Myths Of American History

  myths of american history: Founding Myths Ray Raphael, 2014-07-04 First published ten years ago, award-winning historian Ray Raphael’s Founding Myths has since established itself as a landmark of historical myth-busting. With the author’s trademark wit and flair, Founding Myths exposes the errors and inventions in America’s most cherished tales, from Paul Revere’s famous ride to Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech. For the seventy thousand readers who have been captivated by Raphael’s eye-opening accounts, history has never been the same. In this revised tenth-anniversary edition, Raphael revisits the original myths and explores their further evolution over the past decade, uncovering new stories and peeling back additional layers of misinformation. This new edition also examines the highly politicized debates over America’s past, as well as how school textbooks and popular histories often reinforce rather than correct historical mistakes. A book that “explores the truth behind the stories of the making of our nation” (National Public Radio), this revised edition of Founding Myths will be a welcome resource for anyone seeking to separate historical fact from fiction.
  myths of american history: Seven Myths of Native American History Paul Jentz, 2018-03-02 Seven Myths of Native American History will provide undergraduates and general readers with a very useful introduction to Native America past and present. Jentz identifies the origins and remarkable staying power of these myths at the same time he exposes and dismantles them. —Colin G. Calloway, Dartmouth College
  myths of american history: Myths America Lives By Richard T. Hughes, 2018-09-05 Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. Taken as aspirational, four of those myths remind us of our noblest ideals, challenging us to realize our nation's promise while galvanizing the sense of hope and unity we need to reach our goals. Misused, these myths allow for illusions of innocence that fly in the face of white supremacy, the primal American myth that stands at the heart of all the others.
  myths of american history: Myth America Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer, 2023-01-03 In this instant New York Times bestseller, America’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past. The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors—among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history. Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today’s heated debates about our nation’s past. With Essays By Akhil Reed Amar • Kathleen Belew • Carol Anderson • Kevin Kruse • Erika Lee • Daniel Immerwahr • Elizabeth Hinton • Naomi Oreskes • Erik M. Conway • Ari Kelman • Geraldo Cadava • David A. Bell • Joshua Zeitz • Sarah Churchwell • Michael Kazin • Karen L. Cox • Eric Rauchway • Glenda Gilmore • Natalia Mehlman Petrzela • Lawrence B. Glickman • Julian E. Zelizer
  myths of american history: Death by Petticoat Mary Miley Theobald, 2012-06-05 This myth-busting compendium sets the record straight on American history, from famous-but-false legends to weird-but-true stories. American history is full of oft-repeated errors and outright fabrications—as well as truths that are stranger than fiction. Collaborating with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mary Miley Theobald has uncovered the real stories behind many well-known myth-understandings. Did pregnant women really seclude themselves indoors? Were uneven stairs made to trip up burglars? Did people only bathe once a year? Death by Petticoat reveals the truth about these and many other funny, surprising, and strange misapprehensions of history.
  myths of american history: The Myths That Made America Heike Paul, 2014-08-31 This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man. The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American studies and will foster an understanding of the United States of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.
  myths of american history: Exposed! More Myths about American History (Set) Various, 2019-08-15 Not everything people think they know about American history is true. In fact, some decidedly false notions are repeated and passed on again and again until people think they're facts. For example, slavery was found in more areas of the United States than the South during the Civil War, and the Statue of Liberty wasn't created to welcome immigrants. This must-have series, a continuation of our popular collection, highlights significant topics in the elementary social studies curriculum through the lens of shattering some long-believed myths. Readers will love passing on actual historical facts to family and friends. Features include: Graphic organizers, fact boxes, and eye-catching images enhance the attractive design. Comprehending details of historical texts is a standard of the English Language Arts Common Core. Each theme was selected for curricular importance as well as appeal to readers.
  myths of american history: Lies My Teacher Told Me James W. Loewen, 2008 Criticizes the way history is presented in current textbooks, and suggests a more accurate approach to teaching American history.
  myths of american history: Revelations Nathan Irvin Huggins, 1995 Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Martin Luther King, Jr., or the African-American contribution to the common culture of America, Huggins is at his eloquent best, by turns passionate and poignant, witty and reflective. Among the many moving pieces, readers will find a tour of the slave castles of the West African coast in which Huggins describes places like Goree Island and Elmina as a collective and horrific Plymouth Rock of the African-American past.
  myths of american history: Not So! Paul F. Boller, 1996 This study explores a number of myths and misconceptions about the American past. The book covers events throughout American history, from whether Columbus knew the world was round when he went off to discover America, to contemporary media attacks of the presidency.
  myths of american history: Lies Across America James W. Loewen, 2019-09-24 A fully updated and revised edition of the book USA Today called jim-dandy pop history, by the bestselling, American Book Award–winning author The most definitive and expansive work on the Lost Cause and the movement to whitewash history. —Mitch Landrieu, former mayor of New Orleans From the author of the national bestseller Lies My Teacher Told Me, a completely updated—and more timely than ever—version of the myth-busting history book that focuses on the inaccuracies, myths, and lies on monuments, statues, national landmarks, and historical sites all across America. In Lies Across America, James W. Loewen continues his mission, begun in the award-winning Lies My Teacher Told Me, of overturning the myths and misinformation that too often pass for American history. This is a one-of-a-kind examination of historic sites all over the country where history is literally written on the landscape, including historical markers, monuments, historic houses, forts, and ships. New changes and updates include: • a town in Louisiana that was the site of a major but now-forgotten enslaved persons' uprising • a totally revised tour of the memory and intentional forgetting of slavery and the Civil War in Richmond, Virginia • the hideout of a gang in Delaware that made money by kidnapping free blacks and selling them into slavery Entertaining and enlightening, Lies Across America also has a serious role to play in contemporary debates about white supremacy and Confederate memorials.
