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CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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After years in the writing and after months of marketing, we have not sold a single copy of Revisionist Historiography, other than to friends and relations. It is magnificent in its way.
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Ishmael


In: Toronto
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I've not had the opportunity to sit down and read it but I am looking forward to it!
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Grant



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I’ll send a copy to an open-minded influential historian - but who?
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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You two are a big help. What we need is technical suggestions. Ones we haven't thought of ourselves. Or if we have, help with doing them. You sound like my family.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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I really don't know why it's not selling, but of these two books on Amazon I know which I would be more likely to buy and read.


History is in a mess. The reliance on contemporaneous sources has led to a narrowness of focus and, more to the point, an over-tolerant view of the sources. Harper provides a set of tools for judging the validity of data -- historical, archaeological and linguistic -- in this meticulously researched and clear-sighted overview.


In gloriously corrosive prose, M. J. Harper destroys the cherished national myths of the English, the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and - to demonstrate his lack of national bias - the French. In doing so he also shows that most entries in the Oxford English dictionary are wrong, the whole of British place-name theory is misconceived, Latin is not what it seems, the Anglo-Saxons played no major part in history or language, and Middle English is a wholly imaginary language created by well-meaning but deluded academics.

Iconoclastic, unsentimental and truly original, The History of Britain Revealed will change the way you think about history, language and much else besides.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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I accept that is true for you (and true for 99% of ordinary human beings -- if you don't mind me lumping you in with them). But our original marketing strategy, for better or worse, was to get it into academic libraries. And it's numero uno that will get that done. Might get that done. Well anyway, numero duo definitely wouldn't get that done. Ordinary lending libraries, probably yes, but that's a busted reed right now.

We don't want to abandon the strategy prematurely but at least you've gone beyond my family. Thanks. Bend your bow if you think of anything else.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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If your idea is for a marketing strategy aimed at academic libraries then you have to consider:

History is in a mess.

That is your first sentence, will they agree or not? Does this make them want to stock? Whats the chance they love history?

The reliance on contemporaneous sources has led to a narrowness of focus and, more to the point, an over-tolerant view of the sources.

It's a history book, according to the title, that is doubtful about primary sources....?

Harper provides a set of tools for judging the validity of data -- historical, archaeological and linguistic -- in this meticulously researched and clear-sighted overview.

There is nothing new or novel, it's an overview?

Tell me why it is important that I stock this in my academic library.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Tell me why it is important that I stock this in my academic library.

Of course, this is what is critical. Historiography has its own Dewey classification, even Amazon has it on its list of specialisations, everyone pays lip service to its importance, but there are almost no books on historiography. Nobody cares about it. You would have thought -- we did think -- that librarians would jump at the chance!

If your idea is for a marketing strategy aimed at academic libraries then you have to consider: "History is in a mess." That is your first sentence, will they agree or not? Does this make them want to stock? Whats the chance they love history?

You have to remember it's not historians making the choice. It's librarians. They have to be pulled up short. Historians don't think there's anything wrong.

"The reliance on contemporaneous sources has led to a narrowness of focus and, more to the point, an over-tolerant view of the sources." It's a history book, according to the title, that is doubtful about primary sources....?

No, the title shows it is not a history book. Again, we hoped that would set it out on its own.

"Harper provides a set of tools for judging the validity of data -- historical, archaeological and linguistic -- in this meticulously researched and clear-sighted overview." There is nothing new or novel, it's an overview?

Well, that's what it is. But the wording is deliberately blandly re-assuring so as not to frighten the horses. You can quite fairly argue that we fell between two stools... only I suspect there were no stools to begin with. But then again, who out there among a non-academic audience wants to read a hundred pages on the Greek Dark Age, or a hundred pages on Casanova, a hundred pages on early medieval Welsh monasteries...

Thinking about it, we've done well selling no books. Right on course!
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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On a technical note, publishing via Amazon's publishing arm does mean we can change the blurb if we do change tack. With normal printing-on-demand -- with normal straight commercial publishers -- you can't get anything done. There are some seriously vomit-making descriptions with my earlier books. The ones that sold... mmm.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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What do I know?

If it's an important book for all of those that are interested in chronology and the scientific dating of ancient historical sites before the 11th Century, then tell me. If it builds on an important academic book "Centuries of Darkness" that they probably have, in a more accessible way, then tell them........
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Mick Harper
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You are, of course, right. I will attend to it as part of the Second Launch. A more jugular-seeking exercise. Not that blurbs are ever the problem -- getting people to know they are there is the problem.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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I always read Heinsohn, not because he is well written, he isn't, but I am interested in his hook, which he often repeats....it is along the lines of...... conventional scientific dating has a problem, there is no place where historians or chronologists have kept a complete record of the years AD 1-1100.... despite the fact there are over 30,000 archaeological sites in Europe alone, not one of them shows even continuous settlement for over 500 years, so no one can be sure if what is in the text books is really correct........or variants of.

It's then a really difficult couple of hours trying to reach planet Heinsohn. But I will normally set off, as I am intrigued and it is important. Will I ever get there? Probably not.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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I have a particular and personal problem with all these (other) chronological revisionists. They are, as you say with your customary understatement, not easy to follow but, should I grasp the gist, I am always afraid of being over-influenced. Apart from Velikovsky, whom I swallowed whole at perhaps a too young and impressionable age, I only consult them, if at all, afterwards to see how we compare.

I'm always streets ahead but this may be an artefact created by the fellow's seductive style. It's worth pointing out though that
1. We are all tarred with same 'do not touch' brush by orthodoxy and
2. We don't help one another one little bit.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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I have a problem with most of them, as they are even more obsessed with the dating issues of a particularly weird western linear timeline that was invented (so it is said) by Sextus Julius Africanus, who first managed to synchronise Egyptian and Chaldaean chronologies, Greek mythology, and Judaic history, all within Biblical and Roman datings. Christian historians and others have followed where he led. Have they travelled off his path? Of course. Have they changed the general direction? They won't.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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More evidence that I was the fifth Beatle

Implications of 'World Order' Behind a Runny Nose
We’re going to help you get as much value out of your data and show you one of the secrets to getting subscribers for an envelope business that made the Beatles a megalithic empire.
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