My 13 year old son recommended this book to me. I was fascinated to learn things I'd never heard before. Some people have claimed that there are falsehoods in this book, but I find that most books have an 'author's perspective' that make the books less authentic but far more realistic.
The most interesting chapter, for me, was the one on Francis Marion. His story, much like the story depicted in the movie, The Patriot, was really an interesting part of the book.

First off, please don’t use this book as a source for a history class. Your professor will read the title and ding you for using an unreliable source, like what happened to me.
Other than that, mostly good history book that doesn’t push to indoctrinate the reader with a liberal agenda. That being said, the author obviously comes from a more conservative viewpoint but be aware that he also is biased and so there may be some slight inaccuracies.

Learning history doesn't have to be boring. This is a good example of it. The author does a good job exploring the many aspects of the good, the bad and the ugly of American history. I loved the discussion on the Colonist's Christian heritage; how the original intent of the establishment clause in the first amendment was not to ban religious discourse concerning public policy; and how the Puritans actually brought lands from native Americans and even punished settlers who took lands without doing it properly. I enjoyed the frank discussion in the chapters leading up to and on the Civil War, which the author's chief thesis was that the war really did not begin because of slavery. As an interesting side issue from his main argument, I was shocked to learn and later confirmed that the Union highest general, Ulysses S. Grant even owned slaves! Among the things that I do want to research further and confirm in the near future: the extent of naval hostilities the US was already engaged in against the Germans while officially neutral prior to World War 1 and 2, who the true FDR really was and some of his forgotten policies such as turning in anti-communists Russians back to the Soviet Union (!). Things that I learned new that I later confirmed included the following: Fredrick Douglas, after the wrongful decision by the Supreme Court was nevertheless freed by his own master after the trial; Butler's Union General Order 28 after New Orleans was taken over did compare hostile Southern woman to woman of the night, which received international outcry during the war. There were times while I was reading the book that I was surprised (especially in the footnotes) of the author's familiarity with the Austrian school of economics especially in light of the popularity of Keynesian economics today among academia. I later found out Thomas Woods is himself an advocate of this economic view so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Though the author is a Roman Catholic, his work did have protray any obvious Catholic distinctive, though I do understand he has another published work on Roman Catholicism's contribution to Western Civilization. Good book--I recommend it. Not everything is pretty in US history, getting uglier when it approached the twentieth century and beyond. At the same time, the book does make you appreciate the incredible insight the founding fathers had and what it was that informed their political ideology.

A fun, short, introduction to the most fascinating interpretation of American history I have discovered. Woods obviously loves his country, but is willing, like Chomsky, to explore critical facts that other authors have either ignored or been ignorant of.

While I am not naive enough to accept everything in this book at face value, it does have an interesting alternative look at some of the major events in American History.

I was especially interested in the articles on the Civil War, (which the author points out wasn't a true civil war) WWI and the intentional methods of Woodrow Wilson to manipulate us into joining the war, and the chapter about the causes of the great depression.

The book is weak at the point of references. While the bibliography is a long one, the text is not footnoted.

Read it, you may just learn, or rather relearn some of your own history.

Definitely not as good as other politically incorrect guides in the series. There are many sweeping generalizations in here which are hard to believe because I can't see his footnotes. But there are also important facts in here that more people should know. I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

A well written book that covers the high and low points of real American history. If you want to educate yourself on real history and purge your mind of the propaganda you were forced fed in public school and even some private schools then this is a must read.

Hmm. Well, this is OK. There are a lot of reviews stating that there is a lot INcorrect here--there really isn't. There are omissions, obviously, that the author never bothered to mention--but then, the "other side" has been making their cases this way for a hundred years. So I suppose I see why Woods fails to mention, for example, that there most certainly WERE cases of Indians being snookered out of their lands (he argues that the Indians in New England willingly and knowingly sold their lands--true for some, less so for others.) So this is pretty accurate most of the time, although there are large gaps; the analysis isn't nearly as thorough as some of Woods' other writing, he's a little flippant at times, and he does not footnote (although there is an extensive bibliography.) I don't know yet if I will be using this as a counterbalance in our high school history courses. Still have some pondering and further reading to do.

I've come to the conclusion that we have the absolute best system of government possible, but we have elected idiots for virtually the past 200 years. To be sure, most historians and economists (both Democrat and Republican) will not like this book, because it describes the pitfalls of big-government interventionism (both foreign and domestic). Nevertheless, this book fills in some of the cracks that most history textbooks gloss over. Highly recommended.

History is written by the winners looking upon the past through rose colored glasses.

This book negates the tint.

It has some of the well known "open secrets" like Jefferson fathered his slave babies and Kennedy had affairs and used ghost writers, but he mostly fills the book with the effects of well intentioned programs--there's less integration in school districts with forced bussing programs that were meant to diversify the schools, the reasons behind certain decisions (why the founding fathers preferred a solid constitution rather than England's "living document") and excerpts of speeches that don't place the speaker in a good light--Honest Abe thought blacks should never be jurors, never be allowed to vote, could never be equal, and should always be inferior to whites. Lincoln also looked into deporting all blacks immediately following the war.

Also in the book are chapters about blatant lying and cheating and vote stealing that were thought to have taken place but were never proven until up to 50 years later.

The part I found most fascinating was where Woods corrects the general misconceptions I was taught about "The Civil War/War for Southern Independence/War of Northern Aggression": The Civil War wasn't a civil war both in terms of the political end game and the way in which it was waged. Civil wars consist of two factions trying to take control of the one government, not one government trying to tell 13 other governments they can't leave the voluntary union. General Sherman stated that according to what he learned at Westpoint, he'd be hung for the atrocities he'd committed for the North.
The war wasn't about slavery. Union General (and President and slave owner) Ulysses S. Grant said that if he thought the war was about slavery, he'd resign his commission and give his sword to the Confederates.

Want to know what you probably don't know about American history? I can think of no better book than this. The fact that so many Americans don't know and/or have a twisted understanding of many important points of their own history goes to show how politicized tax funded education has become. The truth is people don't know what they don't know.

History is almost always told on a tilt. Meaning that everyone who writes history is coming from a perspective and pushing an agenda. This book is no different, granted it is the opposite agenda of most of the history we get told.
My father taught me history in High School and helped me understand that the best way to understand history was to use original sources and read what they actually wrote during their own time. All this while understanding that even people writing about current things still may be portraying things in a way that makes them look good. This book used many original sources and throughout quoted people from the eras being discussed. For example a quote by Lincoln concerning his desire in the war
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." Lincoln carefully noted that this represented his official position."
The conversation about the civil war is complicated and doesn't have one clear answer of the reason or cause of it. However most people who discuss today have an incredibly narrow view of what mattered (race and slavery). Woods brings some different perspectives to light using original sources and good argumentation. Again he is coming from a certain perspective and is spinning it in a certain way as well, but this is how retelling history always is.

In conclusion I think this was a well written and helpful history book, not the conclusive or only thing people should read, but definitely helpful.
Narrator on Audible was very enjoyable.