Don’t like history? You’re probably reading the wrong books.
Read this book, and you’re gonna think, wow! Why didn’t somebody tell me that? American history is full of strange paradoxes, and that’s what makes it so interesting.
The truth is much of what we learn about history is a series of little white lies that over time have grown into tall tales.
- Why doesn’t everyone know the Boston Massacre wasn’t really a massacre? Subsequent testimony proved the soldiers fired in self-defense. The King Street riot was started by a group of four street thugs who got their rocks off attacking lone British soldiers. Sam Adams and Paul Revere twisted it into a massacre.
- And, if you think the Boston Tea Party was a response to British taxes that raised the price of tea in the colonies, think again. The Tea Act of 1773 actually reduced the price of tea paid by the colonists. The people hurt by the Tea Act were the smugglers. The lower price of tea undercut their business, and ensured that the East India Company would have a monopoly on tea.