Unsolved Mysteries of History

Unsolved Mysteries of History: An Eye-Opening Investigation Into the Most Baffling Events of All Time
By: Paul Aron
Copyright: 2000
Barnes & Noble

2 Bookmarks out of 5

I got this book quite a number of years ago for Christmas. It was probably around four years ago because that was about the time when I realized that I wanted my own personal library and I wanted to do nothing but read all the time. Anyway, my point is that this book was already sort of outdated when I received it in 2008, since it was written in 2000. If I had to guess, my mom probably saw it in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble and decided that I would like it. Based on the title, I even thought that I would like it. However, I was deeply disappointed with this book.

To begin with, some of the essay titles had nothing to do with what was actually written in the essay. To give you an example, there is one essay titled "Who Built the Statues on Easter Island." This seemed like it would be the best essay because the Easter Island statues are on the front cover of the book. However, this essay was mainly arguing who settled Easter Island - South American Indians or Polynesians. It made some rather interesting points but in the end there was no answer to the question of the statues besides, 'the people on Easter Island built them.' Well, obviously they were built by people on the island, unless it was those darn aliens again.

Speaking of aliens, not all of the essays were terribly written. One of the better essays was the one titled, "What Were the Nazca Lines". For those of you who are unfamilar with the Nazca lines, these are the lines in South America that look like various animals and geometric shapes from the air. Some groups claim that they are landing sites for alien ships. Aron did a great job with this essay exploring the various reasons why ancient civilizations would have gone through so much trouble to draw such intricate shapes on the ground when they could only be visible from the air. Some of those conclusions include irrigation purposes as well as religious purposes. In the end, even though there is no definite solution, Aron points out the possibilities and that is enough conclusion for the reader.

Most of the essays, though, were just entirely too short to give a proper investigation to the topic in question. This book is more like twenty-five wikipedia articles than any in-depth investigation. Each essay ranges from 5-10 pages in length and feels more like an essay I would have written in undergrad than an essay that should have begun solving the mysteries at hand. This probably comes from the fact that Paul Aron is not a historian himself - he is a reporter and an editor. I'm not saying that this doesn't mean someone can't inform himself/herself about a topic by reading a few books - but reading a few books doesn't make you an expert in a topic. That's what I think was missing from this particular book - an insight that only an expert can give to you.

In the end, I really think that Barnes and Noble should have passed up this particular book idea from Paul Aron. Barnes and Noble should probably stick with what they do best - which is eat up the entire modern book market and leave small, used bookstores few and far between. While there are a few redeeming essays, this book is better used just like wikipedia - look at the books Aron used to write his essay and use those books to do your own analysis. There are other ways to learn more about the unsolved mysteries of history besides reading this book. And if you are doing research on any of these topics, your history teacher would be appalled at your use of this as a reference.