Jump to content

Pseudohistory: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
These are the "commonly cited examples" from researchers on the topic at hand - not passing comments by advocates or private "debunkers"
Line 29: Line 29:


==Examples==
==Examples==
The following are some commonly cited examples of pseudohistory:
The following are some commonly cited examples of alleged pseudohistory:
*[[Immanuel Velikovsky]]'s book ''[[Worlds in Collision]]''<ref>{{cite book|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H,.|title=Invented knowledge: false history, fake science and pseudo-religions|year=2009|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1861894304|page=169}}</ref>
*[[Immanuel Velikovsky]]'s book ''[[Worlds in Collision]]''<ref>{{cite book|last=Fritze|first=Ronald H,.|title=Invented knowledge: false history, fake science and pseudo-religions|year=2009|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1861894304|page=169}}</ref><ref>http://skepdic.com/pseudohs.html</ref>
⚫
*[[Holocaust denial]]: claims of writers such as [[David Irving]] that the [[Holocaust]] did not occur or was exaggerated greatly.<ref>http://skepdic.com/pseudohs.html</ref>
*[[Anatoly Timofeevich Fomenko]]'s theory ''[[New Chronology (Fomenko)|New Chronology]]''
*Heribert Illig's book ''[[Phantom time hypothesis]]''
*[[Priory of Sion]]: works such as ''[[Holy Blood, Holy Grail]]'', which conjecture that [[Jesus Christ]] may have married [[Mary Magdalene]], who later moved to France and gave birth to the line of [[Merovingian]] Kings
⚫
*[[Holocaust denial]]: claims of writers such as [[David Irving]] that the [[Holocaust]] did not occur or was exaggerated greatly.
*[[Gavin Menzies]]'s book ''[[1421: The Year China Discovered the World]]'', which argues for the idea that Chinese sailors discovered America.

* The writings of [[David Barton (author)|David Barton]] and others postulating that the [[United States of America]] was founded on [[Christian]] religious beliefs.<ref>{{cite journal
| last = Specter
| first = Arlen
| authorlink = Arlen Specter
| coauthors =
| title = Defending the wall: Maintaining church/state separation in America
| journal = Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
| volume = 18
| issue = 2
| pages = 575–590
| publisher =
| location =
| date = Spring 1995
| url = http://connection.ebscohost.com/content/article/1027400469.html
| doi =
| id =
| accessdate = }}</ref><ref>[http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/011508Leopold.shtml House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions], [[Baltimore Chronicle]]</ref><ref>[http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/david-barton-propaganda-masquerading-history David Barton - Propaganda Masquerading as History], [[People for the American Way]]</ref><ref name=Pierard>[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>
* Most [[Afrocentric]] (i.e. [[Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories]], [[Ancient Egyptian race controversy|Black Egypt]]) 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 |accessdate=2007-11-13 |last=Sherwin |first=Elisabeth |publisher=Davis Community Network }}</ref><ref name=Ortiz1997>{{cite journal
* Most [[Afrocentric]] (i.e. [[Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories]], [[Ancient Egyptian race controversy|Black Egypt]]) 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 |accessdate=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
|author=Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo & Gabriel Haslip Viera & Warren Barbour
Line 67: Line 45:
|publisher=Duke University Press
|publisher=Duke University Press
}}</ref>
}}</ref>
*Pre-Columbian African contact theories: the claim that [[African]] travelers arrived in the Americas prior to initial European contact in the 15th century.
* The theory of [[Lemuria (continent)#Kumari_Kandam_and_Lemuria|Lemuria and Kumari Kandam]].
* [[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]], a fraudulent work purporting to show a historical conspiracy for world domination by Jews
* [[The Two Babylons]], which claims that [[Catholicism]] is merely a veiled continuation of Babylonian paganism
* The [[Venetic theory]], claiming that the original inhabitants of [[Central Europe]], [[Northern Italy]] and parts of [[Sweden]] were a [[Proto-Slavic]]-speaking people, called ''Veneti'', of which the [[Slovenes]] and [[West Slav]]s are the direct descendants
* The pseudo-Macedonian theory, claiming that the citizens of the [[Republic of Macedonia]] are descendants of [[Ancient Macedonia]]ns and speak the same language.<ref>[http://history-of-macedonia.com/wordpress/tag/pseudomacedonia/] PseudoMacedonians - The fallacy of their cause by Vasil Gligorov</ref><ref>[http://www.matos.gr/index_files/anakoinoseis/PseudoMacedonia.htm] Press release for Oxford Dictionary's vocabulary entry "Pseudomacedonia"</ref>
* The pseudo-Macedonian theory, claiming that the citizens of the [[Republic of Macedonia]] are descendants of [[Ancient Macedonia]]ns and speak the same language.<ref>[http://history-of-macedonia.com/wordpress/tag/pseudomacedonia/] PseudoMacedonians - The fallacy of their cause by Vasil Gligorov</ref><ref>[http://www.matos.gr/index_files/anakoinoseis/PseudoMacedonia.htm] Press release for Oxford Dictionary's vocabulary entry "Pseudomacedonia"</ref>
* The [[Orion Correlation Theory]] of [[Robert Bauval]], that the three pyramids of Gizah are representations of the stars of the "belt" of the constellation Orion.
*''[[Chariots of the Gods?]]'' and other books by [[Erich von Daniken]], which claim ancient visitors from outer space constructed the pyramids and other monuments.
* The [[Shakespeare authorship question]], which claims that someone other than [[William Shakespeare]] of [[Stratford]] wrote the works traditionally attributed to him.<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>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 19:43, 15 July 2010

Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to sensational claims about history which depart from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines their conclusions. The term is used to discredit works or authors which make controversial conclusions based on new, speculative, unverified, or disputed historical claims.[citation needed]

Definition and etymology

Pseudohistory is closely related to pseudoscience in that pseudoscience is defined as "a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, and lacks supporting evidence or plausibility", while pseudohistory is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be historic, but which does not adhere to an appropriate historic methodology, and lacks supporting evidence or plausibility.

The definition of pseudohistory can be extended to varying contexts. Historian Douglas Allchin[1] contends that history in science education can not only be false or anecdotal, but misleading ideologically, and that this constitutes pseudohistory.

The term pseudohistory comes from the Greek word pseudo (meaning "false, feigned, erroneous"),[2] which is used as a prefix to the following root word—in this case, history (the recording of past events).

Description

The following are some of the criteria for warranting the term pseudohistory:[by whom?][clarification needed]

  • That the work has a political, religious, or other ideological agenda.
  • That a work is not published in an academic journal or is otherwise not adequately peer reviewed.
  • That the evidence for key facts supporting the work's thesis is:
    • speculative; or
    • controversial; or
    • not correctly or adequately sourced; or
    • interpreted in an unjustifiable way; or
    • given undue weight; or
    • taken out of context; or
    • distorted, either innocently, accidentally, or fraudulently.
  • That competing (and simpler) explanations or interpretations for the same set of facts, which have been peer reviewed and have been adequately sourced, have not been addressed.
  • That the work relies on one or more conspiracy theories or hidden-hand explanations, when the principle of Occam's razor would recommend a simpler, more prosaic and more plausible explanation of the same fact pattern.

Goodrick-Clarke's description of cryptohistory

One narrow description of 'cryptohistory' can be found in The Occult Roots of Nazism (1985) by the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. This book examines the field of Ariosophy, an esoteric movement in Germany and Austria 1890-1930, that Goodrick-Clarke himself describes as occult. The doctrines of Ariosophy strongly resemble Nazism in important points (e.g. racism), however, the only cases of direct influences that Goodrick-Clarke could find were the ones of Rudolf von Sebottendorf (and the Thule society) and Karl Maria Wiligut. While these cases did exist, they are often exaggerated strongly by the modern mythology of Nazi occultism. Goodrick-Clarke defines this genre as crypto-history, since its "final point of explanatory reference is an agent which has remained concealed to previous historians."[3] When he debunks several crypto-historic books in Appendix E of The Occult Roots of Nazism, he states, that these "were typically sensational and under-researched. A complete ignorance of the primary sources was common to most authors and inaccuracies and wild claims were repeated by each newcomer to the genre until an abundant literature existed, based on wholly spurious 'facts' concerning the powerful Thule Society, the Nazi links with the East, and Hitler's occult initiation."[4] Here Goodrick-Clarke brings down the description of cryptohistory to two elements: "A complete ignorance of the primary sources" and the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims".[page needed]

Examples

The following are some commonly cited examples of alleged pseudohistory:

See also

References

  1. ^ Allchin, D. 2004. Pseudohistory and pseudoscience Science & Education 13:179-195.
  2. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=p&p=38
  3. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 218
  4. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224,225
  5. ^ Fritze, Ronald H,. (2009). Invented knowledge: false history, fake science and pseudo-religions. Reaktion Books. p. 169. ISBN 978-1861894304.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ http://skepdic.com/pseudohs.html
  7. ^ http://skepdic.com/pseudohs.html
  8. ^ Sherwin, Elisabeth. "Clarence Walker encourages black Americans to discard Afrocentrism". Davis Community Network. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
  9. ^ 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. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |no= ignored (help)
  10. ^ [1] PseudoMacedonians - The fallacy of their cause by Vasil Gligorov
  11. ^ [2] Press release for Oxford Dictionary's vocabulary entry "Pseudomacedonia"

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pseudohistory&oldid=373681015"