  myths of american history: "All the Real Indians Died Off" Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Dina Gilio-Whitaker, 2016-10-04 Unpacks the twenty-one most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths such as: “Columbus Discovered America” “Thanksgiving Proves the Indians Welcomed Pilgrims” “Indians Were Savage and Warlike” “Europeans Brought Civilization to Backward Indians” “The United States Did Not Have a Policy of Genocide” “Sports Mascots Honor Native Americans” “Most Indians Are on Government Welfare” “Indian Casinos Make Them All Rich” “Indians Are Naturally Predisposed to Alcohol” Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudice of European settlers and in the larger political agendas of a settler state aimed at acquiring Indigenous land and tied to narratives of erasure and disappearance. Accessibly written and revelatory, “All the Real Indians Died Off” challenges readers to rethink what they have been taught about Native Americans and history.
  myths of american history: Legends of the American Revolution George Lippard, 1847
  myths of american history: Teaching What Really Happened James W. Loewen, 2018-09-07 “Should be in the hands of every history teacher in the country.”— Howard Zinn James Loewen has revised Teaching What Really Happened, the bestselling, go-to resource for social studies and history teachers wishing to break away from standard textbook retellings of the past. In addition to updating the scholarship and anecdotes throughout, the second edition features a timely new chapter entitled Truth that addresses how traditional and social media can distort current events and the historical record. Helping students understand what really happened in the past will empower them to use history as a tool to argue for better policies in the present. Our society needs engaged citizens now more than ever, and this book offers teachers concrete ideas for getting students excited about history while also teaching them to read critically. It will specifically help teachers and students tackle important content areas, including Eurocentrism, the American Indian experience, and slavery. Book Features: An up-to-date assessment of the potential and pitfalls of U.S. and world history education. Information to help teachers expect, and get, good performance from students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Strategies for incorporating project-oriented self-learning, having students conduct online historical research, and teaching historiography. Ideas from teachers across the country who are empowering students by teaching what really happened. Specific chapters dedicated to five content topics usually taught poorly in today’s schools.
  myths of american history: Made in America Claude S. Fischer, 2010-05-15 Our nation began with the simple phrase, “We the People.” But who were and are “We”? Who were we in 1776, in 1865, or 1968, and is there any continuity in character between the we of those years and the nearly 300 million people living in the radically different America of today? With Made in America, Claude S. Fischer draws on decades of historical, psychological, and social research to answer that question by tracking the evolution of American character and culture over three centuries. He explodes myths—such as that contemporary Americans are more mobile and less religious than their ancestors, or that they are more focused on money and consumption—and reveals instead how greater security and wealth have only reinforced the independence, egalitarianism, and commitment to community that characterized our people from the earliest years. Skillfully drawing on personal stories of representative Americans, Fischer shows that affluence and social progress have allowed more people to participate fully in cultural and political life, thus broadening the category of “American” —yet at the same time what it means to be an American has retained surprising continuity with much earlier notions of American character. Firmly in the vein of such classics as The Lonely Crowd and Habits of the Heart—yet challenging many of their conclusions—Made in America takes readers beyond the simplicity of headlines and the actions of elites to show us the lives, aspirations, and emotions of ordinary Americans, from the settling of the colonies to the settling of the suburbs.
  myths of american history: Myths of American Slavery Walter Donald Kennedy, 2003 Details what the author believes to be common misinterpretations and misrepresentations about slavery, arguing that slavery was not solely a Southern institution and that slavery also had an important economic impact on the North.
  myths of american history: American Creation Joseph J. Ellis, 2007-10-30 From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation’s founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders–Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. He casts an incisive eye on the founders’ achievements, arguing that the American Revolution was, paradoxically, an evolution–and that part of what made it so extraordinary was the gradual pace at which it occurred. He explains how the idea of a strong federal government was eventually embraced by the American people, and details the emergence of the two-party system, which stands as the founders’ most enduring legacy. Ellis is equally incisive about their failures, and he makes clear how their inability to abolish slavery and to reach a just settlement with the Native Americans has played an equally important role in shaping our national character. With eloquence and insight, Ellis strips the mythic veneer of the revolutionary generation to reveal men both human and inspired, possessed of both brilliance and blindness. American Creation is an audiobook that delineates an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever.
  myths of american history: American Women and Classical Myths Gregory Allan Staley, 2009 American women, in contrast to their European counterparts, have long engaged with and critiqued the myths of antiquity. American Women and Classical Myths is a collection of essays exploring the paradoxical attitudes that women in the U.S. have exhibited over a span of more than two centuries. Contributors address two broad topics. They examine the attempts of several influential American women, including Margaret Fuller, Edith Hamilton and Hilda Doolittle, to interpret myth for an audience that distrusted it. In addition, they show how American women have reinterpreted myths about women such as Antigone, Penelope, or the Amazons to create identities appropriate to women in the New World.
  myths of american history: Seven Myths of the Civil War Wesley Moody, 2017 Readers of this book who thought they knew a lot about the U.S. Civil War will discover that much of what they 'knew' is wrong. For readers whose previous knowledge is sketchy but whose desire to learn is strong, the separation of myth from reality is an important step toward mastering the subject. The essays will generate lively discussion and new insights. --James M. McPherson, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
