American History Revised (85 page)

Fermi quote from
www.ecclesiastes911.net/theory_of_aces.html
; Benjamin Franklin from Walter Isaacson,
Benjamin Franklin
, p. 150; “thirtyfold remarkable” 200-year growth from William J. Bernstein,
The Birth of Plenty
, p. 211; Klu Klux Klan number of deaths from Eric Foner, “Rethinking American History in a Post-9/11 World,”
http://hnn.us/articles,6961.html
; Vietnam number of deaths from Ray Smith,
http://www.rjsmith.com/war_myth.html
; 641 Hiroshimas from William James Gibson,
The Perfect War
, p. 319; Britain “most powerful empire” in 1763 from Gordon S. Wood,
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
, p. 105.

Martha J. Lamb,
History of the City of New York
, vol. 1, p. 121; Dave Barry, “A Certified Wacko Rewrites History’s Greatest Hits,”
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
, Dec. 26, 1999; “Manahactanienk” from Giles Milton,
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg
, p. 186.

John Allen Paulos,
Innumeracy
, p. 29; Tyler and Truman from James Humes,
Which President Killed a Man?
p. 54; Tyler, Taylor, and Madison from Harold I. Gullan,
First Fathers
, pp. 54, 62; Jefferson and Marshall from Robert Leckie,
From Sea to Shining Sea
, p. 510, and Humes,
Which President
, p. 99; FDR’s relatives from
Reader’s Digest Strange Stories
, p. 106; Robert E. Lee relatives from David J. Eicher,
Robert E. Lee
, p. 6; Yalta relatives from Timothy B. Benford,
World War II Flashback
, p. 188, and William Manchester,
American Caesar
, p. 17; great-great-great-great-grandfather from Humes,
Which President
, p. 211; McCain and Obama from Amy Harmon, “The Candidates as Cousins Much Removed,”
New York Times
, March 26, 2008, p. A-14.

Marvin Kitman,
George Washington’s Expense Account
, p. 31; government audit from A. J. Langguth,
Patriots
, p. 561; inflation chart from Stanley Lebergott,
The Americans: An Economic Record
, p. 43; $2,500 loan from Halsted L. Ritter,
Washington as a Businessman
, p. 182; Jefferson’s debts from Jay Winik,
April 1865
, p. 8.

John R. Stilgoe,
Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845
, pp. 99–106; Andro Linklater,
Measuring America
, pp. 12, 256.

Jeffrey G. Williamson, “How Tough Are Times in the Third World?” in Donald N. McCloskey, ed.,
Second Thoughts
, p. 12.

Benjamin Butler from “Black Glory: The African-American Role in Union Victory,” in Gabor S. Boritt, ed.,
Why the Confederacy Lost
, pp. 140–41, 151–54; Jefferson Davis ordering execution of Butler from Kevin and Peter Keim,
A Grand Old Flag
, p. 119; Lincoln quote from Ann J. Lane, “The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Afro-American,” in Rhoda L. Goldstein, ed.,
Black Life and Culture in the United States
, pp. 140–41; Earl of Dunmore from Robert Harvey,
A Few Bloody Noses
, pp. 183–86, and Simon Schama,
Rough Crossings
, pp. 70, 108, 120, 189.

Gary M. Anderson, “The U.S. Federal Deficit and National Debt: A Political and Economic History,” in Buchanan, Rowley, and Tollison, eds.,
Deficits
, pp. 18–19.

John L. Shover,
First Majority—Last Minority
, p. 4; ethnic return statistics from Ronald Takaki,
A Different Mirror
, pp. 162, 264, 283; thirty-seven emigrants from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, pp. xxi, 90–91.

John Lukacs,
Outgrowing Democracy
, p. 107; “Cold War inaccessible … ” from Helene Keyssar and Vladimir Pozner,
Remembering War
, pp. xiv, 17–19, 23, 79, 141; Peter G. Peterson,
Facing Up
, pp. 72–73; footnote (Russia’s advance knowledge of Pearl Harbor) from Kurt Singer,
Spies Who Changed History
, p. 158.

Timothy B. Benford,
World War II Flashback
, p. 153; Adm. Chester Nimitz from Gordon Prange,
Miracle at Midway
, p. 9, and John Costello,
Days of Infamy
, p. 241.

