Maseeh Rahman|title=Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times|date=28 October 2014|access-date=26 April 2019|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Many new age pseudohistorians who focus on converting mythological stories into history are well received among the crowd. [[2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy|Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy]] is a related event when Capt. Anand J. Bodas, retired principal of a pilot training facility, claimed that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India at the [[Indian Science Congress]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/04/indians-invented-planes-7000-years-ago-and-other-startling-claims-at-the-science-congress/?noredirect=on|title=Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago |
The belief that Ancient [[India]] was technologically advanced to the extent of being a nuclear power is gaining popularity in India.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://undark.org/article/indian-scientists-confront-pseudoscience/|title=The Threat of Pseudoscience in India|website=Undark|first=Ruchi|last=Kumar|date=12 October 2018|access-date=2 March 2019}}</ref> Emerging extreme nationalist trends and ideologies based on [[Hinduism]] in the political arena promote these discussions. [[Vasudev Devnani]], the education minister for the western state of [[Rajasthan]], said in January 2017 that it was important to "understand the scientific significance" of the [[Cattle|cow]], as it was the only animal in the world to both inhale and exhale oxygen.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cow-only-animal-to-inhale-and-exhale-oxygen-rajasthan-minister/story-a8nPi8XDxpvO8YKwibN5RJ.html|title=Cow only animal to inhale and exhale oxygen: Rajasthan minister|date=16 January 2017|newspaper=Hindustan Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427022930/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cow-only-animal-to-inhale-and-exhale-oxygen-rajasthan-minister/story-a8nPi8XDxpvO8YKwibN5RJ.html|archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref> In 2014, Prime Minister [[Narendra Modi]] told a gathering of doctors and medical staff at a [[Mumbai]] hospital that the story of the Hindu god [[Ganesha]] showed [[genetic science]] existed in ancient India.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/indian-prime-minister-genetic-science-existed-ancient-times|author=Maseeh Rahman|title=Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times|date=28 October 2014|access-date=26 April 2019|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> Many new age pseudohistorians who focus on converting mythological stories into history are well received among the crowd. [[2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy|Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy]] is a related event when Capt. Anand J. Bodas, retired principal of a pilot training facility, claimed that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India at the [[Indian Science Congress]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/04/indians-invented-planes-7000-years-ago-and-other-startling-claims-at-the-science-congress/?noredirect=on|title=Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago – and other startling claims at the Science Congress|last=Lakshmi|first=Rama|date=4 January 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=30 April 2019}}</ref> |
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==As a topic of study== |
==As a topic of study== |
Latest revision as of 00:38, 15 April 2024
Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohistory derived from the superstitions intrinsic to occultism. Pseudohistory is related to pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology, and usage of the terms may occasionally overlap. Although pseudohistory comes in many forms, scholars have identified many features that tend to be common in pseudohistorical works; one example is that the use of pseudohistory is almost always motivated by a contemporary political, religious, or personal agenda. Pseudohistory also frequently presents sensational claims or a big lie about historical facts which would require unwarranted revision of the historical record.[3]
Another hallmark of pseudohistory is an underlying premise that scholars have a furtive agenda to suppress the promotor's thesis—a premise commonly corroborated by elaborate conspiracy theories. Works of pseudohistory often point exclusively to unreliable sources—including myths and legends, often treated as literal historical truth—to support the thesis being promoted while ignoring valid sources that contradict it. Sometimes a work of pseudohistory will adopt a position of historical relativism, insisting that there is really no such thing as historical truth and that any hypothesis is just as good as any other. Many works of pseudohistory conflate mere possibility with actuality, assuming that if something could have happened, then it did.
Notable examples of pseudohistory include British Israelism, the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, the Irish slaves myth, the witch-cult, Armenian genocide denial, Holocaust denial, the clean Wehrmacht myth, the 16th- and 17th-century Spanish Black Legend, and the claim that the Katyn massacre was not committed by the Soviet NKVD.
