History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life

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My enduring Top-2 pick for understanding the Meaning of Life book.
This will help every student of art, music, political science,
Good first time around; improves with re-reading
An epiphany
The Uses of History

From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life
Jacques Barzun
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060175869

Amazon.com Reviews

In the last half-millennium, as the noted cultural critic and historian Jacques Barzun observes, great revolutions have swept the Western world. Each has brought profound change--for instance, the remaking of the commercial and social worlds wrought by the rise of Protestantism and by the decline of hereditary monarchies. And each, Barzun hints, is too little studied or appreciated today, in a time he does not hesitate to label as decadent.

To leaf through Barzun's sweeping, densely detailed but lightly written survey of the last 500 years is to ride a whirlwind of world-changing events. Barzun ponders, for instance, the tumultuous political climate of Renaissance Italy, which yielded mayhem and chaos, but also the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo--and, he adds, the scientific foundations for today's consumer culture of boom boxes and rollerblades. He considers the 16th-century varieties of religious experimentation that arose in the wake of Martin Luther's 95 theses, some of which led to the repression of individual personality, others of which might easily have come from the "Me Decade." Along the way, he offers a miniature history of the detective novel, defends Surrealism from its detractors, and derides the rise of professional sports, packing in a wealth of learned and often barbed asides.

Never shy of controversy, Barzun writes from a generally conservative position; he insists on the importance of moral values, celebrates the historical contributions of Christopher Columbus, and twits the academic practitioners of political correctness. Whether accepting of those views or not, even the most casual reader will find much that is new or little-explored in this attractive venture into cultural history. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has now set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500.

In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaisance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester"--show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras.

The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the creative novelty that will burst forth--tomorrow or the next day.

Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.

Customer Reviews:

My enduring Top-2 pick for understanding the Meaning of Life book........2007-02-24

I have been reading and comtemplating about the Meaning of My Life for 4-5 years now. After reading many books on a variety of subjects, I still recommend Barzun's book as my Top-2 best book for understanding LIFE, and therefore providing the context for piecing together a meaning for YOUR LIFE. My other top pick is Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant. Dawn is not a chronological or objective presentation of history. The book derives coherence by allowing the reader an intimate view inside of one, heavily-opinionated mind. This method might have produced gibberish if the writer was an ordinary scholar. But because Barzan's mind was honed by a lifetime of research, and he was an exceptionally gifted thinker on the subject to begin with, the method produced an exceptionally excellent book. I do not think it is an easy book to read, especially if you do not skip any of the aside comments. You may need to skip parts on the first reading, and come back to it later to cover all of it. However, I think you will definitely feel a sense of achievement after reading it. You may gradually develop wisdom about how to live your own life after reflecting on the human condition covered in such detail over such vast time periods by the book.

This will help every student of art, music, political science,.......2007-01-11

history, religion and literature understand how it came to be and why it was so important.

Barzun is one of the 20th century's greatest literary minds and writers and this proves it all. From country to country, decade to decade, each person is tied to those he met and influenced.

The book containes > and < symbols with the page numbers so that one can look forward or back to see what is being referenced.

I have read it 3 times and still come back for more.

Good first time around; improves with re-reading.......2006-12-11

I bought and read this book when it came out, and have just read it again -- five years later. It was good the first time I read it, and it gets better the second time around.

Jacques Barzun brings a life of study, lecturing and thought to this whirlwind review of the past half-millennium of Western culture. His opinions are strong, and he is not reluctant to take strong positions, particularly in the latter part of the book which cover the period of his own life (he was 80 when he wrote this book). For the most part I agree with his opinions, and even when I don't I have to admit that his arguments are well articulated and demand an equal measure of rigor from the reader to refute them.

I'm not sure this can really be called a history -- it is more a reasoned dissertation of a point of view. If you want a chronological description of the events of the last 500 years you should probably look elsewhere. But it is certainly fun to read, stimulating, at times infuriating; in its style it is 19th century (it makes me think of Michelet), but in its language it is articulate late-20th century. Jacques Barzun is, I believe, a French immigrant to the United States, so it is a Euro-centric view of development -- and in Prof. Barzun's view, Western culture underwent a fairly linear development and growth (with many reversals all the same) until the early 20th century, when it all began to fall apart...

