Don't let a good story stand in the way of truth!

URBAN LEGENDS UNCOVERED – MARK BARBER       SUMMERSDALE 

Urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. The stories are not necessarily untrue, but they are often distorted, exaggerated or sensationalised. Despite the name, an urban legend doesn’t necessarily originate in an urban setting (the term is used to differentiate them from the traditional folklore of pre-industrial times). Urban legends have been repeated in news stories and distributed by e-mail but are most often tales that happened to a ‘friend of a friend’. Some urban legends have survived a long time, evolving only slightly over the years, as in the case of the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. Newer legends tend to reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people ambushed, anaesthetised and waking up minus one kidney, which was surgically removed for transplantation. Other well-known urban legends tell of an old woman who attempted to dry a wet poodle in a microwave oven, the vanishing hitchhiker, and the alligators that allegedly live in New York City’s sewers. In this fascinating book, subtitle ‘An Investigation into the Truth Behind the Myths’, Mark Barber considers whether urban legends are merely harmless tales or whether there is something more sinister lurking beneath the surface. How and why do urban legends exist? Have they been created or manipulated for political, propaganda, or marketing reasons? From campfire classics that send shivers down the spine to the paranoia that followed the events of 9/11, the author considers hundreds of chilling stories, analysing their origins and what effects. He reveals how the creators of The Blair Witch Project used the power of urban legends as a clever marketing tool, and how Churchill and Hitler used urban legends in their wartime propaganda campaigns to play mind games with each other. Learn how urban legends are manufactured to target large corporations such as Microsoft and McDonalds, and how hoax e-mails and computer viruses have almost brought businesses and governments to their knees.