"Ten Big Lies About America" (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
Medved pulls from many sources for this book and collates them into a general entry-level discussion about the "facts" most of us have been taught about American history -- "facts" that are demonstrably untrue.I'll leave it to Medved to give you chapter and verse, but I would like to discuss the reason why these distortions prevail. After all, they make America -- and by extension, you and me -- look bad, and that includes the very people who teach them. Why do they do it?Self-loathing has at its core a sense of unworthiness and childishness. Academics feel unworthy because they know in their heart that they've won the lottery and now have the cushiest job imaginable: tenured positions at prestigious learning academies, where nothing more is required of them than to lecture pabulum to their inferiors. They don't have to battle their peers; their peers are also tenured monastics in the ivory tower of academia.The childishness finds its roots in a teenager's attitude: "I'm an adult, but please pay my rent." Teenagers have an excuse, however: they will eventually leave the nest. Academics never leave the safety of academia, where they are surrounded by similarly arrested adolescents where the only thing left to stand out is to be more outrageous than your competition, and, like teenagers, instead of opting for excellence and responsibility, they sink to the lowest common denominator: ridicule of authority. When you cannot answer the argument, mock the arguer.In this case, American history, full of great achievers, is a surrogate for every parent who tells a teen to clean his room; it's something to be dismissed, ridiculed, and gainsaid. Instead of understanding that part of their job as teachers is to prepare students for the dangerously unfair world out there, where luck only comes (occasionally) after great effort, they mock and find fault with the world so they don't have to feel like the losers they are for not entering it."When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch."I know something about this: I have a doctorate myself. I was in a non-fictioney sort of mood, and this quick, interesting read fully satisfied. Don't be fooled by the dramatic title; it's really not a politically charged kind of book, but more like ten brief history lessons about the things that make America unique. I learned alot of interesting facts in this book, rather than merely having my opinion swayed by a charismatic author. I do not like sloppy, inflammatory cliches about politics and patriotism, and this book had none of that. Articulate, well-paced, incredibly informative writing. I am now a fully committed Michael Medved fan!
What do You think about "Ten Big Lies About America" (2000)?
Correction of some of the lies our historians want us to believe about our great country.
—Sama
Fascinating information about America. This should be a best seller.
—crystal_tears
My dear friend Mike Edwards sent this book to me.
—Kayjay
