Reviews
"This is a deeply fascinating book, and one that should appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, from students to history buffs to trivia addicts."-- Booklist "Eye-opening, interesting and lively. If schools put it on the curriculum, kids would pay more attention& American History Revised should be required reading for anyone in public office, a potent reminder that real history, not the tabloid fodder sprayed across the nightly news, is often made far from the limelight." -- Huffington Post "American History Revised offers an overview of American history by focusing on many facts and episodes that, "startling" or not, do indeed often throw light on our peculiarly complicated country, its past, and, inevitably, it's present and even future. I doubt that there is a single reader who won't find many of the essays genuinely illuminating - Morris is a master of the concise essay - and often challenging. Morris is opinionated; few readers will agree with him in all of his opinions, but he is a wonderful person to engage with."-- History Book Club "Seymour Morris Jr. is certainly not the first to take a lateral look at the moments when the facts conflict with legend and choose to print the facts. He is, however, the most readable and authoritative. This is a lucid, provocative and thoroughly enjoyable book, full of eye-opening surprises and tantalizing what-ifs, which can be read cover to cover or dipped into like a box of favorite candies." -- The BookWeb.com "Many believe that history is inflexible and chiseled in stone. The simple fact is that history is much more fluid. In fact, according to this fascinating book, history is generally filled with ironies, surprises, and misconceptions. Witty, lucid, and playful, this is a book that will leave you astonished, entertained, and, yes, enlightened." -- Tucson Citizen "In his new book, Seymour Morris Jr. shows that American history is like an iceberg, with the best parts long hidden from view. American History Revised is as informative as it is entertaining and humorous. Filled with irony, surprises, and long-hidden secrets, the book does more than revise American history, it reinvents it." -- James Bamford, best-selling author of Puzzle Palace "In American History Revised , author Seymour Morris, Jr. delivers useful and entertaining snippets of American history. The reader learns of a news story, broke to eastern newspapers in 1861 by a young Mark Twain, who later saw his novel Huckleberry Finn banned from several public libraries (a fact which only made them sell faster). With reverence, Morris tells of the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown , nearly sunk by the air-raid on Pearl Harbor, repaired and re-fitted in 68 hours by 1,400 men. "The people and events chosen for this book meet two criteria: they are largely unknown, and they make a point worth remembering." Business-minded folks would do well to pick up this piece for a hefty dose of inexpensive financial advice. One is informed that Howard Hughes was not entirely self-made but "got a leg up" from his father, who not only invented a unique oil-drilling bit, but unlike many inventors, the man refused to sell the invention, instead making a fortune renting the bits out to drilling companies. The author also points out that the patient investors that held onto their stocks even after the great crash of 1929 "made out like bandits." If anything, these pages reminds us that if humans indeed learn from our pastin order not to repeat mistakesthen history books lacking these facts should be swiftly, "This is a deeply fascinating book, and one that should appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, from students to history buffs to trivia addicts."--Booklist "Eye-opening, interesting and lively. If schools put it on the curriculum, kids would pay more attention…American History Revisedshould be required reading for anyone in public office, a potent reminder that real history, not the tabloid fodder sprayed across the nightly news, is often made far from the limelight." --Huffington Post "American History Revisedoffers an overview of American history by focusing on many facts and episodes that, "startling" or not, do indeed often throw light on our peculiarly complicated country, its past, and, inevitably, it's present and even future. I doubt that there is a single reader who won't find many of the essays genuinely illuminating - Morris is a master of the concise essay - and often challenging. Morris is opinionated; few readers will agree with him in all of his opinions, but he is a wonderful person to engage with."--History Book Club "Seymour Morris Jr. is certainly not the first to take a lateral look at the moments when the facts conflict with legend and choose to print the facts. He is, however, the most readable and authoritative. This is a lucid, provocative and thoroughly enjoyable book, full of eye-opening surprises and tantalizing what-ifs, which can be read cover to cover or dipped into like a box of favorite candies." --The BookWeb.com "Many believe that history is inflexible and chiseled in stone. The simple fact is that history is much more fluid. In fact, according to this fascinating book, history is generally filled with ironies, surprises, and misconceptions. Witty, lucid, and playful, this is a book that will leave you astonished, entertained, and, yes, enlightened." --Tucson Citizen "In his new book, Seymour Morris Jr. shows that American history is like an iceberg, with the best parts long hidden from view.American History Revised is as informative as it is entertaining and humorous. Filled with irony, surprises, and long-hidden secrets, the book does more than revise American history, it reinvents it." --James Bamford, best-selling authorofPuzzle Palace, "This is a deeply fascinating book, and one that should appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, from students to history buffs to trivia addicts."-- Booklist "Eye-opening, interesting and lively. If schools put it on the curriculum, kids would pay more attention… American History Revised should be required reading for anyone in public office, a potent reminder that real history, not the tabloid fodder sprayed across the nightly news, is often made far from the limelight." -- Huffington Post "American History Revised offers an overview of American history by focusing on many facts and episodes that, "startling" or not, do indeed often throw light on our peculiarly complicated country, its past, and, inevitably, it's present and even future. I doubt that there is a single reader who won't find many of the essays genuinely illuminating - Morris is a master of the concise essay - and often challenging. Morris is opinionated; few readers will agree with him in all of his opinions, but he is a wonderful person to engage with."-- History Book Club "Seymour Morris Jr. is certainly not the first to take a lateral look at the moments when the facts conflict with legend and choose to print the facts. He is, however, the most readable and authoritative. This is a lucid, provocative and thoroughly enjoyable book, full of eye-opening surprises and tantalizing what-ifs, which can be read cover to cover or dipped into like a box of favorite candies." -- The BookWeb.com "Many believe that history is inflexible and chiseled in stone. The simple fact is that history is much more fluid. In fact, according to this fascinating book, history is generally filled with ironies, surprises, and misconceptions. Witty, lucid, and playful, this is a book that will leave you astonished, entertained, and, yes, enlightened." -- Tucson Citizen "In his new book, Seymour Morris Jr. shows that American history is like an iceberg, with the best parts long hidden from view. American History Revised is as informative as it is entertaining and humorous. Filled with irony, surprises, and long-hidden secrets, the book does more than revise American history, it reinvents it." -- James Bamford, best-selling author of Puzzle Palace "In American History Revised , author Seymour Morris, Jr. delivers useful and entertaining snippets of American history. The reader learns of a news story, broke to eastern newspapers in 1861 by a young Mark Twain, who later saw his novel Huckleberry Finn banned from several public libraries (a fact which only made them sell faster). With reverence, Morris tells of the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown , nearly sunk by the air-raid on Pearl Harbor, repaired and re-fitted in 68 hours by 1,400 men. "The people and events chosen for this book meet two criteria: they are largely unknown, and they make a point worth remembering." Business-minded folks would do well to pick up this piece for a hefty dose of inexpensive financial advice. One is informed that Howard Hughes was not entirely self-made but "got a leg up" from his father, who not only invented a unique oil-drilling bit, but unlike many inventors, the man refused to sell the invention, instead making a fortune renting the bits out to drilling companies. The author also points out that the patient investors that held onto their stocks even after the great crash of 1929 "made out like bandits." If anything, these pages reminds us that if humans indeed learn from our pastin order not to repeat mistakesthen history books lacking these facts should be swiftly updated." - San Francisco Book Review From the Trade Paperback edition.
