The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black

Jonathan Black examines the end of the world and the coming of the Antichrist - or is he already here? How will he make himself known and what will become of the world when he does? - and the end of Time. I don't know how Robert Powell kept a straight face reading it.The complete history of the world, from the beginning of time to the present day, based on the beliefs and writings of the secret societies.

It is these types of selective journalism and fuzzy logic that make this book third rare. Paget who actually discovered them in the 60s. Also, when the author talks of The Antrum of Initiation, Baia, Italy he sites Robert Temple as the discoverer of this ancient maze of tunnels, neglecting to give credit to R. The idea that because Dante was an initaite of a secret religious order he was able to invent a new emotion in the human mind is absurd. The first absurdity of this statement is that for any concept, such as falling in love, to be understood by the reader it needs to already exist in the world. At one point the author, when talking about Dante, says that Dante was the first person to fall in love at first sight, and, this ushered in a whole new way of thinking to that time. The book is full of ridiculous statements delivered as truths. You definately know you are in hack territory when the author starts to compare themes in the book to The Matrix films (perhaps a certain ex-football commentator is the real author of this book), and the way in which the author tries to explain away the changes in society and culture from ancient times to modern day as some grand scheme that is foretold in the mystery schools is like a third rate episode of the x-files.

I found the descriptions of the suppossed early world to be imaginative and absorbing but as it progressed into more recent history this book tried to find connections between almost every significant event and character in history as if they all stemmed from the same source. Many of these 'shocking truths' are recycled from previous accounts of esoteric religions and many of the connections between Chritianity and initiation cults are already cited. It's entertaining to listen to this book but its promise of revealing the hidden truths behind religions and secret organisations of the world is certainly not delivered.

The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black