Graham Hancock Popular Books

Graham Hancock Biography & Facts

Graham Bruce Hancock (born 2 August 1950) is a British writer who promotes pseudoscientific theories involving ancient civilizations and hypothetical lost lands. Hancock speculates that an advanced ice age civilization was destroyed in a cataclysm, but that its survivors passed on their knowledge to hunter-gatherers, giving rise to the earliest known civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica.Born in Edinburgh, Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before working as a journalist, writing for a number of British newspapers and magazines. His first three books dealt with international development, including Lords of Poverty (1989), a well-received critique of corruption in the aid system. Beginning with The Sign and the Seal in 1992, he shifted focus to speculative accounts of human prehistory and ancient civilisations, on which he has written a dozen books, most notably Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods. His ideas have been the subject of several films, including the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse (2022), and Hancock makes regular appearances on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss them. He has also written two fantasy novels and in 2013 delivered a controversial TEDx talk promoting the use of the psychoactive drink ayahuasca. Reviews of Hancock's interpretations of archaeological evidence and historic documents have identified them as a form of pseudoarchaeology or pseudohistory containing confirmation bias supporting preconceived conclusions by ignoring context, cherry picking, or misinterpreting evidence, and withholding critical countervailing data. His writings have neither undergone scholarly peer review nor been published in academic journals. Early life and education Graham Bruce Hancock was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He moved to India with his parents at the age of three, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University with a degree in sociology in 1973. Career As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He co-edited New Internationalist magazine from 1976 to 1979, and was the East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981 to 1983.Prior to 1990, Hancock's works dealt mainly with problems of economic and social development. Since 1990, his works have focused mainly on speculative connections he makes between various archaeological, historical, and cross-cultural phenomena. He has stated that from about 1987 he was "pretty much permanently stoned ... and I felt that it helped me with my work as a writer, and perhaps at some point it did".His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval). In 1996, he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man. He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998).In Hancock's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith, co-authored with Robert Bauval, the two put forward what sociologist of religion David V. Barrett called "a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists." They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple and the Twin Towers, and between the Star of David and The Pentagon. A contemporary review of Talisman by David V. Barrett for The Independent pointed to a lack of originality as well as basic factual errors, concluding that it was "a mish-mash of badly-connected, half-argued theories". In a 2008 piece for The Telegraph referencing Talisman, Damian Thompson described Hancock and Bauval as fantasists.Hancock's Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was published in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic cave art in the light of David Lewis-Williams' neuropsychological model, exploring its relation to the development of the fully modern human mind.In 2015, his Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization was published by St. Martin's Press.His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, the first in a fantasy series, was published in the UK in April 2010 and in the US in October 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests and as he has noted, "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?" Pseudoarchaeology Hancock does not agree with archaeologists that the earliest known civilizations arose independently. He speculates that there was an advanced civilization during the last ice age, that it was destroyed in a natural cataclysm during the Younger Dryas, and that its few survivors travelled the world introducing agriculture, monumental architecture, and astronomy to hunter-gatherers, giving rise to civilizations like ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica. Hancock argues that evidence is found in ancient monuments, which he believes are much older than archaeologists say. He also believes in myths like Atlantis. He recycles the ideas American congressman Ignatius Donnelly put forward in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), which have been long discredited. Archaeologist Flint Dibble says Hancock's claims "reinforce white supremacist ideas, stripping Indigenous people of their rich heritage and instead giving credit to aliens or white people".Hancock's claims and methods are regarded as pseudoarchaeology. In Archaeological Fantasies Garrett G. Fagan points out that pseudoarchaeologists cherry pick evidence and misrepresent known facts. When apparently factual claims in their works are investigated it turns out that "quotes are presented out of context, critical countervailing data is withheld, the state of understanding is misrepresented, or critical archaeological information about context is ignored". Fagan gives two typical examples from Hancock's book Fingerprints of the Gods (1995): Hancock wrote that "the best recent evidence suggests that" large regions of Antarctica may have been ice free until about 6,000 years ago, referring to the Piri Reis map and Hapgood's work from the 1960s. What is left entirely unmentioned are the extensive studies of the Antarctic ice sheet by George H. Denton, published in 1981, which showed the ice to be hundreds of thousands of years old. When discussing the ancient Bolivian city of Tiwanaku, Hancock presents it as a "mysterious site about which very little is known" and that "minimal archaeology has been done over the years", suggesting that it may date to 17,000 years ago. Yet in the years prior to these statements dozens of studies had been published, major exc.... Discover the Graham Hancock popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Graham Hancock books.

Best Seller Graham Hancock Books of 2024

  • Frontiers Of Health synopsis, comments

    Frontiers Of Health

    Dr Christine Page

    Frontiers of Health is an essential guide to healing, combining medical expertise with unique insights into the human condition. Dr Christine Page illuminates our understanding of ...

  • Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity synopsis, comments

    Psychedelics and the Coming Singularity

    David Jay Brown

    Includes conversations with Duncan Trussell, Graham Hancock, Grant Morrison, Hamilton Morris, Erik Davis, Julia Mossbridge, Rupert Sheldrake, and others Explores the possibility ...

  • Laid Bare synopsis, comments

    Laid Bare

    Gail Porter

    Gail Porter burst on to our TV screens in the late 90s presenting The Movie Chart Show, Alive and Kicking and Top of the Pops. Bright, sparky and beautiful she soon attracted an en...

  • The Mars Mystery synopsis, comments

    The Mars Mystery

    Graham Hancock

    An asteroid transformed Mars from a lush planet with rivers and oceans into a bleak and icy hell. Is Earth condemned to the same fate, or can we protect ourselves and our planet fr...

  • Haunted England synopsis, comments

    Haunted England

    Jennifer Westwood

    Watch out for a ghostly ship and its spectral crew off the coast of CornwallListen for the unearthly tread and rustling silk dress of Darlington's Lady JarrattShiver at the malevol...

  • The Sign and the Seal synopsis, comments

    The Sign and the Seal

    Graham Hancock

    A compelling brew of mystery, crime, and science revealing the details behind the search for the lost Ark of the Covenant. The Lost Ark of the Covenant is one of the great historic...

  • The Future of Human Experience synopsis, comments

    The Future of Human Experience

    J. Zohara Meyerhoff Hieronimus

    Explores the future predictions of cuttingedge scientists, spiritual teachers, and other visionaries and how we can affect the future Shares insights from the author’s discussions...

  • The English Year synopsis, comments

    The English Year

    Steve Roud

    This enthralling book will take you, monthbymonth, daybyday, through all the festivities of English life. From national celebrations such as New Year’s Eve to regional customs such...

  • Mysteries of the Ancient Past synopsis, comments

    Mysteries of the Ancient Past

    Glenn Kreisberg

    Cuttingedge thinkers on the origins of civilization, the Giza pyramids, preColumbian and early America, and the power of human consciousness With contributions by David Frawley, G...

  • Lost Knowledge of the Ancients synopsis, comments

    Lost Knowledge of the Ancients

    Glenn Kreisberg

    Thinkers at the forefront in alternative theories on history, the origins of civilization, technology, and consciousness With contributions by Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, Mark ...

  • The Bigger Picture synopsis, comments

    The Bigger Picture

    Alexander Beiner

    Can psychedelic drugs help us tackle the biggest problems we face globally? Can they heal the cultural, spiritual, and political wounds we’re wrestling with?Psychedelics have hit t...

  • Daughters of Isis synopsis, comments

    Daughters of Isis

    Joyce Tyldesley

    In ancient Egypt women enjoyed a legal, social and sexual independence unrivalled by their Greek or Roman sisters, or in fact by most women until the late nineteenth century. They ...

  • The Egyptian Book of the Dead synopsis, comments

    The Egyptian Book of the Dead

    E.A. Wallis Budge

    The Book of the Dead is a unique collection of funerary texts from a wide variety of sources, dating from the fifteenth to the fourth century BC. Consisting of spells, prayers and ...

  • Jesus and the Lost Goddess synopsis, comments

    Jesus and the Lost Goddess

    Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy

    Why Were the Teachings of the Original Christians Brutally Suppressed by the Roman Church? Because they portray Jesus and Mary Magdalene as mythic figures based on the Pagan Godman...

  • This May Help You Understand the World synopsis, comments

    This May Help You Understand the World

    Lawrence Potter

    This is a life raft for anyone who finds themselves floundering amidst a sea of tensecond soundbites, wishing they had a better grasp of complexities of world politics and global i...

  • Mirror synopsis, comments

    Mirror

    Graham Masterton

    It is said that a mirror can trap a person's soul...Martin Williams is a broke, twobit screenwriter living in Hollywood, but when he finds the very mirror that once hung in the hou...

  • 80s Chart-Toppers synopsis, comments

    80s Chart-Toppers

    Sharon Davis

    The '80s were a decade of musical change. As the '70s disco stranglehold was broken, rock, gay, dance and pop music competed with funk and soul, romantic ballads and political prot...

  • My Teenage Diary synopsis, comments

    My Teenage Diary

    Harriet Jaine

    Ever wanted to pick the lock of a celebrity’s teenage diary?My Teenage Diary is a Radio 4 comedy show hosted by Rufus Hound featuring celebrities reading and discussing extracts fr...

  • Slave Species of the Gods synopsis, comments

    Slave Species of the Gods

    Michael Tellinger

    Our origins as a slave species and the Anunnaki legacy in our DNA Reveals compelling new archaeological and genetic evidence for the engineered origins of the human species, first...

  • Forbidden History synopsis, comments

    Forbidden History

    J. Douglas Kenyon

    Challenges the scientific theories on the establishment of civilization and technology Contains 42 essays by 17 key thinkers in the fields of alternative science and history, inclu...

