Book Review : 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask

As a whole, the book is quite enlightening and filled with conclusions supported by numerous citations of books, various government and private studies, and scholarly articles. As the description of the book states, "there's the history you know and then there's the truth." It is this not so idealized truth that Woods presents to answer his thirty-three questions.

There are a number of other themes that Woods examines, such as civil rights myths, government welfare programs, and the legacy of President Clinton’s intervention in Kosovo. Many of the questions raise issues that are little-discussed in mainstream accounts. The root of the problem, according to Woods, may be traceable to the public school system, which teaches students the same myths and the same one-sided stories.

Tom Woods’s book will disabuse those Americans who are naïve enough to think that they live under the protections guaranteed in the old Constitution. Those protections are long gone, replaced by a pernicious democratic socialism that more closely reflects the dystopian horror of George Orwell rather then the federated republic of George Washington.

In fact, probably a great deal of what you were led to believe was true about American history is actually politically motivated myth, served up by Leftists to advance their agenda. The teaching of American history today is riddled with misrepresentations, misunderstandings, and flat-out lies about the people and events that have shaped the nation.

While the discussions of questions that are presented may contain much information contrary to conventional wisdom, the book encourages readers to verify the correctness of every chapter. Assumptions are not made when discussing facts and historical events, but Woods does draw out some overarching themes throughout the book, in addition to dispelling some commonly-held myths about American history.

The book, in the end, is an invitation to critical thinking of some of the major myths of American History. Woods does not attempt to denigrate his targets or examine the issues in minute detail, instead offering a second look at American history.

I will guarantee you that Woods’s book will give the reader a whole lot of "forbidden thoughts" about our shared history. It has a very "light" read feel yet is packed with solid thought provoking content. Each "question" is packaged in a short neat chapter that gets right to the point with little wasted verbiage.