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Past Mistakes
- How We Misinterpret History and Why It Matters
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
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Past Mistakes
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Publisher's Summary
From the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.
The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.
Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.
Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.
What the critics say
"Narrator Alex Wyndham's smooth voice and English accent voice are perfect for this fascinating dive into the myths and mistakes in what we 'know' about history.… Most importantly, he sounds engaged with the historical stories he is telling, and that keeps the listener interested as well." --AudioFile magazine
“Whether discussing Pythagoras’ legacy, Athenian democracy, the myth of Progress, or the Wild West, Mountain quickly points out how the truth is more nuanced than - or completely different from - stories we may know. …the work’s main thrust is the conversation between present and past and how our view of the past influences current behavior - most clearly outlined in a chapter about the Wild West mythos shaping American gun culture to this day.” --Booklist
“Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you’re ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you’ve been hoodwinked for this long.” --The Tiny Activist
What listeners say about Past Mistakes
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael Szarka
- 2021-04-25
A romp through historical myths and misconceptions
From our "common knowledge" of bronze age societies to our mythology of the Wild West, Mountain explains not just how our ideas about the past are wrong, but how they came to be wrong. Moreover, in a general way, he shows how the persistence of these myths can be explained by how they have benefitted certain power structures, including such examples as misunderstandings of the historical roles played by women, and the lionization of some pretty unworthy figures such as Christopher Columbus (but none of this done in a "preachy" way). I quite enjoyed the book. The narrator's "posh"-sounding accent was a bit jarring at first to a North American ear, but it was clear and expressive.
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