American History Revised

American History Revised is a book by Seymour Harris Jr. detailing some historical accounts which have been omitted from textbooks and many other history books.

In a chapter titled “Forgotten by History” he writes: “In 1506 a compilation of Vespucci’s letters was published in pamphlet form, titled ‘The Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci’. For the next twenty-five years, it was a bestseller, published in some forty editions, and outselling the dull journals of Columbus by three to one. In 1507 a book of geography appeared, Cosmographiae Introductio, identifying the new continent as ‘America’. The author eventually realized that Vespucci’s claims of discovery were false and soon removed the name America, but by then it was too late: Vespucci’s bestseller had won the day... History is brutal in who becomes famous and doesn’t. Said Theodore Roosevelt after leaving office in 1910, ‘If there is not the great war, you don’t get the great general’”, (P. 34-35). And that is how America became the title of a continent and the name of fifty plus united states and territories which geographically occupies a landmass that makes it one of the largest countries in the world, with the greatest power in technology and military.

Someone said words are cheap. Anyone can utter anything, but anything a famous or wealthy person says, goes far and stays in the chronicles of history. For instance “democracy” is what most of rich and wealthy Western countries are considered to have. With the knowledge that only those with means can become political leaders in these countries, democracy finds a different meaning. Anyone who likes to occupy any public office through elections has to pay dearly in order to gather enough votes for that office, no matter how small or large the position is. In this case, democracy does not mean that people are free to select anyone for the office and free to choose what they desire to do, as freedom comes in degrees, relevant to the amount of wealth one has. Of course, to be an elected official, not only wealth is important, but also how one can lie and fool people and tell them what they would like to hear. But by the time the official is elected, people have hopefully forgotten all the niceties and promises. “When millions of Americans and foreigners visit the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC and enthrall themselves with the powerful words ‘All Men Are Created Equal’ and ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ they should remember that Jefferson was a slave owner who once wrote, ‘Blacks are inferior to whites in the endowments both of body and mind.’ Jefferson changed his views upon meeting Benjamin Banneker, inventor of the first clock in America, renowned scientist, and author of widely read almanacs”, (P .42).

Religion atrocities are rarely mentioned in history books, as religion (or stupefying people) is good for the establishment. One example is the massacre of 1857 by Mormons: “At about this time, a wagon train of 137 people from Arkansas heading for California happened to stop in Utah for a week’s rest. The Mormons fidgety and nervous, resolved to kill them and keep their eight hundred cattle and sixty horses as booty... To this day, the Mormon Church has never fully acknowledged its role in America’s most infamous massacre. In 1998, the head of the church spoke at the dedication of a new memorial at the Mountain Meadows site. ‘It is time to leave the entire matter in the hands of God,’ he said, ‘It cannot be recalled. It cannot be changed.’ But it can be remembered. There is hardly a history book of the United States nowadays that mentions what was considered at the time the ‘darkest deed of the century.’ It is a day easy to remember: 1857, September 11”, (P. 49-51).

Many energy companies in the United States are named Edison, in memory of the inventor of electricity. The question is; was Edison really the person who invented and popularized the electricity that is used in every household; Alternating Current? In fact, not only he did not invent it, he even fought against it, in order to replace it with his product, Direct Current. The inventor of electricity, the form of electric power which is used all over the world, AC, was Nicolai Tesla, who was unknown until Elon Musk decided to give him the credit he deserved, by naming his brand car Tesla. Not only he invented electricity, the internet that is widely used is also his brainchild, in addition to many other inventions such as solar power. “During the 1890s and early 1900s, when the most exciting technology of the day was electricity, the foremost physicist was Nikola Tesla, father of alternating current, the basis of today’s electrical distribution system. He was one of the most famous men in the world, a celebrity as well as a scientist. Living in high style in New York, eating lunch every day at his personal table at the Waldorf-Astoria, entertaining such luminaries as Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan, and William K. Vanderbilt, Nikola Tesla made front-page newspaper copy... the ultimate dreamer whose prodigious scientific experiments from the basis of modern-day radar, tube lighting, X-rays, MRI, robotics, rocket engines, solar energy, and Star Wars. He had 111 U.S. patents and more than seven hundred worldwide... Yet Tesla hardly appears in the history books. Look up radio, and the inventor named Marconi, even though the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated his patents as ‘absurd’ and awarded the discovery to earlier patents filed by Tesla. Look up electricity, and far more is written about Edison, even though his technology lost out to Tesla’s superior technology”, (P. 54,55). The reason for his anonymity is not that he was a foreigner who landed here as a young man, but because he died poor. He was documented to have been very generous, and with no appetite for wealth. When his co-owned company was about to bankrupt, in order to make his partner survive, he gave all his shares of the partnership to his partner, to make sure that the partner, Westinghouse, who had a large family, would survive. Westinghouse did survive and his name became a brand name for some electric appliances, thanks to Tesla. When Tesla died, his friends provided funds for his burial since he had left no money, while FBI sealed his room to take all his paperwork for examination, which were the bases for wave signal and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) and many other scientific innovations.

