America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation by Kenneth C. Davis

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Kenneth C. Davis's Don't Know Much About History transformed the line of a Simon & Garfunkel lyric first into a resilient bestseller and then into a hit series. In America's Hidden History, he ventures into America's much-mythologized colonial history with the same light touch that made his earlier episodic narratives so popular.

From the Publisher

Kenneth C. Davis, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller Don't Know Much About History, presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation's destiny and character. Davis's dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation's fate hung in the balance.

Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in America to George Washington's inauguration in 1789, America's Hidden History details these episodes, among others:

• The story of the first real Pilgrims in America, who were wine-making French Huguenots, not dour English Separatists
• The coming-of-age story of Queen Isabella, who suggested that Columbus pack the moving mess hall of pigs that may have spread disease to many Native Americans
• The long, bloody relationship between the Pilgrims and Indians that runs counter to the idyllic scene of the Thanksgiving feast
• The little-known story of George Washington as a headstrong young soldier who committed a war crime, signed a confession, and started a war!

Full of color, intrigue, and human interest, America's Hidden History is an iconoclastic look at America's past, connecting some of the dots between history and today's headlines, proving why Davis is truly America's Teacher.

John Carver Edwards - Library Journal

Best-selling author Davis (Don't Know Much About History) here treats the "human factor" in American history, an ingredient often ignored by survey texts that stress dates, battles, and court decisions. With coverage from the 1519 arrival of the Spanish in the New World to George Washington's 1789 presidential inauguration, its central themes are the acquisition of wealth and land, the retention of political power, and the overarching force of religious fanaticism and its resulting conflict. Davis examines how the backfiring of a British plot to assassinate rebel leaders John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Joseph Warren perhaps saved the American Revolution's core leadership; how the Revolution's most successful officer, Benedict Arnold, came to be this nation's most despised traitor; and how Shays's Rebellion in January 1787 set the scene for the constitutional convention that met in Philadelphia that spring. With his witty and irreverent view of this country's Colonial and revolutionary past, he ably shows that the success or failure of isolated events can have national and international consequences. May we expect a sequel to this delightful effort? Recommended for Colonial and American Revolution collections in all libraries.

What People Are Saying

Ron Powers
"Writing from a rich font of scholarship, seasoning the facts with wit, irony and a novelist's eye for telling detail, Kenneth C. Davis has conjured back to life some of the most fascinating figures of America's founding decades."--(Ron Powers, co-author of Flags of Our Fathers)

Joy Hakim
"You'll learn lots in this engaging book of true, and often important, stories from U.S. history. These aren't the tales you'll find in most textbooks."--(Joy Hakim, author of A History of US)

Richard M. Cohen
"Once again Ken Davis proves that what you don't know can be shocking. Do yourself a favor. Read this book."--(Richard M. Cohen, author of Strong at the Broken Places)

Product Details

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Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Isabella's Pigs

1469
Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon are married.

1492
The Reconquest (la reconquista) forces the last Moors out of Spain.

As part of a revived Inquisition, all Jews are forced to convert or leave Spain.

Christopher Columbus arrives in the Caribbean; he names Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and founds the settlement of La Navidad.

1497
John Cabot, an Italian sailing for England, sights North America, probably around Newfoundland, and claims the territory for England.

1501
Amerigo Vespucci, sailing for Portugal, reaches the South American coast. Upon his return, he writes to his patron, Lorenzo de' Medici, that he has voyaged to a "new world." A mapmaker attaches Amerigo's name to the New World.

1509
Henry VIII is crowned king of England and marries Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.

1516
King Ferdinand dies; Charles I, grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, inherits the Spanish throne.

1528
Pánfilo de Narváez, accompanied by Cabeza de Vaca, leads a Spanish attempt to conquer Florida.

1531
King Henry VIII divorces Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy declares the king to be the head of the Church of England, completing the break with Rome.

1536
John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is published, expanding the Protestant Reformation.

1539-1543
Hernando de Soto leads a Spanish army through the Southeast; de Soto dies on the banks of the Mississippi on May 21, 1542.

1553
Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, becomes queen of England. In 1554, she marries Philip II, the future king of Spain, but dies childless in 1558.

1556
Philip II becomes king of Spain.

1558
Queen Elizabeth I succeeds her half sister Queen Mary.

1564
French Huguenots establish Fort Caroline near the St. Johns River in Florida.

1565
St. Augustine, Florida, founded.

Fort Caroline massacre.

1588
The Spanish Armada is defeated by a smaller British fleet.