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The truth and nothing but the truth—Richard Shenkman sheds light on America's most believed legends.
The story of Columbus discovering the world was round was invented by Washington Irving.
The pilgrims never lived in log cabins.
In Concord, Massachusetts, a third of all babies born in the twenty years before the Revolution were conceived out of wedlock.
Washington may have never told a lie, but he loved to drink and dance, and he fell in love with his best friend's wife.
Independence wasn't declared on July 4th.
There's no evidence that anyone died in a frontier shootout at high noon.
After World War II, the U.S. government concluded that Japan would have surrendered within months, even if we had not bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Everyone knows that Columbus discovered that the world was round, the pilgrims lived in log cabins, and America declared independence from England on July 4, 1776. Except for one thing — none of those “facts” are true. Richard Shenkman, best-selling author of I Love Paul Revere and One-Night Stands with American History, reveals the truth behind our country’s most popular — and inaccurate — lore in Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History. This entertaining look at the real history of the United States is full of surprising facts and anecdotes about the people and events that built America.
Richard Shenkman is the New York Times best-selling author of five history books, including Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History and I Love Paul Revere. Educated at Vassar and Harvard, he is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of the news department at the CBS-TV affiliate in Seattle. He has been the host, writer, and producer of a prime-time series on the Learning Channel and a regular contributor to the NBC Sunday Today show. “Facts go only skin-deep, but they can prickle memorably, which is why books like this, disabusing us of our cherished bunk, are useful and fun.” — New York Times Book Review
