Monday, January 4, 2016

*Review* The Rewriting of America's History by Catherine Millard


Genre: History/Christianity
Published: January 1, 1991
Pages: 462

Synopsis

Catherine Millard undertakes to describe how the history of America has been reinterpreted and rewritten by secularist and humanist historians who have systematically excluded much that relates to faith in God from their accounts.


Review

I started reading this book when my husband was in the military. My husband has been out of the military for over two years now. In my defense, it spent six months "missing" in a box after we moved out of military housing.

This book took me a long time to read partially because I spent a lot of time raging at the book for using faulty half-made arguments. Most of the examples the author uses to support her claims only show the information currently provided at some of our nation's historical landmarks, which does show a lack of the religious information that she believes should be provided, but it doesn't prove that anything has been changed. There is no evidence provided that shows that these landmarks have ever emphasized a Christian background. 

I also raged against the idea that the most important facet of our founding fathers' lives was their religion, which the author doesn't even have entirely correct in the first place. I personally think our founding fathers did far more important things for our nation than attend church on a regular basis. 

I really lost it, though, when she used the Pledge of Allegiance, which was changed in the 1950's to include the words "under God," as proof of our nation's Christian heritage. Words that were added during the Red Scare to "combat" Communism do not demonstrate our nation's Christian heritage, and if the founding fathers had wanted God mentioned in the pledge, he would have been from the start. 

The real kicker though, was the complaints about renovations to The Library of Congress. She talks about how the library houses many books that clearly demonstrate our nation's Christian heritage, and that these books are priceless one of a kind treasures, and then complains about them being moved to the Rare Books Reading Room, where they are no longer available to the general public. The complaint about them not being available to the general public is somewhat valid, but if they're so priceless, shouldn't she be concerned with their preservation? I feel like she needs to decide which is more important, unfettered access to the books or their preservation for generations to come. 

If you are like the author and feel that the U.S. is a Christian nation founded entirely on Christian principles, you will very likely enjoy this book. For me, it gets 1 out of 5 stars because it failed to support the arguments made in spectacular fashion. - Katie 

Buy the Book


Challenge Scorecard

I used this book to fulfill my "book I started but never finished" category for the Popsugar 2015 reading challenge, since I started it over 2 years ago, it definitely fits. 

Other categories it would fulfill include
A book by a female author
A nonfiction book
A book at the bottom of my to-read list (it dropped down there after I started it)
A book by an author I've never read before

8 comments:

  1. You are still trying to finish last years challenge and do multiple challenges this year! How do you do it?

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    Replies
    1. I'm insane. Also, I don't like not finishing things (part of why I finished this book even though it took me like 2 1/2 years to do.) - Katie

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    2. i can't go back after longer than a few months without rereading the whole thing let alone two and a half years

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  2. BTW, you are brave for finishing this book, I don't think
    I could ever read it from the sound of it. Good review.

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  3. This book was recommended by a friend who toured Washington DC several years ago. The author was her tour guide. So I'm interested to see what she has to say. As to the last comment in your review, what value is in the preservation of books if no one can view them. Just a thought.

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    Replies
    1. Books housed in the Rare Books Reading Room aren’t completely unavailable to be read, there are just restrictions to who is able to access them to ensure their integrity for years to come. Think of it like them being in the restricted section of the library at Hogwarts.

      It baffles me that I have to explain that to an adult...but based on that, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this book. - Katie

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  4. Perhaps a more indepth study of both the personal and professional lives and writings of the founders is in order. If this is the first you have read on the subject then you may not know that these people profoundly lived out their Biblically-based heritage and were not the token church attenders we are used to seeing today. To our detriment, we as a whole are far from such examples today and we do not notice that man has never been able to live out personal ideals or society's ideals no matter how noble. Only a real and living God could give fallen people such ability - the reason a wise person who knew the reality of our hearts would spend so much time in the Bible to seek meaningful and applicable transcendence from ourselves.

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  5. Thank you for the review, it will save me the time and I can move on to another book.

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