Definition and etymology
The term pseudohistory was coined in the early nineteenth century, which makes the word older than the related terms pseudo-scholarship and pseudoscience.[4] In an attestation from 1815, it is used to refer to the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, a purportedly historical narrative describing an entirely fictional contest between the Greek poets Homer and Hesiod.[5] The pejorative sense of the term, labelling a flawed or disingenuous work of historiography, is found in another 1815 attestation.[6] Pseudohistory is akin to pseudoscience in that both forms of falsification are achieved using the methodology that purports to, but does not, adhere to the established standards of research for the given field of intellectual enquiry of which the pseudoscience claims to be a part, and which offers little or no supporting evidence for its plausibility.[7]: 7–18
Writers Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman define pseudohistory as "the rewriting of the past for present personal or political purposes".[8]: 2 Other writers take a broader definition; Douglas Allchin, a historian of science, contends that when the history of scientific discovery is presented in a simplified way, with drama exaggerated and scientists romanticized, this creates wrong stereotypes about how science works, and in fact constitutes pseudohistory, despite being based on real facts.[9]
Characteristics
Robert Todd Carroll has developed a list of criteria to identify pseudo-historic works. He states that:
Pseudohistory is purported history which:
- Treats myths, legends, sagas and similar literature as literal truth
- Is neither critical nor skeptical in its reading of ancient historians, taking their claims at face value and ignoring empirical or logical evidence contrary to the claims of the ancients
- Is on a mission, not a quest, seeking to support some contemporary political or religious agenda rather than find out the truth about the past
- Often denies that there is such a thing as historical truth, clinging to the extreme skeptical notion that only what is absolutely certain can be called 'true' and nothing is absolutely certain, so nothing is true
- Often maintains that history is nothing but mythmaking and that different histories are not to be compared on such traditional academic standards as accuracy, empirical probability, logical consistency, relevancy, completeness, fairness or honesty, but on moral or political grounds
- Is selective in its use of ancient documents, citing favorably those that fit with its agenda, and ignoring or interpreting away those documents which do not fit
- Considers the possibility of something being true as sufficient to believe it is true if it fits with one's agenda
- Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism, or because of opposition to its political or religious agenda[10]
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke prefers the term "cryptohistory". He identifies two necessary elements as "a complete ignorance of the primary sources" and the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims".[11][12]
Other common characteristics of pseudohistory are:
- The arbitrary linking of disparate events so as to form – in the theorist's opinion – a pattern. This is typically then developed into a conspiracy theory postulating a hidden agent responsible for creating and maintaining the pattern. For example, the pseudohistorical The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail links the Knights Templar, the medieval Grail Romances, the Merovingian Frankish dynasty and the artist Nicolas Poussin in an attempt to identify lineal descendants of Jesus.
- Hypothesising the consequences of unlikely events that "could" have happened, thereby assuming tacitly that they did.
- Sensationalism, or shock value
- Cherry picking, or "law office history", evidence that helps the historical argument being made and suppressing evidence that hurts it.[13]
Categories and examples
The following are some common categories of pseudohistorical theory, with examples. Not all theories in a listed category are necessarily pseudohistorical; they are rather categories that seem to attract pseudohistorians.
Main Categories
Alternative chronologies
An alternative chronology is a revised sequence of events that deviates from the standard timeline of world history accepted by mainstream scholars. An example of an "alternative chronology" is Anatoly Fomenko's New Chronology, which claims that recorded history actually began around AD 800 and all events that allegedly occurred prior to that point either never really happened at all or are simply inaccurate retellings of events that happened later.[14] One of its outgrowths is the Tartary conspiracy theory. Other, less extreme examples, are the phantom time hypothesis, which asserts that the years AD 614–911 never took place; and the New Chronology of David Rohl, which claims that the accepted timelines for ancient Egyptian and Israelite history are wrong.[15]
Historical falsification
In the eighth century, a forged document known as Donation of Constantine, which supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope, became widely circulated.[16] In the twelfth century, Geoffrey of Monmouth published the History of the Kings of Britain, a pseudohistorical work purporting to describe the ancient history and origins of the British people. The book synthesises earlier Celtic mythical traditions to inflate the deeds of the mythical King Arthur. The contemporary historian William of Newburgh wrote around 1190 that "it is quite clear that everything this man wrote about Arthur and his successors, or indeed about his predecessors from Vortigern onwards, was made up, partly by himself and partly by others".[17]
Historical revisionism
The Shakespeare authorship question is a fringe theory that claims that the works attributed to William Shakespeare were actually written by someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.[18][19][20][21]
Another example of historical revisionism is the thesis, found in the writings of David Barton and others, asserting that the United States was founded as an exclusively Christian nation.[22][23][24] Mainstream historians instead support the traditional position, which holds that the American founding fathers intended for church and state to be kept separate.[25][26]
Confederate revisionists (a.k.a. Civil War revisionists), "Lost Cause" advocates, and Neo-Confederates argue that the Confederate States of America's prime motivation was the maintenance of states' rights and limited government, rather than the preservation and expansion of slavery.[27][28][29]
Connected to the Lost Cause is the Irish slaves myth, a pseudo-historical narrative which conflates the experiences of Irish indentured servants and enslaved Africans in the Americas. This myth, which was historically promoted by Irish nationalists such as John Mitchel, has in the modern-day been promoted by white supremacists in the United States to minimize the mistreatment experienced by African Americans (such as racism and segregation) and oppose demands for slavery reparations. The myth has also been used to obscure and downplay Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.[30][31]
Historical Negationism
While closely related to previous categories, historical negationism / denialism specifically aims to outright deny the existence of confirmed events, often including various massacres and genocides.
