Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past

Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past by Ray Raphael
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is the first book I have read by Ray Raphael and will probably be the last. He tries to make a case for the following well known American founding events:

That Paul Revere's Ride was not as significant as most people believe
The Molly Pitcher incident never happened (I can go along with this one)
That Sam Adams was not as significant in America's founding as many believe
The Shot heard 'Round the World is a myth
The Winter at Valley Forge was just a normal (average) winter
Jefferson borrowed from lots of sources to write the Declaration of Independence
That the Founding Fathers were just ordinary men and that many other average people had their hands in founding our nation
The "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech never happen but was written several years after the fact
"Do Not Fire Till You See the Whites of Their Eyes" was a myth and could not have happen
Their were very, very few Patriotic Slaves
The British were not more brutal than the Americans
The final battle of the war was not at Yorktown
The Americans were brutal on the Indians in taking the west

The book is like a He says, She says. He tells first the popular "stories" of the founding of our nation then explains why it could not be true, sometimes quoting other people.

I'm glad I read his book but I do not believe much of what he says.

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