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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Controversial knowledge
On 10 May 1941, Rudolf Hess - Deputy Fuhrer of the Third Reich -
embarked on his astonishing flight from Augsburg to Scotland. At
dusk the same day, he parachuted on to a Scottish moor and was
taken into custody. His arrival provoked widespread curiosity and
speculation, which has continued to this day. Why did Hess fly to
Scotland? Had Hitler authorized him to attempt to negotiate peace?
Was British Intelligence involved? What was his state of mind at
the time? Drawing on a variety of reliable archive and eyewitness
sources in Britain, Germany and the USA, authors Roy Conyers Nesbit
and Georges van Acker have written what must be the most objective
assessment of the Hess' story yet to be published. Their compelling
narrative not only dispels many of the extraordinary conspiracy
theories, but also uncovers some intriguing new facts.
Piltdown. Even today the name sends a shiver down the collective
spine of the scientific community, for this was the most dramatic
and daring fraud ever perpetrated upon the world of science and
academia. Between 1908 and 1912, a series of amazing discoveries
relating to what appeared to be the earliest human were made close
to the little village of Piltdown in Sussex. These remains belonged
to the developmental 'missing link' between man and ape. The basic
principles of evolution, first propounded by Charles Darwin some
fifty years before, now appeared as indisputable fact. The
Manchester Guardian ran the first headline: 'THE EARLIEST MAN?:
REMARKABLE DISCOVERY IN SUSSEX. A SKULL MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD' it
screamed, adding that the discovery was 'one of the most important
of our time'. The news spread quickly around the world, with many
voicing their eagerness to examine the find. Few archaeological
discoveries have the capacity to be front-page news twice over, but
'Piltdown Man' is a rare exception. Forty-one years after he first
became famous, the 'Earliest Englishman' was again hot news. It was
late November 1953, and the world was about to discover that
Piltdown Man had been a hoax. Not just any hoax mind, the London
Star declared it to be 'THE BIGGEST SCIENTIFIC HOAX OF THE
CENTURY'.
Misogyny is a hot topic, yet it's often misunderstood. What is
misogyny, exactly? Who deserves to be called a misogynist? How does
misogyny contrast with sexism, and why is it prone to persist - or
increase - even when sexist gender roles are waning? This book is
an exploration of misogyny in public life and politics, by the
moral philosopher and writer Kate Manne. It argues that misogyny
should not be understood primarily in terms of the hatred or
hostility some men feel toward all or most women. Rather, it's
primarily about controlling, policing, punishing, and exiling the
"bad" women who challenge male dominance. And it's compatible with
rewarding "the good ones," and singling out other women to serve as
warnings to those who are out of order. It's also common for women
to serve as scapegoats, be burned as witches, and treated as
pariahs. Manne examines recent and current events such as the Isla
Vista killings by Elliot Rodger, the case of the convicted serial
rapist Daniel Holtzclaw, who preyed on African-American women as a
police officer in Oklahoma City, Rush Limbaugh's diatribe against
Sandra Fluke, and the "misogyny speech" of Julia Gillard, then
Prime Minister of Australia, which went viral on YouTube. The book
shows how these events, among others, set the stage for the 2016 US
presidential election. Not only was the misogyny leveled against
Hillary Clinton predictable in both quantity and quality, Manne
argues it was predictable that many people would be prepared to
forgive and forget regarding Donald Trump's history of sexual
assault and harassment. For this, Manne argues, is misogyny's
oft-overlooked and equally pernicious underbelly: exonerating or
showing "himpathy" for the comparatively privileged men who
dominate, threaten, and silence women.
Thoroughly investigated by a former Army officer and taken from his
review of hundreds of historical and government documents and
inperson interviews, this book chronicles more than 100 sightings,
events, and discoveries of alien encounters, government conspiracy,
and the influence of extraterrestrials on human events throughout
history. From prehistoric UFO sightings, cave paintings, and
ancient astronauts to modern sightings around the world, this book
investigates claims of aliens living among us, abductions of humans
to alien spacecraft, and accounts of interstellar cooperation since
the UFO crash in Roswell, along with evidence of what the
government knows and what it has covered up. This discussion of the
government secrets, theories, and mysteries surrounding aliens is
packed with thoughtprovoking stories and shocking revelations of
alien involvement in the lives of Earthlings.
In 1795 three boys discovered the top of an ancient shaft on
uninhabited Oak Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The boys began
to dig, and what they uncovered started the world's greatest and
strangest treasure hunt but nobody knows what the treasure is. Two
hundred years of courage, back-breaking effort, ingenuity, and
engineering skills have failed to retrieve what is concealed
there.
Theories of what the treasure could be include Captain Kidd's
bloodstained pirate gold, an army payroll left by the French or
British military engineers, priceless ancient manuscripts, the body
of an Arif or other religious refugee leader, or the lost treasure
of the Templars. The Oak Island curse prophesies that the treasure
will not be found until seven men are dead and the last oak has
fallen. That last oak has already gone, and six treasure hunters
have been killed.
After years of research, the authors have finally solved the
sinister riddle of Oak Island, but their answer is challenging,
controversial, and disturbing. Something beyond price still lies
waiting in the labyrinth.
