The famous version, checked against the record.
Each of these takes a person everyone has heard of, sets the legend beside the documents, and answers the questions people actually ask, with the sources to check it yourself.
GalileoThe trial, the telescope and the moon, from the documents.
Adam SmithThe invisible hand appears once. Monopoly appears 208 times.
Charles DarwinEvolution: 0. Survival of the fittest: 0. Pigeons: 112.
MachiavelliThe sentence everyone quotes is not his. The ones he wrote have conditions.
ConfuciusNot the sage on the mug: the quotations he never said, the one office he held, and the word he changed.
Something to read first
The trial file
A short piece, free: what the documents in Galileo’s own trial file actually say, including the two pages that decided it. It isn’t sold anywhere, and it’s the fastest way to see how these books are built.
One email when there’s a new book. Nothing else, and you can leave any time.