  myths of american history: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (10th Anniversary Edition) Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, 2023-10-03 New York Times Bestseller Now part of the HBO docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes, written and directed by Raoul Peck Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire. With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States is a 2015 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.
  myths of american history: Debunking History Edgar Geoffrey Rayner, Ron Stapley, 2002 History is full of myths, legends, fables, folklore, misinformation, and misconceptions. This book presents some of the most popular and most enduring of these myths from the American and French Revolutions to the two world wars and beyond.
  myths of american history: Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History Richard Shenkman, 2013-03-26 The truth and nothing but the truth—Richard Shenkman sheds light on America's most believed legends. The story of Columbus discovering the world was round was invented by Washington Irving. The pilgrims never lived in log cabins. In Concord, Massachusetts, a third of all babies born in the twenty years before the Revolution were conceived out of wedlock. Washington may have never told a lie, but he loved to drink and dance, and he fell in love with his best friend's wife. Independence wasn't declared on July 4th. There's no evidence that anyone died in a frontier shootout at high noon. After World War II, the U.S. government concluded that Japan would have surrendered within months, even if we had not bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
  myths of american history: Myths, Legends, and Folktales of America David Adams Leeming, Jake Page, 2000 Presents a variety of myths, tales, and legends. Includes Native American tales about creation, goddesses, trickster gods, the Indian and the white man, as well as Hispanic American, Asian American, Anglo American, and African American stories. Features patriotic heroes, American loners, frontiersman, and tall tales, Western outlaws, lawmen, and cowboys, slave rebels, and Blues legends, among other topics.
  myths of american history: The Irony of American History Reinhold Niebuhr, 2010-01-22 “[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.”—President Barack Obama Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr’s masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue. Impassioned, eloquent, and deeply perceptive, Niebuhr’s wisdom will cause readers to rethink their assumptions about right and wrong, war and peace. “The supreme American theologian of the twentieth century.”—Arthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Times “Niebuhr is important for the left today precisely because he warned about America’s tendency—including the left’s tendency—to do bad things in the name of idealism. His thought offers a much better understanding of where the Bush administration went wrong in Iraq.”—Kevin Mattson, The Good Society “Irony provides the master key to understanding the myths and delusions that underpin American statecraft. . . . The most important book ever written on US foreign policy.”—Andrew J. Bacevich, from the Introduction
  myths of american history: The Declaration of Independence Wasn't Signed on July 4th Katie Kawa, 2016-12-15 There are many events and ideas to commemorate on the Fourth of July, such as our freedom and the signing of the Declaration of Independence...right? Not exactly! Many people are surprised to learn that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 2, 1776, not July 4. Readers will feel like true historians as they learn the facts behind the sights, sounds, and meaning of the American holiday of Fourth of July. The fun design of this patriotic book includes colorful, carefully selected images and eye-catching, informative fact boxes.
  myths of american history: Forget the Alamo Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford, 2022-06-07 A New York Times bestseller! “Lively and absorbing. . . — The New York Times Book Review Engrossing. —Wall Street Journal “Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.
  myths of american history: A Concise American History David Brown, Thomas Heinrich, Simon Middleton, Vivien Miller, 2020-10-04 Expertly steering readers through the often tumultuous and exhilarating history of the United States, from its early modern Native American roots to twenty-first-century neoliberalism and the shifting political climate of the past decade, this highly readable textbook provides a compelling overview of American development over the last five centuries. This book avoids either celebratory or condemnatory rhetoric to present a critical examination of domestic America and its interaction with the rest of the world. Balancing coverage of political, social, cultural, and economic history, each chapter also includes a wealth of features to facilitate learning: Timelines situating key events in their wider chronology Lists of topics covered within each chapter for easy reference Concept boxes discussing selected issues in more detail Historiography boxes exploring key debates Chapter summaries offering condensed outlines of the main themes of each chapter Further reading lists guiding readers to additional resources Maps and images bringing to life important events and figures from America’s history Clearly and engagingly written and positioning America’s narrative within the wider global context, this textbook is particularly accessible for non-US students and is the perfect introduction for those new to US history. This textbook is also supported by a companion website offering interactive content including a timeline, multiple-choice quizzes, and links to selected web resources.
  myths of american history: Seven Myths of Africa in World History David Northrup, 2017-09-01 Northrup's highly accessible book breaks through the most common barriers that readers encounter in studying African history. Each chapter takes on a common myth about Africa and explains both the sources of the myth and the research that debunks it. These provocative chapters will promote lively discussions among readers while deepening their understanding of African and world history. The book is strengthened by its incorporation of actors and issues representing the African diaspora and African Americans in particular. —Rebecca Shumway, College of Charleston
  myths of american history: Seven Myths of the Crusades Alfred J. Andrea, Andrew Holt, 2015-08-21 Seven Myths of the Crusades' rebuttal of the persistent and multifarious misconceptions associated with topics including the First Crusade, anti-Judaism and the Crusades, the crusader states, the Children's Crusade, the Templars and past and present Islamic-Christian relations proves, once and for all, that real history is far more fascinating than conspiracy theories, pseudo-history and myth-mongering. This book is a powerful witness to the dangers of the misappropriation and misinterpretation of the past and the false parallels so often drawn between the crusades and later historical events ranging from nineteenth-century colonialism to the protest movements of the 1960s to the events of 9/11. This volume's authors have venerable track records in teaching and researching the crusading movement, and anyone curious about the crusades would do well to start here. —Jessalynn Bird, Dominican University, co-Editor of Crusade and Christendom
