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

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Summary: Author Don't Know Much About History
Review: The most appropriate place for the title of this book should be right after the author's name. Imagine writing, for example, the history of World War II without ever mentioning the Japanese before say 1942 or the Germans before perhaps 1943. This is pretty much the approach of this author with regard to "Indians" and "Whites." Incredible. Not much redeemingly good about America in this incompetent tome. If you believe, with Actor Matt Damon("Good Will Hunting") that author Howard Zinn is indeed "heavy" and if you agree on all principles with Noam Chomsky, then this book is just right for you. If not, it is just another brick in the wall.

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Summary: Political Correctness Triumphs
Review: I began reading this book, after looking over the reviews, with genuine enthusiasm. But it doesn't take long to see through the author's clear bias. Davis, under the guise of writing what we don't know about history, commits countless acts of exclusion and provides the perfectly politically correct tome. He begins with the new and accepted version of the voyages of Columbus and the "Indians" vs. Europeans scenario. Eden corrupted, he seems to tell us again. Well, he omits so much about the natives of Mexico and South America, the Indians ot the East Coast of the US and so on, as to make the book laughable. Davis is quite disingenuous or he does poor research. The Pequots, by the way, the origninal "invaders" of New England, as the name implies in the language of the Wampanoag, own and profit from the largest corporation(a casino) today in Connecticut. The New England Indian wars saw Indians and Englishman against other Indians. You would hardly guess as much from Davis. Perhaps when the political winds shift he will go back to real research. On the positive side, the book reads well, is often funny, and has some good anecdotes. Much like Leno or Letterman.

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Summary: History should be a yarn, not a yawn ... Boring and silly
Review: Just look at the cover and ask yourself how flippant can a history book be? Why not just call it "U.S. History for Dummies"? Or how about the title: "Hey, Look at the Utter Imbecile Whose Grubby Mits Are Gripping the Covers of this History Book" ? A history teacher who wants to read this would have to hide the cover from the students lest they think he was an impostor. I like to think I have a sense of humor, but here cuteness seems to steal what little fire there is in this generally informative but ultimately unimpressive book. The sad part is it probably wouldn't have sold well at all with a stiffer more matter-of-fact title.

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Summary: Finally, a great supplementary book for US history students.
Review: I am a US History teacher and I teach in North Carolina. If I did not know better, I would have thought that the author wrote this book to match our standard course of study. This is an excellent book that covers all the major events in American History. It is written in a style that makes it easy to read especially for high school students. Davis' style of witty phrases and use of interesting information that you may not have been taught in school (ie Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Did he or didn't he?) make this a pleasure to read for people of all ages and historical backgrounds.

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Summary: A Review of U.S. "Political" History
Review: I enjoyed Ken Davis' book on U.S. History. I read my daughters high school textbook which was filled with many interesting facts but little opinion. Ken Davis' approach as one can see certainly sparks debate since it is not simply a compilation of facts. If one's mind set is beyond politics as religion and "my country right or wrong", then this book will be an eye opener. I have long waited to read a book that would be honest about our political history. Our rose colored view of history doesn't include the ethnic cleansing of Native American from this land nor the profound social problems that we still face because of enslavement of Africans. At last Ken Davis is willing to hold this challenges up to the full light and suggest that we need to grapple with the sides of our history that we wish would simply go away.

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Summary: Good for the beginner or experienced history buff
Review: This book was so funny and entertaining. It proves that no matter how much history you have read, there is always something to be learned. Very thorough. Very funny.

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Summary: Interesting, Yes. Informative?
Review: Kenneth Davis should be thanked for writing such a readable popular overview of US History. Reading this book is quite easy and entertaining. A book of this type, by definition will omit some peoples favorite topics and will also be weak at explaining all the views presented. Because this is the nature of the beast, so to say, it would hardly be fair to mark the book down for this. Unfortunately this is not the book's only problem. I am not a history expert, but I noticed that Mr. Davis misattributed Nixon's quote, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" to the Kennedy election. Nixon actually said this two years later. Some other reviewers have noticed a few other errors. Unfortunately this error is still in the 1995 Revised Trade Printing, 5 years after it was originally written. I originally read this book a year ago and recently reread the beginning because I am a bit shaky with Ante Bellum US History. Davis writes, "My intent is to refresh the shaky recollection or reshape the misconception with some simple answers". Unfortunately his refresher did not seem to provide the framework to stay in my mind. Since I do not normally have this problem, I question how well it works for others. Perhaps his question and answer format does not do justice to the narrative aspects of history. So overall, I find this book to be a quite entertaining read. As entertainment, this book deserves four or five stars. The factual errors and forgetable format lower rating significantly. If it reaches people and makes them want to find out more, great! I am afraid that this book _by itself_ will not help much with cultural literacy.

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Summary: Excellent for the MSAT
Review: If you are a teacher or student teacher studying for the MSAT. This book is an excellent study guide for some of the information.

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Summary: Most interesting U.S. history book!
Review: This is a great book that explains many of the holes left in other U.S. history books. It demonstrates how much our knowlege of history is incomplete. Fascinating, thought provoking reading. The few negative reviews are from offended individuals who's political beliefs are trampled by the facts presented in this book. It is my opinion that you will either love or hate this book, there is no middle ground.

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Summary: Don't know much about Irish history
Review: In the section on WW1 Davis claims that the aim the Irish rebellion of 1916 was to distract the British and so help the Germans. This is completely false as the Irish were not allies of the Germans. The aim of the rebellion was to gain Irish freedom and was a separate war that had been raging for over six hundred years at that point. The Irish took advantage of Britain's other war and were also happy to show the hypocrisy of Britain's claim to be defending small nations such as Belgium when it refused to release its colonial control over Ireland. The situation is even more complex as many Irish did fight in WW1 under the British flag. However subtlety and complexity are not part of this author's repetoire. Elsewhere he states that one reason organised labor was slow to develop in America because the Irish hated the Italians and the Italians hated the Germans -perhaps a touch simplistic. One howler of many is that Davis states that the Irish leaders of the 1916 rebellion were hung when in fact they were shot. Given I found so much error in a half page on a subject I knew something about I can only wonder how many more mistakes there are in this book