Some examples include denial of the Holocaust and denial of the Armenian Genocide.[32]
Psychohistory
Mainstream historians have categorized psychohistory as pseudohistory.[33][34] Psychohistory is an amalgam of psychology, history, and related social sciences and the humanities.[35] Its stated goal is to examine the "why" of history, especially the difference between stated intention and actual behavior. It also states as its goal the combination of the insights of psychology, especially psychoanalysis, with the research methodology of the social sciences and humanities to understand the emotional origin of the behavior of individuals, groups and nations, past and present.
Pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology refers to a false interpretation of records, namely physical ones, often by unqualified or otherwise amateur archeologists. These interpretations are often baseless and seldom align with established consensus. Nazi archaeology is a prominent example of this technique.[36] Frequently, people who engage in pseudoarchaeology have a very strict interpretation of evidence and are unwilling to alter their stance, resulting in interpretations that often appear overly simplistic and fail to capture the complexity and nuance of the complete narrative.[37]
Various examples of pseudohistory
(These following examples can belong to a variety of the above mentioned categories, or ones not mentioned as well).
Ancient aliens, ancient technologies, and lost lands
Immanuel Velikovsky's books Worlds in Collision (1950), Ages in Chaos (1952), and Earth in Upheaval (1955), which became "instant bestsellers",[7] demonstrated that pseudohistory based on ancient mythology held potential for tremendous financial success[7] and became models of success for future works in the genre.[7]
In 1968, Erich von Däniken published Chariots of the Gods?, which claims that ancient visitors from outer space constructed the pyramids and other monuments. He has since published other books in which he makes similar claims. These claims have all been categorized as pseudohistory.[7]: 201 Similarly, Zechariah Sitchin has published numerous books claiming that a race of extraterrestrial beings from the Planet Nibiru known as the Anunnaki visited Earth in ancient times in search of gold, and that they genetically engineered humans to serve as their slaves. He claims that memories of these occurrences are recorded in Sumerian mythology, as well as other mythologies all across the globe. These speculations have likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.[38][39]
The ancient astronaut hypothesis was further popularized in the United States by the History Channel television series Ancient Aliens.[40] History professor Ronald H. Fritze observed that the pseudohistorical claims promoted by von Däniken and the Ancient Aliens program have a periodic popularity in the US:[7][41] "In a pop culture with a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens and pyramids and lost civilizations are recycled like fashions."[7]: 201 [41]
The author Graham Hancock has sold over four million copies of books promoting the pseudohistorical thesis that all the major monuments of the ancient world, including Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids, and the moai of Easter Island, were built by a single ancient supercivilization,[42] which Hancock claims thrived from 15,000 to 10,000 BC and possessed technological and scientific knowledge equal to or surpassing that of modern civilization.[7] He first advanced the full form of this argument in his 1995 bestseller Fingerprints of the Gods,[7] which won popular acclaim, but scholarly disdain.[7] Christopher Knight has published numerous books, including Uriel's Machine (2000), expounding pseudohistorical assertions that ancient civilizations possessed technology far more advanced than the technology of today.[43][44][45][46]
The claim that a lost continent known as Lemuria once existed in the Pacific Ocean has likewise been categorized as pseudohistory.[7]: 11
Furthermore, similar conspiracy theories promote the idea of embellished, fabricated accounts of historical civilizations, namely Khazaria and Tartaria.
Antisemitic pseudohistory
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is a fraudulent work purporting to show a historical conspiracy for world domination by Jews.[47] The work was conclusively proven to be a forgery in August 1921, when The Times revealed that extensive portions of the document were directly plagiarized from Maurice Joly's 1864 satirical dialogue The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu,[48] as well as Hermann Goedsche's 1868 anti-Semitic novel Biarritz.[49]
The Khazar theory is an academic fringe theory that postulates that the bulk of European Jewry are of Central Asian (Turkic) origin. In spite of mainstream academic consensus conclusively rejecting it, this theory has been promoted in Anti-Semitic and some Anti-Zionist circles, arguing that Jews are an alien element both in Europe and in Palestine.
Holocaust denial and genocide denial in general are widely categorized as pseudohistory.[8]: 237 [50] Major proponents of Holocaust denial include David Irving and others, who argue that the Holocaust, Holodomor, Armenian genocide, Assyrian genocide, Greek genocide and other genocides did not occur, or were exaggerated greatly.[50]
Ethnocentric revisionism
Most Afrocentric (i.e. Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories, see Ancient Egyptian race controversy) ideas have been identified as pseudohistorical,[51][52] alongside the "Indigenous Aryans" theories published by Hindu nationalists during the 1990s and 2000s.[53] The "crypto-history" developed within Germanic mysticism and Nazi occultism has likewise been placed under this categorization.[54] [55] Among leading Nazis, Heinrich Himmler is believed to have been influenced by occultism and according to one theory, developed the SS base at Wewelsburg in accordance with an esoteric plan.
