Customer Reviews

America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Untold tales are interesting, but the real value to me was what these tales revealed about the characters in them. Kenneth Davis did a great job of putting their lives and actions in a meaningful context.

Living not far from the Hutchinson River Parkway, I was fascinated by his take on the tale of Anne Hutchinson. I'd heard it before, of course, and knew the basics. What Davis told me, though, was that she had advised some of her male disciples not to join a militia at war with local Indians, making her an organizer of some of America's earliest conscientious objectors. He also pointed out that it was after her trial that the Puritans in Boston banned Roman Catholics, Quakers, and other sects. Her younger sister, who became a Quaker, was whipped for blasphemy. Another of her followers who joined the Quakers, Mary Dyer, was arrested, stripped in public, and lashed. Later, the defiant Dyer returned to Boston, refused to leave and was executed.

Davis gives us equally illuminating tales of George Washington as a headstrong and ambitious young man who committed a war crime, what Paul Revere really did during the Revolution, and how Daniel Shay stood up for his rights only to be crushed like a bug--making American stronger in the process.

America's Hidden History reads as if it were told from the inside, full of first-person accounts and other source material that give us a clear, relatively objective view of what our founding fathers (and mothers) were like.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Did you know that before he took up arms against the British and became our first President, George Washington, a young English officer ordered his Virginia militiamen to sneak attack a group of French diplomats during a time when both countries were at peace thus committing a war crime? The cowardly incident resulted in the start of the French and Indian War, but didn't quite make it into my high school history book.

To give away any more surprising stories for this review would surely do a disservice to the author and the reader. But take my word for it, this book is packed with many more interesting historic tales!

Kenneth C. Davis, best-selling Don't Know Much About History and other books in his Don't Know Much... series, does a wonderful job of bringing to light all of the quirky, informative, but always amusing tales of the stoic, and yes, sometimes flawed, figured that shaped our nation's fate.

Having read several of the author's previous "Don't Know Much About..." books, I looked forward to his newest product with anticipation.

Alas, this book does not meet a high standard. It's a strange book, because it focuses only on a small part of America's history (1565-1789) and it does so by telling six stories, none of them interrelated. The result is a book that is disjointed and lacks any kind of structure.

The stories offer some nice tidbits of historical research, but fail to make a compelling point. The chapter on Benedict Arnold, for instance, fails to address the fascinating question, Why did he do what he did? Sure, he was disappointed and possibly enraged at not getting the recognition he felt he deserved, and he had an awful pro-British wife, but one wishes to know more... Similarly, the final chapter, on Shays Rebellion, was a wake-up call that forced the Founding Fathers to really work on creating the right kind of Constitution and republic form of government, but how close a call was it? Was our new country (actually a collection of squabbling states) in serious danger of collapsing entirely? The author suggests this was the case, but doesn't support it vigorously. The reader is left hanging, wondering: What's the point?

Generally speaking, good history writing needs to be either extremely thorough, or fast-paced. This book, unfortunately, falls in the deadly middle and is boring.

Kenneth Davis knows that history is complicated.

American history textbooks and oral history give us perfect role models in our historical figures and an unfolding story in which we were always on the side of right and any bad things that happened were the other people's fault.

In reality, it's never that simple. And we don't even usually know even the basic facts.

For instance, most people know that Columbus discovered America and then a couple hundred years later the Pilgrims arrived.

But how many people know about the wine-making French Huguenots, who were here before the Pilgrims?

And the Pilgrims were stern and God-fearing people, but they came here for religious freedom and our country was built on that priciple.

Ask Anne Hutchinson about that.

And I bet you have no idea how blood-thirsty the Pilgrims could be.

You will after you read this book. Be prepared for a shock.

And as for the Founding Fathers, well, of course, they were all virtuous, highly intelligent, dignified men who came together in one accord to build our country and create a foundation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all of us, regardless of social station.

Except people are all more complex than that, and nobody's motives are completely pure. Plus, everyone makes mistakes.

Like the one that a young, inexperienced George Washington made that ended in murder and started a war.

The truth is that the Founding Fathers all had different ideas and conflicting goals, for themselves and for the nation. The way the country was formed was through brawling, back-biting, lying, greed, and arrogance, much like politics today.

The amazing thing is that the country was formed, became what it has, and has thrived for over two hundred years.

American History, as told by Mr. Davis, is a vibrant and entertaining subject. No student who was presented with these forefathers and foremothers would ever be bored.

