History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!

The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.

Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but

there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.

Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.

You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!

The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!

New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.

The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.

The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.

Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.

We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.

Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.

The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.

When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.

There are no answers to simple questions:

When were these primary sources written?

Where and by whom were these sources found?

It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.

As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,

innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.

The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.

Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.

This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.

Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.

`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as

there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.

Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.

They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.

All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:

Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!

The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!

The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.

All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.

Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.

Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

Average customer rating:

Had History really been tampered with? Summing it up!
Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621066

Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Had History really been tampered with? Summing it up! .......2007-10-23

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3A80YKC8W7UEE New Chronology is a theory validated by astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient manuscripts that asserts: that Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th centuries. Human civilization is barely 1000 years old!

New Chronology complies with the most rigid scientific standards:

- It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know;
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion;
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically;

New Chronology goes by the following basic axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history are fantasy and hoax;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The closer in time is a given manuscript to the events described the less distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Fomenko asserts: There was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by over two centuries of yoke and slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a trilingual state with Arabic and Turkic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that official Russian history is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scholars brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs. Their ascension to the throne was the result of conspiracy, so they charged these imported historians with the mission of making Romanov's reign look legitimate.

Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate Godunov rulers and the ambitious Romanov upstarts.

As Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, he successfully removes a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one: the Ancient Rome: the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the 14th century A. D., the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece.

The Ancient Egypt: the pyramids of Giza become dated to the 11th to 14th century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less. The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the 11th to 15th century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone, like enormous Dendera horoscope that hangs in main entrance to the Louvre museum in Paris.

He was the first one to decipher and date unambiguously all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case.

English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the book "History: Fiction or Science?" portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such ancient history. Period. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the 17th 18th century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them otherwise.

Islam with all its key figures appears as late as 15th-16th century A. D. as a branch of proto-Christianity. This is amply illustrated by imagery of Prophet Mahomet, archangel Gabriel, Heaven and Hell of this period. In today's Islam all imagery of the things living is taboo.

Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th 17th century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a proto Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian!) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The history of religions according to Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the 11th century and Jesus Christ ), Bacchic Christianity (11th to 12th century, before and after Jesus Christ), Jesus Christ Christianity (12th to 14th century) and its subsequent mutations (15th to 17th) into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on..

Saint Augustine was quite prescient when he said: "be wary of mathematicians,.. particularly when they speak the truth."

Henry Ford once said: "History is more or less bunk!"

Prominent mathematician Anatoly Fomenko not only proved it for a fact, but as true scientist tried to upgrade it into a rocket science.

This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Investment Banking: A Tale of Three Cities

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Great book for understanding I-banking

Investment Banking: A Tale of Three Cities
Samuel L. Hayes , and P. M. Hubbard
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
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The Business of Investment Banking: A Comprehensive Overview

ASIN: 0875842208

Book Description

The authors trace the development of the financing profession from its early days to the present, revealing the events and personalities that have given it shape. The book shows how securities markets and major firms evolved in the financial centers of London, New York, and Tokyo.

Customer Reviews:

Great book for understanding I-banking.......1998-06-12

This is a good book for anyone interested in seriously understanding the business of I-banking with its history and future implications. The portrayals of the different firms and the system as a whole are very informative. A Great text.

Current Business And Legal Issues in Japan's Banking And Finance Industry

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Current Business And Legal Issues in Japan's Banking And Finance Industry
Mitsuru Misawa
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
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Saving the Sun: How Wall Street Mavericks Shook Up Japan's Financial World and Made Billions

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Best book on Japanese business practices I've seen yet
One well chosen case to illustrate a systemic problem
Enjoyable worthwhile read in Japanese economics
Get an insight of Japanese Economy
Culture clashes and financial mismanagement on a large scale

Saving the Sun: How Wall Street Mavericks Shook Up Japan's Financial World and Made Billions
Gillian Tett
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060554258
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Book Description

Saving the Sun tells the story of the world's largest private equity deal where American investors made billions of dollars rehabilitating Shinsei, a failed Japanese bank. Within that business saga is the dramatic tale of Japan's brightest financial minds, the men who made the Japanese economic miracle come to life, and their struggle against the economic failure in the 1990s. Into this climate of despair, where Japan seemed incapable of reviving prosperity, came a group of wily and determined Americans who would discover just how different the Japanese really are.

Customer Reviews:

Best book on Japanese business practices I've seen yet.......2007-01-20

In the 1980's, Japanese business could seem to do no wrong. From business publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, to the mainstream press (Newsweek, The New York Times and CNN), the press wrote glowingly about Japanese business. For over a decade we read that our western practices were too short sighted and antiquated- we clearly needed to take a more "Japanese approach" to doing business, and in so doing, could be successful as they have been.

