Description
Book Synopsis Throughout history, forgers have attempted to fabricate documents to manipulate the historical record. The book explores the most egregious cases--their intent, effectiveness, exposure and significance--from the Donation of Constantine to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the Hitler Diaries.
Ironically, forgeries have helped advance the discipline of history. Case studies trace how scholars worked to reveal the truth behind bogus manuscripts while developing new tools and standards for accuracy and authenticity. In the age of fake news and digital editing software, the spectacular history of fraud in print has never been more relevant.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. Forgeries in Antiquity
- 2. Pious Fraud: On Christian Pseudo-Epigraphy
- 3. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals: The Perpetual Puzzle
- 4. To Dare to Speak Out: Lorenzo Valla and the Donation of Constantine
- 5. Tuscan Pride: Viterbo, Volterra and the Etruscan Scarith
- 6. The Forged Past: Romantic Imagination and Nationalism
- 7. Charles Bertram: The Forger of Roman Britain
- 8. The Wagenfeld Case
- 9. The Case of Constantine Simonides
- 10. Nationalist Myths: Herder's Influence
- 11. The Fame of the Nation: Hanka's Czech Forgeries
- 12. British Forgeries: Parnell and Piggott
- 13. Peter the Great's Fourteen Points: Russia's Master Plan
- 14. Forged Autographs: The Duped Mathematician
- 15. Patriotic Fraud: The "Faux Henry" of the Dreyfus Case
- 16. Fabricating Hatred: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
- 17. Chinese Mirrors: The Mannix and Backhouse Forgeries
- 18. Fanning the Red Scare: The Zinoviev Letter
- 19. Washington's Regrets: American Forgeries
- 20. Fabricated Frontier History: The Horn Papers
- 21. The FBI "Suicide Letter" to Martin Luther King, Jr.
- 22. Cold War Campaigns: Soviet Disinformation Forgeries
- 23. Texfake: Forged Documents from the Alamo Period
- 24. Master Forger, Duped Historian: The Hitler Diaries
- 25. Rathergate: The Killian Documents
- 26. Letter from the Desert: The "Gay Jesus" Gospel
- 27. Invented Fragments: The Fake Holocaust Survivor
- 28. Forging with Photopolymer Plates: Galileo's Starry Messenger
- Conclusion: How Forged Documents Benefit History
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
