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History's Greatest Lies

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HISTORY’S GREATEST LIES THE STARTLING TRUTHS BEHIND WORLD EVENTS OUR HISTORY BOOKS GOT WRONG WILLIAM WEIR CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SECTION I THE FIRST LIE WE LEARNED IN SCHOOL CHAPTER 1 Did Emperor Nero Fiddle as Rome Burned? (64 A.D.) SECTION II LIES FROM THE ANCIENTS CHAPTER 2 Ramesses II: An Original Master of Spin (1279– 1213 B.C.) CHAPTER 3 The Goths: Barbarians in Name Only? (300–700 A.D.) SECTION III LIES FROM THE RENAISSANCE CHAPTER 4 Robert the Bruce: The Arachnid and the Monarch (1314) CHAPTER 5 The Bloody Record of Hernán Cortés (1500s) CHAPTER 6 The Galileo Affair: A Historic Collision of Science, Religion, and Ego (1633) SECTION IV LIES FROM THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTIONS CHAPTER 7 Paul Revere: The Not-So- Lone Horseman (1775) CHAPTER 8 The Bastille: Repressive Prison or Luxury Hotel? (1789) SECTION V LIES FROM THE AMERICAN WILD WEST CHAPTER 9 Jesse James: American Robin Hood or Serial Murderer? (1860s– 1880s) CHAPTER 10 The Earp Gang: Lawmen or Lawless? (1881) SECTION VI LIES FROM JUST YESTERDAY CHAPTER 11 The Philippine Insurrection: Against What Government? (1898– 1902) CHAPTER 12 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A Deadly Kind of Lie (1800s– 1940s) CHAPTER 13 Harold Lasseter: Finder of a Reef of Gold? (1930) CHAPTER 14 John Dillinger: Dead or Alive? (1934) CHAPTER 15 The Unconquerable Afghanistan? BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE AUTHOR IMAGE CREDITS INDEX INTRODUCTION HISTORY LIES? WELL, MAYBE SOMETIMES IT EXAGGERATES, or oversimplifies. But you do find some whoppers, such as the second Ramesses’ tale of how he single-handedly routed the Hittites at Kadesh—a battle in which he was actually lucky to escape with his life. And there are some really evil lies, like the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion—an invention of the tsarist secret police to distract the Russian public from the tsar’s incompetence and provoke them into killing Jews. The Protocols have had a remarkably long life. They have been used to justify the Holocaust and are still taught as fact in some Middle Eastern schools today. This book is a sampling of historical lies and myths—the evil and the innocent, those aimed to glorify the teller, and those used to demonize his opponents. Most of us learned these untruths when we were in primary school, so this is a somewhat belated effort to set the record straight by debunking these falsehoods. We reveal the characters involved and their motivations, and detail the legacies spawned by these falsehoods. SCAPEGOATS AND THEIR BENEFICIARIES The reason for the Protocols is obvious. The origin of most other lies is more complicated. Take the Pinocchio-nosed gentleman on our cover—Emperor Nero. Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned because, among other reasons, the fiddle would not be invented for another 1,500 years. But that fiddling tale is probably the most famous of historical lies, which is why it kicks off our survey. Actually, Nero was out of town when the fire started, and when he returned, he did everything possible to stop the disaster, and he even heroically rescued many of its victims. NERO DIDN’T FIDDLE WHILE ROME BURNED BECAUSE, AMONG OTHER REASONS, THE FIDDLE WOULD NOT BE INVENTED FOR ANOTHER 1,500 YEARS. BUT THAT FIDDLING TALE IS PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS OF HISTORICAL LIES. Aside from that, though, Nero was not a nice guy. He was an egomaniac who believed he was a supremely gifted musician, singer, actor, and chariot racer among other things. He murdered his brother and his mother and executed his first wife so he could marry another woman. He so completely neglected the affairs of state that historians rate him the worst of all Roman emperors—and for that title, the field is crowded and the competition keen. Because Nero was so bad, the story went around that he had not only done nothing about the fire, but that he had started it. Nero countered that story by declaring that the Christians—a despised minority—had started the fire, thereby anticipating the ploy used by the Protocols authors by many centuries. Actually, attempting to create a scapegoat is a fairly common source of historical lies. Hitler had his Jewish scapegoats; Stalin blamed the kulaks, small independent Russian farmers, for the Soviet Union’s economic problems. After Stalin had killed most of them, he needed another scapegoat, so he turned to the military. After a series of show trials in 1937 and 1938, Stalin executed 3 of the army’s 5 marshals, 13 of the 15 army commanders, 110 of the 195 division commanders, and 186 of the 406 brigadier generals. That’s