Don't Know Much

Don’t Know Much About® History

The Revised, Expanded and Updated Edition

Who really discovered America? What was “the shot heard ‘round the world”? Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: Did he or didn’t he?

From the arrival of Columbus through the bizarre election of 2000 and beyond, Davis carries readers on a rollicking ride through more than 500 years of American history. In this updated edition of the classic anti-textbook, he debunks, recounts, and serves up the real story behind the myths and fallacies of American history.

A new, completely revised, expanded and updated edition of the million-selling New York Times bestseller that launched the entire Don’t Know Much About® series.  Available in trade paperback and ebook from HARPERCOLLINS


Did You Know?

  • In 1963, America was buzzing with talk about Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique.
  • German subs destroyed nearly 4.5 million tons of Allied ships in the first two months of 1940.
  • The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill.
  • Richard Nixon used more than $10 million in government funds for improvements on his private homes.
  • The 1800 presidential election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was tied at 73 electoral votes each.
  • The 18th Amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the U.S.
  • After the Revolutionary War, national foreign debt was estimated at $11,710,379.
  • U.S. Steel, financed by Andrew Carnegie in 1900, was the first billion-dollar corporation.
  • World War I cost America 130,174 lives and $32 billion.
  • In 1915, the German Embassy published newspaper ads warning Americans not to sail on British ships in the Atlantic.