American History Revised (81 page)

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Authors: Jr. Seymour Morris

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POST-9/11: “through the roof” from Barton Gellman, “Fears Prompt U.S. to Beef Up Nuclear Terror Detection,”
Washington Post
, March 3, 2002 (quoted in Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay,
America Unbound
, p. 119).

TWO
: Forgotten by History

Amerigo Vespucci from J. North Conway,
American Literacy
, pp. 22–24, David Abulafia,
The Discovery of Mankind
, pp. 242–43; see David Boyle,
Toward the Setting Sun;
Theodore Roosevelt from
Ben Macintyre, “He’s Lost It,”
New York Times Magazine
, July 7, 1993, p. 11, and John M. Cooper,
The Warrior and the Priest
, p. 118.

A Signature Worth Millions …

H. L. Gee,
American England
, pp. 152–53.

Ten Presidents Before Washington

For Lincoln’s July 4, 1861, special message to Congress, see
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1861lincoln-special.html
; Lincoln quote on “four legs and one tail” from
www.russpickett.com/ushist/uscontif.htm
, the historian is Stanley L. Klos,
President Who? Forgotten Founders
, p. 25; “minuscule amount of official correspondence” from Klos, pp. 105–6; see Forrest McDonald,
E Pluribus Unum
, Gordon S. Wood,
The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787
, and George Grant,
Forgotten Presidents: America’s Leaders before George Washington.

Our Nation’s Capital

Hamilton from Thomas K. McCraw, “The Strategic Vision of Alexander Hamilton,”
The American Scholar
, Winter 1994, p. 31; radial streets from Jay Winik,
April 1865
, p. 24; Banneker from Louis Haber,
Black Pioneers of Science and Invention
, pp. 4, 12, 16; see Fergus M. Bordewich,
Washington.

Facing Down the Mob

Richard J. Barnet,
The Rockets’ Red Glare
, pp. 48–51.

The Next George Washington?

Carl J. Vipperman,
William Lowndes and the Transition of Southern Politics, 1782–1822
, pp. xi, 154, 174, 257, 265; Harriott H. Ravenel,
Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782–1822
, pp. 236, 239; Leslie H. Southwick,
Presidential Also-Rans and Running Mates, 1788–1980
, p. 75; Mark Hanna from Steve Tally,
Bland Ambition
, p. 34.

“The Eighth Wonder of the World” …

Peter L. Bernstein,
Wedding of the Waters
, pp. 63, 68, 178, 259–60, 294; John Steele Gordon,
An Empire of Wealth
, p. 105.

The Crime of the Century …

“not only scalped … ” from Sally Denton,
American Massacre
, p. 150; “thanks to God” from Jon Krakauer,
Under the Banner of Heaven
, p. 225; “woe, woe … ” from Ronald W. Walker et al.,
Massacre at Mountain Meadows
, p. 43; “it was a righteous thing,” “die a dog’s death,” and “he took the massacre in stride” from Larry McMurtry,
Oh What a Slaughter
, pp. 79–80, 85, 88; “a crime that has no parallel,” Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and “most important criminal case” from Denton,
American Massacre
, pp. 193, 211, 221; “darkest deed” from Will Bagley,
Blood of the Prophets
, p. xiii; for a vivid Hollywood movie about the massacre, see
September Dawn
(2007).

America’s Greatest Invention/Innovation

Patent Office commissioner from Cerf and Navasky,
The Experts Speak
, p. 203; telephone used for listening to opera from Martyn Roetter, quoted in
Technology Review
, Aug–Sept. 1994, p. 46; American Revolution musket and interchangeable parts from Gerald Gunderson,
The Wealth Creators
, pp. 85,88.

The Number-One Bestseller

Peter Baida,
Poor Richard’s Legacy
, pp. 240–41; Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia from
www.pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/mess.pdf
; Elbert Hubbard,
A Message to Garcia;
Donald R. Morris, “Garcia Doesn’t Get the Message These Days” from
http://homeport.usnaweb.org/garcia.html
.

A Far Cry from Enron

Percentage of households using electricity from Stanley Lebergott,
Pursuing Happiness
, p. 120. TESLA: “I will make for you some daylight” from Chauncey M. McGovern, “The New Wizard of the World,”
Pearson’s
magazine, May 1899; Edison’s “Tesla always going to do something” and “50,000 years” from Margaret Cheney,
Tesla
, pp. 4, 30, 162, 186; ancestors stealing inventions from Henry G. Prout,
A Life of George Westinghouse
, p. 27;
Encyclopaedia Britannica
from Gray Basnight, “Reinventing Radio,” New York
Daily News
, July 1, 1992, p. 30; see Marc J. Seifer,
Wizard.

