Authors: Kenneth C. Davis
Don't Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About®) (118 page)
Victoria, queen of England, 225
Vidal, Gore, 149
Vietnam, 319–20; War, 102, 103, 414, 443–44, 453, 464–85, 490–93, 496–98, 508, 651; War Memorial, 483
Villa, Pancho, 305
Vinson, Fred M., 426
Virginia, xii–xiii, xxi, 22–32, 45, 51–52, 61–62, 75, 77, 81–82, 129, 134, 163, 218, 224–25, 611–13, 644; Declaration of Rights, 111; House of Burgesses, 27–29, 31, 67, 81, 82; Statute for Religious Freedom, 124, 135
Virginia Plan, 114–15
Volcker, Paul, 516, 563
Volstead Act, 331
Voltaire, 116, 122, 628
von Braun, Dr. Wernher, 384, 385
Voorhis, Jerry, 408
voting rights, 110, 114, 116, 130, 167, 175, 304, 547–75, 647–49; blacks and, 114, 116, 247–48, 250–51, 284, 334, 464–65, 484, 648–49; 18-year-olds and, 650–51; Indians and, 116, 248, 263; women and, 116, 248, 331, 333–37, 644
Voting Rights Act, 464, 484, 649
Wade, Ben, 246
Wade, Henry, 499
Wainwright, Jonathan, 377–78
Wałesa, Lech, 535
Walker, Arthur, 582–83
Walker, John, 582–83
Walker, Vaughn R., 614
Walking Purchase, 44
Wallace, George, 477
Wallace, Henry, 663
Wallace, Lew, 236
Walsh, Lawrence, 526–27
Walton, J. C., 330
Wampanoag Indians, 32, 50
Wappinger Indians, massacre of, 50
War of 1812, 155–60
War Powers Act, 482
Warren, Earl, 426–28, 430, 488, 612; Commission, 459–62, 505
Warren, Joseph, 84
Warren, Mercy Otis, 84–85
Washington, Booker T., 285, 293, 302, 304
Washington, Denzel, 589
Washington, George, xvii, 49, 60, 62–63, 71–83, 85–94, 97–102, 104, 112–13, 115, 120–22, 125, 128–31, 135–41, 653, 658
Washington, Jack, 62
Washington, Martha Custis, 91, 131
Washington, D.C., 137; burned, 158; voting in, 647–48, 654
Watergate scandal, 444, 480–82, 498, 500–510, 513, 525, 553, 664
Watts riots, 483–86
Waxman, Henry, 617
Wayles, John, 151
Wayne, Anthony, 75, 77
Weaver, Randall, 576–77, 585
Webster, Daniel, 175, 201, 205–6
Webster v. Reproductive Health Services,
499
Weems, Mason Locke, 90–91
Weinberger, Caspar W., 523, 526, 546
Welch, Joseph, 412–13
welfare, 516, 548, 549; Reform Act, 587
West: migration to, 147, 162, 179–81; myth of, 264–65
West, Benjamin, 93
Westmoreland, General William, 471, 475–76
West Point, 76, 98, 210, 377–78
West Virginia, 221, 232, 572, 635
Wheeler, Joseph, 290
Wheeler, William A., 661
Whigs, 175–76, 190–92, 201, 206
Whiskey Rebellion, 140
Whiskey Ring scandal, 267–68
White, Edmund, 532
White, Hugh, 175
White, Ryan, 527–28, 530
Whitefield, George, 58, 120
Whitman, Walt, 245
Whitney, Eli, 160, 162, 187
Whitney, William, 271
Wicks, Hamilton S., 275
WikiLeaks, 601–2
Wilhelm, Kaiser, 307
Wilkinson, James, 149–50, 157
Williams, Eunice, 57
Williams, Forman, 594–95
Williams, Rev. John, 56–57
Williams, Roger, 34–36, 44, 50
Williamson, Hugh, 121
Willkie, Wendell, 663
Willingham, Thomas, 493
Wilson, Charles “Engine,” 421
Wilson, Edith Galt, 316, 334
Wilson, Henry, 267, 661
Wilson, Joseph, 607
Wilson, Woodrow, 295, 303–5, 309–16, 318, 328, 336, 338, 468, 662
Winfrey, Oprah, 589
Winslow, Edward, 30
Winthrop, John, 33, 34
Wirt, William, 123, 660
Wirz, Henry, 240
Wobblies, 301, 328
Wolfe, James, 63
Wolfowitz, Paul, 606
women: American Revolution and, 85, 89, 90, 95, 10–101; Constitution and, 133; discrimination outlawed, 455–56; Earhart and, 359–60; first elected to Congress, 336, 376; “gender gap” and, 544; Masons and, 123; movement of, 454–57; voting by, 116, 610; voting rights (suffrage) movement, 334–36; WW II and, 381–82
Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), 331, 335
Wood, Leonard, 289, 290, 312
Woods, Rosemary, 504
Woods, Tiger, 406
Woodward, Bob, 520, 526, 546, 555, 565
Works Progress Administration, 355–56
World Trade Center: bombing of 1993, 580, 584, 591; collapse analyzed, 593–95.
