The Secret History of the World

I couldn't finish this book and I would advise you not to start it.

If you have ever wondered what a deeply senile Harry Potter would write, having been commissioned to document his views on world history and science, then this is the book for you. It is packed tight with mumbo-jumbo and pseudoscience, with about 4 or 5 unfounded, ill-informed attacks on science every minute whilst praising any ridiculous, deluded belief of our ancestors as ancient "wisdom". Mr Black manages to misquote and distort Schr?dinger?s Cat, Quantum Physics, Robotics and a host of other scientific theories in this shambolic, flighty and ignorant book. If "Mr Black" (pseudonym adopted either through sheer embarrassment or to create the illusion of yet another conspiracy) could have got away with stating as fact that there is a conspiracy to cover up the existence and true identity of the tooth-fairy then it would be in here for you to read and become enlightened about.

It bewilders me how this book was ever published, not because of any subversive, insightful material about secret societies that the powers-that-be do not want revealed, but because it is unvarnished, untalented, poorly-researched tat. If there are secret societies out there, which I am quite sure there are, then this is just the sort of book that they would be over the moon to see published as it utterly undermines any credibility to their existence and portrays anyone who believes in them as lunatics.

I find it hard to believe that this man attended Oxford University and spent 20 years researching this book. He should have stayed in bed. Oh, and the narrator cannot pronounce the word "Because", which was the high-point of the book.

Anyone embarking on this audio book should expect an alternative reading of myths and historical events. Whilst Mr Black shifts rapidly between topics he thankfully does this smoothly without getting too bogged down with references. To some, and most who I see who have reviewed the book, this will be viewed as a weakness. I however think it allows for the prose to flow more naturally without it becoming an academic treatise (which it certainly is not). What the author manages is to produce a story or rather an explanation/ context for all those myths and conspiracies one will of heard and put them together in a coherent and understandable way.

I was left, I will admit, enlightened although there where several times I had to rewind it due to drifting of to the narrators rather posh voice.

I would recommend this audiobook to all the curious and relatively informed out there, although you must be prepared to hear the "truth" through conveniently coloured spectacles and not be too offended when it is stretched sometimes a little too far.

This book is incorrectly categorised. I expected a historical treatise on the origins of mythology and religion. This book is a collection of subjective assumptions not dissimilar to those of the Da Vinci Code. The difference being that the latter is correctly published as a work of fiction.

Apply Ockams Razor to the this book and I suspect you would end up with a collection of nouns and not much else. If however you enjoy abandoning your critical faculties you may enjoy the read.

The Secret History of the World is interesting from the point of view of Mythology, but disappointing otherwise.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I'd describe it as a pyschohistory documenting the world view and beliefs of various people, or groups of people, throughout history. In this instance it focusses on 'secret societies' and other organisations who believed themselves to possess esoteric, hidden knowledge of the history and purpose of mankind.

Is it true? Well, it's quite fantastical and you have to leave your skepticism at the door when listening to it. But bear in mind that the 'history' that you are listening to is not history as we know it, but history as perceived by people in the past (and perhaps present).

Think about it; it is only in the 20th century that people have believed the world to be 4.5 billion years old. Electricity, antibiotics, the internet, space travel - these were concepts alien to people throughout much of mankinds history. People thought about the world differently. They interpreted events using different psychological models to those we use today.

In this book, the author argues that certain, 'illuminated' groups throughout history, have possessed knowledge, ideas and practices that were 'hidden' from the people at large. That important and powerful people alive today are initiated into organisations that carry the beacon of this knowledge. And that this knowledge is utilised through an understanding of the multi-layered symbolism and meaning of the practices it prescribes.

That's not to say this book is some kind of intimate expose of a veiled reality. More, an interesting sideways look at the historical narrative.

Listen with an open mind

This audiobook wasn't what i expected it would be and wish i hadn't spent the credit on it. If I hadn't have used the credit on it i would not have bothered listening to it.



For me personally what the audiobook talks about is nonsense and unscientific, but if you believe in a world where gods are real and have affected humans in the past then this is the perfect book for you

absolute waste of my credit to listen to incoherant mumbo jumbo dressed up as fact.
my advice is dont make the same mistake as I did. If you want a good audio book than by pass this one.

The dreary reader, really made this awful book quite unacceptable. Over the 20 or so hours of droning on about this so called secret history, I noticed some few snippets that appeared moderately interesting. This book could easily be rewritten and abridged - by a real author - to about 40-50 pages of useful information. Subjects were dealt with in aparent detail, but on consideration the detail was ephemeral and there was little to connect one data dump with the next data dump. Quite the worst thing I have ever read or heard. Pedantic self important.......

I agree with the review written by Peter Beulah one hundred per cent. Please read it and take heed. Do not download this book!! you will be very disapointed.

A great book for them that believe in every thing,
I came away from this book amazed at the madness of the human imagination over the course of human evolving of belief systems all created for the madness of man.