'Past Mistakes'

David Mountain studied Biology and Geology, worked therefore in Kenya and Java, moved to Edinburgh where he now considers himself an expert on History.

Don't we all.

His basic premise is that we have been lied to about History and we have not noticed yet, he will put this right.  I'm so glad no-one else has tried this before him.  

Mountain begins with an overview of how history was viewed through western eyes, where else would it be viewed from if we were here David?  Informing us how wrong the bible was, and it appears almost everybody else also, it may be his view coloured his reading of history somewhat.

That said, if we allow for his overlong chapters filled with words, his insistence on using quotes in what I call an American manner throughout the book, and his opinions to the forefront, I still think the book is worth a read.

He exposes Pythagoras as a fraud, or at least the idea of his mathematical genius as a fraud.  His chapter here goes into the rise of the myth of the man, while his fame spread and his followers were considered 'hippies' by Greeks after his death his myth increased as it does.  As we know most mathematics were developed in ancient Sumer long before the Greeks appeared on the scene, they of course developed this and happily take the credit.  

The author discusses interestingly Barbarians, Vandals, Romans and Islam.  While the west fought over land it is true Islam had many scientists, mathematicians and preserved many Greek documents from long before.  Did we not know this?  

An interesting chapter also concerns Christopher Columbus and his discovery of America, well Dominican Republic that is.  The image offered here is not pleasant.  The promise of gold and slaves and future wealth did not do the man much good and he, like so many others, ended in ignominy. 

A sordid tale well told, and again with many pages.  

So he continues putting the world to tight mentioning how we mistreat women, and his tale of the Wild West not being as wild as the west is today.  He implies the westerns on offer were fake!  Who would have thought this?  Well we all knew that and this chapter again is well worth a read.

However, while there are good chapters in this book it is written by an untrained history lover, one who has read well, possibly without much opposition to his opinions at home.  An overview so wide cannot be totally exact but it is worth a look and will keep the reader entertained.

At the end he mentions how we can read into history from where we stand, and this is very true, I am not convinced he has understood that this is what he has done on several pages himself.