Taking readers on a global journey through time, from Ancient Egypt to Cold War cover-ups, historian Natasha Tidd examines fifty liars and explores how one person's lie can change the world and the course of history. Including iconic figures such as Ramesses the Great and his fabrication of the Battle of Kadesh, Emperor Nero's fiendish framing of innocent civilians following the Great Fire of Rome and one of China's most infamous traitors, Wú Sanguì. Alongside these are lesser-known liars, like so-called 'Father of Spin', Edward Bernays who ran a campaign of misinformation that sparked 1954's Guatemalan coup d'état, Enrico Dandolo whose carefully weaved fabric of lies allowed him to hijack the Fourth Crusade and rebel and double-crosser, Nana Saheb Peshwa II. Throughout, Tidd charts changing tactics in how we tell lies, including conspiracy theories from an 1885 Anti-Vaccination Riot to unknotting the twisted roots of the Illuminati myth. As well as the development in propaganda, from Augustus to Stalin to Goebbels. Plus, a look at how the truth can become lost in history itself, with an analysis of the bias and lies in depictions of famous liars such as Richard III.