An unconventional history is one that challenges some of the myths scholars have employed to explain our past. In these two volumes Kaplan shows that every war in US history was waged either over the issue of land or for its acquisition. (This is Volume 1; Volume 2 is released separately.)
Ironically, until our independence from Great Britain, all the lands occupied by the 13 colonies were legally the property of the King, granted under royal charters which precluded outright ownership. Jefferson understood this salient fact, and when he wrote the preamble to the Declaration of Independence he omitted property as one of the inalienable rights endowed by the Creator, substituting instead the euphemism of the pursuit of happiness.
The War Between the States and the rapid industrialization of the North which followed was made possible by tapping the vast resources which lay underneath the land. Oil, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, and other minerals made the US the richest and most powerful nation in the world by the end of the nineteenth century.
The basic thrust of this book is neither to expose America s blemishes nor to eulogize its virtues. Rather, the author focuses on US history from a different perspective than is usually accepted. Readers may disagree with his interpretations but will find his arguments intriguing.
Challenging recognized historians is not a criticism of their intelligence or capability, but of the methodology they used in arriving at their conclusions. In order to validate their theses, they refer to documents of well-established scholars who came before them. Notes citing these court historians and authorities become the standard by which a historical work is judged. In this book the author has not relied on the conclusions offered by other writers. Instead, he views the established facts of United States history from the standpoint of commonsense to decipher instances of oversight, obfuscation and obvious (but masked or denied) interest.
Some of the most egregious distortions the author highlights include:
The greatest blight in our past is not slavery, per se, but the conscious and willful elimination of 3 million Amerindians in order to seize their lands, the first unrecorded Holocaust. (2) A British general s lust for a fellow officer s wife was directly responsible for the loss of its American colonies. (3) In order to forge a United States of America not only was it necessary to legitimize slavery as an integral part of the Constitution but slaves had to be counted as three fifths of the total population of the state, (4) The Constitution was composed exclusively by and for men of means and its fundamental goal was to maintain the status quo. (5) The conflict between the North and South was never over slavery; it would have required three fourths of the states to amend the Constitution, but over control of the Senate, the only legislative body controlled by the establishment. (6) The major blunder committed by Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government was to actively solicit the military support of the Border States, which opened the door to a land invasion from the North impossible if they had remained within the Union. (7) Aside from James Madison, Lincoln was the worst wartime president in our history; his strategy was responsible for the 600,000 deaths. (8)The Emancipation Proclamation was designed to bring the Southern States back into the Union. (9) Reconstruction was doomed to failure because almost all of the South s wealth consisted in the value of its slaves. (10) What makes this nation unique is that it had to establish its own traditions and create its own mythology in short order and quickly weave a narrative that would inspire and unify the citizenry.
Ironically, until our independence from Great Britain, all the lands occupied by the 13 colonies were legally the property of the King, granted under royal charters which precluded outright ownership. Jefferson understood this salient fact, and when he wrote the preamble to the Declaration of Independence he omitted property as one of the inalienable rights endowed by the Creator, substituting instead the euphemism of the pursuit of happiness.
The War Between the States and the rapid industrialization of the North which followed was made possible by tapping the vast resources which lay underneath the land. Oil, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, and other minerals made the US the richest and most powerful nation in the world by the end of the nineteenth century.
The basic thrust of this book is neither to expose America s blemishes nor to eulogize its virtues. Rather, the author focuses on US history from a different perspective than is usually accepted. Readers may disagree with his interpretations but will find his arguments intriguing.
Challenging recognized historians is not a criticism of their intelligence or capability, but of the methodology they used in arriving at their conclusions. In order to validate their theses, they refer to documents of well-established scholars who came before them. Notes citing these court historians and authorities become the standard by which a historical work is judged. In this book the author has not relied on the conclusions offered by other writers. Instead, he views the established facts of United States history from the standpoint of commonsense to decipher instances of oversight, obfuscation and obvious (but masked or denied) interest.
Some of the most egregious distortions the author highlights include:
The greatest blight in our past is not slavery, per se, but the conscious and willful elimination of 3 million Amerindians in order to seize their lands, the first unrecorded Holocaust. (2) A British general s lust for a fellow officer s wife was directly responsible for the loss of its American colonies. (3) In order to forge a United States of America not only was it necessary to legitimize slavery as an integral part of the Constitution but slaves had to be counted as three fifths of the total population of the state, (4) The Constitution was composed exclusively by and for men of means and its fundamental goal was to maintain the status quo. (5) The conflict between the North and South was never over slavery; it would have required three fourths of the states to amend the Constitution, but over control of the Senate, the only legislative body controlled by the establishment. (6) The major blunder committed by Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government was to actively solicit the military support of the Border States, which opened the door to a land invasion from the North impossible if they had remained within the Union. (7) Aside from James Madison, Lincoln was the worst wartime president in our history; his strategy was responsible for the 600,000 deaths. (8)The Emancipation Proclamation was designed to bring the Southern States back into the Union. (9) Reconstruction was doomed to failure because almost all of the South s wealth consisted in the value of its slaves. (10) What makes this nation unique is that it had to establish its own traditions and create its own mythology in short order and quickly weave a narrative that would inspire and unify the citizenry.
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