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History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time

by Brad Meltzer · 2013

Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer's hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman 'Spear of Destiny'? What's the… more

12 quotes ★ 3.58 (3,779) History

Quotes from the Book

Indeed, to this day, I think if you blame everything on the government, you're not just wrong, you're being reckless. It's as silly as blaming everything on the Freemasons, or the Illuminati, or insert-bad-guy-here. But I do believe that someone must ask the hard questions, especially of our elected officials as well as powerful men who become members of so-called secret societies. Remember: Governments don't lie. People lie. And if you want the real story, you need to find out more about those people.
8
You see, it doesn't matter if they're wrong. From 9/11 to recent shootings here in the United States, there's nothing more dangerous than a true believer on his own crazy mission.
5
...this cryptic game of hide-and-seek is what makes it one of the greatest historical mysteries. So many of the symbols can be interpreted in so many different ways, there's always the possibility that all we're really looking at is a blank slate onto which anything can be read.
3
In the end, one detail is unarguable: There will always be those searching for treasure. Never forget: We are a country founded on legends and myths. We love them, especially legends of treasure. Looking for treasure isn't just part of being an American, it is America.
3
Never forget, the greatest battle we’ll ever face is the battle within ourselves.
1
Today, there’s more computing power in a cell phone than there was on Apollo 11, and that brought us to the moon and back.
1
Be daring, be daring, always be daring. There is no big dream unless you dream big.
1
And more than that, the United States of America was a whole new type of nation. Nothing like America had ever been tried before in the history of the world.
1
No civilian has been allowed to see the gold in Fort Knox since 1974, nearly 40 years ago.
1
But unlike the Freemasons or other secret societies, who were focused on longtime traditions, the KGC wanted something far more hateful: for the Union to end so they could run their own slave-based society. Their goal was to create a true, physical “golden circle”—with Mexico and the Caribbean—to build a private part of the country where slavery would continue. If that led to breaking up the Union, the KGC was all for it.
1
We don’t want to believe that the entire government can be jackknifed by a high school dropout.
he referred to Project Blue Book as going from the investigation of the unexplained to the “explanation of the uninvestigated.

About Brad Meltzer

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About the book

Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer's hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman 'Spear of Destiny'? What's the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy's $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence; weighs competing theories; separates what we know to be true with what's still--and perhaps forever--unproved or unprovable; and in the end, decodes the mystery, arriving at the most likely solution. Along the way we meet Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Nazi propagandists, and the real DB Cooper.

Book details

First published
2013
Genre
History
Goodreads rating
3.58 (4k ratings)

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