Don't Know Much About History

Rating:
Summary: Very Fun Read for History Buffs
Review: If your into history and feel you need a little refresher, this is not only the refresher but another course altogether. Really fun to read, the book is written in question and answer format. You'll learn some interesting things in here that may help you on the Trivial Pursuit board.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly on the "Left", but a good source
Review: Upon picking up Kenneth C. Davis' book "Don't Know Much About History : Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned", I expected exactly what this informative book claims: History made Fun! And while it did certainly live up to it's billing, the author especially towards the latter turns slightly Left in his writing.

In a delightful question/answer style a reader can rip thru this book picking up the basics and less known facts about our great land. As a book it is easy to read and is a valueable reference source. Davis does a great job on events leading up to the Civil War. Really this book is at it's best between the "major" conflicts and events.

As the book winds down (1970-present), we unfortunately see a slight lean towards left wing ideology. While this book is certainly a strong suggestion to other readers...the politics in the end must be addressed.

All in all, a good buy. Strongly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Know Much About History
Review: Beware! This is an engaging book. If I didn't know much about American history, I would likely have found it an appealing survey. Unfortunately, Davis doesn't deliver when it comes to objectivity. He too often steps outside interpretation of facts/events to offer HIS opinions. I can't recommend a history book where the author chooses spin over respect for his reader's ability to form an opinion once given the facts and context.

Unfortunately, this otherwise worthy book falls prey to its author's slant.

Rating:
Summary: Author - "Don't Know Much About" Being Unbiased or Objective
Review: I was initially drawn-in and impressed with the research, content and style through the first half or so of this book. Then it rapidly fell apart into a vastly left-wing, Clintonesque, anti-Republican, biased and slanted view of US politics.
As one example,the author devotes a disproportionate amount of time on the Watergate scandal yet quickly glosses over the events surrounding Clinton's impeachment and their impact . Significant achievemnents of Republican administrations ( e.g. foreign policy advancements, economic gains,tax reform, etc) are glarringly and conveniently omitted.

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun and Informative
Review: This Book is great fun to read, and has some depth to the vignets of American History.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and makes for great listening as well as reading
Review: I bought the audiotapes and played them on the way to our summer cottage and back. Davis has produced a book that is wonderfully informative about US History. He has an engaging style, crisp and witty, that makes for a great narrative that kept me listening for many hours at the wheel. Audiotapes usually become tiresom, but this was narrative history at its best--lively and entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Entertaining - Lacking Some Basics?
Review: Having last studied American history in high school, I purchased this book in an attempt to understand the historical roots for our country's current political biases. Is our current foreign policy based on 200 years of fine tuning, or are we simply repeating mistakes from our past?

This book provides useful information on the major events in America's history, and the author's question and answer style turns a potentially dry subject into an entertaining and fast-moving read. Mr. Davis also does an exceptional job of providing "softer" context around each event, enabling the reader to view and analyze our leader's decisions within the intellectual, philosophical, and social frameworks of their time.

My one complaint about the book is that it, perhaps, presumes we know too much of the basics. While giant event descriptions are given more than adequate treatement (e.g. WWI and WWII), Mr. Davis sometimes debunks myth or presents the latest research for smaller happenings without providing basic facts (i.e. who was that guy, exactly?). Still, I was quite happy with the book, and would recommend it to anybody seeking an adult's perspective on our nation's past.

Rating:
Summary: reviewed for "Don't know much about the Civil War"; my error
Review: I bought this audio tape on business trip. After listening to this, I bought the book to see where Kenneth C. Davis got his information.

Guess what! There is NOT ONE FOOT NOTE, AND NOTE SOURCE!

Davis apparently spins his tale from a faulty memory, which obviously includes fantasy and political correct views.

Davis presents the Civil War, as the Northern people becoming outraged that the South had slaves, and were mis-treating them.
( the South had over 245,000 free black people in 1860, which Davis won't tell you)
Davis implies the Northern people left their farms, and family to rescue the slaves. ( need I go further)

Davis begins on page xii ( preface) with the 1995 killing of a teenage over a Confederate flag, which he says happened in a parking lot.
Wrong: This was a teenage boy, that was pursued by a car full of black people, that shot into the boys pickup, as it was going down the road. ( The gunman is now in prison)
Davis talks about the racist South, EVEN IN THE 1970'S, using a case of him taking black Children in a church in Wilmington, NC. ( again, no documentation provided)

In my opinion, if you want to listen to this tape, (BORROW IT) it's not worth buying it. His very book that his tape is derived from, destroys his credibility.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Know Much About Writing History Books
Review: Davis gets the usual excuses in first by explaining he has been accused of having both a left and right approach to this book. This is an unproven and weak attempt to deflect criticism, should not be used, and is irrelevant. All that matters is whether his version of history is accurate and interesting, and I think it falls down on both points.

Inaccuracies plague the book - too many to mention (9,000 mercenaries were recruited by the British, we actually recruited 19,000). But because of his 'lazy approach' of giving you recommended books to read instead of the more familiar annotations and references as to where the information was received, this is bound to happen.

It is better to know no history than to learn anecdotal one liners. The very thing he accuses readers of, i.e. not knowing the full truth, about say, George Washington, he is guilty of himself. I came away knowing no more about this most famous man than I did from reading my schoolboy comics.

His worst offense is his perspective. This book is written from an American perspective, it is not the 'detached' writing of great historians.

How many people reading this book realise that the War of Independence was greeted with alarm by most British as it was seen as a civil war, it was mainly British, fighting British. If Hawaii wanted independance and fought the other 49 states would this be a war of independence or a civil war? And Britain was a closer island to New York than Hawaii is from Washington.

I know why this book has gone wrong - because Davis writes a whole series of books in the 'Don't know much about...' series and no man can properly write about all subjects. It took Gibbon a full lifetime (30 years anyway) to write only about the Roman Empire, how does Davis think he can write about vast subjects such as History using 'an Idiots Guide' or a '... for Dummies' approach.

If you want to know more about history, then read as many books as you can, visit historical sites, most of all listen to the perspectives of the losers. As Davis himself says, the trouble with history is that it is written by the Winners. He has not followed his own advice

Rating:
Summary: Davis' Book Makes Stale History Digestible and Delicious
Review: 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.