The Sun Language Theory is a pseudohistorical ideology which argues that all languages are descended from a form of proto-Turkish.[56] The theory may have been partially devised in order to legitimize Arabic and Semitic loanwords occurring in the Turkish language by instead asserting that the Arabic and Semitic words were derived from the Turkish ones rather than vice versa.[57]
A large number of nationalist pseudohistorical theories deal with the legendary Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. British-Israelism, also known as Anglo-Israelism, the most famous example of this type, has been conclusively refuted by mainstream historians using evidence from a vast array of different fields of study.[58][59][60]
Another form of ethnocentric revisionism is nationalistic pseudohistory. The "Ancient Macedonians continuity theory" is one such pseudohistorical theory, which postulates demographic, cultural and linguistic continuity between Macedonians of antiquity and the main ethnic group in present-day North Macedonia.[61][62] Also, the Bulgarian medieval dynasty of the Komitopules, which ruled the First Bulgarian Empire in its last decades, is presented as "Macedonian", ruling a "medieval Macedonian state", because of the location of its capitals in Macedonia.[63]
Dacianism is a Romanian pseudohistorical current that attempts to attribute far more influence over European and world history to the Dacians than that which they actually enjoyed.[64] Dacianist historiography claims that the Dacians held primacy over all other civilizations, including the Romans;[65] that the Dacian language was the origin of Latin and all other languages, such as Hindi and Babylonian;[66] and sometimes that the Zalmoxis cult has structural links to Christianity.[67] Dacianism was most prevalent in National Communist Romania, as the Ceaușescu regime portrayed the Dacians as insurgents defying an "imperialist" Rome; the Communist Party had formally attached "protochronism", as Dacianism was known, to Marxist ideology by 1974.[68]
Matriarchy
The consensus among academics is that no strictly matriarchal society is known to have existed.[69][70] Anthropologist Donald Brown's list of human cultural universals (viz., features shared by nearly all current human societies) includes men being the "dominant element" in public political affairs,[71] which is the contemporary opinion of mainstream anthropology.[72] Some societies are matrilineal or matrifocal but in fact have patriarchal power structures, which may be misidentified as matriarchal. The idea that matriarchal societies existed and they preceded patriarchal societies was first raised in the 19th-century among Western academics, but it has since been discredited.[72]
Despite this however, some second-wave feminists assert that a matriarchy preceded the patriarchy. The Goddess Movement and Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade cite Venus figurines as evidence that societies of paleolithic and neolithic Europe were matriarchies that worshipped a goddess. This belief is not supported by mainstream academics.[73]
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories
Excluding the Norse colonization of the Americas and other reputable scholarship, most theories of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact have been classified as pseudohistory, including claims that the Americas were actually discovered by Arabs or Muslims.[74] Gavin Menzies' book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which argues for the idea that Chinese sailors discovered America, has also been categorized as a work of pseudohistory.[7]: 11
Racist pseudohistory
Josiah Priest and other nineteenth-century American writers wrote pseudohistorical narratives that portrayed African Americans and Native Americans in an extremely negative light.[75] Priest's first book was The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed (1826).[76][75] The book is regarded by modern critics as one of the earliest works of modern American pseudohistory.[75] Priest attacked Native Americans in American Antiquities and Discoveries of the West (1833)[77][75] and African-Americans in Slavery, As It Relates to the Negro (1843).[78][75] Other nineteenth-century writers, such as Thomas Gold Appleton, in his A Sheaf of Papers (1875), and George Perkins Marsh, in his The Goths in New England, seized upon false notions of Viking history to promote the superiority of white people (as well as to oppose the Catholic Church). Such misuse of Viking history and imagery reemerged in the twentieth century among some groups promoting white supremacy.[79]
A recent but unfounded claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that the Holocaust was promoted and encourage by Palestinian Muftis, rather than Nazi Germany. This claim has come under strong criticism from historians across the world.[80][81]
Communist pseudohistory
Communists and Putinists deny, downplay, or justify the mass repressions, artificial famines, and concentration camps in the Soviet Union and other communist regimes that claimed millions of human lives, saying that while such events took place, they have been exaggerated by opponents of the modern Russian state to discredit the legacy of Communism and the Soviet Union.[citation needed] Supporters of this viewpoint claim, among other things, that Joseph Stalin and other top Soviet leaders did not realize the scope of the killings, that the executions of prisoners were legally justifiable, and that prisoners in concentration camps performed important construction work that helped the Soviet Union economonically, particularly during World War II. Scholars point to overwhelming evidence that Stalin directly helped plan the mass killings, that many prisoners were sent to concentration camps extrajudicially, and that prisoners were often simply isolated in remote camps or given pointless and menial tasks.[82]
Anti-religious pseudohistory
The Christ myth theory claims that Jesus of Nazareth never existed as a historical figure and that his existence was invented by early Christians. This argument currently finds very little support among scholars and historians of all faiths and has been described as pseudohistorical.[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92]
Likewise, some minority historian views assert that Muhammad either did not exist or was not central to founding Islam. [93]
Religious pseudohistory
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (1982) by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln is a book that purports to show that certain historical figures, such as Godfrey of Bouillon, and contemporary aristocrats are the lineal descendants of Jesus. Mainstream historians have widely panned the book, categorizing it as pseudohistory,[94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101] and pointing out that the genealogical tables used in it are now known to be spurious.[102] Nonetheless, the book was an international best-seller[101] and inspired Dan Brown's bestselling mystery thriller novel The Da Vinci Code.[101][7]: 2–3
Although historians and archaeologists consider the Book of Mormon to be an anachronistic invention of Joseph Smith, many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe that it describes ancient historical events in the Americas.
