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The 10 Big Lies About America: Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation |  | Author: Michael Medved
Publisher: Crown Forum
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
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Seller: HPB-Outlet
Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 151824
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 280
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1
ISBN: 0307394069
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780307394064
ASIN: 0307394069
Publication Date: November 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble,nineteenth-century humorist Josh Billings remarked. “It’s the things we know that just ain’t so.”
In this bold and brilliantly argued book, acclaimed author and talk-radio host Michael Medved zeroes in on ten of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country—in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary. In The 10 Big Lies About America, Medved pinpoints the most pernicious pieces of America-bashing disinformation that pollute current debates about the economy, race, religion in politics, the Iraq war, and other contentious issues.
The myths that Medved deftly debunks include:
Myth: The United States is uniquely guilty for the crime of slavery and based its wealth on stolen African labor.
Fact: The colonies that became the United States accounted for, at most, 3 percent of the abominable international slave trade; the persistence of slavery in America slowed economic progress; and the U.S. deserves unique credit for ending slavery.
Myth: The alarming rise of big business hurts the United States and oppresses its people.
Fact: Corporations played an indispensable role in building America, and corporate growth has brought progress that benefits all with cheaper goods and better jobs.
Myth: The Founders intended a secular, not Christian, nation.
Fact: Even after ratifying the Constitution, fully half the state governments endorsed specific Christian denominations. And just a day after approving the First Amendment, forbidding the establishment of religion, Congress called for a national “day of public thanksgiving and prayer” to acknowledge “the many signal favors of Almighty God.”
Myth: A war on the middle class means less comfort and opportunity for the average American.
Fact: Familiar campaign rhetoric about the victimized middle class ignores the overwhelming statistical evidence that the standard of living keeps rising for every segment of the population, as well as the real-life experience of tens of millions of middle-class Americans.
Each of the ten lies—widely believed among elites and taught as truth in universities and public schools—is a grotesque, propagandistic distortion of the historical record. For everyone who is tired of hearing America denigrated by people who don’t know what they’re talking about, The 10 Big Lies About America supplies the ammunition necessary to fire back the next time somebody tries to recycle these baseless beliefs. Medved’s witty, well-documented rebuttal is a refreshing reminder that as Americans we should feel blessed, not burdened, by our heritage.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 95
 Where we're going... July 16, 2010
profe
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Fear driven, right wing trash that seeks to justify the global legacy of the American Problem...what else is new? This is just the latest evidence that the United States of today is a charter member of the intellectual and cultural third world. You really have to wonder what the Tea Partyers are trying to do? Hmmmm you split from the Republican party because they were too conciliatory or "middle of the road"? Interesting, considering where that would put you on the traditional political spectrum. You guys throw "socialist" and "communist" around so much that it leaves the impression that you believe your movement to exist to counterract any imagined socialist presence in the United States????? Today's trivia question: If politically you're the polar opposite of a socialist or a communist, then that makes you a _______??? Ever notice how much ideological common ground exists between the Tea Party and the Modern Skinhead movement? Food for thought. Fear and anger don't often make for rational thought. I'm sure this book will enjoy great success!
"9 big lies that conservatives falsely claim that liberals make about America" February 22, 2010
Humble Consumer (Ogden, UT)
8 out of 18 found this review helpful
Yes, I actually bought and read this book. Medved creates 9 false assertions and of course the implication is that it is lies spread to denigrate the US by liberals. I say nine because the only claim that I agree with is that we liberals do not believe the founding fathers intended to create a Christian nation. He gives very weak evidence of his assertion. Yes, John Adams and Jefferson attended church services but it doesn't mean that they intended this country to be ruled by Christian philosophy. I find it curious that a conservative Jew would kowtow to the worst lie spread by the right so that he can continue to make a living catering to the worst part of our current political climate.
The other nine "lies" he sets up are of his own creation. Yes, he backs up his straw man assertions with some cherry picked quotes. But it is a false assertion that liberals are spreading these lies. Then he attempts to knock down his own straw man arguments with pretty weak evidence. The book should be titled "9 big lies that conservatives falesly claim that liberals make about America"
Right Wing Postmodernism February 21, 2010
R. Johnson
4 out of 19 found this review helpful
Medved chooses his polemic then distorts the questions and cherry-picks quotes to support it. This book disregards the facts and the spirit of the truth. This is not like what you have learned in school because the 10 big lies are the ones Medved tells; it is simply not the truth. His apologetic, with a few distorted exceptions, ignores both the primary sources and the best scholarship on the subjects about which he writes. The one-sided half-truths that are the result disgust me. At best this is an apology for the perspective of the far right, but even as that, this fails in its comprehensiveness, accuracy, and fairness. It is a fine example of the current phenomenon of far right Christian post-modernism; let's rewrite our historical narrative to fit our irrational world view, regardless of its connection with reality. Put Medved's scholarship on a par with death panels, Obama's fake birth certificate, WWMD in Iraq, the faking of the moon landing, alien abductions,evolution....
 Every American Should Read February 1, 2010
Allan M. Ringering
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Our monopolized Federal and State school systems would like our children to believe that American is responsible for significant crimes against humanity. Michael Medved writes about the actual contributions of American. This is a book that should be read by concerned parents of young school-aged children.
The 10 Big Lies About America January 30, 2010
Patrick Mahaney
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Well-written and thoroughly documented. A page-turner even if you're not a history buff. Mr. Medved convincingly lays down -- page after page -- a challenge to the "pop-history" we've been taught that blames America for practically everything. A must read for everyone, especially young people, to get an alternative view to what is taught in schools today. I encourage parents to share the book with their children.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 95
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