In a lively challenge to mainstream history Michael Parenti does battle with a number of massmarketed historical myths. He shows how historys victors distort and suppress the documentary record in order to perpetuate their power and privilege. And he demonstrates how historians are influenced by the professional and class environment in which they work. Pursuing themes ranging from antiquity to modern times from the Inquisition and Joan of Arc to the antilabor bias of presentday history books History as Mystery demonstrates how past and present can inform each other and how history can be a truly exciting and engaging subject. Michael Parenti always provocative and eloquent gives us a lively as well as valuable critique of orthodoxy posing as history.Howard Zinn author of A Peoples History of the United States Deserves to become an instant classic. Bertell Ollman author of Dialectical Investigations Those who keep secret the past and lie about it condemn us to repeat it. Michael Parenti unveils the history of falsified history from the early Christian church to the present a fascinating darkly revelatory tale. Daniel Ellsberg author of The Pentagon Papers Solid if surely controversial stuff.Kirkus Michael Parenti PhD Yale is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nations leadiing progressive political analysts. He is the author of over 275 published articles and twenty books including Against Empire Dirty Truths and Blackshirts and Reds. His writings are published in popular periodicals scholarly journals and his oped pieces have been in leading newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad. show more