I’m pleased to announce the publication of Jeff Riggenbach’s Why American History is Not What They Say. It is an enormously useful book for anyone who is curious about revisionist (which means rethinking and reevaluating the pro-state mainstream) American history.
There has long been a crying need for a book like this, one that summarizes all the contributions of the major revisionists and evaluates their political outlook, correcting the socialists along the way of showing that there is a major alternative to what is taught by mainstream historians. The field is so large that it can be intimidating even to approach it. This is a special problem for students of philosophy or law or economics. If they come to a libertarian perspective through one of these fields, they might remain naive on matters of history, or unaware of how to going about correcting the problem.
The other issue is that the revisionist books don’t exactly leap out at you from the library shelves. To my knowledge, there has been no general guide and evaluation of all of this literature until Riggenbach’s book, which allows the reader to approach the field intelligently and come to understand the controversies.
There is more about this book on the book page.
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Please stop!!!
It is completely unfair to continue to publish such attractive works. I have not finished the four books I bought at the Mises Circle in Colorado Springs yet.
I will just add another one to the wish list….
Keep up the good work Jeffrey & company!
^Lol at Trip VM.
I see that the book is going to do some revisionism on the founding lawyers (“Must we accept the idea that the architects of the Constitution loved liberty?”). Good to see. Hopefully, this will spurn some debate amongst the Ron Paul Constitutionalists.
Once again, another great book! Thank you Jeffrey and the Mises Institute! Even though I’m still getting through all the new works I just got…
History remains obscure. This book can help many understand some of the reason why and where to better spend their time.
Nice addition to the public library. Thanks.
The lessons of history clearly support the publisher’s statement that, “The state and its creations are not the heroes. The producers of capital, the average people, the voluntary society: these are the forces that make up civilization.”
Unfortunately most books are written by
academics and other members of the intelligentsia who generally abhor “capital,” look down on “average people,” and prefer command bureaucracies to voluntary action. Thus, the true movers and shakers of progress have been buried beneath abstract theories designed and advocated by those who would govern from above.
This Libertarian revision helps counter such academic studies of America’s path to progress, and I would add the simple fact that, complex theories aside, much of America’s extraordinary economic progress occurred during its first 300 years when there was virtually zero central governmental controls or taxation.
Sometimes simple observation–case studies of past practices that worked or didn’t work–is better than a million theories or statistical calculations of economic data. A look at the success of the few similar examples of economic freedom in distant history confirms the essential basis for America’s prosperity: Centuries before the first settlors landed in the New World, the economic impetus from free merchants was demonstrated in Phoenicia, ancient Greece, the early Roman Republic, and on to the Italian city states and 17th century Holland.
The great success of America’s free enterprise system was also enjoyed in those earlier locales where a period of regional security was enhanced by an open economy, free of aristocracies, and the absence of a large central government. It is not rocket science to connect the dots! Those rare but favorable situations allowed the common genius of their people to employ their initiative and enterprise to build vibrant economies. It was only later, when a growing web of central controls became oppressive, that those societies entered their Declining years. But only the socialist message is taught in today’s schools and colleges.
Those historical predecessor nations, that showed the way for free economies, all eventually succumbed to “enlightened” internal critics who undermined their foundational belief systems and pandered to populist demands for more and more government hand-outs. If history is a guide, it will take more than this book to reverse the tide in America.
They say all politics is local, but even more it is personal–When half the population is living off the government, and only half are paying taxes, the end is in sight. Most voters go with the money and have little interest or understanding of economic theories. Roughly one-half the people voted for Gore, Kerry, and Obama. Their ranks are swelling daily as government grows.
Why American History is Not What They Say?
Don’t be fooled by the small stuff.
Get a bigger picture, a paradigm shift of history.
It is not everyday that you read something and it changes your whole conceptualization of the world.
The two documents below do that.
The implications will challenge how you look at politics, economy, history, finance, war and terrorism. Many persons in the documents are well known; many are right now in pivotal positions of politics and finance. These people do shape YOUR life and that of our children right now. The details are researched and referenced. The consequences would be beyond belief.
The two documents are long and some parts not easy to follow and to digest. Don’t give up, just read on. They provide startling information (and some parts read like a thriller) and at the end of the second part you might be able to make much more sense of what is happening with this world. Horrible sense.
Read it. It’s worth it.
It might be one of the most important reads you’ll ever have.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9442970/Collateral-Damage-US-Covert-Operations-and-the-Terrorist-Attacks-on-September-11-200128062008
http://www.scribd.com/doc/9421535/Collateral-Damage-Part-2-The-Subprime-Crisis-and-the-Terrorist-Attacks-on-September-11-200126122008
I’m somewhat curious as to what font that is that is used within the text of the book.
Yours,
Alex Peak
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