LIES, LEGENDS & CHERISHED MYTHS OF AMERICAN...

LIES, LEGENDS & CHERISHED MYTHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY by Richard Shenkman (Harper Perennial: $7.95). Shenkman gleefully hacks some of the most sacred cows in the American iconography into so many Big Macs in this debunking history. Everyone knows George Washington didn’t really chop that cherry tree down, but few people realize there is no evidence that the Liberty Bell--which wasn’t named until 1839--was rung when independence was declared. (The city of Philadelphia tried to sell the bell for scrap in 1828, but no interested buyers could be found.) Despite the enduring popularity of rags-to-riches stories, Andrew Johnson was the only U.S. President actually born into poverty; although Abraham Lincoln’s family seems poor by contemporary standards, they were considered well-off by their neighbors. The respect children supposedly once expressed toward their elders also turns out to be a myth: Such unflattering terms as old goat, geezer and old cornstalk entered the popular vocabulary shortly after the Revolutionary War. Shenkman’s account of these popular misconceptions is entertaining but superficial; a more thoroughly detailed and documented account would be more valuable.