A final word about Prof. Barzun's writing style. He writes extraordinarily well; it is difficult to imagine that his mother tongue was French. I wish I wrote English as well as he does.

I can heartily recommend this book. It gets better every time. I look forward to re-reading it in 2011.

An epiphany.......2006-11-25

I must confess it was amusing to read the faint praise of multicultural critics on the inside cover, seeing that Barzun excoriates the same politically-correct elites that are in large part responsible for the decline in historical rigor. What is less amusing is that decline itself, and the decline of objectivity and reason in western society on the whole, just as we face new civilizational threats.

If we have often wondered why so many historical works are unreadable, Barzun provides the answer. The targeting of history by ideologues has led to either revisionist trash or pedantic nitpicking by parochial scholars. There was a time, however, when history was read by the mainstream to the same extent as novels or other literature, where synthesis was placed at a premium, where sweeping scope was not frowned upon as naive. With "Dawn", Barzun provides just such a synthesis, and does so with consummate skill and prose so beautiful, the work should serve as a model for future endeavors of a similar stripe.

As the work progresses, it emerges that Barzun is, above all, a teacher. Here is not only a cultural history that emphasizes unappreciated actors and themes, but an urgent recommendation for future exploration. The smart footnote style, inline cross-references and reading suggestions, as well as the callouts of notable quotes operate smoothly to enhance the clarity of ideas. Barzun has a knack for capturing what is interesting to readers and, moreover, for anticipating gaps in the reader's knowledge. Only through a lifetime of scholarship could a work of this depth and scope be successfully executed.

In the end, one is left with a touch of sadness when the last page of "Dawn" is turned -- left, that is, with the poignant realization that Barzun is in his 90s and that he, along with other icons of his generation like Bernard Lewis, will leave shoes behind that today's second-rate revisionists and pedants cannot fill. In this respect, "Dawn" can at least be a monument to the vestiges of a once-great civilization, a lasting admonishment to declining standards even as our values, the "better angels of our nature", disappear.

The Uses of History.......2006-11-23

Given the wonderful reviews below, it would be vain to summarize the structure of this magnificient book. Instead, I'd like to tell you what I think `Dawn to Decadence' can do for you.

* First, and maybe best, you get to spend 802 pages worth of your reading time in the company of a man who has thought long and hard about who we are and has the grace and talent to share it. Jacques Barzun is very good company.

* You'll get to expand your knowledge of your ignorance. How wonderful to be prompted to look at the size of what you don't know! It's the first and in many ways, most luscious step in learning.

* You will lose your sense of what is `human nature' and begin to see a lot of what you thought was part of the human condition as really a piece of human construction. To take one example, the splendid essay on Montaigne reminds us that the very idea of an autonomous self had to be invented and that idea had to struggle against earlier, humoral theories of human nature.

* You will see (and perhaps never forget) a vision of the future in which the tedium of the technological, television era is rolled back by a return to earlier pasttimes and forms. Family poetry readings after dinner? Chamber music on the village green?

In spite of the title, this is a resoundingly optimistic work. It's not too much to say that it will leave you a changed person. I envy any one who gets to read it for the first time and I think I'll distract myself from that envy by reading it again now for the second time.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from Kunati Books. ISBN 9781601640005

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Dialectics and Decadence
George E. McCarthy
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In "Dialectics and Decadence," George McCarthy examines the influence of Greek philosophy and literature on the development of 19th-century German social thought, particularly that of Marx and Nietzsche.

