Editing Pseudohistory (section)

==Characteristics==
[[Robert Todd Carroll]] has developed a list of criteria to identify pseudo-historic works. He states that:

{{blockquote|Pseudohistory is purported history which:
* Treats myths, legends, sagas and similar literature as literal truth
* Is neither critical nor skeptical in its reading of ancient historians, taking their claims at face value and ignoring empirical or logical evidence contrary to the claims of the ancients
* Is on a mission, not a quest, seeking to support some contemporary political or religious agenda rather than find out the truth about the past
* Often denies that there is such a thing as historical truth, clinging to the extreme skeptical notion that only what is absolutely certain can be called 'true' and nothing is absolutely certain, so nothing is true
* Often maintains that history is nothing but mythmaking and that different histories are not to be compared on such traditional academic standards as accuracy, empirical probability, logical consistency, relevancy, completeness, fairness or honesty, but on moral or political grounds
* Is selective in its use of ancient documents, citing favorably those that fit with its agenda, and ignoring or interpreting away those documents which do not fit
* Considers the possibility of something being true as sufficient to believe it is true if it fits with one's agenda
* Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism, or because of opposition to its political or religious agenda<ref>Carroll, Robert Todd. [http://www.skepdic.com/pseudohs.html ''The skeptic's dictionary'']. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons (2003), p. 305.</ref>}}

[[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]] prefers the term "cryptohistory". He identifies two necessary elements as "a complete ignorance of the primary sources" and the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims".<ref>Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224, 225</ref><ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, ''The Occult Roots of Nazism'', p. 225 (Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005 ed.). {{ISBN|978-1-86064-973-8}}</ref>

Other common characteristics of pseudohistory are:
* The arbitrary linking of disparate events so as to form – in the theorist's opinion – a pattern.  This is typically then developed into a [[conspiracy theory]] postulating a hidden agent responsible for creating and maintaining the pattern. For example, the pseudohistorical ''[[The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail]]'' links the [[Knights Templar]], the medieval [[Holy Grail|Grail Romances]], the [[Merovingian]] Frankish dynasty and the artist [[Nicolas Poussin]] in an attempt to identify lineal descendants of Jesus.
* Hypothesising the consequences of unlikely events that "could" have happened, thereby assuming tacitly that they did.
* [[Sensationalism]], or [[shock value]]
* [[Cherry picking]], or "law office history", evidence that helps the historical argument being made and suppressing evidence that hurts it.<ref>Ellis, Joseph J.  ''American Dialogue: The Founders and Us''.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. p. 168.</ref>