Patrick Blackett from Fred Kaplan,
The Wizards of Armageddon
, p. 53; U.S. ship construction from Norman Davies,
Europe at War
, pp. 26–27.

Leslie R. Groves,
Now It Can Be Told
, p. 265; Japanese government control of information from Ben Ami Shillony,
Politics and Culture in Wartime Japan
, pp. 91–109; leaflets from Ronald Schaffer,
Wings of Judgment
, p. 142; FDR from Andrew Roberts,
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
, p. 374; A. G. Gardiner,
Leaves in the Wind
, p. 143; Gen. LeMay from Richard Rhodes,
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
, p. 21; Tokyo and Hiroshima death toll from Robert Leckie,
The Wars of America
, vol. II, p. 825, 831; Cologne bomb power from Juliet Gardiner,
Wartime: Britain 1939–1945
, p. 584; conventional bomb vs. atom bomb power from Richard B. Frank,
Downfall
, pp. 253, 264, 285; General Marshall from Max Hastings,
Retribution
, p. 476.

Frankfurter and Stimson from Gar Alperovitz,
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
, pp. 469, 486; Winston Churchill from Maj. Lee T. Wyatt III, “Tainted Decision: The Atom Bomb and America’s Rush to End World War II,” March 25, 1986,
www.globalsecurity.org
; number of American POWs from John Dower,
Embracing Defeat
, p. 54; MacArthur from Edwin Fogelman,
The Decision to Use the Bomb
, p. 92; Japanese blaming their militarist leaders (35 percent) rather than America (19 percent) from the 1946 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey; Japanese emperor and kamikaze threat from Richard B. Frank,
Downfall
, pp. 321, 311; Oppenheimer from Tamara L. Roleff, ed.,
The Atom Bomb
, p. 193.

Mark A. Stoler,
George C. Marshall
, pp. 162–63; Forrest C. Pogue,
George C. Marshall
, p. 231;
New York Times
from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, p. 410; “critical difference” from John Williamson, “Trade and Payments after Soviet Disintegration,” UNDP “Roundtable on Global Change” conference, Bucharest, Romania, September 1992, p. 7; U.S. ambassador to France from Andrew Roberts,
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900
, p. 395; Barry Newman, “The Marshall Plan Had Different Goals in a Different Era,”
The Wall Street Journal
, Feb. 23, 1994, p. A-8; current value of $13.4 billion from
www.measuringworth.com
.

Ruth versus Maris from Alex Patton, “Babe Didn’t See the Best,”
USA Today Baseball Weekly
, Oct. 5–11, 1994, p. 19; “better game when blacks were given the opportunity” from David Craft,
The Negro Leagues
, p. 83; Mike Vaccaro, “Total Disasterisk,”
New York Post
, Feb. 22, 2009, p. 87; Walter Payton (with Don Yaeger),
Never Die Easy
, p. 98.

Timing of rifle shots from Gerald Posner,
Case Closed
, pp. 318–23; rifle scope distance and stationary limousine from Mel Ayton,
The JFK Assassination
, pp. 70, 117; CIA/FBI intelligence cover-up from Max Holland, “Paranoia Unbound,”
Wilson Quarterly
, Winter 1994, pp. 88–89; see Vincent Bugliosi,
Reclaiming History.

James Reston from
Reader’s Digest Amazing Stories
, p. 111; refugee count falsification, Orwell’s
1984
, and atom-bomb tonnage from James William Gibson,
The Perfect War
, p. 269, 159, 177, 319; Arthur Goldberg and Dean Acheson from Gary A. Donaldson,
America at War Since 1945
, p. 118; statistics from Ray Smith,
http://www.rjsmith.com/war_myth.html
, and Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler,
All That We Can Be
, p. 8.

Michael Davie,
Titanic
, p. 221; “giant finger” survivor quote by Lady Duff-Gordon from Marshall Everett, ed.,
Wreck and Sinking of the
Titanic, p. 164; John Curtain from John F. McKeown, “Hubris, Not an Iceberg, Sank the
Titanic,” New York Times
, August 13, 1986, Letters to the Editor, p. A-22; Robert D. Ballard,
The Discovery of the
Titanic, p. 196; gash mathematics from Walter Lord,
The Night Lives On
, pp. 74–75;
Titanic
hull photo,
Carpathia
captain quote, and Coriolis force/earthquake theory from Captain L. M. Collins,
The Sinking of the
Titanic, pp. 84–85, 158, 165–67; drifting lifeboats and
Carpathia
’s position from Robert D. Ballard (with Michael S. Sweeney),
Return to
Titanic, p. 61; mysteries of the deep and the pair of shoes from James Hamilton-Patterson,
The Great Deep
, p. 177.