But a short time later Japanese companies were in big trouble in the US and back in Japan. Their stock market crashed, the real estate boom crashed, and the entire Japanese economy seemed to be not just in serious trouble, but in a meltdown of catastrophic proportions. What went wrong?

This book does an extremely credible job of explaining both how and why, and in simple layman's terms that anyone can easily understand. Using many specific examples, Gillian Tett shows how American and Japanese thought and business practices are polar opposites. These differences are not just a matter of the differences in culture between east and west--they go considerably deeper. But by the end of the book, the results were able to speak for themselves. By bringing in a new international management team made up of Japanese, American, Indian and Australian management, an insolvent bank that had been bought out for the first time in history by a group of western investors (!!) became a success story.

I'm an investment banker myself that has (in previous lives) worked for two different Japanese multinationals over a 7-year period in the 80's and 90's. My own experiences with Japan are mixed. I made some great friends, and have developed a high level of respect for their work ethic and their dedication to their employers, and usually, to each other. But in my opinion, the extreme xenophobia that permeates Japanese culture will not be lessened anytime soon. The term "gaijin" when politely translated means "foreigner." But to many (but not all) Japanese the term is not polite at all.

Get this one. I don't give out many "five star" ratings, but I so for this book without quibbling. I look forward to future works from Ms. Tett.

One well chosen case to illustrate a systemic problem.......2006-09-27

Saving the Sun is about the corporate culture of Japan's financial industry and how it is changing. Gillian Tett focuses on one institution, The Long Term Credit Bank, to illustrate what happened and how the financial environment in Japan is changing.

The LTCB was a key player in Japan's post war miracle. It lent money to fund business operations and new ventures, working in close cooperation with the elite bureaucrats of Japan's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Then in the 1980s, drunk on its spectacular success, Japan Inc. excessively invested in thoughtless projects, all funded by the LTCB and the rest of the financial industry, with no thought at all given to making money. Prestige was everything.

As a result, the Japanese financial system almost collapsed; what survived had to change. Banks began failing despite attempts by the Ministry of Finance to organize rescues. Some failed banks were nationalized, among them the LTCB; these institutions were then put up for sale but no one in Japan wanted them.

There were tragedies. Katsunobu Onogi, a fatherly and admirably responsible gentleman of the old school, was arrested and charged, spending a month in custody before being found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail, suspended. A colleague, Takashi Uehara, committed suicide, which in Japan is a gesture of atonement, not an escape. At another bank, the president parachuted in from the Bank of Japan, Tadayo Honma, also killed himself again to atone for the system's failure.

Then Tim Collins's Ripplewood, an American fund, arrived and offered to rescue the LTCB. This was politically difficult. The Japanese don't like foreign ways, and the thought of a pillar of Japanese finance being bought out by foreigners provoked public outrage. In the end MoF had no choice and the deal went through.

The bank was renamed Shinsei, meaning "Rebirth" in Japanese. A remarkable man, Masamoto Yashiro, was hauled out from a second retirement after a full career at Esso Sekiyu (Exxon's Japan operation) and the creation of Citibank's Japanese retail business, to oversee the reconstruction. Clash was inevitable. The conservative rank and file employees had no idea how to work with the hyperactive can-do go-go-go managers now running the show. A new Indian head of IT, Jay Dvivedi, junked the old mainframes and installed, in mere months, a new state-of-the-art system featuring PCs on every desk and instant access to whatever reports management wanted. The corporate planning department, which decided new products, disappeared: henceforth Shinsei would listen to its customers to determine their needs.

The financial revolution isn't over. Shinsei's success wasn't total. Major clients were allowed to fail, Sogo department store went bankrupt. Politicians blamed Shinsei for not being kinder to its debtors.

I've worked for the IT departments of foreign banks in Japan since 1995 so this book strikes particularly close to home for me. I can even see the Shinsei headquarters from my desk. Interesting and informative. Recommended.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

Enjoyable worthwhile read in Japanese economics.......2005-06-14

I don't usually read books like these but I decided to purchase it anyway. How can something as dry as Japanese banking reform be interesting? Well Gillian Tett made it interesting enough. As with her style of writing, I note that the chapter headings fully telegraph what is about to take place in the narative, I thought, well whats the fun of reading on if you know what is going to happen? With that, Tett's narative is replete with all the drama one can ever read in a good novel. There are deaths, gangsters, flamboyant characters, politics, society, culture clashes, and mix in with all of this, economics.

The Japanese are suppose to be the smart ones. They excel in many areas requiring technical knowledge. The media never misses an opportunity to point out how inferior Americans are when it comes to math and such knowledge. I was therefore amazed when I have read that the Japanese don't have a grasp of the simple relationship between risk and return. I would have thought that they'd have overly complicated financial models using high level math. But it turns out that, from my perspective, the way the LTCB bankers did business was bizarre. Why would anybody be paternalistic when it comes to money?