And about those foremothers..did you know that the first statue of a woman in America was built to honor a woman who escaper her Indian captives by taking their scalps with a hatchet?

Do the names Anne Hutchinson, Mary Rowland, and Hannah Dustin ring a bell?

Well, they will after you read their amazing stories in America's Hidden History.

I believe that this book should be required reading in every high school and college American History class.

As the mini-series John Adams on HBO also showed, seeing our heroes as flawed human beings does not make their accomplishments less.

But maybe knowing our own real history can help us to better understand ourselves and avoid some of the mistakes of the past.

One thing that is very clear from reading this book is that respect for the lives of others is a relatively new concept. The Indians and the Pilgrims did not value each others' lives at all. Neither did the Spanish, French, Catholics, non-Catholics, British, colonists, or anyone else in that entire period of history. The concept of "one world" or a "global village" could not have even existed at that time, it seems.

It was always "us against the world," whoever the "us" happened to be in that time and place.

Thomas Jefferson is quoted in this book as having said:

". . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

How far have we really come?

Read America's Hidden History. You'll be informed, entertained, instructed and enlightened. And it won't hurt a bit.

High School American History is what it is, a large composition of dates and names with little dimension of cause and effect. Since then I've heard tid bits from conversations, radio talk shows, tripsing around Jamestown, and book reviews. I listened to Mr. Davis on a radio talk show and his interview intrigued me into reading this book. The stories, related or not, gave me a perspective into these short biographies that brought my previous exposure of those topics into focus. I had heard that George Washington didn't ask for a salary as President, but instead asked the Congress to pay his expenses. That wasn't evident in the book, but the personality of the man Davis describes make such a request plausible. Just as I had learned and heard that Benedict Arnold wasn't a turncoat initially; I never knew why (but then I have never read his biography) but now I do. It's well written if you view each section as vignettes. I was a little confused at how he laid out the chapters at first, but then I got it. He gives you a time-line of European and American events, then he gives you the big picture and then he starts the story telling. For a quick fun read, I recommend his book.

If you enjoy watching out-takes, and behind the scenes incidences of movies and television programs, this is definitely the book for you. Interestingly, the book portrays how many of our history making moments occurred if only by chance, and not without the many challenges that at times could have resulted in an unfavorable outcome. America's Hidden History as the name implies packed with little known facts that elucidate how certain events gradually served to make our country what it is today, is not only an engrossing narrative but also, a pictographic account of our nation's infancy.

Most historical accounts portray an epitome of perfection, every action carefully choreographed to reach the desired results. Not so says Kenneth C. Davis. Not only, do the readers discover the actual accuracy about the event, Mr. Davis also offers a provocative depiction of the idiosyncrasies behind the person responsible for that particular event.

A delightful read, not only was it informative, but a distinctly singular way to look at America's history, and the people behind it. George Washington, Paul Revere and Benedict Arnold emerged not just as historical figures, but also as human beings whose passion, patriotism and greed came to play an important role in the place they earned in history.

America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation

This is a very interesting book and sure opens up a lot of what really went on in our early history. Not all was as well as we were told in school, or what the history books we had told us.

Did you know that, when America was new, Vermont used to be a haven for rebels? Have you ever "read the riot act" to anyone? Have you ever seen the statue of Benedict Arnold in Saratoga, NY? What woman was the first to have a statue of her own? Kenneth C. Davis, who deserves the nation's thanks for presenting our history in an interesting, palatable way, includes all of the above, and much more, in America's Hidden History. It's interesting to contemplate that the father of our country and our most infamous traitor shared so much in common. There must be at least a few dates included in this collection of essays, but I can't really recall which ones, because it's not the dates that count, it's the stories, all of which are truly enjoyable. Our politics have always been fractious and ornery. Economics have always been a major motivator, long before our democracy was even a spark in the founding fathers' eyes. Forget the icons and the myths, sit back and delve into this volume, and learn while having some fun that the early Americans, rich, poor, and middling, were people just like us.

The writer gives more background than other historical books on the same subject...such as Washintons' bungles and the womens role in the times of the Puritans. I am still reading the book, but have enjoyed the "other side of the story".

I haven't finished reading the book yet, but what I've read so far astounds me. Sounds like we've been missing a lot of history in our watered down versions we brainwash our children with. I don't know if this guy is really writing the truth, but if he is we should update our history books for schools. Why shouldn't our children learn the truth, these people are all dead anyway.