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The decadence of the modern world
I. Robert Sinai
Manufacturer: Schenkman Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0870735683

The Devil's Advocates: Decadence in Modern Literature (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)

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Read This Fabulous Book While Smoking Gautiers in the Tub

The Devil's Advocates: Decadence in Modern Literature (Contributions to the Study of World Literature)
Thomas Reed Whissen
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

As a distinct literary movement, decadence made its brief appearance in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. As a theme and a philosophical posture, however, it continues to maintain a hold on the Western literary imagination. The first writer to examine the pervasive influence of decadence on modern literature, Whissen approaches the decadent vision as an attempt to come to terms with a world in decline, rather than as a transient literary fad. He explores the ways in which decadence functions not only in modern literature but in modern life, arguing that if we fail to notice the elements of decadence in literature, it is because they are now such an accepted part of our reality that we do not recognize them as decadent. Whissen discusses two major strains of decadence that originated in Oscar Wilde's day and have continued to influence modern literature. One is the decadent work, a narrative infused with a conscious, committed self-indulgence that serves both as solace and as a form of rebellion against the perceived ugliness and hypocrisy of the modern world. The other strain includes works that have decadence as their theme, such as Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. In an analysis of the prototypic French decadent novel, Huysmans' Against Nature, the author identifies the primary elements that make up the decadent temper: narcissism, masochism, irony, alienation, sophistication, vanity, sensitivity, nihilism, and a taste for uncommon or intense experience. He traces the development of these elements in works by Wilde, Henry James, Andre Gide, Thomas Mann, and Isak Dinesen, as well as two contemporary writers--Patrick Suskind and Paul Rudnick. A significant contribution to literary scholarship and criticism, this book will be of interest for courses or studies in modern and contemporary Western literature, humanities, social history, and social psychology.

Customer Reviews:

Read This Fabulous Book While Smoking Gautiers in the Tub.......2000-03-30

When I first read Whissen's eminently readable treatise on decadence, the culture was alive with late 1980s wealth, SPY magazine and the smirk of Donald Trump when he was still with Ivana.

Just a year before I had been a student of Dr. Whissen's in a graduate seminar called "Decadence." What sheer delight, the study and discussion of 19th- and 20th-century decadent novels from Gide to Paul Rudnick. (I tip my hat to Whissen for introducing me to Rudnick's "Social Disease," which has made me admire Rudnick's essays, plays and film work ever since.)

Whissen is a rooted academic scholar -- who loves pop culture, too. His acerbic wit both celebrates and punctures pomposity. He delights in the frosting surface of the gossipy Capote, whilst pointing out the tepid and germy underbelly of decadence.

Most people don't understand decadence. Some even equate it with porn. It is not. My classroom experience with Dr. Whissen taught me that. In lieu of such a class being offered to you, read "The Devil's Advocate." You will weave in and out of academe and alleyways... a rich and delectible journey.

"It is a feat to demystify decadence genially while dealing with unsavory material usually presented complicitously. But Whissen achieves even more. He is not looking at counterculture literature but at mainstream literature in which the reader either senses something decadent in the writer's attitude or identifies some rhetorical device associated with the decadence. . . . He focuses chiefly on authors who have been studied from other perspectives (e.g., Gide, Mann, James, Dinesen) or who have hardly been studied at all (e.g., Maugham, Firbank, Capote, Suesskind, Stephen King)." Choice

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Edmond de Goncourt and the Novel: Naturalism and Decadence (Faux Titre 264) (Faux Titre)
Katherine Ashley
Manufacturer: Rodopi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 9042016469
Release Date: 2005-06-30

Product Description

Edmond de Goncourts four solo novels are not simply extensions of the Goncourt brothers joint project, but attempts to deviate from the Naturalism with which their name had come to be associated. By analysing paratexts, the relationship between documentation and fiction, as well as plot devices and themes, this study links the evolution of Goncourts fiction to wider literary debates surrounding Naturalism, Decadence and the renewal of the novel in fin de siècle France. In bringing Goncourts writings to an English-speaking public, it will be of interest to students and scholars of the literary history of late-nineteenth-century France. Contents Acknowledgements References I. Introduction Towards a New Novel II. Paratexts Titles: Novel Transformations Prefaces and Literary History III. Facts and Fictions Documentary Processes Les Frères Zemganno: Author as Acrobat La Faustin: Origins and Heredity Chérie: Female Documents IV. Language and Forms Plot Development Textual Voices Language and the Literary Field Natural and Artificial Expression V. Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Index

The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence (The Black Forrest)

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The Second Dedalus Book of Decadence (The Black Forrest)

Manufacturer: Dedalus Ltd
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Binding: Paperback

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