I won't spoil the ending but it seems obvious from the title of the book what will unfold, in fact, it is the heading of the final chapter. I belive but am not sure that the paperback has an epilogue, revisiting the many chracters as further back as 2004. There are classes offered at university focusing in Asian economics and also Japanese economics as well. Gillian Tett's tract would be apposite as reading material if you are into that.

Get an insight of Japanese Economy.......2005-03-25

This is the first book I read about Japanese banks and this has not only given me an insight about their banking system but about how the Japan's Economic Policy is the face of Japan's Banks. It is about the clash between Japanese Traditional way of life against the changing face of the world. This book is about Globalization, this book is about dreams, this book is about Japanese pride. Go read this book.

Culture clashes and financial mismanagement on a large scale.......2004-10-01

In the 1980's, Japan was considered an economic powerhouse and their sun was still rising. There was genuine fear in the United States of that power; the news broadcasts of the time were full of new Japanese purchases of properties in the U. S. and there was talk of restricting how much could be purchased. Much of this was based on real estate prices in Japan and some of the figures are incredible. At one time, the land area of the imperial palace, approximately 1.15 square kilometers, was estimated to be equal in value to the entire state of California or the entire country of Canada.
However, most of this value was nothing more than a speculative bubble, and very early into the nineties, it crashed. This left the Japanese banks with billions of dollars of uncollectible loans and looking for a way to survive. With deepest reluctance, some original thinkers in the Japanese banking community looked to American capital vendors to assist in their recovery. This is the story of those events, but it is just as much a story of the contrast and clash of two cultures.
In America, the flow of capital is largely freewheeling, the ideal is that it will always move to where it can most quickly be reproduced. However, in Japan, that is not the case. Lending is done based largely on personal and institutional relationships. Cooperation, even to the point of losing money, is the cultural imperative, reinforced by tradition and social pressures. It was considered very unacceptable for banks to call in unserviceable debt, with some banks referring to insolvent companies as "their children." Therefore, when the bubble burst, most banks themselves were insolvent.
However, the leaders of the banks did not come clean, preferring to hide their problems with accounting tricks. One humorous incident is related where the true records were hidden in a closet when Japanese government inspectors were conducting an on-site audit. This behavior, considered criminal in the United States, was much more acceptable in Japan, which points out what are the real lessons to be learned from this book.
Although the economic might of Japan leads those in the western nations to believe that it is economically similar, in fact it is not. The differences are dramatic and the explanations of how those cultural differences make economic differences make this book very interesting. Without the cultural contrasts, this is just another story about a weak, bankrupt company being taken over by another. While interesting, there is no real intensity to the story.
I was amazed at reading how an American company that specializes in takeovers managed to purchase an interest in an insolvent Japanese bank and how all parties handled the event. There were political repercussions on both sides of the Pacific and it was necessary for some fundamental changes to be made in the Japanese financial systems. The events took place in the early 1990's, well after the economies of Japan and the United States had two decades to get to know each other. And yet, there was still a lot of misunderstanding and some naiveté on both sides.
The Americans made the typical mistakes of thinking that the circumstances were no different than when they were on Wall Street. As soon as the company was saved and the price had gone up, they wanted to take their profits and run. This is anathema to the Japanese, and they should have known that. Their attempt to do so created a lot of unnecessary ill will that needed to be smoothed over. The Japanese also made the typical mistake of thinking that the Americans would act like Japanese after they purchased a Japanese company.
This is an excellent book on international finance and the recurring problems of the Japanese economy. For years, the Asian form of crony capitalism was considered the model for economic growth, and a force that could not be stopped. In this book, you learn the fundamental flaws of such a system and how difficult it is for two cultures to engage in an economic marriage of convenience, even when there is no choice in the matter.

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The Moneylenders of Late Medieval Kyoto
Suzanne Marie Gay
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 082482461X

Crisis and Change in the Japanese Financial System (Innovations in Financial Markets and Institutions)

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Crisis and Change in the Japanese Financial System (Innovations in Financial Markets and Institutions)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792377834

