Unsolved History: Investigating Mysteries of the Past

by Joe Nickell

Book Overview

What 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813191378
• ISBN13: 9780813191379
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Solving Historical Mysteries

Joe Nickell's collection of historical investigations is fascinating, especially as he adds lots of interesting detail about the investigative process. He tells us how he comes to his conclusions, & it's obvious he's very thorough. For example, he doesn't just say he believes the famous Turin Shroud to be a forgery, he details how he was able to obtain a similar effect through an artistic technique known as burnishing. This is important, as there is no point in claiming the item is faked if you can't prove how it was done. There are problems with this particular case however, as not all aspects of the image on the shroud are reproduced by the author. Nickell is well suited for such work, being an expert in folklore & a trained private investigator, as well as a stage magician & an artist. He seems to consider all points of view before making up his mind, & operates correctly by coming up with a hypothesis after collecting all the facts, not by using those facts which fit with a preconceived idea. My only complaint is that I would have liked the cases given to be longer, with more detail. Well worth reading several times.

A Sampling of Methods of Investigating the Past

Unsolved History looks at a series of historical mysteries, from lost texts to establishing identities, from ancient riddles to suspect documents. The puropose of each of these drawn out examples is to show the readers the variety of ways an historical researcher can set about determining the truth. The book's strength is in the variety of cases examined and the quite different investigative means used. The author, Joe Nickell, uses a number of cases he was personally involved in, although without bogging the stories down with too much personal data. The focus always remains on the mystery at hand. It is a small book and an easy read but it should leave the reader with a greater interest in the mysteries of the past and the possible answers they may someday reveal.

historical detective work

This book was both informative and entertaining. Nickell examines a number of historical mysteries. These mysteries include the disappearance of Ambrose Bierce mentioned in the title, the authenticity of historical artifacts alleged to have belonged to Daniel Boone and others, establishing the identity of Nazi war criminals, and several more. These cases are rather disparate, but Nickell uses them to illustrate the common use of the investigative method in historical studies. I enjoyed reading this book quite a lot. This is no dry academic treatise: it reads a lot more like a good-paced detective novel. Rather than an just describing the methodology of historical investigations, Nickell shows it through entertaining case studies. I learned a lot about how historians investigate questions, as well.