Hoax--A History of Deception

July 1, 2018

The crack team of Tattersall (curator emeritus, American Museum of Natural History) and natural history book publisher Névraumont dissect 50 well-known and obscure hoaxes in three- to five-page articles. Ample photos will hold readers' interest for entries on faked photographs (living fairies? Lincoln's ghost?) and Jan Hendrik Schön, who (with the help of coauthors) published "an avalanche" of fraudulent scientific papers between 2000 and 2002. VERDICT Readers will learn more about the sixth-century sighting of a creature in Loch Ness and the fossils of the Piltdown Man. Consider for all public libraries.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2018
Hoax contains 50 entries on charlatans and frauds from all of human history, plus one about nonhuman, evolutionary fakery. Natural-historians Tattersall and N�vraumont cover apocalyptic predictions, several cases of pseudoarchaeology and cryptozoology, fake spiritualists and spirit photographers, and fake medicine, and the (debunked) link between vaccines and autism. The writing style is casual and will appeal to a broad age range, and images document the hoaxes. It ends with suggestions for further reading for each chapter and an index.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)