Front Matter

WHY AMERICAN HISTORY IS NOT WHAT THEY SAY:

AN INTRODUCTION TO REVISIONISM

ALSO BY JEFF RIGGENBACH

In Praise of Decadence

WHY AMERICAN HISTORY IS NOT WHAT THEY SAY:

AN INTRODUCTION TO REVISIONISM

Jeff Riggenbach

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. For information write: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832; mises.org.

Copyright 2009 © by Jeff Riggenbach

ISBN: 978-1-933550-49-7

History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.

—AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary (1906)

This book is for Suzanne, who made it possible.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Portions of Chapter Three and Chapter Five appeared earlier, in somewhat different form, in Liberty magazine, on RationalReview.com, and on Antiwar.com. David J. Theroux of the Independent Institute, Andrea Millen Rich of the Center for Independent Thought, and Alexia Gilmore of the Randolph Bourne Institute were generous with their assistance during the researching and writing stages of this project. Ellen Stuttle was her usual indispensable self. And, of course, responsibility for any errors of fact, usage, or judgment in these pages is entirely my own.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ONE	The Art of History
I.	Objectivity in History
II.	History and Fiction
III.	The Historical Fiction of Kenneth Roberts
IV.	The Historical Fiction of John Dos Passos
TWO	The Historical Fiction of Gore Vidal: The "American Chronicle" Novels
I.	Burr and Lincoln
II.	1876, Empire, and Hollywood
III.	Hollywood and The Golden Age
THREE	The Story of American Revisionism
I.	The Birth of American Revisionism and the Rise of Harry Elmer Barnes
II.	Charles A. Beard and William Appleman Williams: From Progressivism to the New Left
III.	Harry Elmer Barnes and James J. Martin: From Progressivism to Libertarianism
IV.	James J. Martin: Historian and Pamphleteer
V.	The Libertarian Historians and Their Colleagues on the New Left
FOUR	Some American Wars—Both Hot And Cold—Through Revisionist Eyes
I.	The U.S. Civil War—the Revisionist View
II.	America in the World Wars—A Revisionist Perspective
III.	A Revisionist Look at America in the Cold War
FIVE	The Politics of the American Revisionists
I.	"Left" and "Right," "Conservative" and "Liberal," Differentiated Historically
II.	The Decline of American Liberalism—the Early Years
III.	Conservative Republicans and Liberal Democrats in 19th Century America
IV.	Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and the Triumph of Conservatism
V.	Herbert Hoover's New Deal
VI.	The Myth of the "Old Right"
VII.	The Goldwater Anomaly
VIII.	The Reagan Fraud—and After
SIX	The New American History Wars
I.	Why Textbooks Matter
II.	The Breakdown of the Consensus—the Case of Howard Zinn
III.	American History According to Eric Foner
IV.	Thomas E. Woods, Jr. vs. Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen
V.	History, Fiction, and Objectivity—Some Concluding Observations

INDEX

NOTES

"Now there are some who would like to rewrite history— revisionist historians is what I like to call them."

—George W. Bush
June 16, 2003