by Glenn Beck
First published 2013
Beck challenges everything you thought you knew about American history. Thomas Edison emerges not as a brilliant inventor but as a ruthless businessman who destroyed competitors. The woman branded "Tokyo Rose" and imprisoned as a traitor actually served as a hero to countless Americans during World War II. The Battle of Wounded Knee becomes something far darker when Beck exposes how twenty soldiers received medals of honor for participating in what was actually a massacre of Native Americans. Paul Revere's famous midnight ride pales beside the heroic journey of Jack, whose name history forgot despite his greater courage and sacrifice. Through these stories and others, Beck strips away the myths and propaganda that have shaped popular understanding of pivotal moments. He reveals how villains became heroes in textbooks while real heroes vanished from memory. Each account forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths about power, politics, and the way history gets written by winners.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: America, Wounded Knee
Period: World War II
290 pages · Hardcover · Threshold Editions
Content warnings: violence