George Orwell said, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” Liberals understand that they win victories today by distorting the record of our past. For all their devotion to the merits of tradition, conservatives think a great victory, such as the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, is the end of the battle. Liberals never concede the historical record, and neither should those who believe in limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty. In History’s Greatest Libels, Steve Byas takes the battle to the Left, challenging head-on their politicized distortions of the past.

A strange and repugnant mystery of the twentieth century is the durability of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a clumsy forgery purporting to be evidence of the supposed Jewish plot to rule the world. Though it has been exposed as a forgery, some apprentice brownshirt is always rediscovering it, the latest in a line of gullibility that includes, most famously, Henry Ford. Recently it has been translated into Japanese and circulates once again with renewed virulence in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1924 in Germany the Jewish author and journalist Binjamin Segel wrote a major historical exposé of the fraud and later edited his work into a shorter form, published as Welt-Krieg, Welt-Revolution, Welf-Verschwörung, Welt-Oberregierung (Berlin 1926). Translator Richard S. Levy, a specialist on the history of anti-semitism, provides an extensive introduction on the circumstances of Segel's work and the story of the Protocols up to the 1990s, including an explanation of its continuing psychological appeal and political function.

History's Greatest Mysteries delves into the grey areas to examine the imponderable and sometimes unlikely stories of actual events and real people. From the gruesome murders committed by Jack the Ripper to the whereabouts of Lord Lucan, and from the loss of an entire continent to the case of a missing racehorse, we take a canter through history in an effort to shed a little light on to questions which, in all honesty, are never going to yield definitive answers. Some of the stories related in the following pages are deadly serious, some rather less so. There are cases of determined individuals who have struggled against the odds in an attempt to unravel the truth, while in others people have not let the facts get in the way and have made up any old nonsense by way of an explanation.

What did America's greatest orators say regarding significant issues and concerns throughout United States history? This three-volume set examines hundreds of the most historically significant speeches from colonial times to the modern era, allowing readers to consider exactly what the speakers said—and to better understand the motivations behind each speech as well as the effect on the audiences that heard them. This essential reference work presents the most important and historically significant speeches delivered since colonial times, providing in essence a documentary history of the United States through these public utterances. Readers can witness American history unfold firsthand through these stirring and at times controversial speeches—from Patrick Henry's fiery words calling for an American revolution, through the words of the 19th-century abolitionists and Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg Address, and up through the 20th century with President Wilson's famous "Fourteen Points," FDR reminding Americans that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself, and George W. Bush responding to the attacks of September 11. For students, teachers, librarians, and general readers, this indispensable work provides essential reference resources on the speeches of great significance in American history. Each speech is prefaced by a contextual headnote that provides essential background information and specific details about the speech. This three-volume set also includes a timeline, a historical review of each era, biographical sketches of each speaker, and anecdotal sidebars containing additional information about the speech or speakers.