Searches for Noah's Ark have also been categorized as pseudohistory.[103][104][105][106][107]
In her books, starting with The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921), English author Margaret Murray claimed that the witch trials in the early modern period were actually an attempt by chauvinistic Christians to annihilate a secret, pagan religion,[108] which she claimed worshipped a Horned God.[108] Murray's claims have now been widely rejected by respected historians.[109][110][108] Nonetheless, her ideas have become the foundation myth for modern Wicca, a contemporary Neopagan religion.[110][111] Belief in Murray's alleged witch-cult is still prevalent among Wiccans,[111] but is gradually declining.[111]
Hinduism
The belief that Ancient India was technologically advanced to the extent of being a nuclear power is gaining popularity in India.[112] Emerging extreme nationalist trends and ideologies based on Hinduism in the political arena promote these discussions. Vasudev Devnani, the education minister for the western state of Rajasthan, said in January 2017 that it was important to "understand the scientific significance" of the cow, as it was the only animal in the world to both inhale and exhale oxygen.[113] In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a gathering of doctors and medical staff at a Mumbai hospital that the story of the Hindu god Ganesha showed genetic science existed in ancient India.[114] Many new age pseudohistorians who focus on converting mythological stories into history are well received among the crowd. Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy is a related event when Capt. Anand J. Bodas, retired principal of a pilot training facility, claimed that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India at the Indian Science Congress.[115]
As a topic of study
Pseudohistory is offered as an undergraduate course in liberal arts settings, one example being in Claremont McKenna College.[116]
See also
- Big lie – Propaganda technique
- List of pseudohistorians
- Pseudoscientific metrology
- Disinformation
References
- ^ Herf, Jeffrey (2006). The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during the World War II and the Holocaust. Harvard University Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-674038-59-2.
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- Marchand, Laure; Perrier, Guillaume (2015). Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0-7735-9720-4.
The Iğdır genocide monument is the ultimate caricature of the Turkish government's policy of denying the 1915 genocide by rewriting history and transforming victims into guilty parties.
- Hovannisian 2001, p. 803. "... the unbending attitude of the Ankara government, in 1995 of a multi-volume work of the prime ministry's state archives titled Armenian Atrocities in the Caucasus and Anatolia According to Archival Documents. The purpose of the publication is not only to reiterate all previous denials but also to demonstrate that it was in fact the Turkish people who were the victims of a genocide perpetrated by the Armenians."
- Cheterian 2015, pp. 65–66. "Some of the proponents of this official narrative have even gone so far as to claim that the Armenians were the real aggressors, and that Muslim losses were greater than those of the Armenians."
- Gürpınar 2016, p. 234. "Maintaining that 'the best defence is a good offence', the new strategy involved accusing Armenians in response for perpetrating genocide against the Turks. The violence committed by the Armenian committees under the Russian occupation of Eastern Anatolia and massacring of tens of thousands of Muslims (Turks and Kurds) in revenge killings in 1916–17 was extravagantly displayed, magnified and decontextualized."
- Marchand, Laure; Perrier, Guillaume (2015). Turkey and the Armenian Ghost: On the Trail of the Genocide. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0-7735-9720-4.
- ^ "Joseph Goebbels On the "Big Lie"". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
- ^ Monthly magazine and British register, Volume 55 (February 1823), p. 449, in reference to John Galt, Ringan Gilhaize: Or, The Covenanters, Oliver & Boyd, 1823.[1]
- ^ C. A. Elton, Remains of Hesiod the Ascraean 1815, p. xix.
