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48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School) | 
 enlarge | Author: Larry Schweikart
Publisher: Sentinel HC
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $16.35
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Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 2182
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 1595230513
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781595230515
ASIN: 1595230513
Publication Date: September 4, 2008
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Product Description
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, argues professor Larry Schweikart. The result, he says, is that students graduate from high school and even college with twisted beliefs about economics, foreign policy, war, religion, race relations, and many other subjects.
As he did in his popular A Patriot s History of the United States, Professor Schweikart corrects liberal bias by rediscovering facts that were once widely known. He challenges distorted books by name and debunks forty-eight common myths. A sample:
The founders wanted to create a wall of separation between church and state
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation only because he needed black soldiers
Truman ordered the bombing of Hiroshima to intimidate the Soviets with atomic diplomacy
Mikhail Gorbachev, not Ronald Reagan, was responsible for ending the Cold War
America s past, though not perfect, is far more admirable than you were probably taught.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Great articles that will give you fresh insight into 48 issues in American History September 8, 2008
Craig Matteson (Ann Arbor, MI)
96 out of 121 found this review helpful
While I think the title of the book is needlessly provocative, I think this a very useful book for anyone who has been subjected to the kind of indoctrination that passes for history education in too many of our public schools and colleges. If you are looking for some quick information on these four dozen issues, this can help you pass on some solid information that probably runs counter to what your friends believe is so. I said the title is needlessly provocative because not all liberals buy into the points of view this book argues against. However, Larry Schweikart is correct that there is a general cultural agenda that supports the liberal view of things. He starts off each article with two or three short quotes from liberal histories that are countered in that article.
The articles cover notions of America's role in the world since the founding, the issues in the various wars we have fought, what FDR knew about Pearl Harbor, Truman and the Atomic Bomb, the JFK assassination, Reagan, key liberal causes such as Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs, the Scopes Trial, Columbus and the death of millions of Indians, that pesky wall between Church and State, Women's Rights in early American, the Settling of America and the Indians, and the Robber Barons. Modern issues such as Iraq, 9/11, Global Warming, Media Bias, Educational Bias, and the social theories about our Constitution are also covered. Schweikart admits that saying that the 9/11 conspiracy nuts are liberal is a stretch, but he says he wanted to head off the kind of shoulder shrugs modern texts give to the JFK assassination conspiracy nonsense.
The articles are all relatively short and pack a punch. I am absolutely positive that it will annoy liberals a great deal and some of them will attack the book without bothering to read it. I guess that is a side benefit of the book. Its real point is to push back against what some are trying to make dominant and accepted without critique. Of course, wanting to indoctrinate students is a matter of faith rather than scholarship or education.
If you home school you will definitely want that as an addition to your readings in American History.
You will also want to look at Schweikart's `A Patriot's History of the United States".
A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
48 Lies is a Great Book for Students (and Teachers) September 10, 2008
Burton W. Folsom Jr. (Hillsdale, MI)
61 out of 79 found this review helpful
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.
An excellent reference! September 12, 2008
A Fan (VA)
38 out of 55 found this review helpful
This book is an excellent resource that corrects many errors in popular American History textbooks and misconceptions about American history. Every history teacher and school administrator should read this book BEFORE ordering his or her history textbooks. It would also be good reading for everybody else to correct misinformation they may have been taught in school. If you care about facts and real history, you should read this book. Highly recommended!
At last! September 15, 2008
Michael R. Allen
30 out of 42 found this review helpful
Wow, I knew this book was coming out and got it in the mail last week. I sat down with it the first night and ended up reading about a third of it in one sitting.
What a nice change from the usual politically correct historical mantra---what a relief! I know Larry and have read many of his books, but this new book is kind of a Schweikart "greatest hits" collection of short engaging essays. It is a perfect present for someone's bedside reading table.
Schweikart pinpoints four dozen *key* historical debates and *proves* how they have been misinterpreted and politicized in mainstream college and high school history texts (0ne of the books is assigned in my son's history class!!). This book is a scathing indictment of the modern historical profession. Schweikart proves that some (not all) contemporary historical writing is motivated by politics---its end is not the pursuit of truth but rather propagandizing a leftist perspective of American history. When Schweikart gets done surveying American history texts (he has carefully examined over twenty), one must conclude that much of what has been written in them is more folkloric than historic.
Schweikart's overarching conclusion is that, despite the "48 Liberal Lies" ubiquitous in the modern curriculum, the *truth* about American history is, by and large, a positive and uplifting story. Certainly, there have been mistakes and shameful acts, but compared to what? In the large view, the American cup is not only 'half full,' it is 3/4 full! Thank you Larry Schweikart.
Mike Allen
University of Washington, Tacoma
A great reference September 12, 2008
A Fan (VA)
21 out of 31 found this review helpful
This is an excellent resource that corrects many errors in popular American History textbooks and misconceptions about American history. Every history teacher and school administrator should read this BEFORE ordering his or her history textbooks. It would also be good reading for everybody else to correct misinformation they may have been taught in school. If you care about facts and real history, you should read this. Highly recommended!
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