  myths of american history: Cowboys Didn't Always Wear Hats Jill Keppeler, 2019-07-15 The term Wild West brings to mind certain images: cowboys, settlers, gunfights, and outlaws. But the American West wasn't always as wild as popular images and stories often suggest. Its famous heroes were sometimes its villains or vice versa. In this informative volume, young readers will learn facts that bust the myths of the Old West, bringing a more realistic and diverse angle to tales of cowboys and Indians repeated in books, television shows, and movies throughout the years.
  myths of american history: Debunking History Ed Rayner, Ron Stapley, 2009-07-20 History is full of myths, legends, fables, folklore, misinformation and misconceptions. Whether they have come about inadvertently or deliberately, many have become part of the public imagination. This book presents some of the most popular and enduring of these myths from the time of the American and French revolutions to the two world wars and beyond. Arranged within well defined geographical or thematic sections, and through a mix of short and long entries, each topic is clearly explained and the myth, error or controversy is exposed. This is an authoritative, compelling and illuminating miscellany, where you can find a straight answer to all those niggling questions about the past.
  myths of american history: Native American Myths and Beliefs Tom Lowenstein, Piers Vitebsky, 2011-12-15 Readers explore the rich worldview of the Native Americans through myths and legends. Tales originating from various tribes functioned in a number of important ways: they explained the story of creation, described the relationship of humans to the rest of the universe, and preserved the sacred history of the tribe. In addition, myths and storytelling helped Native Americans pass on knowledge related to hunting, fishing, farming, healing the sick, and dealing with conflict or disaster. This book also places their mythology in historical context, for example, connecting earth myths with the Native Americans’ real-life, tragic struggle to preserve their lands. Filled with colorful photographs and works of art, Native Americans’ beliefs are beautifully illustrated, including their reverence for animals and the earth.
  myths of american history: City on a Hill Loren Baritz, 1980
  myths of american history: Getting It Wrong W. Joseph Campbell, 2017 Many of American journalism’s best-known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post’s Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon’s corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite’s characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media.
  myths of american history: James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees James Mooney, 1992 The complete texts of Myths of the Cherokee and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees by James Mooney, accompanied by an introduction by George Ellison.
  myths of american history: 1620 Peter W. Wood, 2020-11-10 Was America founded on the auction block in Jamestown in 1619 or aboard the Mayflower in 1620? The controversy erupted in August 2019 when the New York Times announced its 1619 Project. The Times set to transform history by asserting that all the laws, material gains, and cultural achievements of Americans are rooted in the exploitation of African-Americans. Historians have pushed back, saying that the 1619 Project conjures a false narrative out of racial grievance. This book sums up what the critics have said and argues that the traditional starting point for the American story--the signing of the Mayflower Compact aboard ship before the Pilgrims set foot in the Massachusetts wilderness--is right. A nation as complex as ours, of course, has many starting points, including the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But if we want to understand where the quintessential ideas of self-government and ordered liberty came from, the deliberate actions of the Mayflower immigrants in 1620 count much more than the near accidental arrival in Virginia fifteen months earlier of a Portuguese slave ship commandeered by English pirates. Schools across the country have already adopted The Times' radical revision of history as part of their curricula. The stakes are high. Should children be taught that our nation is, to its bone, a 400-year-old system of racist oppression? Or should we teach children that what has always made America exceptional is its pursuit of liberty and justice for all?
  myths of american history: To the Victor Go the Myths and Monuments Arthur R. Thompson, 2016-04-29
  myths of american history: Myths of Free Trade Sherrod Brown, 2006 U.S. Representative Sherrod Brown - a leading progressive voice in Congress - takes apart free-trade dogma, myth by myth. Ten years after NAFTA, free-trade policies have not brought prosperity to Mexican workers, and more than one million American jobs have been lost as a result of the agreement. Do free-trade pacts foster democracy? Brown examines the facts. Are fast-track agreements necessary to fight the war on terrorism? Brown dissects the arguments and the evidence.--BOOK JACKET.
  myths of american history: Myth America Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer, 2023-01-03 In this instant New York Times bestseller, America’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past. The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors—among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history. Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today’s heated debates about our nation’s past. With Essays By Akhil Reed Amar • Kathleen Belew • Carol Anderson • Kevin Kruse • Erika Lee • Daniel Immerwahr • Elizabeth Hinton • Naomi Oreskes • Erik M. Conway • Ari Kelman • Geraldo Cadava • David A. Bell • Joshua Zeitz • Sarah Churchwell • Michael Kazin • Karen L. Cox • Eric Rauchway • Glenda Gilmore • Natalia Mehlman Petrzela • Lawrence B. Glickman • Julian E. Zelizer
  myths of american history: Death by Petticoat Mary Miley Theobald, 2012-06-05 This myth-busting compendium sets the record straight on American history, from famous-but-false legends to weird-but-true stories. American history is full of oft-repeated errors and outright fabrications—as well as truths that are stranger than fiction. Collaborating with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mary Miley Theobald has uncovered the real stories behind many well-known myth-understandings. Did pregnant women really seclude themselves indoors? Were uneven stairs made to trip up burglars? Did people only bathe once a year? Death by Petticoat reveals the truth about these and many other funny, surprising, and strange misapprehensions of history.
Myths, Ancient and Modern - JSTOR
myths will become apparent if we consider some of the myths and their bases in fact and sentiment. A first group of myths derives from American beliefs about American history, and …

