Book Description
For at least thirty years, high school and college students have been taught to be embarrassed by American history. Required readings have become skewed toward a relentless focus on our country’s darkest moments, from slavery to McCarthyism. As a result, many history books devote more space to Harriet Tubman than to Abraham Lincoln; more to My Lai than to the American Revolution; more to the internment of Japanese Americans than to the liberation of Europe in World War II. Now, finally, there is an antidote to this biased approach to our history. Two veteran history professors have written a sweeping, well-researched book that puts the spotlight back on America’s role as a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world. Schweikart and Allen are careful to tell their story straight, from Columbus’s voyage to the capture of Saddam Hussein. They do not ignore America’s mistakes through the years, but they put them back in their proper perspective. And they conclude that America’s place as a world leader derived largely from the virtues of our own leaders— the men and women who cleared the wilderness, abolished slavery, and rid the world of fascism and communism. The authors write in a clear and enjoyable style that makes history a pleasure, not just for students but also for adults who want to learn what their teachers skipped over.

About the Author
Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton. Michael Allen is a professor of history and American studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For the past three decades, those writing history have allowed their biases to distort the way America's past is taught. These intellectuals have searched for instances of racism, sexism, and bigotry in American history while utterly downplaying the greatness of America's patriots and the achievements of "dead white men."

As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington; more about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II than about D-Day or Iwo Jima; more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin.

A Patriot's History of the United States corrects those doctrinaire biases. In this groundbreaking volume, America's discovery, founding, and development are reexamined with an appreciation for the elements of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that make this nation uniquely successful.

This honest review of American history explains, for example: That the same founders who owned slaves instituted numerous ways to ensure slavery could not survive. That while many historians have misinterpreted "separation of church and state" to mean freedom from worship, our founders clearly understood it meant freedom to worship. That time and time again, America's leaders have willingly shared power with those who had none, whether they were citizens of territories, former slaves, or disenfranchised women. That even when the United States uses her military power for dubious reasons, the ultimate result is political liberation and a higher standard of living than before.