Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past

Some of the reviewers critical of this book are missing the point. The author does indeed debunk some of the mythic events of our revolutionary past. However, his purpose is NOT to prove that the founders were somehow evil, or to argue that the US is not a great nation, or to make young Americans cynical, or even to show off by attacking other historians. Rather, he's arguing that the founding myths-- the amazing (and often fictional) achievements of people like Paul Revere, Molly Pitcher, Patrick Henry, etc.-- obscure an important reality: The American Revolution was one of the broadest-based political movements in human history, and all of the patriots who participated deserve credit, not just the "heroes." Why does this matter at all? Because the genius of the American idea is that we are both a nation of "the people" and a nation of individuals. Focusing on individual accomplishments obscures the truly amazing nature of the accomplishments of the founding generation as a collective whole. Further, some of the myths Raphael debunks actually distort our history in important ways. For example, the myth that the Revolution essentially ended with the British surrender at Yorktown denies the important reality that the fighting continued for more than a year afterward, and the outcome was very much in doubt for that whole time. The myth that all of the fighting in the Revolution was British vs. American patriots ignores the reality that in the southern colonies, the Revolution was a vicious civil war between American loyalists and American patriots, a struggle that was to have consequences for the next hundred years. Those who see this book as the explication of some sort of egalitarian bias are welcome to their views. However, the simple fact is that Raphael is correct. All of his analyses and assertions are supported by ample documentation, and I'd be interested in seeing the sources that the reviewers who are attacking him are relying on. This book is well worth reading and thinking about. I recommend it highly.

Often it takes time for history to prevail over mythology, but it can happen, as this author proves. The book is well documented, and the references check out. The one-star reviews speak for themselves - neither really addresses any of the issues raised in any substantive manner. Yes, Americans have generated their own mythology surrounding what Americans consider to be key events or key instruction points in their history. No surprise there - every nation does that. (The Serbs still celebrate a massive defeat on the plains of Kosovo in 1389, almost 620 years ago!) The author's point is that the truth actually reveals more about what is most laudable in the American character than do the myths. He argues quite convincingly that the truth is both more interesting and more worthy of remembrance than are the myths. His arguments are thoroughly footnoted and his sources are well documented. I will not spoil the book for those who have not yet read it, but I do highly recommend it to any and all who are more interested in truth than in mythology.

Ray Raphael has written a well documented, episodic guide to introduce the casual reader to the America Revolution as some of it actually happened as well as a simple primer on historiography. Thank goodness this work is being done and finding an audience beyond the professional journals. The whiny and critical reviewers obviously already have their minds made up about Raphael. Nobody wants anyone to feel guilty about America, just proud and knowledgeable!

As with many books that challenge peoples closely held beliefs, Ray Raphael's Founding Myths is sure to stimulate love and hate. As for myself, having been a student of American history for 40 years, I found this book fascinating, well researched, well written and entertaining. As a conservative and unbiased reader, the book appears to me to be a straight forward telling of the truth, substantiated by meticulously researched documentation. The plain and simple fact, (one that Mr. Raphael has covered in prior books), is that the American Revolution was truly a revolution of the people. Our children need to learn this fact before they can truly appreciate the foundations of our current state. Certainly they cannot be harmed knowing the truth. Even more certainly, they can only benefit from learning that history is not simple and that it is not made up solely of the actions of a few, regardless of how significant the contributions of the few may be. Mr. Raphael does not discount or diminish the character or contributions of our "founding fathers" but he does shine a long neglected light on the many thousands of individuals and individual acts by "common" people that brought about the United States. I believe this book will serve as a wonderful adjunct to the teaching of American history in schools, particularly elementary education. The rote, misleading and often just plain wrong history being promulgated throughout our nation's schools is not doing our children any service but instilling in them the twin concepts of hero worship and blind faith in myths and fairy tales. This book will help them learn to look at history and the world they live in with a more critical and less naïve eye.

I really like reading about the founding fathers and colonial/revolutionary history. After reading this and Raphael's other two Revolutionary era books, however, I don't think I will see things in the same way. The fact is that many of the "revolutionary ideas" the founding fathers espoused had been around for years and were not that revolutionary after all (except for some of their ideas on religion, to which some were either indifferent or openly hostile); Massachusetts was basically an independent state before the Declaration of Independence without the help or assistance of the founding fathers; and that the people, not a group of 8 or so rich guys, played a much more important role in America's independence (in fact, like today, the rich didn't even fight - they bought their way out). The main point of this book is that our current views of history allow us to disregard the contributions of the many, who bear the most costs, to the benefit of the few, who bear little if any cost (I doubt any of the soldiers fighting in today's wars will see any oil money, while the president and his friends, who have never fought in any wars, will benefit handsomly). The fact that people, not the rich, were the main drivers behind the revolution is a revolutionary idea. What could be more patriotic than that?