Mythistory, or Truth, Myth, History, and Historians
American nation by writing national history in a WASPish mold, while also claiming affiliation with a tradition of Western civilization that ran back through modern and medieval Europe to the …

Myth and Symbol in American Studies - JSTOR
There are two reasons for believing that the American Studies movement is committed to this view of an image as a mental entity. In the first place, symbols and myths are images for …

HISTORY TIMELINE THE UNWHITEWASHED AMERICAN
Before Jamestown, Europe’s hunger for conquest ravaged America. This truth shatters the myth of English purity in North American colonization, exposing a missing century of subjugation, …

Captain John Smith And American Identity: Evolutions Of …
The birth of a new American nation required early Americans to establish a new historical identity, and it gave them a desire to both discover their historical antecedents and establish the roles …

HIS 3931-0177 American Myths, American Values Spring 2019
In this course, we will examine the major myths that inform, and that are informed by, American values. The unifying fabric of America culture, myths shape the meaning of the American …

Poetic Myths: American Nationalism and the War of 1812
analyzes early 19th century American poetry and the influence it had on building foundational ideologies of American nationalism. It focuses on the role poetry played in creating nationalistic …

Cormac mccarthy and the myth of american exceptionalism
american mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to america s most legendary stories and folktale dating back to the late 1700s when the first colonists settled

Myths of American Slavery - Archive.org
The myths of slavery, as maintained by the established order (i.e., the victors of the War for Southern Independence), are composed of several false allegations.

A Brief History of American Literature - Wiley Online Library
In particular, I have tried to register the plurality of American culture and American writing: the continued inventing of communities, and the sustained imagining of nations, that constitute the …

Debunking the Myth of the American West - Yale University
I will explore the history of this myth, when we invented it, why we invented it, and why it lasted all these years. I will then reinvent the narrative of the West using literature, art, and film.

The Real-Life Myth of the American Family - JSTOR
prevalent myths surrounding "family values" to a sustained and well-deserved historical assault, and that makes the book terrific popular history. Perhaps the greatest scholarly value of The …

The 28th Annual Carl L. Becker Memorial Lecture: 'Family Values': …
THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY and PHI ALPHA THETA announce the 28 th Annual Carl L. Becker Memorial Lecture: · . "'Family Values': Myths and Realities of the American Family" By …

10 Myths about Slavery in the United States - 10 Million Names
After many years of genealogical research on enslaved ancestors, I have not-ed that our Research Services clients frequently ask questions based on some common myths regarding …

Myths and Stereotypes About Native Americans
Many of these myths may seem ridiculous, even silly, but each one is encountered by Native people on an almost daily basis. Myth 1. Native Americans prefer to be called Native …

Mourning the Greatest Generation: Myth and History
His characters reread American history, forced to see it not as a transcendent, utopie myth but as an ideological construct that foreshadows the demise of earlier stories of nationhood.

MYTHS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY - Pelican Publishing Company
explains that, while injustices did occur throughout the history of American slavery, (1) slavery was never a regional issue confined to the South, (2) slavery was not condemned by the early …

Frontier Myths and Their Applications in America and Israel: A ...
Claims of the uniqueness of the fron-tier experience in America and Israel imply assumptions of difference. With Freder-ick Jackson Turner, the distinctiveness of America was initially asserted …

the Myths of American - JSTOR
the Myths of American Democracy THE 2000 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AND THE BITTER 36-DAY FIGHT that followed over the pivotal state of Florida, opened the eyes of many Americans …

American Folklore and History: Observations on Potential Integration
Let it be said at the outset that few serious students of American history would disagree with historian Jordan's contention that "No one 1 Since this paper is written entirely from the point of view of the historian a useful corrective from the folklorist viewpoint is to be found in Stith Thomp-son, "Folklore at Midcentury," Midwest Folklore ...