Book Description

At the start of the twenty-first century, the Japanese financial system is undergoing a major transformation. This process is spurred by a sense of crisis. Dominated by large institutions, the Japanese banking system has suffered from serious problems with non-performing loans since the early 1990s, when the Japanese stock market and urban real estate market both crashed. Delays in responding to these twin asset bubbles, by both regulatory authorities and the banks themselves, made matters worse and led to a banking crisis in late 1997 and early 1998. Not anticipating this setback, in late 1996 the Japanese government inaugurated its Big Bang of comprehensive financial deregulation designed to complete the process of creating `free, fair, and open financial markets'. Beginning in late 1998 and early 1999 the government finally embarked on a major rehabilitation of the Japanese banking system, including making available some Yen 60 trillion (approximately USD 500 billion) of government funds to recapitalize fifteen major banks, adequately fund the deposit insurance program, and write off the bad loans of nationalized or bankrupted banks. One result of this reform process is that the Ministry of Finance (MOF), which dominated Japanese financial system policy for most of the post-war period, has been stripped of most of its former regulatory powers.
The purpose of this book is to describe, analyze, and evaluate the process that is transforming the Japanese financial system. The chapters address various issues relating to the transition of the Japanese financial system from a bank-centered and relationship-based system to a competitive market-based system. Questions taken up include: Why did Japanese banks get into such serious trouble? Why has the MOF lost its immense power? How will the Big Bang's financial deregulation further change the Japanese financial system, including the huge government financial institutions and postal savings system? What are some of the broader implications of this transition?
The book is divided into three parts: Part I considers the origins of Japan's banking crisis; Part II focuses on five particularly important areas of major actual and potential changes; Part III addresses the effects of the Big Bang, including its potential systemic externalities. Taken together, this book offers an unusually up-to-date, comprehensive and thorough appraisal and evaluation of the profound changes occurring in Japan's financial system.

Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change (Princeton Paperbacks)

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A sorely needed update on Japanese financial politics

Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change (Princeton Paperbacks)
Jennifer Amyx
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691128685

Book Description

At the beginning of the 1990s, a massive speculative asset bubble burst in Japan, leaving the nation's banks with an enormous burden of nonperforming loans. Banking crises have become increasingly common across the globe, but what was distinctive about the Japanese case was the unusually long delay before the government intervened to aggressively address the bad debt problem. The postponed response by Japanese authorities to the nation's banking crisis has had enormous political and economic consequences for Japan as well as for the rest of the world. This book helps us understand the nature of the Japanese government's response while also providing important insights into why Japan seems unable to get its financial system back on track 13 years later.

The book focuses on the role of policy networks in Japanese finance, showing with nuance and detail how Japan's Finance Ministry was embedded within the political and financial worlds, how that structure was similar to and different from that of its counterparts in other countries, and how the distinctive nature of Japan's institutional arrangements affected the capacity of the government to manage change.

The book focuses in particular on two intervening variables that bring about a functional shift in the Finance Ministry's policy networks: domestic political change under coalition government and a dramatic rise in information requirements for effective regulation. As a result of change in these variables, networks that once enhanced policymaking capacity in Japanese finance became "paralyzing networks"--with disastrous results.

Customer Reviews:

A sorely needed update on Japanese financial politics.......2004-09-23

Amyx is one of very few scholars doing the kind of yeoman's work in political science today that is necessary for successfully integrating original source field research with rigorous theoretical analysis. The payoff is the kind of detailed and informed study that made Johnson's MITI and the Japanese Miracle a classic. Amyx's analysis of networks inclusive of the Ministry of Finance provides a rich explanatory framework for policy paralysis over the course of a dozen + years. A particularly interesting insight is that networks (i.e., people) make institutions durable even as institutions structure incentives for individuals. This reinforcing relationship, in Japan's case, led to intransigence and suboptimal outcomes for nearly all parties. I highly recommend this to readers interested in an update on bureaucratic politics in Japan, and those interested in the backstory to the grim headlines on Japan in the financial papers over the last decade. Even as Japan starts its long-delayed turnaround, this book will help readers understand where change is most likely to occur, and where the bottlenecks still exist.

Yukichi Fukuzawa, 1835-1901: The Spirit of Enterprise in Modern Japan

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Yukichi Fukuzawa, 1835-1901: The Spirit of Enterprise in Modern Japan
Norio Tamaki
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Yukichi Fukuzawa was one of the most effective business entrepreneurs in early modern Japan. He was the inspiration for the Yokohama Specie Bank, without which the Japanese could not have set up a sound banking system. He began the bookstore chain Maruzen. He was adviser to the newly founded shipbuilding and mining giant Mitsubishi and helped bring the house of Mitsui into the modern age. This is both the story of his life and his transforming impact on Japan's economy.

The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy

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The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy
Thomas F. Cargill , Michael M. Hutchison , and Takatoshi Ito
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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In The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy, Cargill, Hutchison, and Takatoshi investigate the formulation and execution of monetary and financial policies in Japan within a broad technical, political, and institutional context. Their emphasis is on the period since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the early 1970s, and on the effects of policies and institutions in shaping the modern Japanese economy. The authors present basic themes and recent developments, as well as their own research findings. They also review and integrate the large literature in the area. They consider theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for each topic discussed.

Topics covered include Japan's low inflation record (despite the central bank's lack of formal independence from the government); politically motivated business cycles and the timing of elections; exchange rate policy and international policy coordination; the historical development of central banking; Japan's "bubble economy" of the 1980s; and the causes, magnitude, and regulatory responses to Japan's banking and financial crisis of the 1990s.

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