A report of "33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask"

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"Every lesson taught me something new and unexpected," reads one of the reviews on the back of the book 33 Questions about American History You're not Supposed to Ask, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. This is as an proper overview of the book as one could expect, as Woods sets out to revisit some of the most coarse myths of American history and look at them in the light of non-politically strict thought. 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 write back his thirty-three questions.

As a whole, the book is quite enlightening and filled with conclusions supported by numerous citations of books, discrete governMent and hidden studies, and scholarly articles. In a book this short (around 260 pages), having nearly thirty pages of endnotes and citations shows that Woods has done a fAir amount of investigate and fact-checking. Thus, while the discussions of questions that are presented may consist of much information contrary to accepted 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 increasing to dispelling some commonly-held myths about American history.

American Stories

One of the themes that Woods discusses in several chapters of the book is the issue of small governMent and free markets versus big governMent and a command-type economy. Woods shows that the "Wild West" was not easily all that wild, despite a marked absence of governMent institutions and protectors. Instead of lawlessness and violence, "even in the absence of government, the old West was far less violent than most American cities today. Frontiersmen industrialized hidden mechanisms to inflict the law and define and inflict property rights." someone else example of big government interference in hidden company is the example of Hoover's and Roosevelt's interactions in the economy during the Great Depression. Woods shows that both presidents intervened in the market, enacting controls and spending programs that only caused the Depression to come to be longer, deeper, and more financially ruinous to the general population.

How to A report of "33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask"

Another theme that is gift in discrete chapters is that of the powers of Congress and the Presidency, and how they have changed over time and their former intents in the Constitution have been distorted. Woods examines the claim that the Us Constitution is a "living, breathing document," by showing that this is exactly the follow the framers wanted to avoid: the British constitution was carefully to be a living, breathing entity that forced itself upon the colonies. The Founding Fathers wanted a Constitution that was a written agreement in the middle of the people and the government and was able to be changed through discrete methods, but would not just change with the times. The book also looks at the interstate industry clause, which the federal government now uses to regulate all gainful activity, which was not the founders' intent. Woods argues that the phrase "among the states" refers to "commerce in the middle of one state and another, not industry that occurs in one state and merely concerns of has effects upon others," although the government has distorted this into regulating all things and anything that may influence commerce, which have granted it "extraordinary power to interfere in Americans' lives." The role of the government was meant by the Constitution to be small, although it has taken on more and more powers to legislate the lives of Americans.

The powers of the president of the United States are also examined by Woods, who determines that the president now wields much more power than was originally granted. Theodore Roosevelt is seen as the instigator of the rise of the "imperial presidency," due to his increased visibility in Americans' lives, and the fantastic use of presidential administrative orders (1,006 total). However, Congress has also transferred the power to the president to send troops anywhere in the world without a proclamation of war. This exchange of power is now so complete, agreeing to Woods, that "In 2002, on the eve of war with Iraq, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tx) insisted, as he had throughout the Clinton years, that if the country were to go to war, the Constitution required that Congress approve a proclamation of war... He was told by leading Republicans that his position was outdated and that things weren't done that way anymore." In his discussions of questions relating to the theme of the Constitutional powers of the federal government, Woods demonstrates that powers originally granted to the states have been usurped by the federal government, which has resulted in a consolidation of powers in the Congress, judicial branch, and especially the presidency.

There are a amount of other themes that Woods examines, such as civil possession myths, government welfare programs, and the patrimony 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, agreeing to Woods, may be traceable to the collective school system, which teaches students the same myths and the same one-sided stories. This racket can only follow in the propaganda of the greatness of big government, the evils of the free market, and the godlike status of presidents. As Woods states, "the same group of people who hold a monopoly on the power to tax and the power to start force also wield an productive monopoly on the power to educate time to come generations of Americans." Thus, a salutary skepticism is recommended for all official Party-line type discussions of these programs and roles.

The book, in the end, is an invitation to significant reasoning of some of the major myths of American History. Woods does not exertion to denigrate his targets or peruse the issues in puny detail, instead offering a second look at American history. Even though everybody may not agree with Woods' on all of the issues, it is more leading to him that people know that there is someone else side to many of the best-known stories of America, and draw their own conclusions, rather than take the official collective school-taught propaganda at face value.

A report of "33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask"

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