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Mussolini made Italian trains run on time. Lemmings commit suicide. Brown eggs are more nutritious than white eggs. All of these "common wisdoms" are, in fact, common fallacies. From the obviously outrageous ("stones grow in fields") to the less obvious colloquialisms, even the most highly educated reader will have to admit to believing in a whopper or two - at least before reading Philip Ward's delightfully informative Dictionary of Common Fallacies, which elucidates hundreds of popular but erroneous beliefs and their origins in our culture.
Citing acknowledged experts in various fields such as art, archaeology, anthropology, biology, cosmology, geology, philosophy, religion, medicine, sociology, mathematics, and engineering, Ward provides two volumes of easily found and clearly referenced topics, their associated fallacies and subsequent debunking. The volumes are interspersed with Ward's own matter-of-course, humorous explanations, which add to the fun of discovering the truth. Ward writes that readers of A Dictionary of Common Fallacies will "find cause for amusement or concern, depending on their temperament" as they discover the truth behind age-old beliefs.
"A highly-unusual and very entertaining book . . ." The Book World
". . . hundreds of nonsensical beliefs are niftily disposed of . . ." Quincy Star Ledger
"In its breadth of subjects and wealth of little-known information, it makes for interesting and enlightening reading." Reference Book Review
"If you feel that some of the untrue beliefs that you have picked up as you were growing up needs verification then this is a dictionary you can use." SSC Booknews
