Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past

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Summary: Thirteen True, Documented Revolutionary War Facts
Review: In Paul Revere's report on his famous ride he said that Dr. Joseph Warren requested that he ride to Lexington with a message for Samuel Adams and John Hancock that a number of soldiers were headed their way. He crossed the river, got a horse and went to their house. Shortly after giving them this message he was captured by the British. The resulting interrogation was the most important part of the night for him. He also mentioned that a second rider, Mr. William Dawes was also sent out and carried the same message to Adams and Hancock. In his report there is no mention of 'one if by land, two if by sea.' In 1861 the Longfellow poem was published, eight-six years after the fact. And this is what we remember.

The Paul Revere chapter is one of thirteen in this book that attempts to show real, documented truth as it actually happened rather than the way the stories are handed down today. It is well written, and the knowledge that the people founding the country were real people not gods does no damage to the story of the founding of the U.S.

Do you suppose that the reason there are thirteen stories is to give one to each colony?

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Summary: Don't Shoot the Messenger
Review: It is quite unsettling when the historical "truths" we believe to be absolute turn out to be embellishments, myths, or outright fabrications. We believe the Revolutionary War and the Founding Fathers to be sacred; they are beyond reproach. The truth is tough to take, but as Ray Raphael explains in great detail, the embellishment of any individual act of heroism during the Founding period of our nation cannot detract from the hundreds or thousands of acts of heroism that went on daily but just didn't make it into the history books. Often, the embellishments or myths that have evolved around a particularly famous event actually serve to portray that event as less exceptional than it really was. Many episodes from the Founding have been mythologized not from a desire to cover up the truth, but to convert what was a complex struggle into streamlined stories that could be passed down to children. This is why we must always be skeptical of oral traditions that are assumed to be fact: They are going to have been embellished; it is impossible for them not to have been. They may tell a great story or pass on an important moral, but allowing them to become dogma only conceals the truth.

Despite its flippant cover, Founding Myths is not light reading. Raphael does examine a few of the more recognized Founding stories, but he writes as if he is on a crusade, and before long he is delving deeply into the characters and motivations of the Founding Fathers themselves. He cites his sources, and I am sure he has done his research, but his interpretations are completely egalitarian: There seems to be no room in his worldview for individual impetus or catalysis. If any individual Founder acted in a particularly prescient or heroic way, he could only have done so because his constituents ordered him to. The Patriots rose up as one, in other words, the Founding Fathers were simply pushed to the front to do the bidding of the masses. Well, sure, sometimes, but our Revolution didn't go the way of the French Revolution, and the Founding Fathers are the reason.

This is an important book for those studying American history, but be prepared for some rambling and some egalitarian bias.



Rating:
Summary: What happned to good book making?
Review: This review is a bit off topic as it is not so much the content of the book I take issue with, but the physical book itself.

The book is so poorly made that it is virtually impossible to pleasurably read it. Amazon's price of the book takes the price out of the stratosphere, but still at over $25.00 retail the book should at least be bound properly and made of decent paper. This book, perhaps geared toward the paperback reader is very difficult to open, page thru and read. Frankly out of frustration trying to get the pages to open properly I just chucked it into the garbage.