The Ten Big Lies About America

A quick look at the first 5 lies and the approach the book takes to answering them.

1. America's founding brought genocide to Native Americans
Disease, not massacres, caused 95% of the population reduction associated with European contact -- and the claims of deliberate infection (those pesky "small pox blankets") are unsubstantiated, sensationalized and profoundly misleading. The recent explosion of U.S. citizens claiming trendy Indian ancestry indicates that intermarriage and assimilation also claimed far more losses to native numbers than any non-existent program of deliberate extermination.

2. U.S. bears unique and lasting guilt for the crime of slavery
Slavery was an evil, eternal and universal institution; the U.S. played no unique role in establishing it or benefiting from it, but did play a major, disproportionate part in achieving its abolition. Less than 5% of all African captives transported across the Atlantic were ever bound for British North America or the new United States. American wealth also stemmed from industrialization and immigrant labor far more than slavery; that's why the Northern States enjoyed every economic advantage over the South on the eve of the War Between the States.

3. The Founders intended a secular, not Christian, nation
Colonists didn't come to the New World to escape religion, but to establish their own religious utopias, in which faith and government inevitably intertwined. Anyone doubting the deeply religious nature of early America should consider the patriotic songs our citizens have always sung -- from "Chester," the real marching song of the Revolution ("New England's God Forever Reigns"), to "America the Beautiful" ("God Shed His Grace on Thee"), to "The Star Spangeld Banner" (last verse: "And This Be Our Motto: In God is Our Trust"), to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" ("In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea"). For the first three hundred years since Plymouth Rock, no one ever confused a secular government (which the First Amendment demands) with a secular society.

4. America has always been a multicultural society, strengthened by diversity
From the beginning, our founders hailed a new American identity ("this new man") that involved leaving past cultures and traditions behind. Until the 1960's, virtually all national leaders understood that assimilation (or, more proudly, "Americanization") strengthened the country, while honoring old-loyalties (Teddy Roosevelt's dreaded "hyphenated American") undermined the society's ideals. The term "The Melting Pot" came from a hit Broadway play that can still inspire and referred to the forging of unbreakable metal -- not a style of cooking.

5. Corporate America oppresses ordinary citizens
There's nothing "Un-American" about corporations -- in fact, these economic organizations (like "The Virginia Company") actually launched our first colonies in Jamestown, Plymouth and elsewhere. Every aspect of U.S. power, prosperity and comfort depends on the economic progress of big business. The public reverence for "small business" and resentment of "big business" makes no sense, since all the most successful small businesses eventually get big. Corporations brought hope and advancement to far more Americans than politicians, social workers or even community organizers.