Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a libertarian, I was hoping for a book which would truly debunk Liberal myths. Instead this book props up conservative myths, with a good chunk of racism and intolerance along the way... oh, and there's the lies it tells about history, too. There's a good bit of truth in here, but it's swallowed up by the author's burning desire to justify greed, bigotry, inequality, and injustice for all who aren't white male Republicans. To make things even better, there are no footnotes or references to specific cites. There are cute quotes without context, and there is a long bibliography at the end, but for the most part we have to take each of Dr Woods' assertions as fact- unless we have learned better through more direct sources already. Factual errors: * Sorry, Dr. Woods- Virginia, New York and Rhode Island did NOT reserve the right to secede when they ratified the Constitution. Virginia and New York demanded a Bill of Rights; Rhode Island ratified without conditions. * Sorry again, but the Puritans- as all Europeans of their time- were quite definitely racist. You entirely ignore the many Indian wars prior to the Revolution, most of which were triggered by European violations of treaties and encroachments on Indian land. * The words "We the States" was changed to "We the People" *specifically* to render the federal government independent of the states. Woods utterly ignores the Articles of Confederation, the problems they caused, and their affect on the Constitution which followed them. * Yes, the struggle over slavery prior to the Civil War was about political power... but only insofar as that power was to be used to -defend slavery.- Insofar as the South had any unifying cause, slavery was it. Woods would have you believe that slavery was unimportant to the South except as a tool for gaining supremacy over the North in a Washington pecking order. * The right to secede is not so clear-cut as Woods would have you believe. His application of the Tenth Amendment- "you can do anything not specifically prohibited you"- ignores the repeated references to the President's power to suppress rebellions and insurrections. Even at the time of the civil war, and even in the deepest South, there was no unified opinion on the subject. Woods, however, would have you believe nobody except Lincoln and his fellow tyrants endorsed Union Forever. * Confederate armies- including Lee's armies- did not go for the total destruction of civilian property, but they did destroy a lot, both for military purposes (railroads, bridges, supplies) and for lack of discipline. Woods ignores the vast documentation of Southern civilians who feared Confederate cavalry depredations more than Union troops. * Yes, extremely racist "vagrancy laws" and black codes existed in the North during Reconstruction and after. Northern Jim Crow, however, does NOT excuse or justify Southern Jim Crow. * A monopoly is any company with effective total control over a commodity, class of product, or service. It does not -have- to jack up prices astronomically to strangle competition, no matter what Woods would have you believe. * Woods praises John D. Rockefeller and claims that Rockefeller did no wrong in undercutting his competition. He completely ignores exclusive service agreements with railroads for transport of his product, and claims that laws which force equal trade for all are unjust! * In Dr. Woods' universe, the Zimmerman telegram, urging Mexico to declare war on the United States, never existed. Wilson went to war because he was personally pro-British... oh, and siege warfare is against international law if it involves the seas, according to Woods. * Woods claims that boom-bust economic cycles are solely caused by centralized government banking. How do you explain the Panics of 1837, 1853, and 1873, then, all of which were worse than the Great Depression, and all of which took place when there was no central bank whatever? * As distasteful and corrupt as socialism is, Dr. Woods, it is and was quite possible to be leftist without being in the pay of Stalin. Things Woods endorses in the course of the book: * That states have the right (and, indeed, the obligation) to mandate religion and to force citizens to worship or depart. * Intolerance and persecution is required for freedom- not for people to flee from, but for people to -live under.- * The Fourteenth Amendment, which extends prohibitions on violations of individual rights to state as well as federal governments, should be repealed. Go censorship! Go kangaroo courts! * Thomas Jefferson, although he had nothing to do with the crafting of or ratification of the Constitution, is the sole Founding Father to be relied upon for interpretation of what the Constitution means. * Abolish unions. There's no such thing as exploitation of workers. * Joseph McCarthy, far from being an opportunist politician seeking to promote himself by destroying others, was a well-intentioned hero. * FDR -forced- the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor- indeed, the world would be a better place had America remained neutral in the Second World War. * Legislated segregation is not merely lawful, it is a good thing. Besides, the South would have given up segregation by itself eventually, right? *Michael Milken, far from being a perpetuator of fraud and deception in trade, was a hero for creating the junk bond. And this is the stuff I get just from skimming the book!! In his preface, Woods says: "[This book] is not intended to be a complete overview of American history." You bet it's not- it's merely a partial and extremely selective covering of issues to present a fundamentalist conservative viewpoint of America. Libertarians who believe in -equal- freedom for all, and political students who seek a balanced and accurate presentation of disputed facts, should AVOID THIS BOOK LIKE THE PLAGUE. If you listen to Limbaugh and watch O'Reilly, and dislike independent thought, then this book is for you.