30 People Break Down The Historical Lies That Are Widely Accepted To This Day

To learn more about common historical misconceptions, we reached out to Otto English, who recently published a book called Fake History: Ten Great Lies and How They Shaped the World. Otto English is the pen name of London-based author Andrew Scott. According to him, our textbooks are filled with little falsehoods. 

"While academic history books tend (for the most part) nowadays to be very well researched, a lot of the 'general histories' that kids used to get brought up on (across the world) were littered with lies, bigger lies, and big fat whoppers," he told Bored Panda. "Some of those untruths are now so deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of nations that they have gained a general currency and are almost impossible to shift." 

English explained that many people do believe "that when Columbus sailed to America in 1492, his sailors and indeed most Europeans thought the world was flat," which is completely untrue. "The Greek polymath Eratosthenes had worked out that the world was a globe as far back as 200 BCE! Nobody was in fear of falling off the edge of a flat planet in the 15th century."

So why did so many think otherwise? The journalist revealed that the explanation behind this could be "a very dodgy biography of Columbus written by US author Washington Irving in the early 19th century. He was forging a sort of national myth of early America with Columbus at its center and that's one very big reason why in the past, fake history was made." 

"People are drawn to 'good stories' that shine a good light on them, and these fairy tales of our past are a sort of glue that binds nations together," English said. The more important and relevant the event is, the more likely it is that people will use it for their benefit. "Unfortunately, a lot of those stories have been weaponized over time which makes them very dangerous indeed."

While it’s impossible to tell exactly how much of our history is bent, one thing the author found while writing his book was that "a whole lot of stuff we take for granted is just plain wrong." 

"In the UK, for example, millions of people completely misunderstand key events in WW2 and Britain's part in it," he added. "Most British people have grown up with a narrative in which 'Little Britain' stood alone against the Nazis and that we were nearly invaded in 1940. That narrative ignores the fact that our navy was twice the size of theirs, and that Britain was the master of an enormous empire that could pull on vast resources of men and materials." 

English continued: "Also, Churchill has been raised up to the point of deification in the UK. To question his role in events or to doubt that he is our greatest Briton has become a sort of test of how patriotic you are. This is a very narrow way of defining loyalty to the group." 

Another generally accepted idea in the UK is "that 'we' got through the war because British people had a special 'Blitz spirit'. Politicians propagate this wartime propaganda as if it's an actual thing—and millions of people believe it." After all, repeat a lie a thousand times and people will think that it’s true. The author explained that "exceptionalism" is the belief that your people and nation are better than everyone else's, and, unfortunately, it is "very far from unique to the UK."

Plenty of people believe in false facts and bogus theories without understanding they are incorrect. Otto English mentioned that if you "get the past wrong, you get your present wrong too", so it is essential to find the truth behind such historical lies.

"Many Britons see themselves as the heroes of the saga of history and thus disregard our terrible and critical role in slavery and Empire building," he noted. "How nations see themselves in the present is inexorably linked to their collective view of their history." 

The author continued by telling us that history is the mountain stream that feeds modern politics: "Nationalism is a growing problem across the world—from Russia to the USA, from China to Britain. A lot of the thinking in those countries is propped up on fake history and an exaggerated sense of their past achievements."

So if you start to feel worried and wonder whether you need to rethink your education, remember that you have a powerful fact-checking device right there in your pocket. "At your fingertips, you have more ability to check and check again than any of your ancestors," English said. 

He added that if you fall for misinformation and lies in 2022, you can only blame yourself. Don’t get played "like a pawn in the global chess game" and "use that device to fight back and make sure that what you are being told is true. There are reliable histories and fabulous fact-checking websites like Snopes out there all just one click away—so there's no excuse to get conned."

"People believe in historical facts that are not true when those facts support their worldview," history teacher Rebecca Brenner Graham, Ph.D. told Bored Panda. "For example, if they want to ignore America's legacy of racism, they might insist that the Civil War was not about slavery, though the Articles of Secession leave no room for doubt that the Confederacy aimed primarily to protect slavery."

According to her, the truth behind historical facts matters because history has real power. "For example, too many Americans today insist that enslaving an entire Black population was only a sideshow in early American history, though in reality, it was foundational," she explained. Failing to observe "the horrors and traumas of American slavery causes too many people to overlook the legacies of slavery, like mass incarceration and police brutality today."