America's Hidden History- Book Review

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.