ScholarWorks@Bellarmine - Bellarmine University
The American cowboy is among the most widely misinterpreted figures in American history. The mythic figure of the cowboy does not look like the real ranch hands who littered the American West throughout the nineteenth century, nor does he act like them. Instead, he is set

Myths, Revisionism, and the Writing of Irish History
Myths, Revisionism, and the ... revolutionary doctrine that had recently resulted in first the American Revolu tion and then in the French Revolution, and further threatened a similar up ... Ireland: A New Economic History (Oxford, 1994), pp. 44-46. 58. Myths, Revisionism, and the Writing of Irish History Irish nationalism. In the process of ...

HIS 3931-0177 American Myths, American Values Spring 2019
American Myths, American Values Spring 2019 MWF, 10:40-11:30 Professor Jack E. Davis, Ofc. Flint 235 davisjac@ufl.edu 273-3398 Ofc. Hrs: W & F, 11:30-1:00 ... The Research Paper should represent original work that deals with the dynamic of myths and values in American history. Many students in the past have done poorly with this assignment

American Myths and the Bible - Word and World
I. AMERICAN MYTHS AND THE BIBLE Studies about the American myth and the Bible have concentrated on three heroic persons of the biblical story: Adam, Abraham, and Moses. The Adamic myth portrays the American as the innocent primal human, possessing virtually 1Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987) 62-67.

Railroads and their Effect on American Society, 1840-1890
19 Dec 2016 · The impact of the railroad on this aspect of American societal history cannot be understated. This is not to say that the railroad seamlessly left a totally positive mark upon American society. To the contrary, there were many negative aspects of rail expansion during the Gilded Age. Not the least of these problems was the fact that

Comic-Books-as-the-Modern-American-Mythology
adapt well‑known American myths, such as the power of money (Batman) or America as a home for immigrants (Superman), but they also co‑create new ones along with other cultural works. For one of the characteristics of mythology is taming, explaining and com‑ menting on reality in the form of fantastic tales. All of American history and the ...

HOODOO HERITAGE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOLK …
history of American folk religion, in particular that of Hoodoo Conjure. It will be, in many ways, a reflection of the existing study of the practice, while seeking to establish the importance of folk religion in American as well as world culture. Folk religions are

Yaqui Myths and Legends
The Yaqui are part of the Southwestern Native American culture-group, and live in the Sonoran desert on the west coast of northern Mexico, opposite Baja California. The stories here are a mixture of ancient ... Yaqui Myths and Legends 3 Brief History YAQUIS have been in close contact with European culture since the Spanish conquest of their ...

The 2011 George C. Marshall Lecture in Military History Some Myths …
A. Wood, “Captive Historians, Captivated Audience: The German Military History Program, 1945–1961,” Journal of Military History. 69 (January 2005): 123–47. be reviewed first. I have earlier dealt in print with the myth that he was interested in an agreement with England. 7. It would be fair to say that there are more myths

MYTHS AND CRISES: AMERICAN MASCULINITY IN 1980s VIETNAM …
Throughout history, military service and war have served as rites of passage for young men and often defined American manhood itself. Films about war capture this masculine journey and perpetuate myths about war service and American masculinity. The military and war are manifestations of American masculinity, and film is a medium

travelers and take part the major events and discoveries of History …
myths. American History is filled with folklore, Native American mythology, and real truths that make for wonderful campfire tales. In these stories, much like earlier " "European, Greek and Roman tales, the accounts can often be only be guessed at, as to whether they are fact or

Marshall Digital Scholar - Marshall University
American Mythology: How Storytelling Shapes Modern Cultural Perceptions Kristin Maynard Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Folklore Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons . Marshall Digital Scholar

African American History Instructional Standards Guide
and African American families through the use of stories, legends, and myths 3. Grades 3-5 focus is on the dynamic dimensions of the historical and physical development of Africa with respect to country, state, and the

From - De Gruyter
An Introduction to American Studies August 2014, 456 p., 24,99 €, ISBN 978-3-8376-1485-5 This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth,

Historians, the War of American Independence,
In the process they have also perpetuated some myths, but not, of course knowingly, lies. Most historians who have explored the subject have ... American History,' in The Reinterpretation of Early American History: Essays in Honor of John Edwin Pomfret, ed. Ray A. Billington (San Marino, Calif., 1966),

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: A review
of American progress and ‘civilization’ from which that approach derives. Rather, this comprehensive and sweeping history reconstructs American national history according to the fundamental process by which the nation state came to be, and which has disproportionately affected and devastated the lives of millions of Indigenous people.

