Jim Steinmeyer has authored several books on magic, paying special attention to the historical accounts of several individual magicians. In The Secret History of Magic he teams up with Peter Lamont to cover the entire history of the art form, from its mysterious beginnings to its modern machinations. In the book, he dispels a number of half-truths and apocryphal tales about magic, and explains a bit about why one of the oldest forms of performance art endures in an age of technological wonder.