- ^ The Critical review: or, Annals of literature, Volume 1 ed. Tobias George Smollett, 1815, p. 152
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Fritze, Ronald H. (2009). Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-430-4.
- ^ a b Shermer, Michael; Grobman, Alex (2009). Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26098-6.
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- ^ Novikov, S. P. (2000). "Pseudohistory and pseudomathematics: fantasy in our life". Russian Mathematical Surveys. 55 (2): 365–368. Bibcode:2000RuMaS..55..365N. doi:10.1070/RM2000v055n02ABEH000287. S2CID 250892348.
- ^ "In his book A Test of Time (1995), Rohl argues that the conventionally accepted dates for strata such as the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in Palestine are wrong" – in Daniel Jacobs, Shirley Eber, Francesca Silvani, Israel and The Palestinian Territories: The Rough Guide, p. 424 (Rough Guides Ltd., 2nd rev. ed., 1998). ISBN 978-1-85828-248-0
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- ^ Thorpe, Lewis. The History of the Kings of Britain. p. 17.
- ^ Hope, Warren and Kim Holston. The Shakespeare Controversy (2009) 2nd ed., 3: "In short, this is a history written in opposition to the current prevailing view".
- ^ Potter, Lois. "Marlowe onstage" in Constructing Christopher Marlowe, James Alan Downie and J. T. Parnell, eds. (2000, 2001), paperback ed., 88–101; 100: "The possibility that Shakespeare may not really be Shakespeare, comic in the context of literary history and pseudo-history, is understandable in this world of double-agents . . ."
- ^ Aaronovitch, David. "The anti-Stratfordians" in Voodoo Histories (2010), 226–229: "There is, however, a psychological or anthropological question to be answered about our consumption of pseudo-history and pseudoscience. I have now plowed through enough of these books to be able to state that, as a genre, they are badly written and, in their anxiety to establish their dubious neo-scholarly credentials, incredibly tedious. … Why do we read bad history books that have the added lack of distinction of not being in any way true or useful …"
- ^ Kathman, David. Shakespeare Authorship Page: "... Shakespeare scholars regard Oxfordianism as pseudo-scholarship which arbitrarily discards the methods used by real historians. ... In order to support their beliefs, Oxfordians resort to a number of tactics which will be familiar to observers of other forms of pseudo-history and pseudo-science."
- ^ Specter, Arlen (Spring 1995). "Defending the wall: Maintaining church/state separation in America". Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. 18 (2): 575–590.[dead link]
- ^ Leopold, Jason (14 January 2008). "House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions". www.baltimorechronicle.com. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ^ Boston Theological Institute Newsletter Volume XXXIV, No. 17, Richard V. Pierard, January 25, 2005
- ^ Boston, Rob (2007). "Dissecting the religious right's favorite Bible Curriculum", Americans United for Separation of Church and State, American Humanist Association. Retrieved on April 9, 2013
- ^ Harvey, Paul (10 May 2011). "Selling the Idea of a Christian Nation: David Barton's Alternate Intellectual Universe". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
- ^ David Barton (December 2008). "Confronting Civil War Revisionism: Why the South Went To War". Wall Builders. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ^ Barrett Brown (27 December 2010). "Neoconfederate civil war revisionism: Those who commemorate the South's fallen heroes are entitled to do so, but not to deny that slavery was the war's prime cause". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ^ "Howard Swint: Confederate revisionism warps U.S. history". Charleston Daily Mail. June 15, 2011. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ^ Linehan, Hugh. "Sinn Féin not allowing facts derail good 'Irish slaves' yarn". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-03-30.
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- ^ academic.oup.com https://academic.oup.com/book/37362/chapter-abstract/331336915?redirectedFrom=fulltext. Retrieved 2024-03-27.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
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- ^ Hunt, Lynn (2002). "Psychology, Pschoanalysis and Historical Thought – The Misfortunes of Psychohistory". In Kramer Lloyd S. and Maza, Sarah C. (ed.). A Companion to Western Historical Thought. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 337–357. ISBN 0-631-21714-2.
- ^ Paul H. Elovitz, Ed., Psychohistory for the Twenty-First Century (2013) pp. 1–3.
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- ^ a b Fritze, Ronald (8 July 2009). "Ronald H. Fritze, On his book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions, Cover Interview". July 08, 2009. Rorotoko.com. Retrieved July 17, 2012.
- ^ Sheiko, Konstantin (2012). Nationalist Imaginings of the Russian Past: Anatolii Fomenko and the Rise of Alternative History in Post-Communist Russia. Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society. Vol. 86. Stuttgart, Germany: Ibidem-Verlag. p. 83. ISBN 978-3838259154.
