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The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History Paperback – Illustrated, January 1, 2004
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Most Americans trust that their history professors and high school teachers will give students honest and accurate information. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History makes it quite clear that liberal professors have misinformed our children for generations.
Professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. takes on the most controversial moments of American history and exposes how history books are merely a series of clichés drafted by academics who are heavily biased against God, democracy, patriotism, capitalism and most American family values.
Woods reveals the truth behind many of today's prominent myths....
MYTH: The First Amendment prohibits school prayer
MYTH: The New Deal created great prosperity
MYTH: What the Supreme Court says, goes
From the real American “revolutionaries” to the reality of labor unions, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is all you need for the truth about America—objective and unvarnished.
- Print length270 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRegnery Publishing
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2004
- Dimensions7.3 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100895260476
- ISBN-13978-0895260475
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
This quick and enjoyable read is packed with unfamiliar quotes, informative sidebars, iconoclastic viewpoints, and a list of books "you're not supposed to read." It is not a comprehensive or detailed study, but that is not its aim; instead, it offers ideas for further research and a challenge to readers to dig deeper and analyze some basic assumptions about American history--a worthy goal that Woods manages to reach. --Shawn Carkonen
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From the Inside Flap
About the Author
Professor Woods is currently a professor of American History at a division of SUNY (State University of New York) and was formerly a teaching assistant at ColumbiaUniversity. He serves as a lecturer across the country. Woods is associate editor of The Latin Mass Magazine and is the author of The Church Confronts Modernity: Catholic Intellectuals and the Progressive Era.
Professor Woods lives in New York with his wife and daughter.
Product details
- Publisher : Regnery Publishing; Illustrated edition (January 1, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 270 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0895260476
- ISBN-13 : 978-0895260475
- Item Weight : 1.04 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.3 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #93,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #290 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #447 in U.S. Political Science
- #2,150 in United States History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

I hold my master's, M.Phil., and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and my bachelor's from Harvard. I've written numerous books, including The Church Confronts Modernity (Columbia University Press) and two New York Times bestsellers -- Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. My two latest books are Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse and Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century.
My wife and I have four young daughters and live in Topeka, Kansas.
My full biography can be found at www.TomWoods.com/about. My upcoming appearances, in addition to plenty of free audio, video, and articles, are also available at my website.
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Ordinarily, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the derisive observations of The New York Times, but The Weekly Standard is a journal that I respect, and Max Boot's review was far from favorable. Therefore, I assumed that Dr. Woods may have "gone over the edge" in this narrative, but am happy to report that this book cannot simply be dismissed with the word "polemic." I admit that I do not agree with all of the narrator's arguments and opinions; however, the little known facts, quotations, and accounts added much to my aggregate knowledge of America. For this reason, the book's value cannot be denied.
The ideas he shares are rare and necessary. Through both the body of the text and in the inclusion of small boxes and sidebars, the narrator identifies primary sources and allows their voices to refute contemporary assessments on their own. Items like "What Our Founders Said, What a President Said or What Our Allies Said" enable the words of the great men to resonate. Dr. Woods also provides "PC Today" subsections that highlight the moronity of conventional wisdom (sic) regarding American history. Further, the "A Book You're Not Supposed to Read" recommendations are quite serviceable for those of us not immersed in the historiography of America. These little formatting aspects enhance the readability of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and heighten its pleasure.
Most of these pages are a factual rejoinder to the dogma that proliferates around us. Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt the hero that most of our citizens believe him to be? The admiration that Roosevelt and his administration maintain seems fantastic given the anti-achievements of his economic record. The New Deal merely consolidated and expanded the shadow socialism practiced by Herbert Hoover. Indeed, when one closely evaluates FDR's programs and initiatives, he appears to be no more than an overly muscular, power-obsessed version of the president who preceded him. In short, that Brahmin was no Messiah. The New Deal made a mockery out of helping the poor as it subsidized the slaughtering of pigs and the destruction of grain in the hopes of boosting commodity prices while tens of thousands went to bed hungry as a result. The actions of the federal government made the depression of the 1930s a Great Depression.
