Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History
by By Shenkman, Richard
Category: History , North America

The truth and nothing but the truth—Richard Shenkman sheds light on America&#39;s most believed legends.The story of Columbus discovering the world was round was invented by Washington Irving.The pilgrims never lived in log cabins.In Concord, Massachusetts, a third of all babies born in the twenty years before the Revolution were conceived out of wedlock.Washington may have never told a lie, but he loved to drink and dance, and he fell in love with his best friend&#39;s wife.Independence wasn&#39;t declared on July 4th.There&#39;s no evidence that anyone died in a frontier shootout at high noon.After World War II, the U.S. government concluded that Japan would have surrendered within months, even if we had not bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.