- ^ Merriman, Nick, editor, Public Archaeology, Routledge, 2004 p. 260
- ^ Tonkin, S., 2003, Uriel's Machine – a Commentary on some of the Astronomical Assertions.
- ^ Merriman, Nick, ed. (2004). "The comforts of unreason: the importance and relevance of alternative archaeology". Public Archaeology. London: Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-0415258890.
- ^ Tonkin, Stephen (2003). "Uriel's Machine – a Commentary on some of the Astronomical Assertions". The Astronomical Unit. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
- ^ "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
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- ^ Segel, Binjamin W (1996) [1926], Levy, Richard S (ed.), A Lie and a Libel: The History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, University of Nebraska Press, p. 97, ISBN 0-8032-9245-7.
- ^ a b Lipstadt, Deborah E. (1994). Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Plume. p. 215. ISBN 0-452-27274-2.
- ^ Sherwin, Elisabeth. "Clarence Walker encourages black Americans to discard Afrocentrism". Davis Community Network. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
- ^ Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo & Gabriel Haslip Viera & Warren Barbour (1997). "They were NOT here before Columbus: Afrocentric hyper-diffusionism in the 1990s". Ethnohistory. 44 (2). Duke University Press: 199–234. doi:10.2307/483368. JSTOR 483368.
- ^ Nanda, Meera (January–March 2005). "Response to my critics" (PDF). Social Epistemology. 19 (1): 147–191. doi:10.1080/02691720500084358. S2CID 10045510. Sokal, Alan (2006). "Pseudoscience and Postmodernism: Antagonists or Fellow-Travelers?". In Fagan, Garrett (ed.). Archaeological Fantasies: How pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-30592-6.
- ^ Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935. Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. ISBN 0-85030-402-4. (Several reprints.) Expanded with a new Preface, 2004, I.B. Tauris & Co. ISBN 1-86064-973-4
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- ^ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403917232 [2], p. 165.
- ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2005). Encyclopedia of Protestantism. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 107. ISBN 0-8160-5456-8.
- ^ Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192802903.
- ^ Shapiro, Faydra L. (2015). Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. p. 151.
- ^ Anastas Vangeli, Nation-building ancient Macedonian style: the origins and the effects of the so-called antiquization in Macedonia. doi:10.1080/00905992.2010.532775 Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018.
- ^ Todorović, Miloš (2019). "Nationalistic Pseudohistory in the Balkans". Skeptic Magazine. 24 (4). Retrieved 26 January 2020.
- ^ Svetozar Rajak, Konstantina E. Botsiou, Eirini Karamouzi, Evanthis Hatzivassiliou ed. The Balkans in the Cold War. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World, Springer, 2017, ISBN 1137439033, p. 313.
- ^ Boia, Lucian (1997). Istorie și mit în conștiința românească. Bucharest, Romania: Humanitas. pp. 160–161.
- ^ Boia 1997, pp. 149–151
- ^ "Doar o vorbă SĂȚ-I mai spun". George Pruteanu (in Romanian). 26 March 1996. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- ^ Boia 1997, p. 169
- ^ Boia 1997, pp. 120, 154–156
- ^ Goldberg, Steven, The Inevitability of Patriarchy (William Morrow & Co., 1973).
- ^ Eller (2000)
- ^ Brown, Donald E., Human Universals (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), p. 137.
- ^ a b "The view of matriarchy as constituting a stage of cultural development now is generally discredited. Furthermore, the consensus among modern anthropologists and sociologists is that a strictly matriarchal society never existed." Encyclopædia Britannica (2007), entry Matriarchy.
- ^ Ruth Whitehouse. "The Mother Goddess Hypothesis and Its Critics," in Handbook of Gender in Archaeology, Sarah Milledge Nelson (ed.), pp. 756–758
- ^ "Did Muslims Visit America Before Columbus?". hnn.us.
- ^ a b c d e Williams, Stephen (1991). Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ^ Priest, Josiah (1826). The Wonders of Nature, and Providence Displayed. Albany: E & E Hosford.
- ^ Priest, Josiah (1835). American Antiquities and Discoveries in the West. Albany: Hoffman and White.
- ^ Priest, Josiah (1843). Slavery, As It Relates to the Negro. Albany: C. van Bethuysen & Co.
- ^ Regal, Brian (2019). "Everything Means Something in Viking". Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 43, no. 6. Center for Inquiry. pp. 44–47.
- ^ Botelho, Greg (2015-10-21). "Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu criticized for saying Holocaust was mufti's idea, not Hitler's". CNN. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ "Germany tells Netanyahu: We are responsible for the Holocaust". BBC News. 2015-10-22. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
- ^ Мне говорят, что репрессий в СССР не было. Как с этим спорить?
