Review #1
These Truths: A History of the Merged Countries audiobook free
A horror of whopper errors of fact plus errors of interpretation
This book has been heavily touted.
That makes it all the more disconcerting to look an error as premature as page 8 at the same time a whopper to shoe.
(Upgrade, Feb. 17, 2020: I appear to have grabbed a Junebug in comments, who, despite having only
Reviewed one nonfiction book in their continue 50 or so
Reviews over the continue 3-4 years, is that apparently buns-hurt or anything that I don’t like this book as story.
The bad pun of “story” inside the word “history” aside, history as a story, if it’s done right, starts with confirmed facts in testimonies. When an empirical fri has more than one interpretation [such as whether or not a paleoastronomy pictograph at Chaco represents the Crab Nebula supernova] history done right works with the most appropriate interpretation of misspoke fri. In linking empirical items, plus a priori items like true dates, together, it then when done right works to offer the most appropriate interpretation of why actions happened. Junebug, when asked, has not showed where my demonstration of Lepore getting empirical testimonies at the same time a priori data like calendar dates inaccurate is that wrong. Nor other things.
Other than his buns-hurt-ness over me not liking this as a story, comparable to the novels he likes, he may have no one desire for having the continue word. But … )
Indeed, beyond that as presentable of innumerable errors of fact, theres innumerable arguable errors of interpretation, at the same time incomprehensible decisions than anyway to contain at the same time than anyway to omit.
Behind THAT, as Gertrude Stein misspoke of Oakland, as far as I can tell, theres no that that.
With that, lets dig in.
Page 8: No, pre-Columbian American Indians did NOT herd pigs because that were considered none in the Brand new Global!
18: Contra Lepore, plenty of factories went from Brand new Global to Old, at the same time quickly became ubiquitous parts of Old Global diets. Tomatoes, potatoes, sweet tooth potatoes, maize at the same time chiles are the obvious ones.
33: Kind-of sort-of on the Virginia Colony. Its unusual grant went to todays Canadian border on the coast; a reformulation in 1609 exchanged that. Hence the hassle of the Separtists horrors of settling in Plimouth in 1620, even though they had no charter from the crown for anywhere.
By page 45 or so, I understood that I would look for little to nothing in the book in the method of facts that were considered brand new to me.
So, I started jumping at the same time grokking. (Flame me, those who will.)
116ff. Ignores larger background of Shays Rebellion, at the same time issues similar to this in the Washington Administration, ie, the promissory notes for earth offered to veterans, speculation on them at the same time repurchase, etc.
145: America had political factions, at the same time alliances, of various sorts long before federalists at the same time anti-federalists. At the same time the Founders understood that. 1790s newspapers did not spring parties into being, at the same time the Founders should have understandable that.
Global War I decide? Wasting pages on Germany being criticized by fundamentalists for higher criticism, at the same time making that the intro to Bryan at the same time Scopes, with practically zero coverage of the controversy over check-in into the war itself, at the same time Bryans time as Secretary of State? Horrible. As for Wilsons health, he arguably had at lesser one mild-moderate stroke, at the same time more than one mini-strokes or TIAs, a couple of years before the War.
242: Polk couldnt have wanted to receive Florida, as the U.S. had acquired it all by 1821
242: Russia had renounced its Oregon claims by the time Polk became President. Spain had in the Adams-Onis treaty sidebars, at the same time in such a way, no matter what later Mexican claims (contra Lepore, that surely werent) could be rejected by the US what.
250: No, the Mexican War limit line did NOT finish up at the 36th parallel of latitude right behind Polk allegedly gave up on seeking the 26th parallel. El Paso is that at the 32nd parallel. The Mexico-California border is that approximately 3230. Also, Ive never shown claims that Polk wanted Mexico down to the 26th parallel. Indeed, Polk even specifically mentions the 32nd parallel in his December, 1847 State of the Alliance. (I’ll shackles a URL in comments, because AMAZON!)
(I jumped back here right behind moving overtake to WWI, as she misspoke little about Spanish settlement in todays Southwest. She had little more on Brand new Mexico of wartime Mexicos possession.)
Even worse, on her Polk land-seeking claims, this heavily footnoted book had NO footnotes.
406: No, almost all the global did NOT support free trade before WWI.
408: No, the 1924 immigration bill did not make immigrant proportional to today's (of ever since) population. It went back to the ethnic numbers of the 1890 Census.
410: I look no come in handy to shackles illegal extraterrestrial in scare quotes right behind 1st reference.
