Don't Know Much About History - Updated and Revised Edition : Everything You Need to Know about American History But Never Learned

Rating:
Summary: Conservatives BACK OFF!!
Review: I know that to to the conservative set if something is not totally "super gung ho pro-american propaganda" then it must be total crap, and that the author HAS TO BE some clown who is just making things up to make the right wing look bad... because he's obviously a criminal who has nothing better to do right?

Well this book is very good and sheds a lot of light on otherwise ignored facts. Funny isn't it how the so called "liberal" media helps to sugar coat everything, and when someone finally dares scratch beneath the surface, the conservatives come out for their witch hunts.

Rating:
Summary: What He Knows About History is Wrong
Review: It's not what Mr. Davis DOESN'T know about History that makes this such a dangerous book for it's intended audience, it what he DOES know that just aint so. For example, he "knows" that Karl Marx was really on to something in making class struggle the driving force behind historical change. But that's just not true.

He "knows" that the next most important things you can say about any historical figure are how they measure up to 21st century orthodoxies on questions of race and gender. This tells us something about Davis, but not much about the historical situations that he claims to be talking about.

A quick way to verify these overall assertions is to pick a subject that he deals with that you already know something about and flip to the end of the section where he gives his "must reads." Even when he waffles a bit in the text (or more often hides behind another historian), his bias almost always shows up here.

Rating:
Summary: Tour the sometimes-dark totality of American history
Review: This review concerns the severely abridged audio version, which is about 75% shorter than the paper version. The audio version also lacks the paper version's detailed timelines.

The audio version of "Don't Know Much About History" highlights the history of America from 40,000 BC (with the arrival of Native American forebears) to 1990 at the end of the Reagan era. Author Kenneth Davis does a good job of selecting history's most important turning points (colonization, the Revolution, industrialization, etc.). He is also adept at raising the kind of questions that most of us only half-remember from high school history class such as, "What was the War of 1812 about?" and "Who were the robber barons?" Unfortunately, the "Don't Know Much" audio version doesn't always answer these questions. I was left with the impression, for instance, that the main issue precipitating the War of 1812 was the impressment of sailors into the British Navy and Henry Clay's "thirst for territory." The first issue seems insignificant as a "casus belli"; the second left still more questions -- why was Clay so thirsty, and who did territory belong to? Coverage of some topics can be breezy indeed. The 8-years of the Revolutionary War were covered by the Lexington/Concord battle that started it and The Treaty of Paris that ended it.

On the other hand, Davis avoids the inevitability of certain grade-school histories, which show seem to imply that history had to unfold the way it did. Davis also does a nice job of bringing the human motivations (not just the actions and statements) of historical figures to light. With Davis's exposition, you can begin to share the fear of Southern slave-owners in the face of Northern control of business and manufacturing. You can feel the tug of manifest destiny that drove settlers to take land from other peoples. Davis does not shy away from the dirty side of history. Robber barons, biased Supreme Courts, greedy settlers, circulation-hungry warmongering newspaper publishers and others are held up to (brief) scrutiny. I suppose that many who claim "Don't Know Much" is biased are mostly troubled by spotlighting the villainies of the rich and powerful rather than the glories of American military and economic victories. Davis's unvarnished approach would be uncomfortable to who are accustomed to deifying great historical figures. Yet though "Don't Know Much" sometimes spends too much time on the dark side of history, I appreciated its lack of romance and its even-handedness. Better to learn to live with the truth than to unlearn fantasy.

"Don't Know Much," the audio book, provides a quick overview of the broad terrain of American history--fit especially for those without the patience or interest to read the unabridged paper version. While that may seen like damning with faint praise, "Don't Know Much" is fun and valuable. I'm glad I listened to it and would consider reading it in its entirety.