American history

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Time to End Myth About 'Stable' Slave Families

Bachmann's vow is part of a 'deliberate amnesia' on slavery

(Newser) - There’s a persistent myth in America that slavery was “an idyllic world of stable families headed by married parents," writes Tera Hunter—a myth that Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum’s endorsement of the “Marriage Vow” served to highlight. It’s time for us to understand...

Less Than 25% of Students Proficient in US History

12% of seniors scored at a level showing solid academic performance

(Newser) - A new national assessment finds that less than a quarter of students are proficient in US history. The 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress tested students on topics such as the American Revolution, Civil War, and the contemporary US. Just 20% of fourth-grade students, 17% of eighth-graders, and an especially...

Historians Say Palin Was Right About Paul Revere

But they admit it begrudgingly, notes the 'Boston Herald'

(Newser) - Sarah Palin insists her claim that Paul Revere "warned the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms" was actually not a flub , and it turns out some historians are backing her up on this one—reluctantly, notes the Boston Herald . In a 1798 letter...

High Schooler to Michele Bachmann: Let's Debate Constitution and US History
High Schooler to Bachmann:
Let's Debate History
in case you missed it
May 15, 2011 7:49 AM CDT

High Schooler to Bachmann: Let's Debate History

Teen calls her grasp of civics 'grossly distorted'

(Newser) - Concerned that Michele Bachmann’s take on US civics is “factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted,” a New Jersey teen has challenged the Minnesota representative to a debate on US history and the Constitution, the Minnesota Independent reports. “The frequent inability you have shown to accurately...

America's Best Record Collection Takes Shape

Library of Congress announcing plan to expand public access

(Newser) - A former nuclear fallout shelter near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is now home to the nation's musical and cinematic history over the past century. The Library of Congress's state-of-the-art $250 million Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation contains nearly 100 miles of shelves and 6 million goodies—...

Battlefield Recounts May Rewrite Civil War History

Virginia could overtake North Carolina in number of soldier deaths

(Newser) - With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaching, North Carolina and Virginia have commissioned official recounts of how many soldiers each state lost in battle. What sounds like a humdrum exercise is producing surprising results, reports the Wall Street Journal : North Carolina has long laid claim to losing the...

Historian Faked Date on Key Lincoln Artifact

Researcher 'rewrote history,' says archivist

(Newser) - An Abraham Lincoln researcher has confessed to changing the date on a Lincoln document, effectively altering history for his own gain, AOL News reports. Thomas Lowry changed the date from April 14, 1864, to 1865—the date of Lincoln's assassination—so that it would seem he’d discovered one of...

Tea Partiers: Textbooks Must Be Nicer to Founders

And omit criticisms based on 'minority experience,' says Tennessee group

(Newser) - Tennessee Tea Party activists met with lawmakers yesterday to demand the state make a number of changes—including “educating students the truth about America.” What does that grammatically suspect phrase mean? It means that they want textbooks to stop criticizing the founding fathers for their treatment of Native...

DNA Could Reveal Whether John Wilkes Booth Escaped

Descendants say he took new name, committed suicide in 1903

(Newser) - DNA evidence could settle once and for all the truth about what transpired in the days after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The official story is that John Wilkes Booth was killed in a barn days after shooting the president—but his descendants say the dead man was just a lookalike....

Hey GOP, Government Isn't Always Bad
Hey GOP, Government Isn't Always Bad
DAVID BROOKS
Sep 14, 2010 1:23 PM CDT

Hey GOP, Government Isn't Always Bad

Party's reflexive small-government views will hurt US

(Newser) - Tea Partiers and other critics of government largesse have made the Republican party ascendant just two years after its cause seemed hopeless. A clear purpose helps, and Republicans have it: stop the expansion of government. Return the country to its free-market roots. But this is a dangerous oversimplification of American...

Real Betsy Ross Was a Lot More Interesting

She was admirably 'scruffier' than her whitewashed legend

(Newser) - Think of Betsy Ross, and you probably picture a demure, patriotic seamstress and maybe an apple pie or two. That's too bad, because the real Betsy Ross was a pistol, "a tough businesswoman fond of dark snuff and storytelling," writes Ruth Graham for Slate . Fortunately, a new wave...

Americans Flunk History
 Americans Flunk History 
happy independence day
Jul 2, 2010 2:36 PM CDT

Americans Flunk History

One-quarter of Americans don't know who got the short end of Revolution

(Newser) - On July 4th, Americans from all walks of life will gather to celebrate their independence from … someone or other. According to a new poll, more than 1 in 4 Americans can’t name England as the country the colonists fought in the Revolutionary War, CNN reports. That figure includes...

Virginia Is for Lovers (of Revisionist History)

States seems content to forget the facts, Collins says

(Newser) - Virginia might not be so much for lovers as for haters, writes Gail Collins—or at least crazy revisionists of history. Gov. Bob McDonnell's celebration of "Confederate History Month," which failed to acknowledge the existence of slavery in its "love affair with all things Confederate," is...

Washington Was Good With a Buck, Accounts Show

Long-ignored financial records a 'treasure trove,' historians say

(Newser) - Fitting enough for the guy who ended up on the dollar bill, George Washington seems to have tracked every buck that crossed his path. The first president not only left scores of diaries and letters reflecting his views, but also assiduously documented his financial transactions. The result? A treasure trove...

Stone Takes on 'Secret History of America'

Director will look at 'under-reported' events in Showtime series

(Newser) - Oliver Stone is nothing if not ambitious. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the director is prepping a 10-part documentary series entitled Secret History of America, which promises to examine important but under-reported events from the past 60 years. Stone, who will provide the narration himself, calls the Showtime project “...

Right-Wing Crazy Is All-American
 Right-Wing Crazy 
 Is All-American 
OPINION
Aug 16, 2009 8:23 AM CDT

Right-Wing Crazy Is All-American

Birthers, tea parties—it's nothing new

(Newser) - With the left back in power, we’re seeing right-wing "crazies"—the “birthers, tea-partiers, town hall hecklers”—getting louder. But that’s nothing new, writes Rick Perlstein in the Washington Post. In America, “the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and elites...

Decades of US Immigration History Comes to Light

National Archives receives documents of 21 million

(Newser) - The US is sending the files on some 21 million immigrants to the National Archives, revealing volumes of early 20th-century history, USA Today reports. The documents tell the stories of celebrities like Salvador Dali as well as the successes and tribulations of ordinary people, from refugees to “enemy aliens....

Lost-and-Found Letter Shows Lincoln's Terse Side

Embattled prez had more to deal with than Civil War

(Newser) - A handwritten note dated just a few days before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has finally made its way back to the National Archives, the Washington Post reports. The terse communication from the president to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase addressed corruption charges against a Lincoln appointee. "Even though this...

Woman Won 'Male Rights' Fighting in Civil War

Soldier remained in her disguise for better jobs, voting rights

(Newser) - A veteran of 40 Civil War skirmishes and battles kept one secret under wraps: her breasts. Union Army soldier Albert Cashier was really Jennie Hodgers, one of hundreds of women who fought in the war. "The country needed men, and I wanted excitement," Hodgers said. She also benefited...

10 Odd Facts About World War II
 10 Odd Facts 
 About World War II 
memorial day weekend
May 23, 2009 4:35 PM CDT

10 Odd Facts About World War II

(Newser) - With Memorial Day and the 65th anniversary of Normandy coming up, it's time for a World War II history review. The Chicago Tribune has dug up ten strange facts:
  • Elsie Mitchell and five children died in Gearhart Mountain, Ore., in May 1945, by touching a Japanese "balloon bomb" 
...

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