  • The Myth of the Goddess synopsis, comments

    The Myth of the Goddess

    Anne Baring & Jules Cashford

    A comprehensive, scholarly accessible study, in which the authors draw upon poetry and mythology, art and literature, archaeology and psychology to show how the myth of the goddess...

  • Seeing The Wider Picture synopsis, comments

    Seeing The Wider Picture

    Charlotte Parnell

    Meditation is often seen by those who do not practise it as something mysterious, something foreign, even something 'hippy', yet many of us have experienced a meditative state with...

  • La historia prohibida synopsis, comments

    La historia prohibida

    J. Douglas Kenyon

    Pone en duda las teorías científicas sobre el establecimiento de la civilización y la tecnología Contiene 42 ensayos por 17 importantes pensadores en los campos de la ciencia y la...

  • Graham Hancock Decoded - Take A Deep Dive Into The Mind Of The Visionary Author And Journalist synopsis, comments

    Graham Hancock Decoded - Take A Deep Dive Into The Mind Of The Visionary Author And Journalist

    Success Decoded

    GRAHAM HANCOCK DECODEDVISIONARY AUTHOR AND JOURNALISTWRITTEN BY: SUCCESS DECODED(Not written by Tai Lopez)Learn about themes like:HUMAN POTENTIALSET YOUR CONSCIENCE FREE HOW TO CON...

  • The Rig Veda synopsis, comments

    The Rig Veda

    Wendy Doniger

    The earliest of the four Hindu religious scriptures known as the Vedas, and the first extensive composition to survive in any IndoEuropean language, the Rig Veda (c. 1200900 BC) is...

  • DMT Dialogues synopsis, comments

    DMT Dialogues

    David Luke, Rory Spowers & Anton Bilton

    Cuttingedge explorations and discussions of DMT experiences and plant sentience from leading luminaries in the field of psychedelic research Includes contributions from Rupert Shel...

  • The Orion Mystery synopsis, comments

    The Orion Mystery

    Robert Bauval & Adrian Gilbert

    A revolutionary book that explains the most enigmatic and fascinating wonder of the ancient world: the Pyramids of Egypt.In 1993, German robotics engineer Rudolf Gatenbrink discove...

  • Underworld synopsis, comments

    Underworld

    Graham Hancock

    What secrets lie beneath the deep blue sea? Underworld takes you on a remarkable journey to the bottom of the ocean in a thrilling hunt for ancient ruins that have never been f...

  • The Message of the Sphinx synopsis, comments

    The Message of the Sphinx

    Graham Hancock & Robert Bauval

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER Two Egypt experts posit a revolutionary theory: The Sphinx and other great Egyptian monuments are older than common history books tell us and are arranged in s...

  • Deep Jungle synopsis, comments

    Deep Jungle

    Fred Pearce

    DEEP JUNGLE is an exploration of the most alien and feared habitat on Earth. Starting with man's earliest recorded adventures, Fred Pearce journeys high into the canopy home to tw...

  • An Apology for Idlers synopsis, comments

    An Apology for Idlers

    Robert Louis Stevenson

    An irresistible invitation to reject the work ethic and enjoy life's simple pleasures (such as laughing, drinking and lying in the open air), Robert Louis Stevenson's witty and sem...

  • Urne-Burial synopsis, comments

    Urne-Burial

    Thomas Browne

    Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They ...

  • Alpha Beta synopsis, comments

    Alpha Beta

    John Man

    The idea behind the alphabet that language with all its wealth of meaning can be recorded with a few meaningless signs is an extraordinary one. So extraordinary, in fact, that it...

  • UFO synopsis, comments

    UFO

    Garrett M. Graff

    “One of the rare books on the topic that manages to be both entertaining and factually grounded.” The Wall Street JournalFrom the bestselling author of Raven Rock, The Only Plane i...

  • In Search Of The First Civilizations synopsis, comments

    In Search Of The First Civilizations

    Michael Wood

    Five thousand years ago there began the most momentous revolution in human history. Starting in Mesopotamia, city civilization emerged for the first time on earth, to be followed i...

  • Chariots of the Gods synopsis, comments

    Chariots of the Gods

    Erich von Däniken

    AS SEEN ON ANCIENT ALIENS  Now in a beautiful 50th anniversary edition with a new foreword and afterword by the author, this is the groundbreaking classic that introduced...

  • La llave de la inmortalidad synopsis, comments

    La llave de la inmortalidad

    Brian C. Muraresku

    Un novedoso e impactante planteamiento de la historia del cristianismo La religión y la ciencia convergen para pintar un cuadro radical del evento fundacional del cristianismo...

  • Ancient Alien Ancestors synopsis, comments

    Ancient Alien Ancestors

    Will Hart

    Explores evidence for the theory of directed panspermiathat life on Earth and the landscape of Earth itself was engineered by extraterrestrials Details how the Earth was terraforme...