Ebenezer Scrooge's cry of 'Humbug!' is well known throughout the
English-speaking world. But what did he mean? In this entertaining
book, P. T. Barnum (1810-91), defines 'humbug' as 'glittering
appearances by which to suddenly arrest public attention, and
attract the public eye and ear'. A showman himself and the creator
of 'The Greatest Show on Earth', Barnum was famous for his own
tricks, and describes here some of the most fascinating and
outrageous examples perpetrated in his time. He explores the cases
of Mr Warren, who wrote an advertisement in enormous letters on the
pyramids of Giza, and the Fox daughters, who caused a stir among
spiritualists in New York when they held seances with tapping
spirits - in fact their own cracking knee joints. First published
in 1866, this tour of Victorian humbug, fraud, superstition and
quackery will appeal to social historians and readers interested in
nineteenth-century popular culture.
Through a series of specific questions that cut to the core of
conspiracism as a global social and cultural phenomenon this book
deconstructs the logic and rhetoric of conspiracy theories and
analyses the broader social and psychological factors that
contribute to their persistence in modern society.
This book is a joy to read and remains relevant in the current era
of financial boom and bust. Mackay examines animal magnetism,
money-mania, tulip-mania, the history of hair and facial hair,
haunted houses, and much more. Throughout history, the most
extraordinary fashions and trends have been followed unthinkingly,
and occasionally this crowd fever has overtaken not only a town but
a whole country; in some cases much of western Europe was engulfed
simultaneously. The ability of some manias to be so far-reaching,
and for common sense and intelligence to abandon such large
populations seem incredible, though the book is as
thought-provoking now as it was when first published in 1852.
Volume 2 examines the fervour of the crusades and of witch trials,
both of which engulfed Europe at different times. Explored on a
lighter note are haunted houses and a fashion for lady poisoners.
This book is a joy to read and remains relevant in the current era
of financial boom and bust. Mackay examines animal magnetism,
money-mania, tulip-mania, the history of hair and facial hair, the
crusades, haunted houses, and much more. Throughout history, the
most extraordinary fashions and trends have been followed
unthinkingly, and occasionally this crowd fever has overtaken not
only a town but a whole country; in some cases much of western
Europe was engulfed simultaneously. The ability of some manias to
be so far-reaching, and for common sense and intelligence to
abandon such large populations seem incredible, though the book is
as thought-provoking now as it was when first published in 1852.
Brought to life with exquisite engravings and witty commentary, the
first volume focusses on the financial bubbles in Europe and the
wide-ranging consequences of fashions in hair, prophecies and
alchemy.
Why are there so few Muslim terrorists? With more than a billion
Muslims in the world-many of whom supposedly hate the West and
ardently desire martyrdom-why don't we see terrorist attacks every
day? Where are the missing martyrs? These questions may seem
counterintuitive, in light of the death and devastation that
terrorists have wrought around the world. But the scale of
violence, outside of civil war zones, has been far lower than the
waves of attacks that the world feared in the wake of 9/11.
Terrorists' own publications complain about Muslims' failure to
join their cause. The Missing Martyrs draws on government sources
and revolutionary publications, public opinion surveys and election
results, historical documents and in-depth interviews with Muslims
in the Middle East and around the world to examine barriers to
terrorist recruitment, including liberal Islam, revolutionary
rivalries, and an inelastic demand for U.S. foreign policy. This
revised edition, updated to include the self-proclaimed "Islamic
State," concludes that fear of terrorism should be brought into
alignment with the actual level of threat, and that government
policies and public opinion should be based on evidence rather than
alarmist hyperbole.
"Carl Sagan once spoke of the need to balance the scientific method
with pure, unadulterated wonder. Scott Alan Roberts picks up that
mantle by examining the Nephilim, the hybrid offspring of the
intercourse between human women and ancient extraterrestrials. If
only for just a moment, kick out the props of science and religion
and let Scott take you to that place where sometimes the questions
tell us far more than the answers."
--George Noory, Coast to Coast AM
"If you've gone to Sunday school and read Genesis, you've no doubt
encountered the mystery of the
Nephilim, the strange giants whose offspring mated with the
offspring of Adam and Eve. Who were these creatures and how did
they get here? The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim... is sure to
challenge your beliefs and get you to look at the other side of
Creation."
--Bill Birnes, publisher, UFO magazine; The History Channel's
"Ancient Aliens"
The ancient books of Genesis and Enoch tell us that sprit beings
known as the Watchers descended to the Earth, had sex with women,
and begat a hybrid race of offspring known as the Nephilim.
Such tales are as old as humanity itself. These histories and
accounts of visitations and subsequent mixed-blood, alien-human
races comprise the bulk of the world's myths, legends, religions,
and superstitions.
The Rise and Fall of the Nephilim examines:
Elohim and the Bene Ha Elohim--God and the Sons of God
The Watchers: UFOs, extraterrestrials, angels, infiltrators, and
impregnators
Biblical and apocryphal sources from Enoch to Moses
The role of the Fae, Elves, Elementals, and ancient gods
What if the old spiritualities and religions weren't just legends?
What if there was something living and breathing beneath the
surface, a tangible interlinking of religious thought and
spirituality, science and myth, inter-dimensionality and cold, hard
fact?
The Nephilim walked among us... and still do today.
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