The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

By: Thomas E. Woods Jr.

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Everything, well, almost everything, you know about American history is wrong because most textbooks and popular history books are written by left-wing academic historians who treat their biases as fact. But fear not; Professor Thomas Woods refutes the popular myths in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.

Professor Woods's audiobook reveals facts that you won't be, or never were, taught in school. It tells you about the "Books You're Not Supposed to Read" and takes you on a fast paced, politically incorrect tour of American history that will give you all the information you need to battle and confound left-wing professors, neighbors, and friends.

©2004 Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

cool reading list

regretfully, the only book mentioned in this book that in not supposed to have read that i have read is 'losing ground'. i was working as i listened to this so i didnt have the free hands to write down all the forbidden books mentioned. think i'll tweet at tom and see if he can send me a link to a reading list of the cited sources on his website. he prob does, he has a page for everything on his website.

Concerned with Audibles categorization.

I am concerned labeled book's labeled fiction. If Source material is deemed worthy it should be reclassified and should the miscatagorization should concern audience. If different interpretations of factual material are deemed a tall tale we are all in trouble.

Who knew?

This is one of those rare books where, upon completion, you want to send copies to your friends on both the Right and the Left. Otherwise, you'll be spending your time slapping them upside the head as they continue to unwittingly spout the traditional fables of American history. While I consider myself fairly well read, this book is filled with information of which I was blissfully unaware--including those that occurred in my own lifetime.

My only real complaint is that the book, at least in the audio version, jumps right into colonial period without an introduction to explain how this book will be different from any history book you've ever read. A little bit of context would have been helpful.

The narration is fine but I personally could have done without the attempt to deliver the quotations in the accent of the original speakers. It falls somewhere between amusing and affected.

Overall, this is an excellent book and essential reading for anyone who wants to get the full story and not just the version that academia wants you to believe.

history as i wish it had been taught to me

tom woods fan disclaimer. found Tom's "questions you arent supposed to ask" through discovery of Ron Paul. it was an easy progression through mises.org and Llew Rockwell. this book is no different. great content. as a product of govmt -written textbooks, for me, its great to hear history from another perspective.

Conservative focus

I was hoping for a less partisan read. I am most definitely on the right side of the aisle, but this was way too one sided.

I’ll-intended

An I’ll-intended, non-factual pathetic book exploiting the ignorant American right at the expense of the ignorant American eft

the truth

very good listen. I listened to it twice back to back. I highly recommend it ito all americans.

Good Run Thru History 101

Good Basic Book on US History from the "what really happend point of view". The book will leave you asking your self "Is that the truth" and "I relly need to study that more".

awesome

excellent and interesting rendition of the history they don't want you to know. I listened to this in this in one sitting it was so interesting and well done.

As the title warns, openly, unashamedly one-sided

I thought I knew my American history pretty well, but this book has lots of interesting and surprising correctives and counter-arguments to offer on every topic it addresses. It makes its points clearly and concisely, and might prove rather useful in arguments with liberal friends.

However, be warned, it is just what its title indicates. When it takes up the Civil War (which, it persuasively notes, was not technically a “civil war”) and the various events that led up to it, the book is unashamedly pro-South and pro-Confederacy (though not, of course, pro-slavery, except to point out that, under better circumstances, it might have died out on its own). The chapter on the First World War reads like an apology for the Kaiser, going on and on about the cruelty of Britain’s “starvation” embargo (which, like it or not, was a major factor in bringing the war to a close) and the arrogance, fanaticism, hypocrisy, and even madness of Woodrow Wilson but mentioning nary a word about poison gas, the Zimmermann telegram, or the genuine German atrocities in Belgium (as opposed to the creations of British propaganda). It is nuanced about Warren Harding, predictably pro-Coolidge, and even more predictably anti-New Deal. It finds kind things to say about Joe McCarthy and (correctly) details Franklin Roosevelt’s attempts to move the U.S. into a war with Nazi Germany, even as he assured the nation that he’d keep it out of war. These things are worth pointing out to those unaware of them, even though some of us may be extremely glad that FDR did what he did. (Lynne Olson’s “Those Angry Days” is a good examination of the subject.)

Needless to say, the book is pro-isolationist. I actually did a double take when I heard the narrator say “In 1937, when Japan and China went to war…” That’s like saying “When Russia and Ukraine went to war.”

Though not as duplicitous as FDR, the sainted JFK makes a good target, ditto the expensive failures of LBJ’s Great Society. Those more familiar with what “politically correct” means in today’s world will be pleased that the book takes on Brown v. Board of Education, forced busing, Head Start, affirmative action, racial preferences, and the assault on meritocracy. Unfortunately, the book came out in 2004, so that the latest woke outrages aren’t included. (Charles Murray is cited as the author of “Losing Ground," but there’s no mention of “The Bell Curve” or of his most recent work, “Facing Reality,” the very essence of politically incorrect truth-telling.)

Again, this Politically Incorrect Guide does precisely what it sets out to do. It carefully cherry-picks facts that support its point of view, as well as the most persuasively partisan quotes from statesmen, journalists, and historians. You won’t get a full, balanced picture, but you’ll certainly get a useful corrective to unsettle, or at least question, some conventional pieties.

P.S. The reader, Barrett Whitener, is excellent, though I wish he’d toned down the occasional foreign accents. The chance to do that sort of thing is clearly irresistible to professional readers.