one reason Hitler’s legions were able to get as far into Russia as they did. Somewhat similar to these lies, told to create scapegoats, is the story about how the French revolutionaries took the Bastille, that horrible dungeon filled with the miserable victims of a tyrannical monarchy. Actually, considering the state of most prisons in the eighteenth century, the Bastille was one of the more pleasant—a resort compared to the Old Newgate Prison of the American Revolution, a dark, dank former copper mine where Tories were confined. And at the time the Bastille was stormed, it contained only seven prisoners. The opposite of scapegoat stories are those lies aimed to make the undeserving look good, such as the account by Ramesses II of the Battle of Kadesh. The FBI’s report of the death of bank robber John Dillinger falls into this category, too. The evidence indicates that instead of “public enemy number one,” agent Melvin Purvis’ men killed a pimp named Jimmy Lawrence who resembled Dillinger. The report greatly boosted public confidence in the FBI and ensured that J. Edgar Hoover would keep his job for a couple of generations. COMPLICATED HEROES AND KILLERS Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet, not a historian, and he wrote his poem about Paul Revere’s midnight ride in 1860 to inspire his fellow citizens to do something about the crisis that was threatening the country—a civil war. The last stanza reads: For, borne on the night wind of the past, Through all our history to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear, The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere. Paul Revere was a hero, but he wasn’t a lone hero. His ride was effective only because of the ancient institution of the militia and the recent network of committees set up by the Sons of Liberty. People want heroes, and sometimes they find them in unlikely places. Jesse James, a robber and a multiple murderer, came to be revered by Confederate sympathizers as a modern Robin Hood simply because he was a former guerrilla and pretended to be continuing the war against the Yankees. Others honored him because he robbed banks and railroads, neither of which were popular with rural people. Did he give to the poor? Sure, if by the poor you mean himself and his gang. James’ fame was spread by paperback books and movies. Perhaps the biggest cause of history’s lies is over-simplification. Hernán Cortés was brave, chivalrous, ruthless, and faithless—a complicated human being, but not like his lieutenant, Pedro de Alvarado, someone who liked to kill. Cortés killed only when it would give him an advantage. He tried to stop the killing by his Indian allies after the fall of Tenochtitlán. Galileo Galilei’s troubles were not so much about theology as the conflict of an abrasive scientist and an overly sensitive pope. And the tall tales about the so-called Philippine Insurrection resulted from a rather insular and naïve nation being pitched into an exotic and utterly unprecedented situation. This book aims to eliminate some of the biggest misconceptions about historical events, explain how those misconceptions were born, and at the same time tell some fascinating stories. SECTION I THE FIRST LIE WE LEARNED IN SCHOOL THE GREAT FIRE OF ROME BROKE OUT IN JULY 64 A.D. AND RAGED FOR NINE DAYS. WHEN IT WAS OVER, HUNDREDS WERE DEAD AND 70 PERCENT OF THE CITY WAS RAZED. UNDER EMPEROR NERO’S DIRECTION, THE CITY WAS BUILT ANEW. Mary Evans Picture Library/Alamy CHAPTER 1 DID EMPEROR NERO FIDDLE AS ROME BURNED? (64 A.D.) IN THE SUMMER OF 64 A.D., THE EMPEROR NERO LEFT ROME for his palace in the seaside village of Anzio. Summers in Rome were unbearably hot; the city was overpopulated, dirty, and offered scant shade from the unmerciful sun. Located just thirty-five miles from Rome, Anzio was like another country— quiet, peaceful, and picturesque. The cool breeze from the nearby sea provided welcome relief from the summer heat. On July 19, Nero and his inner circle were enjoying the scenery at Anzio when a messenger arrived on horseback to report that a fire had broken out in Rome. The emperor waved his hand dismissively and returned to his leisure. The news was of little importance. Small fires were constantly erupting in the city, especially during the summer months. Nero trusted that the police forces in the city would isolate the fire and extinguish it before it could spread. In truth, Rome was engulfed in fire. Efforts to extinguish it only served to increase its ferocity. The conflagration began in the Circus Maximus, the beloved stadium where the emperor hosted glorious chariot races and public sports. Much of the Circus had been built with low quality wood; the July heat turned the brittle benches and railings into kindling.
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