Myths across Culture: Portrayal of Women - core.ac.uk
explore how myths transmit culture and can work as strong catalyst to cultural understanding. In this paper I will discuss how myths can function as a methodology to study human behavior and culture and its role in feminist perspectives. Kirk defined Myth as “a term used for stories regarding actions of Gods and humankind

American Exceptionalism and the Myth of the Frontiers - Springer
American history when a combination of forces undermined the Myth’s legitimacy in the popular mind. But in all such cases the Myth was restored, after being refurbished for a new era into a more powerful myth than before. Myths such as the Frontier myth we are about to explore have given America a tremendous sense of purpose and have ...

The medical uses of silver: history, myths and scientific evidence
1 The medical uses of silver: history, myths and scientific evidence Serenella Medici,a* Massimiliano Peana,a* Valeria M. Nurchi,b Maria Antonietta Zoroddua a Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, ITALY b Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09042 Cagliari, ITALY Abstract Silver has no …

American Halloween: Enculturation, Myths and Consumer Culture
Ancient History of Halloween Every recorded history of human race focused on the ritual observances with reference to the happiness and griefs, marriages and deaths practices in terms of showing solidarity and collective conscience as communal traditions. The human race experiences the nature which are undeniable replaced with nurture as culture.

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN PURITAN LITERATURE - Cambridge …
is professor of the History of Christianity in the United States at Heidelberg University and director of the Jonathan Edwards Center Germany. He has written and edited books and essays on a broad range of topics in the elds of American religious history and American Literature and the New Puritan Studies (Cambridge University Press,

Persistent Myths about the Afro-American Family - JSTOR
Journal of Interdisciplinary History vi:2 (Autumn 1975), I8I-2Io. Herbert G. Gutman Persistent Myths about the Afro-American Family We start with Alexander Hamilton. He was neither a historian nor a sociologist. Surely he would not be classified as an expert on the history of the Afro-American family.

Our Myth of Creation: The Politics of Narrating Basketball’s …
Journal of Sport History 38 Volume 43, Number 1 half remain. The second item was the last flag not captured during Custer’s Last Stand at ... the eccentric, self- indulgent caprice of an American multimillionaire requires an exploration ... These clusters make up the objects of study of my work, which I call “myths.” ...

Entrenching Legendary and Mythic Resources in Modern African …
Campbell’s opinion is that myths and legends reside in human psyches and are capable of providing psychotherapeutic breakthroughs to man in a world of different fluxes. Yerima (2009, 21) corroborates Campbell’s psychological machinery of mythical resources: Myths have also remained in the metaphysical and

Native American Myths: Why seasons change - Nevada Outdoor …
myths out loud to each other and practice finding the meanings to their myths. Start the performances and encourage the audience to pick out the meaning in the myths. Extensions Assessment Conclusion Culture: a group of people’s way of life, ideas, customs and traditions Earth: soil, the planet we live on History: the study of past events

Exploring Myths & Legends - Start with a Book
Myths and Legends: texts of well-known and not-so-well-known stories (American Folklore) • Myths and Legends from Around the World: historical and geographic adventure (Google Earth Voyager Story) • Ancient Greek Mythological Stories: animated videos (Geethanjali Kids) • Myths and Legends from Around the World animated read-alouds (Myths ...

Outline of AMERICAN LITERATURE
Early amErican and colonial PEriod to 1776 A merican literature begins with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of Indian cultures. There was no written literature among the more than 500 different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived. As a result,

Myths and Realities of American Political Geography
about the “red state/blue state” framework. We begin by identifying five myths associ-ated with this framework: 1) American is divided into two politically homogenous regions; 2) The two parties are more spatially segregated than in the past; 3) America’s political geography is more stable than in the past; 4) America’s cultural ...

NATIONALISM — SOME MYTHS AND REALITIES1 By Boyd C.
Historical myths which people believe are often more real than hard facts which they may ignore. Here, to call a belief a myth is not to deny that in the process of history myths have not had tremendous import, consequences at times transcending even those arising out of actual experienced truth. Quite the contrary. Perhaps most of the

The Cowboy: America's - JSTOR
the American army around the world. This remarkable fact is even more noteworthy when one considers that the West's open ranges were gone forever before the turn of the century. Condi-tions have altered radically, but the stereotype of the open-range cowboy has remained static. What is the essential history of this hero stereotype? Who

Myths of Violence in American Popular Culture - JSTOR
American culture has long manifested a large public demand for books, films, and television programs in which violence plays a central role. Much as one can point to the indispensable place of violence in the whole history of literature from savage fighting Achaians through mur-dering Macbeths, American writers and filmmakers have been excep-

Chapter One: Black December, Myths, Fear and Sharks
intricate spider’s web in the development of particular myths. In his work on nationhood myths American historian WH McNeill writes, “Myth lies at the basis of human [culture]”. Many myths have their basis in fear.15 For the purpose of this thesis, the diverse social aspects of culture will ultimately differentiate and set

Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method
the Past (New York, 1992); Edward Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt, eds., History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past (New York, 1996). S Lynn Hunt warned several years ago against the danger of defining the new cultural history topically: "Just as social history sometimes moved from one group to another (workers, women,

Beyond Myths And Legends A Narrative History Of Texas
Beyond Myths And Legends A Narrative History Of Texas N. Scott Momaday Beyond Myths & Legends Kenneth Howell,2023-06 college history text ... Tejanos at War: A History of Mexican Texans in American Wars Alexander Mendoza 3. Texas Women at War p. 69 Melanie A Kirkland 4. The Influence of War and Military Service on African Texans p. 97 Alwyn Barr 5.

