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History contains a plethora of insane screwups-otherwise known as SNAFUs. Coined during World War I, SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F*cked Up. In other words, "things are pretty screwed up, but aren't they always?" Spanning from the 1950's to the 2000's, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher for a deep dive into each decade's craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing...

"The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Inaccurate interpretations and outright misrepresentations of the past-cultivated within and promoted by the conservative movement and right-wing media over the last several decades-hold sway among large numbers of Americans, damaging our public discourse. In Myth America, historians Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of historians to provide textured analysis...

Every day stories from American history that are not true are repeated in museums and classrooms across the country. Some are outright fabrications, others contain a kernel of truth that has been embellished over the years. Collaborating with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mary Miley Theobald has uncovered the truth behind many widely repeated myth-understandings in our history in Death by Petticoat including: * Hat makers really were driven...

Get the real facts you weren't taught in school and learn how these myths have survived for so long. Discover the stories behind history's greatest lies and how-and why-the world's biggest whoppers have survived textbooks and lesson plans for years. For instance, did you know the conquistador Hernán Cortés wasn't as bloodthirsty as they say? Neither were the Goths, who were actually the most progressive of the Germanic tribes. Or, that a petty...

Founder of George Mason University's History News Network and bestselling author of Presidential Ambition and One Night Stands with American History, Rick Shenkman is an historian, a rebel, and a myth debunker par excellence. In Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of World History, he explodes some of the most honored and long-held misconceptions about kings and despots, wars and empires, religions, inventions, from the glory days of the Roman Empire...

Here is an intriguing exploration of the ways in which the history of the Spanish Conquest has been misread and passed down to become popular knowledge of these events. The book offers a fresh account of the activities of the best-known conquistadors and explorers, including Columbus, Cortes, and Pizarro. Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the...

"Many people today know that the story about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree as a child is just that-a story. However, did you know that Washington was a dedicated breeder of hunting dogs? In fact, he is credited with creating the American foxhound breed. That's true! Thanks to this guide to the first U.S. president, readers will come to have a greater understanding of Washington and efforts he led to create a new country. They'll also...

Presents a humorous look at the flaws and foibles of some of the most famous personalities of history, including such figures as Marco Polo, George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Edison, and Amelia Earhart.

It's tempting to think that we live in an unprecedentedly fertile age for conspiracy theories, with seemingly each churn of the news cycle bringing fresh manifestations of large-scale paranoia. But the sad fact is that these narratives of suspicion—and the delusional psychologies that fuel them—have been a constant presence in American life for nearly as long as there's been an America.

In this sweeping book, Thomas Milan Konda

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"There's a common myth that says Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, wrote the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope while on a trip by train. Although that makes for a good story, it's just a story! Readers will discover other myths about Lincoln, but more importantly, they will learn the facts about his time in the White House. Primary sources of Lincoln and his era help readers make connections to the text, and a timeline of Lincoln's...