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The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies

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Author: Jonathan Black
Publisher: Quercus
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł25.00~~
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

30 reviews
Sales Rank: 54038

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.3
Dimensions (in): 9.9 x 7.1 x 1.9

ISBN: 1847241670
EAN: 9781847241672
ASIN: 1847241670

Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, IN STOCK, SAME DAY DISPATCH FROM MAINLAND UK

Also Available In:

•	Paperback - The Secret History of the World
•	Audio CD - The Secret History of the World

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Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Advanced,, forthright, significant. June 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

A wonderfully wide-ranging and erudite tome; evidently a labour of love as well as scholarship. And much more playful than many reviewers have noticed. When is the tie-in CD of Illuminated Music going to be released?

5 out of 5 stars

Esoteric Mind Gym June 19, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is a certainly an unusual book and I found it a very stimulating read. It invites the reader to take part in an imaginative exercise, which involves having an artistic and emotional response to the book's ideas, as well as an intellectual one. In a way, it's an experiment to see if we can approach the same kind of consciousness as our ancestors, when people could be rational and mystical at the same time.

Pythagoras, Copernicus, da Vinci and Newton are some of the better known exemplars of this way of thinking, but the book draws its inspiration much more widely than the usual poster boys.

Comparisons between Lao-Tzu and Heraclitus are illuminated with comments on Confucius and Rudyard Kipling, for example. Creative artists as varied as David Lynch and Botticelli are shown to be nourished by the same ideas - as was P.L. Travers, creator of one the most famous children's magicians of all time: Mary Poppins.

The author explores the significance of certain archetypes and symbols down the ages - and personally I found the writing nimble and light of touch. Yes, it makes connections that are sometimes surprising, but that's the point. Ever wondered exactly what the difference is between Satan and Lucifer? Or why French revolutionaries adopted the Phrygian cap as their headgear of choice? Did you know that St Thomas Aquinas and St Francis of Assissi both claimed to have levitated?

What "The Secret History" never pretends to be is yet another conspiracy theory book, or an academic history. (A fact that seems to upset some of the other reviewers.) It would be better to think of it as an esoteric mind gym.

Sure, it structures itself as a "secret history" of how humanity and human consciousness developed but this is, after all, just a metaphor. The author has created that narrative form as a way to explore the ideas that have fascinated some of the greatest minds in the actual, real, (footnotable) history of the world.

Conspiracy theories close things down; this book is an ambitious, enjoyable attempt to open them up and offer a graspable alternative account of how human consciousness has developed - from the creation of the world through to dadaism and beyond.

Definitely worth a read, if you like ideas and knowledge and can cope with them being taken out of their boxes and shaken round a bit.

5 out of 5 stars

Read it and see June 17, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This book certainly stirs up feeling - currently 10 1* reviews and 14 5* with only a couple in between. I reckoned that something that provokes that depth of opinion would make an interesting read and I was right - this book is fascinating. Read it yourself and make your own mind up!

5 out of 5 stars

erudite but hugely readable June 17, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I am rather flummoxed by a few of the negative reviews of this book and do wonder whether some readers simply expected a book on entirely different subject matter - for example the reader who complained that it didn't mention the big crime families...this is a book about esoteric beliefs, not a book on conspiracy theories, although naturally the two occasionally coincide.
I am also puzzled by the assertion that the author's pen-name is a 'red flag' (to a conspiracy, maybe?!)since his identity is clearly outlined on the book jacket and, indeed, in the Amazon summary of contents.
Oh well. I thought it was great. I would never normally pick up something like this but fancied something different, that delved a bit deeper into the facts beneath the Da Vinci Code fiction, perhaps. That's exactly what this does. It is obviously the product of committed research,and occasionally one does need to stop and re-read if not familiar with this stuff, but I found it, overall, highly readable and enjoyable. He is very good, I think, at making difficult concepts understandable.
I guess this was always going to be a controversial book, given that people who are very into the subject matter tend to disagree with each-other as a matter of course about the true nature and origin of things that are, by definition, obscure or obscured!

1 out of 5 stars

Rubbish June 4, 2008
0 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book is a total waste of money, the only thing it is good for, is recycling. The text covers nothing new and is in no way innovative in its revelations. Avoid at all costs.