A History of Ambition in 50 Hoaxes
The con artists in this book pursued a variety of ambitions-making money, winning wars, mocking authority, finding fame, trading an ordinary life for a glamorous one-but they all chose the lowest, fastest road to get there. Every hoax is a curtain, and behind it is a deceiver operating levers and smoke machines to make us see what is not there and miss what is. As P.T. Barnum knew, you can short-circuit critical thinking in any century by telling people what they want to hear. Most scams operate on a personal scale, but some have shaped the balance of world power, inspired explorers to sail uncharted seas, derailed scientific progress, or caused terrible massacres. A HISTORY OF AMBITION IN 50 HOAXES guides us through a rogue's gallery of hustlers, liars, swindlers, imposters, scammers, pretenders, and cheats. In Gale Eaton's wide-ranging synthesis, the history of deception is a colorful tour, with surprising insights behind every curtain.
Fountas & Pinnell Level Z+
26. A conspiracy to justify murder -- Conspiracy theories and the damage done -- 27. A future great novelist helps hoax the Royal Navy -- HMS Dreadnought and the lead-up to World War I -- 28. Missing link found at Piltdown -- The Piltdown chicken -- How do scientists decide which bones to trust? -- 29. Naked man conquers Maine woods -- Naked publicity gimmicks and hoaxes -- Isolated living in Biosphere 2 -- 30. the spectric poets unmasked -- Two spectric poems -- 31. the original Ponzi scheme -- Pyramid schemes -- 32. Fairies are caught on camera -- Why Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies -- 33. Did Grand Duchess Anastasia survive the Revolution? -- Princess Caraboo -- 34. Houdini debunks a medium -- Other ways of knowing: science and new religions -- 35. If you believe that, I have a tower to sell you -- Unloading the Eiffel Tower -- 36. The Loch Ness Monster -- Standards of evidence and scientific names -- 37. Martians attack -- The BBC panics Britain -- 38. Operation Mincemeat deludes Hitler -- the classic Haversack Operation: 1917 -- 39. Dutch artist arrested for selling a Vermeer to Hermann Göring -- Detecting art forgeries -- 40. The cursed tomb of the last Aztec emperor -- Tombs of heroes -- 41. Donald Crowhurst vanishes at sea -- Yachting technology -- 42. The Tasaday: a stone-age tribe or a hoax? -- Survivals from the dawn of humanity -- 43. A faked autobiography of Howard Hughes -- A memoir of live with wolves -- 44. Moon landing conspiracy theory -- Scientific literacy -- 45. Genuine fake Hitler diaries -- Why 1983? -- 46. More lying stones: Moroccan fossils in the Himalayas -- Why the scientific record needs setting straight -- 47. Crop circle artists confess -- The will to believe -- 48. Physicist Alan Sokal spoofs postmodern scholarship -- Legislating pi -- Scholarly journals and the peer review process -- 49. Joining the campaign to ban DHMO -- Getting both sides of the story -- 50. Microsoft technical support -- Curses and crashing computers: frightening the marks.
History -- Miscellanea -- Juvenile literature.
Hoaxes -- History -- Miscellanea -- Juvenile literature.
Ambition -- History -- Miscellanea -- Juvenile literature.
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
T HISTORY Eat | Main (Downtown) | Garden Level, Teen Nonfiction | Out (Due: 5/8/2024) |
T HISTORY Eat | Ballentine Indoors | Teen Nonfiction | In |
T HISTORY Eat | Blythewood | Teen Nonfiction | In |