48 Liberal Lies about American History: (That You Probably Learned in School)

by Larry Schweikart

Book Overview

A historian debunks four-dozen PC myths about our nation's past . Over the last forty years, history textbooks have become more and more politically correct and distorted about our country's past,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595230513
• ISBN13: 9781595230515
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Sentinel
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.7" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great for historians or those interested in the truth about the US

I'm a history major who just recently graduated college, and about half of the myths in the book took me by surprise. While I've never believed in the 9/11 or JFK conspiracies, others had indeed been parroted to me by my professors in college, in particular, that the Civil War was not at all about slavery, or that Truman nuked Japan to intimidate the Soviets; and I bought it, hook, line, and sinker. The author's research on these subjects shows that "states rights" and "preserving the union" were just smoke-and-mirrors to mask the debate over slavery; and the real casualty estimates regarding an invasion of Japan just blew me away. Many other myths are debunked in this book, making it a must read for everybody. It was a wake up call for this history graduate that subtle bias does indeed exist in textbooks, and should be regarded as a caution to current students and their parents, who are most likely paying for their education.

Check an old encyclopedia

We still have an edition World Book Encyclopedia published in 1984 and one published in 1965. It is interesting to verify his complaints about modern text books. The re-writing of history is most disburbing. Find an old encyclopedia and check it out for yourself unless you are old enough to actually remember some of the events of the 1940's till today like I am. Many of us are still around who remember when the nasty lies about the USA were told by our enemies; not by our text books, movies, etc. After verifying facts for yourself, please take action to break this pattern of self-destruction. Please confront your local school boards when you find lies in text books. Hit the text book publishers in the "pocket book." One test is that if a text gets Reagan right, it might be OK. Surely you are old enough to remember those actual events!

An Enjoyable and Much-Needed Volume

The author of this book, "48 Liberal Lies About American History", notes that high school and college students today are frequently forced to use textbooks that view America not as a great country with some flaws, but as fundamentally evil, racist, and oppressive. Larry Schweikart, a history professor at the University of Dayton, takes four dozen of the most common myths promulgated by the Left about American history and, after having conducted extensive research, refutes them in this heavily footnoted volume. The author battles falsehoods of every era of our history, from the seventeenth century to our own. Schweikart does not shy away from even the most controversial topics of recent decades, such as the JFK assassination, the Vietnam War, the 2000 presidential election, and climate change. Schweikart tackles many of the myths that immediately spring to mind when liberal revisionism of American history is discussed, but also looks at some less-considered topics, such as industrial policy and its effect on the auto and steel industries. This book will be heartily enjoyed by students and history buffs who view America not as evil, but as the most important force for good in the world today.

A great variety of lies to choose from

We are heading into an election and we have a massive credit crises that could throw us into a deep recession. If you don't have time to read all 48 lies, because you are watching the stock market. And the money market too! I recommend you start with lie #44 "Business Failures and Tax Cuts Combined to cause the Great Depression". You will gain perspective and you will be better able to see how the ground-work for new lies that will surly come out of this current great economic crises is already being laid today.

48 Lies is a Great Book for Students (and Teachers)

Professor Schweikart has written a valuable and timely book. He takes on rampant political correctness in the writing of history texts and comes through with a five star performance. He is an expert on U. S. economic history but his breadth is apparent when he takes on standard leftist biases in diplomatic history as well as political history. One interesting thing Schweikart notices is that often a liberal slant will emerge on a topic and become entrenched in the texts. Then other historians will test the liberal idea and find many facts to contradict it. However, the history texts do not make the corrections and the bias is passed on to future generations. Schweikart shows this to be the case in the view of the motives in writing the Constitution and also in the Sacco and Vanzetti case (among others). Schweikart is an expert on economic history, but is very capable when exposing biases on Ronald Reagan, JFK, and LBJ. His emphasis is on modern U. S. history, but he is also excellent describing the first Thanksgiving, Thomas Jefferson, and the Mexican and Spanish American Wars.