Let see how one of the most famous and the most prestigious American universities was established: “In the following year, 1675, there occurred King Phillip’s war; between the European settlers and the Indians, in which twelve towns were burned to the ground and the state incurred debts that exceeded the value of all personal property in Massachusetts. The college’s future president prayed to God to cut off the head of the Indian leader; within a week his prayers were answered, and the Indian chief’s head was delivered and the college, where the president-elect’s son, a sophomore, took pleasure in personally removing the jaw. Gory times. That school became Harvard University”, (P.82).

In early 1900s, it took cigarette-manufacturing companies a great deal of advertisement by getting assistance from the largest marketing company in order to create this habit for the other half non-smoking Americans, women. The same public relation corporation that made the public addicted to nicotine, has recently helped to replace it with e-cigarettes and marijuana. What is important in a capitalist system is the business. Health and other social issues are secondary. “In America today, the anti-tobacco lobby continues to grow, with more and more government regulations and public buildings insisting on a smoke-free environment, whereas in Europe smoking is much more common. It used to be just the reverse. Tobacco originated in Virginia, and flourished there to such an extent that there arose the popular saying, ‘Virginia’s prosperity is based on smoke,’ whereas in Europe the reaction to tobacco was rabidly negative...The pope forbade members of the church to use snuff. In Transylvania (now Romania), farmers found to be growing tobacco would have their farms confiscated. In Russia, by order of the tsar, anyone caught smoking had his nose cut off. The rationale behind these government attitudes toward tobacco- pro in America and con in Europe- had nothing to do with health or polite manners, but with economics. Tobacco is extremely demanding on the soil, and requires ever-expanding amounts of land just to keep production constant. Europe, aware of the need to maintain land to be able to raise sufficient food, recognized the shortsightedness of cultivating tobacco. Colonial America, with millions of new acres available, never had this constraints”, (P.82-83).

It has been noted that couples can survive a relationship much better before they become parents. Raising children is the one dispute most of the parents have, as to how liberal or restrictive a parent should be towards a child. In this book, the way children were raised in the 18^th century by pilgrims (migrant Europeans to the United States) is discussed, which has been harsh and with brutal restrictions. Then, it is compared with methods natives used to raise their children: “Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, in his book of 1782, Letters from an American Farmer, was fascinated to observe that many white children captured by Indians refused to be reunited with their parents when rescued years-or even months- after separation. He noted about Indians: ‘There must be in their social bond, something singularly captivating and far superior to anything to be boasted among us.’ Benjamin Franklin noted likewise; when white children were captured and raised by Indians, and later returned to white society, ‘in a short time they became disgusted with our manner of life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good opportunity of escaping again into the woods.’ He went on to observe, ‘Happiness is more generally and equally diffus’d among Savages than in civilized societies. No European who has tasted savage life can afterwards bear to live in our societies.’ In fact, so many European settlers after Columbus landed in 1492 had defected to join various Indian tribes that Sir Francis Bacon had written in the early 1600s: ‘It hath often been seen that a Christian gentleman, well born and bred, and gently nurtured will, of his own free will, quit his high station and luxurious world, to dwell with savages and live their lives taking part in all their savagery. But never yet hath it been seen that a savage will, of his own free will give up his savagery, and live the life of a civilized man’”, (P.85-86). The interesting thing about those quotations is their statements regarding young and adult migrants’ desire to live the way of natives and would scape to the natives’ territories in order to live with them, and still authors of these chronicles call the way natives lived savagery and the way immigrants lived was called civilized!