See also
September 11, 2001, attacks
World War I, 301, 306–20, 346, 349–50, 361
World War II, 360–61, 363–98, 422, 426, 468
Wounded Knee massacre, xxvii, 261–63
Wright, Jim, 539
Wright, Lawrence, 595
Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 295–96, 341
Wyatt, Thomas, 28
Wyoming, 193–94, 635, 648
Yakovlev, Anatoli, 410
Yalta Conference, 386, 390–92, 406–7
Yeardley, Governor, 28
York, Duke of, 39, 44
York (slave), 147
Young, Brigham, 181
Young, John W., 519
Younger, Cole, 234
Yugoslavia, 306, 319, 374, 555–56
Zapata, Emiliano, 305
Zenger, John Peter, 58–60
Zhou Enlai, 480
Ziegler, Ron, 500
Zimmermann Telegram, 309, 314
O
ver the years since this book was first published, a great many people have assisted me with ideas and inspiration. The Don’t Know Much About® series has grown because of the support, friendship, commitment, and hard work of a great many people, and I would like to honor them all. I would first like to thank my parents for those many trips to Fort Ticonderoga, Gettysburg, Freedomland, and all the other places that gave me a taste for the human side of history. From a very early age, when my father first tossed me into Lake Champlain to teach me to swim in the same waters that Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had crossed in 1775, I understood that history doesn’t just happen in books. It happens to real people who do real things in real places. If we could only get that across to our kids in the classroom, history wouldn’t be seen universally as “boring.”
For their advice, hard work, and friendship, I would like to thank all my friends at the David Black Literary Agency: David Black, Leigh Ann Eliseo, Antonella Iannarino, Dave Larabell, Gary Morris, Susan Raihofer, and Joy Tutela.
This new edition was achieved only with the support and enthusiasm of many friends and colleagues at my publisher, and I am very grateful for all of the many people at HarperCollins, past and present, who made this book possible. For their support and assistance I thank Cathy Hemming, Susan Weinberg, Carie Freimuth, Christine Caruso, Laurie Rippon, Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, David Koral, Elliott Beard, Camillo LoGiudice, Leslie Cohen, Gail Winston, and Christine Walsh. I would also like to sing praises to the steadfast support of Harper’s Carrie Kania, Jennifer Hart, and my editor Michael Signorelli, along with Erica Barmash, Mitchell Berg, Kate Blum, Diane Burrowes, Hope Innelli, Cal Morgan, Nicole Reardon, Andrea Rosen, Alberto Rojas, Robert Spizer, and Virginia Stanley. A special word of thanks to publicist Laura Reynolds.
Among those who helped me realize the original edition of this book, I would like to thank my original editor, Mark Gompertz, who gave me my first encouragement, and his friendship is still of great value to me. I would also like to thank Mark Levine and Steve Boldt for their insights and comments on the original manuscript. I am also grateful to the late Michael Dorris, who shared his special insights into the American Indian. I also thank Marga Enoch for her friendship and for the support and encouragement she has given to my career.
Over the years, many readers, teachers, parents, and students have shared their enthusiasm for history with me, and I wish to thank all who have corresponded with me. Their reactions and encouragement have meant a great deal to me.
One of the greatest pleasures of my life during the past thirteen years has been traveling the country and meeting the booksellers of America who have been so crucial to the success of this book and this series. As a former bookseller, I offer three cheers to the people who take books out of the shipping boxes, put them out on the shelves, and then sell them with honest and sincere appreciation for the importance of the written word.
Finally, my greatest thanks to my family. To my children, Jenny and Colin, for their patience, humor, support, and love. And to my wife, Joann, who had the wisdom a long time ago to tell me to write about the things I love, I give my eternal gratitude.
A Nation Rising
America’s Hidden History
The Don’t Know Much About® Series
Don’t Know Much About History
Don’t Know Much About Geography
Don’t Know Much About the Civil War
Don’t Know Much About the Bible
Don’t Know Much About the Universe
Don’t Know Much About Mythology
Don’t Know Much About® is the registered trademark of Kenneth C. Davis.
DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT
®
HISTORY, ANNIVERSARY EDITION
. Copyright © 2011 by Kenneth C. Davis. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-0-06-196053-6
EPub Edition © July 2011 ISBN: 9780062092212
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1
As this book was going to press, President Barack Obama announced late on the night of May 1, 2011, that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Al Qaeda attacks of 9/11, was killed by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan. Declaring, “Justice has been done,” President Obama also said, “The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat Al Qaeda.” The history of Al Qaeda, those attacks, and the American response are recounted in the final chapter of this revised edition.
2
In case you think it only happened a long time ago in a very different America, Randall Kennedy’s fascinating book,
Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
, recounts how Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods heard the same words growing up. Worse still was the mail routinely received by slugger Hank Aaron as he pursued Babe Ruth’s legendary career home run record in 1973. Typical of his mail was a letter that read, “Dear Nigger Henry, You are not going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if you can help it. . . . Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. . . . My gun is watching your every move.”