Creation Myths and Legends of the Creek Indians - University …
Some of the earliest treatments of North American mythology are cred-ited to D. G. Brinton, who focused on the solar aspects of North American myths, and to H. Kunike, who focused on lunar themes. 5 During the early part of this century, Franz Boas in anthropology and Krohn in folklore took a historico-geographic approach to North American ...

WHITE MYTHS ABOUT AMERICAN INDIAN MYTHOLOGY : …
American Indian 'creation myths': Lakota author George Sword's tale of "When the People Laughed at Hanwi, the Moon" and non-native author James R. Walker's "Creation of All Things from Inyan, the Rock." Though ... together with the complex history of its formulation and transmission, ...

A STUDENT of Iroquoian folklore, ceremony, or history will
6IO AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. !S., 14, 1912 script left by Mrs Asher Wright, the aged missionary to the Seneca, I find the cosmologic myth as related to her by Esquire Johnson, a Seneca, in 1870. Mrs Wright and her husband understood the Seneca language perfectly and published a mission magazine in that tongue as early as 1838.

Myth and Reality in Kentucky History
Myth and Reality in Kentucky History by John E. Kleber "The danger is not that we have myths. They tell us who we are and what we cherish, and all people have them. The danger is hiding from the fact that they are myths."1 When I agreed to write an article for this special issue of The Register, I was unaware of the difficulty involved in the ...

Native American Legends and Stories of Geologic History in …
of Geologic History in Oregon Reading One: Crater Lake ... Native American oral histories also speak of the creation and destruction of this natural bridge. One version of the story is given in Katherine Berry Judson’s book, Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon. Long ago, when the world was new ...

Myths of the Underground Railroad - teamsocialstudies.uconn.edu
Myths of the Underground Railroad In school, we learn history through stories, and sometimes we find out that some of these stories are not true. They are myths. One example is that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. ... The Underground Railroad is a great story in American history. People, both black and white, formed

Captain John Smith And American Identity: Evolutions Of …
of American history, and thus, the narratives used to legitimize and define identity often became battlegrounds for competing discourses. In order to formulate an American identity and collective history after the American Revolution, 18. th. century Americans began to “scan the colonial past in search of figures like

Debunking the Myth of the American West - Yale University
American consciousness of the cowboy as the hero and the "Indian" as the enemy. Even after all we know of history, most people still hold this version of the West sacred. ... Since the scholarly endeavor of the unit is to uncover the myths of Western history and debunk them, the students will uncover a myth, or stereotype, from their life and ...

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES MYTHS AND REALITIES OF AMERICAN …
Myths of American Political Geography We now discuss five myths of American political geography. Myth # 1: America is divided into two politically homogeneous areas Does the red state/blue state paradigm that describes the remarkable spatial configuration of Democrats on the coast and Republicans in the heartland mean that Americans are

The Lakota Sun Dance: A Composite View and Analysis
Siouan Cults," Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1889-90 (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1894), pp. 450-64 and transcribed in typescript by Ella Deloria in her "Teton Myths," American Philosophical Society Manuscript. Franz Boas Collection, American PhUosophical

THE * William ~and ary - JSTOR
X A MAGAZINE OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY, AmA INSTITUTIONS, AND CULTURE FOURTH OF JULY MYTHS By CHARLES WARREN* It is a singular fact that the greatest event in American his-tory-the Declaration of Independence-has been the subject of ... History (N. Y. 1906), 166, states: "The Zd of July and not the 4th there- ...

Teleology, Discontinuity and World History: Periodization and
Teleology, Discontinuity and World History: Periodization and Some Creation Myths of Modernity Kenneth POMERANZ The University of Chicago Chicago, United States Kpomeranz1@uchicago.edu Abstract Discussions of world history often focus on the pros and cons of thinking on large spatial scales. However, world history also tends to employ unusually

ORGAN DONATION Myths and Facts - donors1.org
You can help bust the myths about organ donation—and help save lives—by learning and sharing these facts. Myth I have a medical condition, so I can’t be a donor. Fact Anyone, regardless of age or medical history, can sign up to be a donor. The transplant team will determine at an individual’s time of death whether donation is possible.

Exploding the Myths About Offshoring - McKinsey & Company
that position to India may cause an American medical technician to be laid off, but lower prices for these life-saving technologies will enable many more sick people to receive them. Additional exports.Offshoring benefits the U.S. economy in other ways as well. First, Indian companies that provide offshore services will also buy goods and

Myth or Reality - JSTOR
Henry Nash Smith in his Virgin Land: The American West as Sym bol and Myth has dealt with the theme of Western myth-making in a brilliant study. But that theme has not been applied to California nor to the influence myths have had on the state's phenomenal growth. A Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., editor of the Southern California Quarterly, is a foremost