"Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar."
1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Part 1, Chapter 4.
Once I read that I never could read ANY history book without a healthy dose of skepticism towards every fact and figure presented!