Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About...) [Paperback]

Kenneth C. Davis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Finally, someone who tells history like it was, without the old textbook gloss that's put so many students into premature naptime and misinformed the few who stayed awake. Davis corrects the myths and misconceptions from Columbus up through the Clinton administration, and shows that truth is more entertaining than propaganda. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Davis, author of the trademarked series of Don't Know Much About primers, seeks to dispel public boredom and ignorance about history and correct mistakes about various historical events in this update of his bestselling survey of American history. He arranges the book around a series of short essays on questions ranging from the basic (e.g., "Why did the southern states secede from the United States?") to the esoteric ("What was Teddy Roosevelt's grandson doing in Iran?"), intended to crystallize larger themes in our country's past. Davis's engaging treatment is spicy but judicious. He notes sex scandals from Alexander Hamilton's to Bill Clinton's, tamps out JFK conspiracy theories and speculation about J. Edgar Hoover's cross-dressing, and debunks myths like the legend of Betsy Ross and the movie Mississippi Burning. He provides sharply drawn, even-handed accounts of controversies, and his verdicts are generally well considered. Unfortunately, because discussions are usually tied to colorful personalities, heroic movements and dramatic crises, processes that are quiet but profound, such as the post-war rise of suburbia and the decline of unions, tend to get slighted. There's lots of history to browse through here, but little historiography to tie it together; while the book is far superior to standard high-school treatments, and a valuable reference for students young and old, it still leaves the impression that history is just one damn thing after another.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 678 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060083824
• ISBN-13: 978-0060083823
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (175 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #12,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Davis' Book Makes Stale History Digestible and Delicious, May 16, 2003

By	Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much.) (Hardcover)

Like a great baker, a great writer can turn even what might have been stale into something not just digestible, but delicious. Clever turns of phrase and crisp, engaging writing style (in an easily referenced question and answer format) allow historian Kenneth Davis to chart American history and debunk many of its myths in this exceptional update of his 1990 best-seller.

Drawing on reports of the period and on revisionist histories, Davis concisely shows the humanity in American icons known only by one name: Lincoln's views on race relations, Washington's at times bawdy sense of humor, Franklin Roosevelt's thirst for power and gift for political (and apparently, personal) compromise, Ford and Lindbergh's disquieting bigotry and animosity. (Robert E. Lee's quote on slavery's positive effects show him, despite honors afforded him in the Civil War's losing cause, very much a man of his time.) Davis also provides short biographies of historic's outstanding black voices, from Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois' passion to the Mohammad Ali's athletic urban poetry.

Davis also shows a refreshing desire not to be objective, a rarity in books like this. He attacks the nation's great shames (treatment of Native and African Americans, Japanese-American internment during World War II), targeting history's cynics and opportunists whose names still ring of American royalty: Vanderbilt, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, even the Kennedys. (Davis' coverage of the reasons and results of 1898's Spanish-American War will disturb those always thinking Americans fought defensively and for the right causes.) Davis also explains the interlocking events which started WWI, which (should you choose to read the book cover to cover) pour into every other tragic conflict which followed up to and including September 11.

Davis misses some steps covering the last 30 years. He covers Watergate in depth, including an events timeline, which he does for every war covered in the book. But he glosses over Richard Nixon's historic trip to China and for that matter, much of the Ford-Carter years. He again retells Monica Lewinsky's affair with President Bill Clinton but fails to capture (in fact, hardly mentions) the Whitewater and Travelgate scandals inspiring Ken Starr's investigation and staining Clinton's administration and legacy.

Davis` summary of American tragedies tying into September 11's horror is heartfelt but forced. But he also explains Electoral College and US Constitution, charts the US presidents, and provides an exhaustive list of referred readings to complete an exceptionally exciting retelling of history. "Don't Know Much About History" is a title only true until the book is completed; it is exceptionally helpful as a primer and essential as a supplementary history book.

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative, but biased, March 2, 2000

By	JMSpade (Fayetteville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Paperback)

This book isn't quite "everything" you need to know about American history, but its very close. In DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY, Kenneth Davis successfully identifies and desribes many of the key people and pivotal events of American history. He provides a brief synopsis of each, detailing basic information necessary for at least a rudimentary understanding of that slice of history: the who, what, and when. Most important, he provides the "why;" that is, "why is this event/person significant?" This is a critical difference between Davis' book and most textbooks: Davis explains why this person/event was significant then and how it still affects us today. And its highly readable, too. For the most part, the book is written in a light and entertaining style.

A cautionary note to any parent thinking that this book could fill the gaps in junior's education. This is not a neutral examination of American history. Davis rarely misses an opportunity to lecture and sermonize from his own perspective, which is decidedly liberal. As with any book, its not so much what you say, but the way you say it. Davis presents his own opinions as fact and offers no citations for his assertions and conclusions. In a dozen different entries, Davis asserts that America's history is the story of bigoted, patriarchal, imperialistic, white Anglo-Saxon males, hell bent on Indian killing, Negro hating, war profiteering, female domination, labor bashing, and red baiting their way to world domination. Its not quite what some call "revisionist history," but it is rather slanted.

This is not to say that DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY is a bad book: it isn't. But it should be read purely for entertainment, not for serious study and certainly not used for academic reference. Serious conservatives will need to take this book with a big grain of salt.

121 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated but a fine book nonthe less, July 18, 2000

By	David E. Levine (Peekskill , NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Paperback)

Davis is very opinionated in his writing of history and furthermore, I happen to be politically conservative and he is very liberal. However, I nontheless really liked the book. Opinons are OK if the author does not let them detract from the presentaion of the facts. I have read several good histories of the United States and I am satisfied that Davis presents the essentials and then some. I think that if a high school student were to use this as a review book before the final examination, he/she would get the essential information and do well on the exam. Obviously, this book is not as comprehensive as, say, Paul Johnson's "History of the American People," however, it does what it sets out to do. That is to provide a reasonably comprehensive history of the United States for people who are not well versed in the subject. The facts are presented in a well organized and easy to follow question and answer format. The opinions drove me crazy at times but, then again, perhaps they kept me interested. All in all, a good book.