Ron Thom

Great American History Ron Thom

A person could write a history story every day for the rest of his life and not come close to covering all the history of America. The history of America in the last five hundred years reflect every human experience that man possesses.

The stories selected for this book depict men, women and events of every possible description. Most of these stories are not found in high school history books, yet are influential in the development of America.

Kit Carson fought Indians, but also guided Fremont through the West. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in America at a time when women were not even thought of as citizens. Then, there is the innovative genius of the Burma-Shave signs that sold shaving cream all over the country.

History is a very delicate subject. The reader is at the mercy of the eye witness account of a persons actions or an event taking place. The eye witness from one side will see it one way while the person recording the event from the other side may see it differently. It is then up to the historian to decipher these varying accounts and determine what really happened. It is possible that both sides were wrong.

Historians have the task of inspecting as many versions of the same story as possible to come to some reasonable expectation of what actually took place. A case in point would be the story of the Alamo. Texans tell the story as they wanted it, while the Mexicans tell a story that is completely opposite (See Dequello inside).

The stories in this book have been compared and researched as honestly as it is possible to do remembering that there are precious few eye witnesses left.