W
ESTINGHOUSE
: Steve Massey, “Who Killed Westinghouse?”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
,
http://post-gazette.com/westinghouse/cbsempire.asp
; Jill Jonnes,
Empires of Light
, p. 12, 337; Vanderbilt quote from
http://www.karenbowden.com/images/founding1.pdf
; Samuel Gompers from George Westinghouse Museum website
http://www.janetplan-it.com/westnghse/gw_museum.htm
; “earn a dollar” from Charles Oliver, “George Westinghouse: Problem-Solver,” Foundation for Economic Education,
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=5195
; Henry G. Prout,
A Life of George Westinghouse
, pp. 18, 245.

I
NSULL
: Harold Evans,
They Made America
, pp. 307, 320–23, 327, 331; John F. Wasik,
The Merchant of Power
, pp. 55, 202, 232, 235.

Entangled in Another Nation’s Civil War

Wilson comparison to the American Revolution from John Lukacs, “America and Russia, Americans and Russians,”
American Heritage
, Feb–March 1992, p. 67; Wilson quote on European mistake from Carol Wilcox Melton,
Between War and Peace
, p. 155; Robert L. Willett,
Russian Sideshow
, pp. 127, 140, 178; Senator Hiram Johnson from Benjamin D. Rhodes,
The Anglo-American Winter War with Russia, 1918–1919
, p. 122.

The Golden Age of Sport

Statistics on Babe Ruth’s lifetime batting average and pitching record from Lawrence S. Ritter and Mark Rucker,
The Babe
, pp. 276–77; statistics on complete games from Robert W. Creamer,
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
, p. 142; Tris Speaker quote from Cerf and Navasky,
The Experts Speak
, pp. 172–73; Peter Joffre Nye et. al.,
The Six-Day Bicycle Races
, p. 173, 185; Dean Cabow, “When America Loved Cycling,”
Team Evergreen’s Bike Beat
newsletter, April 2007, p. 6,
www.teamevergreen.org/pdf/TEBB2007046.pdf
; Ron Rapoport,
The Immortal Bobby
, pp. 70, 82, 119, 157, 314–16; Craig
Lambert, “Bobby Jones,”
Harvard
magazine, March–April 2002; see Frank Deford,
Big Bill Tilden
, and Charles Price,
A Golf Story: Bobby Jones.

The Towering Giant …

Larry Tye,
Rising from the Rails
, pp. 114, 208–9, 218; Jervis Anderson,
A. Philip Randolph
, pp. 215, 315.

Hollywood with Brains

Fleming Meeks, “I Guess They Just Take and Forget About a Person,”
Forbes
, May 14, 1990, pp. 136–38; Hans-Joachim Braun, “Advanced Weaponry of the Stars,” cover story, American Heritage
Invention & Technology
magazine, Spring 1997; Rob Walters,
Spread Spectrum
, pp. 135–42; p. 3 of
http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/2851/2851.html
.

Winning Hearts and Minds …

Robert M. Edsel,
Rescuing Da Vinci
, pp. 1, 127, 132, 136, 140, 253, Robert M. Edsel,
The Monuments Men
, pp. 290, 296, 362, 371, 400, 422; James J. Rorimer,
Survival
, p. 19; see
www.monumentsmen.com
and the movie
The Rape of Europa
(2007).

Bipartisanship at Its Best

Cabell Phillips,
The Truman Presidency
, pp. 34–35; Donald H. Riddle,
The Truman Committee
, pp. 26, 354, 370; Arianna Huffington,
Huffington Post
, Feb. 5, 2005; Charles Schumer from
http://www.acs-blog.org/separation-of-powers-key-senator-calls-for-new-iraq
.

THREE
: The Past Was Different Then

Ninety percent of the automobile market, horse waste, and flour milling industry from Ruth Schwartz Cowan,
A Social History of American Technology
, pp. 72, 232–34; “atomic-powered cars” and year 1900 statistics from Joel Best,
More Damned Lies and Statistics
, pp. 66, 18; Jefferson’s “1,000 years” from John Steele Gordon,
An Empire of Wealth
, p. 171; Gerald Gunderson,
The Wealth Creators
, pp. 59, 72; Cuba expansionism and Western territorial limits from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Cycles of American History
, p. 150; Upton Sinclair from
Reader’s Digest Strange Stories
, p. 55; “unwarranted diversion” from Patricia Lee Holt,
George Washington Had No Middle Name
, p. 117; Pehle and McCloy from Arthur D. Morse,
While Six Million Died
, pp. 359–60; Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., “Did FDR Betray the Jews?”
Newsweek
, April 18, 1994, p. 14; “more than all other Western countries combined” from Thomas Fleming,
The New Dealers’ War
, p. 257; Hoover quote from Kenneth C. Davis,
Don’t Know Much About History
, p. 272.