Their used to be a competition between Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, which it does probably not exist any longer since so many different kinds of drinks; dark, clear, yellow, orange, and others have filled the market, and there are a conglomerate or two owning them all. “In 1886 a pharmacist in Atlanta invented a concoction called Coca-Cola. It was not a soft drink, but a mouthwash and gargle, guaranteed ‘to whiten the teeth, cleanse the mouth, and cure tender and bleeding gums.’ When the mouthwash market failed to materialize, the pharmacist repositioned his product as family beverage to taste and swallow. One problem with this new strategy, however, was the substantial amount of cocaine in the drink [hence the name ‘Coca-Cola’]. In 1903 the formula was altered and the label stated, ‘Cocaine Removed’”, (P.93-94).

Let see what America looked like at the beginning of last century, year 1900: “The population was 76 million. The average life expectancy was forty-five years, which is not surprising given that 90 percent of doctors had no college education...Only 4 percent of the population made it to age sixty-five... The leading cause of death was pneumonia/influenza, followed by tuberculosis and then diarrhea... Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all readily available over the counter... Hamburgers appeared on the market for the first time, in New Haven, Connecticut. Nobody other than Italian immigrants ate spaghetti. Only 14 percent of homes had a bathtub... 18 percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help... Twenty percent of adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent of Americans had graduated from high school. Factory workers and coal miners, including children, worked a twelve-to-sixteen-hour day to make one to two dollars... many immigrant workers couldn’t survive on such low pay; many immigrants gave up and returned home. The average wage was twenty-two cents an hour... Low income and lack of education, however, did not mean a high crime rate as so many sociologists today claim. There were only 230 murders that year in the entire country... Many Americans wondered why the United States, hitherto an isolated country, was sending troops to Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti, not to mention getting involved in faraway conflicts in the Philippines and China... there were only 150 miles of paved roads in the entire country... The leading automotive technology was Thomas Edison’s battery-powered vehicle... One third of America’s eight thousand cars were electric-powered... There were only handful of foreign cars, thanks to a U.S. 45 percent import tax on European car manufacturers. To buy a Mercedes Benz, you went to a New York City department store”, (P.100-101-102-103).

An interesting article by Pew Research compared percentage of people praying in some countries with average GDP per capita and distribution of income. United States is the most religious country behind 30 other countries, almost all in Africa or in the Middle East. 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christian.  A research by Telegraph, ranked twenty most and least religious countries. The most religious countries in this survey with the percentage of religiosity are: Ethiopia (99%), Malawi (99%), Niger (99%), Sri Lanka (99%), Yemen (99%), Burundi (98%),Djibouti (98%), Mauritania (98%), Somalia (98%), Afghanistan (97%), Comoros (97%), Egypt (97%), Guinea (97%), Laos (97%), Myanmar (97%), Cambodia (96%), Cameroon (96%), Jordan (96%), Senegal(96%), Chad (95%). And United States is ten countries down from this list according to the US News article. The least religious countries along with the percentage of religiosity are: China (7%), Japan (13%), Estonia (16%), Sweden (19%), Norway (21%), Czech Republic (23%), Hong Kong (26%), Netherlands (26%), Israel (30%), United Kingdom (30%), New Zealand (33%), Australia (34%), Azerbaijan (34%), Belarus (34%), Cuba (34%), Germany (34%), Vietnam (34%), Spain (37%), Switzerland (38%), Albania (39%). According to Wikipedia, ten happiest countries by ranking are: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, and Austria. One needs to compare these ten countries with the second list. The reason for the United States being so religious is that its founding fathers escaped religious prosecution in Europe. In addition, since capitalism requires a mass of consumers to have a habit of buying without thinking much about it, a stupefied nation is the best. That is why religion, sports (competition), gambling, and cheap entertainment occupy most of Americans’ time. In 1789: “Every colony had its own official religion. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were Congregational; Rhode Island was Baptist (although other protestant sects were still welcome); New York and New Jersey were Dutch Reformed; Delaware was Lutheran; Pennsylvania was Quaker; Maryland was Catholic; and Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia were Anglican (Episcopal). Anybody emigrating to America would have been well advised to check just where the boat was going. Interlopers and infidels were not welcome. Twelve of the thirteen colonies, for example, had strident anti-Quaker laws. When puritan Massachusetts banished several Quakers and they tried to return to Boston, it hanged them”, (P.118).

