The extraordinary historical consequences of errors and fictional inventions.
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PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
The extraordinary historical consequences of errors and fictional inventions.
Description
In this work, Umberto Eco demonstrates how myths and lunacies can produce historical developments of no small significance. In Eco's words, "even errors can produce interesting side effects". This book shows how: believers in a flat earth helped Columbus accidentally discover America; how the medieval myth of Prester John, the Christian king in Asia, assisted the European drive eastward; and how the myth of the Rosicrucians affected the Masons, leading in turn to the widespread belief in a Jewish masonic plot to dominate the world and other forms of paranoid anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Critic Reviews
"Examines, with wit and elegance, some of the many cases in which a mistaken belief has led to a sound result . . . Delightful."-The Atlantic Monthly
"Rich in historical anecdotes . . . Throughout, his treatments are informative, intellectually sophisticated, and thoroughly entertaining."-Library Journal
About the Author
Umberto Eco is Professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologna and one of the world's most famous, and admired, writers.
In this work, Umberto Eco demonstrates how myths and lunacies can produce historical developments of no small significance. In Eco's words, "even errors can produce interesting side effects". This book shows how: believers in a flat earth helped Columbus accidentally discover America; how the medieval myth of Prester John, the Christian king in Asia, assisted the European drive eastward; and how the myth of the Rosicrucians affected the Masons, leading in turn to the widespread belief in a Jewish masonic plot to dominate the world and other forms of paranoid anti-Semitism in the 19th and 20th centuries.
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