- ^ In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship, Bart Ehrman (a secular agnostic) wrote: "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees" B. Ehrman, 2011 Forged : writing in the name of God ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. p. 285
- ^ Robert M. Price (an atheist who denies the existence of Jesus) agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the majority of scholars: Robert M. Price "Jesus at the Vanishing Point" in The Historical Jesus: Five Views edited by James K. Beilby & Paul Rhodes Eddy, 2009 InterVarsity, ISBN 028106329X p. 61
- ^ Michael Grant (a classicist) states that "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary." in Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels by Michael Grant 2004 ISBN 1898799881 p. 200
- ^ Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church’s imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that anymore." in Jesus Now and Then by Richard A. Burridge and Graham Gould (2004) ISBN 0802809774 p. 34
- ^ Did Jesus exist?, Bart Ehrman, 2012, Chapter 1
- ^ Sykes, Stephen W. (2007). "Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus". Sacrifice and Redemption. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-521-04460-8.
- ^ Mark Allan Powell (1998). Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-664-25703-3.
- ^ James L. Houlden (2003). Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: Entries A–J. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-856-3.
- ^ Robert E. Van Voorst (2000). Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. pp. 14–16. ISBN 978-0-8028-4368-5.
- ^ Dickson, John (24 December 2012). "Best of 2012: The irreligious assault on the historicity of Jesus". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ^ "Review of: Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State". Bryn Mawr Classical Review. ISSN 1055-7660.
- ^ Thompson, Damian (2008). Counterknowledge. How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History. Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-84354-675-7.
- ^ Jarnac, Pierre (1985). Histoire du Trésor de Rennes-le-Château. Saleilles: P. Jarnac.
- ^ Jarnac, Pierre (1988). Les Archives de Rennes-le-Château. Editions Belisane.
Describing The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail as a "monument of mediocrity"
Chaumeil, Jean-Luc (1994). La Table d'Isis ou Le Secret de la Lumière. Editions Guy Trédaniel. - ^ Etchegoin, Marie-France; Lenoir, Frédéric (2004). Code Da Vinci: L'Enquête. Robert Laffont.
- ^ Bedu, Jean-Jacques (2005). Les sources secrètes du Da Vinci Code. Editions du Rocher.
- ^ Sanchez Da Motta, Bernardo (2005). Do Enigma de Rennes-le-Château ao Priorado de Siao – Historia de um Mito Moderno. Esquilo.
- ^ Morley, Neville (1999). Writing Ancient History. Cornell University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-8014-8633-5.
- ^ a b c Miller, Laura (22 February 2004). "The Last Word; The Da Vinci Con". The New York Times.
- ^ Laura Miller (2006). Dan Burstein (ed.). Secrets of the Code. Vanguard Press. p. 405. ISBN 978-1-59315-273-4.
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- ^ Cline, Eric H. (2009). Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974107-6.
- ^ Feder, Kenneth L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-37919-2.
- ^ Rickard, Bob; Michell, John (2000). "Arkeology". Unexplained Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special. London: Rough Guides. pp. 179–83. ISBN 1-85828-589-5.
- ^ Dietz, Robert S. "Ark-Eology: A Frightening Example of Pseudo-Science" in Geotimes 38:9 (Sept. 1993) p. 4.
- ^ a b c Purkiss, Diane (1996). The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. Abingdon, England: Routledge. p. 62. ISBN 978-0415087629.
- ^ Russell, Jeffrey B.; Alexander, Brooks (2007), A New History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans, London: Thames and Hudson, p. 154, ISBN 978-0-500-28634-0
- ^ a b Simpson, Jacqueline (1994). "Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her and Why?". Folklore. 105 (1–2): 89–96. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1994.9715877.
- ^ a b c Rabinovitch, Shelley; Lewis, James (2002). The Encyclopedia of Modern Witchcraft and Neo-Paganism. New York: Kensington Publishing Corporation. pp. 32–35. ISBN 0-8065-2407-3.
- ^ Kumar, Ruchi (12 October 2018). "The Threat of Pseudoscience in India". Undark. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
- ^ "Cow only animal to inhale and exhale oxygen: Rajasthan minister". Hindustan Times. 16 January 2017. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019.
- ^ Maseeh Rahman (28 October 2014). "Indian prime minister claims genetic science existed in ancient times". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
- ^ Lakshmi, Rama (4 January 2015). "Indians invented planes 7,000 years ago – and other startling claims at the Science Congress". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
- ^ "Examination of 'pseudohistory' and how to uncover trustworthy accounts focus of next Modern China Lecture | CSUSB News". inside.csusb.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2019-04-26.
External links
- "Pseudohistory and Pseudoscience" Program in the History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
- Pseudohistory entry at Skeptic's Dictionary
- The Hall of Ma'at
- "The Restoration of History" from the American Skeptic magazine.