Unsolved History: Investigating Mysteries of the PastWhat constitutes historical truth is often subject to change. Joe Nickell demonstrates the techniques used in solving some of the world's most perplexing mysteries, such as the authenticity of Abraham Lincoln's celebrated Bixby letter, the 1913 disappearance of writer and journalist Ambrose Bierce, and the apparent real-life model for a mysterious character in a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nickell also uses newly uncovered evidence to further investigate the identity of the Nazi war criminal known as ""Ivan the Terrible."" |
Contents
INTRODUCTION History and the Investigative Approach | |
ANCIENT RIDDLES The Mystery of the Nazca Lines | 4 |
BIOGRAPHICAL ENIGMAS Ambrose Bierce Is Missing | 16 |
HIDDEN IDENTITY Unmasking a Nazi Monster | 32 |
FAKELORE Swifts Lost Silver Mine | 49 |
QUESTIONED ARTIFACTS D Boone Riddles | 67 |
SUSPECT DOCUMENTS Lincolns Bixby Letter | 88 |
LOST TEXTS Cookes Missing Edition | 104 |
OBSCURED SOURCES Hawthornes Veiled Lady | 116 |
SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES Pseudoscience and the Shroud | 130 |
AFTERWORD Some Lessons Learned | 143 |
NOTES | 147 |
INDEX | 168 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually alleged Altick Ambrose Bierce American ancient appeared artifacts authenticity Bierce's biographical Bixby letter Blithedale Boone's carved century chapter copy County Daniel Boone Däniken death Demjanjuk Detective Dickens disappearance document Dorson drafts Eastern Kentucky University edition Erich von Däniken evidence example expert fact fake Fakelore Fatout figure Filson Fischer Folklore forgery Freemasonry handwriting Hawthorne Hawthorne's historian historical investigation Hitler Diaries hoax hypothesis Ibid identified inscription Ivan the Terrible Joe Nickell John Demjanjuk John Filson Journal Henson known legend Lexington Lincoln literary Lost Silver Louisville MacDougall manuscript Masonic Museum Mysterious Lady Nazca Nazca Lines Nazi Neale paintings paper photograph printed published question reported rifle rock says scientific secret Shroud of Turin signature Silver Mines skeptical Sot-weed Factor Sotweed Redivivus story supposedly Swift Teicholz tion Trawniki treasure Treblinka tree Univ Veiled Lady Villa's William writing wrote York