Perhaps the most politically incorrect fact of all is that Joseph McCarthy was far more correct about the reality of the 1940s and 1950s than are many of the professors who instruct students about the period today. Senator McCarthy was rude, drunk, and self-promoting, but the Venona Documents proved that our government was riddled with communist operatives. This reality has not daunted our liberal aristocracy as they still obsess over the naming of names. In the final analysis, it seems that not nearly enough were mouthed fifty years ago. Venona has definitively proven that Communist Party USA was propped up by the Soviets solely for the purposes of espionage, and it is absurd to now pretend that communist affiliation did not increase the likelihood of one being a traitor.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History has the type of bountiful yield that would make one of FDR's A.A.A. bureaucrats want to start up a tractor for the purposes of mowing it under. I have no doubt that the reader, much like this reviewer, will discover useful facts and quotations within every chapter. Certainly, with it being only 246 pages, it is not a definitive tome but it definitely is a start. Hopefully more scholars will come forth and reclaim our factual history while forcefully arguing that telling the truth is not merely one form of historical narrative or perspective. It is THE only perspective. We need more Dr. Woods's to battle the Foners and Zinns who corrupt the nation's youth. These charlatans have cut and pasted our historical record into a montage in which only slavery and oppression can be viewed. We must undo their foul editing and let the brilliance of our centuries radiate.
The book is excellent and everyone should read it. However, other reviewers have rightfully sung Dr. Woods's praises, and most of the criticism has come from the vitriolic and intellectually deficient Left, here; so let me critique the book from the small-government side.
Although the book exposes Abraham Lincoln for the tyrant he was, it is strangely silent on the father of imperialism, William McKinley, or his even more boisterous step-son, Theodore Roosevelt. Regardless of the abbreviated page count, nary a mention of the despot T.R. -- after whom many modern "conservatives" model themselves -- is inexcusable, and one cannot help but think the GOP-shilling Regnery Press played a role in this. The anti-market Taft is also only mentioned in a positive light, briefly, as a Supreme Court Justice.
Woodrow Wilson is then given his just deserts as the worst president in the history of the republic. However, the fact is that T.R. and McKinley set the stage for him. Never a mention of this. Nor a mention of the birth of the Federal Reserve under Wilson. Nor a mention of his legendary racism. Woods could have saved some of the Clinton bashing at the end in order to cover the birth of the Fed.
But mostly, it isn't the ommission of criticisms versus Democratic presidents, but the complete silence against the crimes of Republicans that is bothersome. Yes, traditional history texts explore Watergate and Iran-Contra, etc., but Eisenhower, Nixon, Bush 41, and Reagan needed to be criticized from a Missean/free-market perspective, and they weren't here. No mention of Eisenhower's disasterous Iran coup or the socialist federal highway system. No mention of Nixon's price and wage controls or taking us off the gold standard. While Wilson and FDR are correctly blamed for entering us into pointless wars, and Truman is excoriated for foregoing a congressional declaration and entering the Korean War, nothing is mentioned about similar actions taken by Reagan or Bush 41.
Worst of all is Wood's implication that the Vietnam War -- though not the Civil War, nor World Wars I or II -- was a just war that wasn't fought correctly. Why? Because "the Left" was against the war. Communism did spread and who cares? One has to believe Communism works in order to fear it. This was the mistake of post-War conservatism. It was actually Marxian in thought.
Hoover is the only Republican identified for his socialist ways. And no Democrats are celebrated. Although his presidencies were uneventful, Grover Cleveland should have been highlighted as the model executive. His omission here is troubling because he is omitted virtually everywhere else, too. Of course, he was a Democrat, so...
Again, this book was excellent and everyone should read it. However, like other Regnery Books written by libertarians, there are too many giveaways to the conservative audience. Yes, fascist neocons will still be shocked by this book, but I'm sorry Woods had to pull any punches.
Top reviews from other countries
When you're done you see an entirely different picture. And for that, the author deserves all the praise for this excellent piece of literature
Over all this was a fun read. Most of the main points I agreed with. This book is a very compressed version of American history. Woods also lists lots of suggested readings, for anyone looking for further expansion into a particular topic.
