United States in over two centuries of independence has seen many entrepreneurs with humanistic missions and many with a hunger for wealth. The ones who dictate the policy of the nation, the hidden government, are in a fraternity organized by the second group. With such leaders, the government has been an expansionist state since its foundation. There are many books written about American imperialistic wars and its military interference into other countries for the benefit of minority capitalists, the most famous ones authored by Howard Zinn. “At the end of the 1898 Spanish-American war, many luminaries such as presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, ex-president Grover Cleveland, Henry Adams, and Mark Twain were appalled at the prospect of the United States hanging on to the Philippines after ‘liberating’ it from Spain and paying Spain $20 million in compensation. Equally appalled was Andrew Carnegie. ‘Is it possible that the American republic is to be placed in the position of the suppressor of the Philippine struggle for independence?’ Carnegie asked. Backing his words with deeds, he offered to reimburse the U.S. its $20 million in return for Filipino independence. Carnegie was turned down, and so America embarked on a futile guerrilla war costing hundreds of American lives and ending with ten thousand Filipinos dead. Nathan Straus was a Russian immigrant who founded Macy’s, the world’s largest department store. But his passion was children’s health: for more than twenty years he financed milk stations so that needy children could get pasteurized milk, and saved the lives of almost 450,000 children... Straus died a bachelor in 1931, leaving an estate of only $1 million. That’s all that was left of his great fortune. His will stated, ‘what you give for the cause of charity in health is gold, what you give in sickness is silver, and what you give in death is lead’”, (P.126).

It is extremely important to realize what sort of government represent us. Almost every elected official, and any candidate for an office claims the United States to be a democracy. Considering the structure of elections, qualification for voting, in the past that non-European ancestry and women could not vote, until now that voting is regulated by states, United States government is not democratically elected. As it is explained next, a different form of government was in the mind of the founding fathers. “The United States is not a democracy, never was, and never was intended to be. It is a republic. The Founding Fathers were very explicit about this. Said Alexander Hamilton, ‘We are now forming a Republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship.’ Warned Thomas Jefferson (who rarely agreed with Hamilton on anything, but he did here), ‘The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.’... Dictatorship is rule by one man, democracy is rule by the masses (i.e., the mob)... The United States, said Benjamin Franklin, ‘is a republic, if you can keep it.’ Said John Adams, ‘you have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or retrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of Universe’”, (P.135).

One may think that the author of this book, discovering and disclosing so many facts about the United States would have understood the reason behind America claiming to be indispensable and exceptional. “At the end of the Mexican war, the U.S. added Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and California to the borders. When President Polk asked the Senate to ratify the treaty with Mexico, a dozen senators objected and said no. Why?... in fact, the American expansion across the West and on to the Pacific is not the history of imperialism, but the denial of it. The dozen senators who wanted to annex Mexico were a minority at the time, and also throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries...The prospect of annexing Mexico intrigued the Founding Fathers; in 1798 Alexander Hamilton, retired from office after serving as Washington’s treasury secretary and most powerful advisor, drew up specific plans for taking over Mexico. His fellow Federalist, President John Adams, said no (Hamilton must be ‘stark mad,’ he said). In 1846 the U.S. finally took over Texas, a full ten years after Texas had won independence from Mexico and sought American statehood”, (P.143). Wait a minute! Texans are still vying for independence. The most number, by far, of confederate flags in the South are in Texas, in addition to their own lone star flag. We should recall that Texas was annexed less than a decade after its independence, through back door dealing of the Union president to confirm his next term in the office. This annexation ignited a war on Texas borders with Mexico.