Our First 200 Years …

Gerald Gunderson,
The Wealth Creators
, pp. 11–14, 23–25.

Gory Times

Kenneth Silverman,
The Life and Times of Cotton Mather
, pp. 17–20.

Colonial Anti-Tobacco Lobby

Walter W. Jennings,
A History of Economic Progress in the United States.
pp. 30–31.

Slow Communication

Battle of Bull Run and British intervention from Jay Monaghan,
Abraham Lincoln Deals with Foreign Affairs
, p. 247; Constitutional Convention and American Revolution from Don Gifford,
The Further Shore
, pp. 115–16; Thomas Jefferson from John Train,
John Train’s Most Remarkable Occurrences
, p. 13; War of 1812 from T. Harry Williams,
The History of American Wars
, pp. 96, 133, and George Wilson,
Stephen Girard
, p. 259; Edmund Burke from Paul Johnson,
A History of the American People
, p. 132; Edward Preble from Robert Leckie,
From Sea to Shining Sea
, pp. 92, 97; Edwin Drake from Harold Evans,
They Made America
, pp. 102–7.

A Superior Way to Raise Children?

Crevecoeur from Bill Adler,
500 Great Facts about America
, p. 46; Franklin from Walter Isaacson,
Benjamin Franklin
, p. 153; Franklin and Bacon from Thom Hartmann,
What Would Jefferson Do?
pp. 26, 186; Francis Jennings,
The Founders of America
, p. 69.

America in 1800

Boston–Washington from Ruth Schwarz Cowan,
A Social History of American Technology
, p. 94; cost of shipping from Carol Sheriff,
The Artificial River
, p. 15; Federalist newspapers from Peter L. Bernstein,
Wedding of the Waters
, p. 239; size of federal government from Thomas Fleming,
The Louisiana Purchase
, p. 12; description of Federal City, D.C., from Alan Pell Crawford,
Unwise Passions
, p. 149; America unknown in Constantinople from Joshua E. London,
Victory in Tripoli
, p. 87; president’s salary and house, Harvard and Princeton tuition, U.S. map and population from Olivier Bernier,
The World in 1800
, pp. 127, 141–42, 174, 185–88.

High Educational Standard

Bill Adler,
500 Great Facts about America
, p. 27;
Time
, Dec. 9, 1996, p. 38; Lincoln from Doris Kearns Goodwin,
Team of Rivals
, p. 54, and William Lee Miller,
Lincoln’s Virtues
, pp. 49–52; JFK from Gore Vidal,
Inventing a Nation
, pp. 187–88.

Big Distances …

Gerald Gunderson,
The Wealth Creators
, p. 60; Erie Canal and Great Pyramid from John Steele Gordon,
An Empire of Wealth
, p. 105; Erie Canal financing from Robert Sobel,
The Money Manias
, pp. 49–50; Thomas J. DiLorenzo,
How Capitalism Saved America
, pp. 79–84; Stanley Lebergott,
The Americans: An Economic Record
, p. 121.

Small White House Staff

“the most powerful President” from Charles Adams,
For Good and Evil
, p. 328; Harold Holzer,
Dear Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President
, pp. 5–18; FDR and Lincoln receptions from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Cycles of American History
, pp. 333–35.

A Speech Where Every Word Counted

Gettysburg Address from Don Gifford,
The Further Shore
, p. 38; Abraham Lincoln from Harold Holzer,
Dear Mr. Lincoln
, pp. 278–79, and Walter Berns, “The Prattling Presidency,”
Wall Street Journal
, Oct. 31, 1995; 1876 election from Lloyd Robinson,
The Stolen Election
, p. 16; Gore Vidal,
United States: Essays 1952–2002
, p. 1014.

A Near-Fatal Misstep

Louisiana vote from Gore Vidal,
United States: Essays 1952–1992
, pp. 679, 690; Emancipation vote from Jay Winik,
April 1865
, p. 249.

Not as Originally Intended

Franklin stove from Phil Patton,
Made in U.S.A.
, p. 243; Levi’s blue jeans from
Earth Island Journal
, Fall 1990, p. 19; Coca-Cola from David Bodanis,
The Secret House
, pp. 72–73; typewriter from Phil Patton,
Made in U.S.A.
, pp. 77–79.

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