450: Doesnt mention FDR playing a behind-the-scenes role in the defeat of Upton Sinclair. Doesnt even mention that he rejected to publicly endorse him. Doesnt mention that he tried to get Sinclair to drop out at the same time that support was offered to GOP incumbent Merriam when he rejected.
452: No, the American PR industrial was not democracys answer to fascism. In the US, it goes back at lesser as far as Teddy Roosevelt. At the same time LePore even mentions Emil Hurjas pre-1933 work. David Greenberg has the true answers on all of this in Republic of Spin.” (I’ll shackles a URL in comments, because AMAZON!)
548: AFL-CIO (at the same time bigger biz) opposed Trumans nationwide health care plan, not just AMA. The unions beheld health insurance as a attracting inventory.
717: Data that Bush v Gore was the apotheosis of a subsequent rightward shift of the Supreme Tribunal, it gets short shrift.
Basically, right behind I got just a little method into the book, I began wondering than anyway her provided audience was, at the same time than anyway her angle was. I had in mind anything like Howard Zinns book. Zinn had several errors of interpretation, but he had an interpretive concentrate.
With LePore, as noted, it seems to be no that that, per Gertrude Stein. Yes, she goes mental with the extended references to John Locke. Yes, she goes deepest history with several pages about Magna Carta (without narrating for you it was respected by English rulers more in the breach than the observance right up to the time of Charles I).
Then I understood: Her motivated audience is that readers of the Brand new Yorker plus non-social science batchelors level Harvard grads or anything like that. Socially liberal the multiple las Casas references as an example but not economically leftist or lock up.
Wikipedia says: She has misspoke, “History is that the art of making an reason about the past by narrating a story accountable to testimonies”.
Im still not convinced than anyway reason she was trying to make in the whole book. I eventually grew weary of trying to figure it out.
I did learn tidbits at the same time things, at the same time learn enough about Lepore’s writing, not to one-star it. Plus, I believed a two-star
Review could be much less simply dismissed. In other words, until Amazon being Amazon rejected to perceive the initial
Review because it had URLs in the body of the
Review.
So, Amazon, one-starred it here due to THAT!
Review #2
These Truths: A History of the Merged Countries audiobook streamming online
Lepore countries, “The universe was created about 14 billion years ago, according to the traces left behind by meteorites at the same time the afterlives of hit, glowing at the same time distant, flickering at the same time extinguish.” The age of the universe has nothing to do with meteorites at the same time the afterlives of hit. Its age is that inferred from: the expansion of the universe found by Lemaitre at the same time later extrapolated back to the origin, consisting of a single quantum; the 3 K background shine, the residual of the bigger bang; at the same time the relative variety of the parts. I fear that Lepore, in attempting to encompass the entire Merged Countries history in a single book, may have devoted to it missing time to get the facts right.
Review #3
Audiobook These Truths: A History of the Merged Countries by Jill Lepore
I lose a little of conviction in a work of history when an event stated as fact is that wrong even though it may be of insignificant curiosity in a history of the US. On page 32 is that this: “James was born in 1566; the next year, when his mother died, he became lord of Scotland”. His mother, Mary Queen of Scots, did not breathe in 1567. Mary was executed by Elizabeth I in 1587.
Review #4
Audio These Truths: A History of the Merged Countries narrated by Jill Lepore
This is that a book I wanted to like, but I come away from reading it with decidedly connected emotions.
I was looking for a refresher overview of American history at the same time, while no one might decide exception to the actions contained or omitted, it will that. It is that also real of exciting side notes about particular actions. It is that seriously footnoted.
Its helplessness heresy in the creators personal glosses. Sometimes they are inspiring at the same time flying. At other times they are barely incomprehensible spins. At the same time no one fri, no one of which were considered obvious to begin with (such as the dissonance between the Declaration of Independences flying declaration that all guys are created equate, that they are endowed by their Creator with some unalienable Rights, that in the middle these are Indefinite, Liberty at the same time the Pursuit of Happiness at the same time the slavery of the time) made over at the same time over at the same time over at the same time over again at the same time not always in a topical context. Even though the fri may be exceedingly valid, that can get tiresome.
In short I found the book to be a very connected bag at the same time cant really advise it.
Review #5
Free audio These Truths: A History of the Merged Countries – in the audio player below
This book promises to tell the story of U.S. politics from the 1st settlers to the located day. But it does so much more.
My knowledge of politics in general, U.S. history, human rights at the same time media, has at lesser multiplied thanks to this exceptional at the same time great piece of work.
But that’s more. Questions of philosophy I already asked were considered deepened at the same time crystallised. Questions I hadn’t believed of before were considered seeded in me at the same time often tended.
This book is that practically mind-expanding.