American politicians repeat the phrase that America is indispensable and exceptional, and that is the fact! This exceptional character and indispensability have been gained through several thoughtful and at the same time vicious mechanisms. “Said Henry Adams in 1869, ‘That the whole continent of North America and all its adjacent islands must at last fall under the control of the United States is a conviction absolutely ingrained in our people...In 1907 the powerful speaker of the house, Champ Clark, led the ratification of the proposed reciprocity treaty with Canada: ‘I hope to see the day when the American flag will float over every square foot of the British North American possessions clear to the North Pole...Cuba was left untouched, the Philippines were set free forty years later, Puerto Rico remained an affiliate, and it was not until 1960 that Alaska and Hawaii became states...(P. 144).

Economically and financially, U.S. is superior to all other countries, thanks to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund that has raised Dollar to become the instrument of exchange in international trades. United States is again number one in international communication, as Google, Facebook, tweeter, and many other communication platforms were founded here. Artistically, Hollywood has been the number one entertainment center of the world, along with Disney World and other similar entertainment destinations. But the most important factor is military, having over four hundred military bases or other military establishments all over the world. “American soldiers in Vietnam complained bitterly about the lack of support from their fellow Americans at home. But nonsupport for our fighting men is nothing new. Profiteering in war and dodging the draft are long-standing American traditions. During the American Revolution, almost as many inhabitants of the American colonies fought for the British as for the Continental Army: seven thousand loyalists versus eight thousand patrons...The 1863 Enrollment Act, requiring all able-bodied males to register for three-year service, was not well received: New York City was racked by a bloody four-day draft riot, and thousands of recruits- including a future U.S. president, Grover Cleveland- paid the government a $300 “commutation” fee to escape service... Not having enough soldiers is a common American dilemma- and a brake against militarism”, (P. 144-145). However, American militarism could not be halted or even slowed down since the expansionist wars have always been ignited by those who had enough money (such as Cleveland) to excuse themselves from military service. Recently, the new instrument for soldier recruitment is, in addition to glorifying the duty (convincing Americans to murder non-Americans under the flag of nationalism), has been the policy of keeping an army of jobless and hungry in order to create the largest military in the world. When money becomes number one determining factor in education and health and other social services, those who have been poor get poorer, and the ones who have traditionally been at the bottom of the social and economic scale (with a non-white majority) have worsened conditions. As a result, they occupy the majority of the spaces of prisons and military bases, according to many surveys about race and poverty in prison and in military.

There have been many politicians, and even some presidents, who did not plan and wish for this country to embark on an imperialistic posture, but the trend is clear throughout the pages of history to be nothing but imperialistic. An invisible government has been getting stronger since the end of the Second World War, to the point that presidents such as Trump and Obama become nothing but tools in the hands of this government. Sometimes members of the hidden government get the presidential power, such as Reagan and his vice-president, Bush. Some politicians in the legislative section of the government, such as Nancy Pelosi, openly promulgate for the hidden government. A good example is presidency of Donald Trump. This real estate mogul does not favor wars as a matter of business consideration. One of the reasons he was elected was his promise of ending wars, which was accepted by the majority of people who do not wish having their sons in endless wars outside of the borders. Of course when such soldiers make it back to the U.S., with their war-weary mind they create an environment that makes the whole of the United States the most aggressive nation, with the highest rate of homicide per capita. Of course, Trump has so many personas that can be used to destroy him as a politician, such as racism, sexism, lack of political ingenuity, speaking anything that comes to mind, and many others. Again, as a result of his business which would only flourish during the peacetime, he tried to befriend Chinese and Russians and Koreans, and whoever United States government dictates as arch enemy. In every step of the way to achieve his promises, he was pushed back by the hidden government. As soon as he decided to retaliate, they started an impeachment proceeding. These hearings are also so beneficial for the Democratic favorite candidate, Joe Biden, that no journalist even tried to check the relationship that Biden and his son had with the Nazi government of Ukraine. Democratic Party has found itself during this election in a situation that is very hard to overcome. The most popular candidates either claim or lean towards the left, such as Sanders and Warren and Ocasio Cortez. Therefore, Biden’s name being repeated many times during the sham hearing that even the most claiming left media broadcasts, is useful to the large section of the party which is dominated by the hidden government.