Least Credible History Book

[DannyW]

David Barton's The Jefferson Lies Voted the Least Credible History Book in Print



Readers of the History News Network have voted David Barton's The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believe About Thomas Jefferson the least credible history book in print in a week-long HNN poll. The book edged out Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States by nine votes at the end of polling -- 650 votes versus 641. Commenters criticized the book for its gross factual errors and political agenda -- in an email to HNN, Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter, professors at Grove City College and authors of Getting Jefferson Right: Fact Checking Claims about Our Third President, wrote that "Barton misrepresents and distorts a host of Jefferson's ideas and actions, particularly his views and practices regarding religion, slavery and church-state relations." A commenter on HNN's boards noted that the book "looks like an intentional attempt to mislead and decieve in the guise of history. "

However, the most intense discussion -- on HNN's boards, at least -- centered on the runner-up, Zinn's A People's History, with some commenters on one end condemning the book as "cheap propaganda" and "the historians equivalent of medical malpractice"; others took a more moderate line, criticizing the book as partly "caricature" and an "exercise in tortured reasoning," but praising the book for "[reminding] us of some facts about our history that make for discomfort." "[Zinn] may be criticized for giving movements from below a heroic aura," one commenter wrote, "but this is not the same as a factual misrepresentation."

Gavin Menzies's 1421: The Year China Discovered America finished a distant third, with 370 votes ("the book ... is fiction," wrote one reader), followed by Thomas DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War at 334 (full of "purposeful lies and distortions," wrote the sociologist, historian, and HNN blogger James Loewen). Bill O'Reilly's and Martin Dugard's Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever finished at the bottom, with 250 votes.

Related Links
•"And the Worst Book of History Is …" -- HNN's "Bad History Books" Poll Results Featured in the New York Times


We asked our reader community to send us their nominations for the least credible history books around, and the response was enormous (including an article in the New York Times)! From dozens and dozens of nominees, we've taken the top five most submitted