Don’t Know Much about History with Kenneth C. Davis

A self-made scholar who coasted through high school and never finished college, Kenneth C. Davis caught the book world by surprise when Don’t Know Much About History landed on the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for 35 consecutive weeks. With its witty, irreverent, conversational style, covering more than 500 years of American History, the book became the cornerstone in a series that has been embraced by adults, teachers, librarians and children. But, in many ways, Davis’s journey to becoming America’s teacher makes perfect sense. Only someone who loved history– but whose eyes glazed over when reading textbooks– would make it his life’s mission to change the way Americans view the subject of history – and learning, in general.

First published in 1990 and revised in 2002, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: Anniversary Edition (Harper) will go on sale in a newly revised, updated and expanded edition on June 21. Besides including new scholarship and discoveries about our nation’s past, this newly revised edition chronicles events of the last ten years. Discussing transformative events from the George W. Bush administration to the recent financial meltdown and the Great Recession, this edition covers 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the enormous disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the controversy of same-sex marriage, the bailouts and bankruptcies of the “Great Recession,” the election of America’s first African- American President, and more. Davis also includes a new preface that describes what he calls the “Era of Broken Trust,” a period in which so many fundamental institutions failed.

At: http://conversationsontheroad.podbus.com/?p=620