History lessons often leave out crucial information. This is especially true of lessons taught at the high school level and younger. Part of it is due to limited classroom time, part of it is due to the presumed need to protect young people from knowing the real truth. This book, Myth America, takes on some of the more prevalent historical omissions and falsehoods from the past, many of which are still told today.Myth America includes twenty separate chapters from America’s past, each contributed by different authors. Some of the articles touch on topics most of us have heard before, like police violence or the recent insurrection. Others, like the founding myths and American exceptionalism may not be topics that readers have thought much about. Each article presents angles on these twenty topics that dissect some of the more common fallacies surrounding them, letting the reader know more of the story.I like books that help expand knowledge and Myth America does succeed at busting apart some of the more common myths that we still hear about America’s past. But there are some issues I had with this book, starting with the use of the word ‘myth’. In many instances, ‘deception’ would have been a more accurate term to use. I also didn’t find each of the twenty articles equally convincing. The Great Society chapter and the new Deal chapters are good ones, for example, because they back up its claims with statistics about poverty and economics. Other chapters, like the United States is an Empire, is a little more debatable and less convincing.With contributions from so many different people, there are different writing styles in every chapter and different methods used to persuade. This can be both good and bad. It’s nice to have an assembled volume with so many different points of view, but I prefer a book written by one or two authors. I would rather get the bottom line from just one or two people, rather than a collection of articles from so many different writers.There is no doubt that American history isn’t told as thoroughly as it should be. People often have motives and will only include parts of the story that fit their own political or social philosophy. Myth America is good at exposing some of the commonly told deceptions surrounding America’s past. It has its share of hits and misses, but it’s a good book overall and most anyone who reads will come away with newfound knowledge, at least to a degree.