So, today, I see a barista at my local Starbucks reading, A Patriot’s History of the United States. For a moment, I thought it was Zinn’s People’s History, because the authors of Patriot’s History borrow so heavily from his cover and book design. We know that Patriot’s History is the usual drivel, in no small part because of its paucity of meaningful footnotes. Not so shockingly, the authors seek to “correct” liberal historians, not recognizing that historians come in many ideological shapes and sizes. But, mostly they fail to appreciate that history is built around social science principles–evidence (in this case the use of primary sources), engagement in the broad scholarly literature, and careful reasoning. Social science like science is not infallible but it has the lovely value of being cumulative and falsifiable. (Of course, this book comes from the same folks who reject the science of global warming, so this is hardly surprising.)

Anyway, I wondered if this book had been reviewed by anyone with any scholarly credentials. It has. See David Hoogland Noon, Schweikart, Larry and Michael Allen. A Patriot’s History of the United States in The History Teacher, May 2007. Well worth reading.