This little book is the fourth in a series of so-called “Short Histories of the World.” The others are 50 places, 50 animals and 50 books. All are tasty and slightly nutritious, like eating peanuts or potato chips one at a time. However, at this moment, when we are in a constant fog of propaganda, political spin and accusations of fake news, “50 Lies” is particularly relevant.
Tidd discusses “lies” of many types: propaganda and cover-ups by governments from ancient times to the Chernobyl Disaster, deceptions of the private kind, for financial gain, and fraud by hucksters like P.T. Barnum. An early chapter that interested me concerns Caesar’s “Commentaries” on the Gallic Wars. Tidd tells us Caesar wrote to promote wars with Germanic tribes, used those wars to enrich himself by looting and taking slaves, then lied about the battles themselves.
On the lighter side, one might say, we have the case of Mary Toft. In 1726 British papers reported Mary had given birth to a rabbit. Over time, she claimed to have birthed 15 rabbits. This was explained, in part, by the theory of “maternal Impression.” If a pregnant woman craves and eats a lot of mussels, her baby may look like a shellfish. A cherry falling on a pregnant woman might leave a birth mark. Mary Toft, a country girl, lived in a world full of rabbits. Mary cashed in for a short while. The maternal impression theory was much slower to be debunked.
Perhaps the most pernicious hoax of all time was “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This utterly fraudulent document, probably written about 1900 and purporting to contain the ancient Jewish plans for world domination, has fueled antisemitism from the time of the Dreyfus Affair, in Russia, through the Nazi regime to present-day conspiracy enthusiasts.
As one might expect, stories of P.T. Barnum are the best. He exhibited a Black woman, Joice Heth, reputed to be 160 years old, and William Henry Johnson, a man with microcephaly who was displayed as the “missing link,” and so on. Why do people believe this stuff? Maybe it is something they want to believe. Barnum watched and offered one answer: “An audience appears disposed to be amused even when they are conscious of being deceived.” Useful advice right this minute.