Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History

Fülszöveg

Richárd Shenkman This provocative and amusingly heretical book will broaden the horizon of every reader who has never thought to question the outright flctionalizing of histoiy over the years. The real truth about many of the myths and legends we have always believed is documented carefully in chapters on such subjects as the frontier, slaveiy, our Founding Fathers, Presidents, education, national shrines, and sex. H. L. Mencken claimed that "something which everyone accepts as the gospel truth is inevitably falsé." Laurence J. Peter deflned a legend as a lie that has attained the dignity of age. In textbooks and classrooms we have aceepted as fact lies about Plymouth Rock, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross, Eli Whitney, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, George Washington, and a host of others. This debunker's guide to American history includes many unforgettable revelations of misinformation we tend to venerate. How often have we been reminded that Lincoln wrote his Gettysburg Address... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Richárd Shenkman This provocative and amusingly heretical book will broaden the horizon of every reader who has never thought to question the outright flctionalizing of histoiy over the years. The real truth about many of the myths and legends we have always believed is documented carefully in chapters on such subjects as the frontier, slaveiy, our Founding Fathers, Presidents, education, national shrines, and sex. H. L. Mencken claimed that "something which everyone accepts as the gospel truth is inevitably falsé." Laurence J. Peter deflned a legend as a lie that has attained the dignity of age. In textbooks and classrooms we have aceepted as fact lies about Plymouth Rock, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross, Eli Whitney, Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, George Washington, and a host of others. This debunker's guide to American history includes many unforgettable revelations of misinformation we tend to venerate. How often have we been reminded that Lincoln wrote his Gettysburg Address aboard the train on his way to give the speech? Historians have been sorting out such myths for years, and their scholarship is cited unobtrusively throughout this fascinating book. As Richárd Shenkman explains it, "Not only have people forgottén what they should remember, they have remembered what they should have forgottén. With time, facts fade. But the myths seem to go on and on." Vissza