About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherRowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated

ISBN-100742560503

ISBN-139780742560505

eBay Product ID (ePID)66915528

Product Key Features

Book TitleColossal Hoax : the Giant from Cardiff That Fooled America

Number of Pages328 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2008

TopicHoaxes & Deceptions, Archaeology, United States / 19th Century, Social History

IllustratorYes

GenreTrue Crime, Social Science, History

AuthorScott Tribble

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight0 Oz

Item Length9.6 in

Item Width6.3 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2008-025178

TitleLeadingA

ReviewsA Colossal Hoax is an exceptionally well-written narrative that is surely destined to become the definitive work on the Cardiff Giant, which is, itself, the definitive historical hoax in nineteenth-century America., Highly detailed and thoroughly researched book. . . . The tale of the Cardiff Giant is a hugely entertaining one, and Tribble tells it the way it should be told, by focusing on its players. . . . The author also puts the hoax in its historical context., Engagingly written in a thorough treatment that this popular culture phenomenon has not usually received, the book would make a welcome addition to public libraries., In Tribble's readable and thoughtful account, George Hull's spectacular, short-lived fraud reveals a great deal about American culture in an era in which frauds of all sorts abounded, and in which Americans dared to question the truthfulness of both revealed religion and modern science., In rich and often entertaining detail, Scott Tribble recovers the colorful case of the Cardiff Giant, along the way taking his reader on a sort of backstage tour of mid-nineteenth-century America, a place where science and faith, business and entertainment, philosophy and humbuggery could come together in some sensationally wacky ways. Astoundingly well-researched, A Colossal Hoax is also an absorbing and rewarding read.

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal974.7/65

SynopsisIn October 1869, as America stood on the brink of becoming a thoroughly modern nation, workers unearthed what appeared to be a petrified ten-foot giant on a remote farm in upstate New York. The discovery caused a sensation. Over the next several months, newspapers devoted daily headlines to the story and tens of thousands of Americans-including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the great showman P. T. Barnum-flocked to see the giant on exhibition. In the colossus, many saw evidence that their continent, and the tiny hamlet of Cardiff, had ties to Biblical history. American science also weighed in on the discovery; and in doing so revealed its own growing pains, including the shortcomings of traditional education, the weaknesses of archaeological methodology, as well as the vexing presence of amateurs and charlatans within its ranks. A national debate ensued over the giant's origins, and was played out in the daily press. Ultimately, the discovery proved to be an elaborate hoax. Still, the story of the Cardiff Giant reveals many things about America in the post-Civil War years. After four years of destruction on an unimagined scale, Americans had increasingly turned their attention to the renewal of progress. But the story of the Cardiff Giant seemed to shed light on a complicated, mysterious past, and for a time scientists, clergymen, newspaper editors, and ordinary Americans struggled to make sense of it. Hucksters, of course, did their best to take advantage of it. The Cardiff Giant was one of the leading questions of the day, and how citizens answered it said much about Americans in 1869 as well as about America more generally., The story of the Cardiff Giant reveals many things about America in the post-Civil War years. After four years of destruction on an unimagined scale, Americans had increasingly turned their attention to the renewal of progress. But the story of the Cardiff Giant seemed to shed light on a complicated, mysterious past, and for a time scientists, clergymen, newspaper editors, and ordinary Americans struggled to make sense of it. Hucksters, of course, did their best to take advantage of it. The Cardiff Giant was one of the leading questions of the day, and how citizens answered it said much about Americans in 1869 as well as about America more generally.

LC Classification NumberF129.C27T75 2008