Bruce Berkowitz, “The Number Racket,”
The American Interest
, Autumn 2006, pp. 129–38; George Packer,
The Assassin’s Gate
, pp. 110, 132, 138, 186, 385, 443; Donald Rumsfeld from
Newsweek
, Nov. 20, 2006, p. 38; Aparisim Ghosh, “Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary” cover story,
Time
, August 14, 2006.

The King and I
from Don Hewitt,
Tell Me a Story
, p. 125; the source of the mythical Nelson story is Ed Offley, “From Landed Gentry to an Unmarked Grave,”
Soldiers for the Truth
online newsletter, July 4, 2005,
http://www.sftt.org/main.cfm?actionID=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cpm Defense&htmlCat
, also in Thom Hartman,
What Would Jefferson Do?
p. 53; corrections to the story by Jim Elbrecht, “False Revolutionary History Circulating Since at Least 1956, Debunked,”
http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com/shame/price.ttm
; see also Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, “Urban Legends Reference Pages: History (The Price They Paid),”
http://www.snopes.com/history/American/pricepaid.asp
; Tolstoy from Gore Vidal,
United States Essays 1952–1992
, p. 696; Boston Tea Party from John Harris,
The Boston Tea Party
, pp. 52, 56, 59–60, and Robert J. Alison,
The Boston Tea Party
, pp. 41–42, 56–60; Alex Haley from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Disuniting of America
, p. 85; Will Rogers from Walter Mead, “Life in the Global Briar Patch,”
Worth
, Dec–Jan. 1995, p. 57; New England rebellion from Robert Leckie,
From Sea to Shining Sea
, p. 332; American Revolution blacks from Richard Severo and Lewis Milford,
The Wages of War
, p. 68; FDR and Pearl Harbor from David Fromkin,
In the Time of the Americans
, p. 284; LBJ from Barbara W. Tuchman,
The March of Folly
, pp. 298–99; LBJ opinion of Diem from David Halberstam,
The Best and the Brightest
, p. 135.

Gore Vidal,
Inventing a Nation
, pp. 32–33.

Bevin Alexander,
How America Got It Right
, pp. 54–59; Adams, Crittenden, Lincoln, Greeley, and Seward from Albert D. Kirwan,
John J. Crittenden
, pp. 371, 380, 386–87, 403, 405; Lincoln’s 1862 proposal to buy out the slaves of four states from
www.library.rochester.edu/rbk/lincoln
(“March 14, 1862”); Lincoln’s plan to pay $400 million from Clarence Macartney,
Lincoln and His Generals
, p. 116; see Harold Holzer,
Lincoln President-Elect
, and David M. Potter,
Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis.

James M. McPherson, “American Victory, American Defeat,” in Gabor S. Boritt, ed.,
Why the Confederacy Lost
, pp. 26–27; 5.5 percent white slaveholders statistic from Ronald Takaki,
A Different Mirror
, p. 119; 100,000 Confederate deserting soldiers from Jim Powell,
Great Emancipations
, p. 138.

Lee’s army and Union army statistic from Robert Leckie,
The Wars of America
, vol. 1, p. 519; Jay Winik,
April 1865
, pp. 144, 157, 278–80, 295, 319.

Louis Haber,
Black Pioneers of Science and Invention
, pp. xiii, 124.

Vanderbilt from Wayne Andrews,
The Vanderbilt Legend
, pp. 194–95; Charles E. Wilson from David Halberstam,
The Fifties
, p. 118.

John Goff,
Robert Todd Lincoln
, pp. 70–71, 119–20, 236; Larry Tye,
Rising from the Rails
, pp. 72, 92, 100, 111; “lily white affair” from
Smithsonian
, February 2009, p. 35; “summer home” from Charles Lachman,
The Last Lincolns
, p. 342.