Number 54 – They gave Karl Marx his first job

Whilst it is true that Karl Marx lived in London for 34 years he lived for many years in poverty and scraped together a living publishing articles in the New York Tribune, whilst I may not agree with Karl Marx's writings I feel (as did the British Government of the time) that he had a right to say what he thought, just as Mr Grasse has a right to publish his thoughts (however wrong they may be) because in British society we have a right to say, and publish, what we feel so long as it doesn't stir up racial hatred, it's a shame then that Mr Grasse has been allowed to publish this book as it succeeds in doing just that.

Number 53 – They invented the concentration camp

Whilst it is true that during the Boar War the British had concentration camps, it was not the first time they had been used. The term “concentration camp” actually comes from the Spanish word reconcentrados (reconcentration). And was first used to describe camps set up by the Spanish during the 10 Years War (1868-78), however to see the first example of this sort of camp we have to look towards – where else?- America! In the 1830's these camps were set up to detain Native Americans.


The following is an extract from the website http://www.issuesandalibis.org/ -

President Andrew Jackson finished what the Puritans had begun 200 years before. In 1830, Congress, urged on by "Old Hickory," passed the "Indian Removal Act" which gave the federal government the power to relocate any Native Americans in the east to territory that was west of the Mississippi River. Though the Native Americans were to be compensated, this was rarely done fairly and in some cases led to the further destruction of many of the already diminishing numbers of most of the eastern tribes.
The Cherokee Nation was allocated land in Georgia as a result of the 1791 treaty with the U.S. Government. In 1828, not only did whites desire that land for settlement purposes but also for newly discovered gold. Georgia tried to reclaim this land in 1830, but the Cherokee protested and took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court decided in favor of the Cherokee, however, the President and Congress forced the Native Americans to give up their land and in 1838 called in federal troops in to "escort" approximately 15,000 Cherokee people to their new home in the "Indian Territory." On the way, approx. 6,000 of the Cherokee people died. This event, known to the Cherokee as "The Trail Where They Cried," is better known as the "Trail of Tears."

That's a reason to be proud then!

Number 52 – They gunned down tens of thousands of defenceless Africans

Lets count the inaccuracies in this one.


1- “On a desolate African plain in 1884” wrong 1898

2- “eight thousand British infantrymen” wrong twenty five to twenty seven thousand Egyptian and British soldiers

3- “carrying high-powered machine guns met a horde of Ottoman soldiers” wrong they did not “meet” them, they were attacked by them

4- “armed with nothing more than spears and a few old muskets” wrong they had old rifles and spears, it is not known how many rifles, but with an army numbering more than fifty thousand men you can be sure that they had more than a “few” rifles

5- “Winston Churchill even celebrated the Battle of Omdurman” wrong, in his book 'The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan' Churchill actually gives a surprisingly balanced, well thought out account of the war and criticizes the military leaders of the time.

Not bad really Mr Grasse, why let the facts get in the way of a good story.