How a Civil War-Era Politician Invented Atlantis

In the late 1870s, a former congressman named Ignatius Donnelly sat down to write a book about Atlantis. His ideas went on to singlehandedly kickstart the modern obsession with Plato's mythical lost city, and inspired countless other related conspiracy theories. Today, he's regarded as the father of pseudoarchaeology.

With the expert help of fellow history YouTubers @HistorywithCy and @WorldofAntiquity, I explore the legend of Atlantis through the lens of Ignatius Donnelly's life and legacy. Though informed more by his own distaste with Gilded Age America than any legitimate archaeological evidence, Donnelly's feverish theories have enjoyed remarkable longevity – in fact, you've probably heard one or two of them on the History Channel.

Be sure to check out these related videos:

~REFERENCES~

[2] Martin Ridge. Ignatius Donnelly: The Portrait of a Politician (1962). University of Chicago Press, Page 2-12

[4] Ridge, Page 33

[6] Ridge, Page 67

[AtunSheiFilms]

Be sure to check out these companion videos to learn more!

By the way, if you like ancient history, Cy's channel is a goldmine. And if you enjoy listening to a friendly mild-mannered academic BTFO pseudoscientists with evidence and reason, then World of Antiquity is for you.

[ThatChainmecha]

Of course Atlantis is real, it's the capital of Georgia

[griffingerrein]

The reason we can't find Atlantis is because General Sherman burned it to the ground

[mistertwister]

“It’s too detailed to be a fictional story!”

*J.R.R. Tolkien has entered the chat*

[RustyShock]

I read "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" when I was 13-years-old. It was dumb, dry, and the 13-year-old me was terribly disappointed that it had nothing to do with Aquaman.

[iammrbeat]

No wonder history channels do so well on YouTube. The History Channel is now the Fantasy Channel.

[MoonlightEmbrace]

"Its too detailed to be fake!"

Then I guess the adventures of Hector Servadac, a 19th century French ship captain who got swooped into Space by a comet grazing the Mediterranean sea only to later on return to Earth with an improvised hot air balloon when the comet happened to pass through Earth's atmosphere again is totally true and based in scientific fact.

Jules Verne couldn't have possibly made it all up, there's just too much detail!

[BoomKing]

Plato claiming Atlantis was real is like the ancient Greek equivalent of "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. "

[shelbypowell]

As Red from OSP put it: “What if Plato was telling the truth about every detail of Atlantis except where the island was physically located.”

[nsahandler]

"It's too detailed to be fake!"
-a man, chained in a cave, making the argument his shadow is a real person.

[Robi-Chaud]

I feel like the people who argue that Atlantis is real because Plato didn't give a twelve-page disclaimer about it being fiction would just have their minds blown by Utopia

[hubguy]

"If Atlantis doesn't exist, why did Plato so thoroughly describe it as if it were real?" Do they really think worldbuilders and good fiction makers only existed recently lol

[bilanovitch]

Like Twain said "[they] use statistics (evidence) the way a drunk uses a lamppost, more for support than illumination."

[Hexartn]

There should be a disclaimer on shows that states that just because a person has an English accent that doesn't make them an authority on anything.

[troublesome]

When people say that the myths of "Atlantis" were written as history because the author said so I keep being reminded of Don Quixote and Red book of west march (LOTR), 100% fictional books written as fiction but within the narrative are described as real events by the author either to make a point or to enhance the story or both.

[DeltaDanner]

I love the narrator of Ancient Aliens. Every show he does voice over work for he always has the same insinuating tone. I remember on the show about Oak Island they found a wooden stake in the ground and just the way he said it was so funny. “A *stake* made of *wood* ? In the *ground* ? Could this mean the Templars built a booby-trapped tunnel system to hide their treasures?”

[sirloinofbeef]

I'll never forget the day when I thought I made a historical breakthrough when I theorized Atlantis was located in the Atlantic Ocean. I was 10.

[groovinhooves]

I would suggest that Atlantis is possibly based on oral traditions which attempt to make sense of the destruction of Minoan culture (and many outliers) by the eruption of Thera (modern Santorini). No one would have known the scientific facts of the cataclysm, it would have been highly mythologized, and, by Plato's time, why not spin it up into a foundational myth for Athens' hegemony? Plato nor anyone else of that time would have known the name Minos and the probably correctly supposed place Knossos, but there's your real Atlantis. Nothing special or mystical about Minoans, but they most certainly would have been a dominant presence in the Aegean and beyond and perhaps despised in murky, mythical badly transmitted local histories all over the region.

[arthurfields]

I would say that what the ancients built in the Americas is truly impressive because they were able to do everything without the help of beasts of burden to help them move the massive stones and without the metal tools. They had to be very creative. We need to give more credit to the ancient people all over the world they are much smarter and capability than we give them credit for.

[Akwardave]

I now have a great need for an Atun-Shei video on Huey Long. So long as his bones are still buried beneath the state capitol, the rest of us can only ever hope to be the 2nd most interesting man in Louisiana.