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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » The Forgotten History of America: Little-Known Conflicts of Lasting Importance From the Earliest Colonists to the Eve of the Revolution

The Forgotten History of America: Little-Known Conflicts of Lasting Importance From the Earliest Colonists to the Eve of the Revolution

6 Ratings: 2.3

A book by Cormac O'Brien

“Set against a grand landscape that inspires both awe and terror, The Forgotten History of America depicts a continent emerging as both a bloody battleground between Native Americans and Europeans and a place where alien cultures began to mesh. … see full wiki

Tags: Books, History, American History, War, Colonial America, Colonial Period

Author: Cormac O'Brien

Publisher: Fair Winds Press

6 reviews about The Forgotten History of America: Little-Known...

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review by TStocksl. December 02, 2008

Episodic narratives lack a connecting thread.

Not as good as I'd hoped, O'Brien's history tells the tales of battles on American soil from 1528, as the Spanish conquerors of Mexico first ventured northward into Florida and across the Southwest, through 1763, after the French and Indian war on the doorstep of revolution. The story of each battle is told in a separate chapter, and O'Brien never weaves together a consistent thread to connect the events. In some of the accounts of events in the New England region, he does … more

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review by PeterReeve. December 17, 2008

Lesser-known history, in bite-size chunks

The 18 chapters in this collection of lesser-known episodes in American history cover the period 1528 to 1763. They are the right length to be consumed in one sitting -- bite-size chunks, as it were. They are separate episodes, not a continuous narrative. O'Brien likes to add drama to his narratives by not following a strictly linear account. He starts each one with an 'It was a dark and stormy night' type of introduction, following which we have a flashback to the events … more

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review by CRSwanson. December 16, 2008

Acceptable

So apparently the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War weren't the only wars that were fought in pre-America America. I knew this, of course, being something of a student of history, but even I found things in this book I hadn't previously been aware of. The book gives details of a number of conflicts, some small and some large, that have helped shape our nation before it became a nation. It's entertaining and well-written, though occasionally I run … more

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review by fatherz. December 11, 2008

An excellent guide . . .

. . . to much of what is forgotten (or just not taught) about the colonization of North America in the 150+ years prior to the American Revolution. I'm a history buff and consider myself more read than most, and some of these stories were familiar to me -- but not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination. O'Brien has definitely done his homework -- and it is quite possible that the overly "politically correct" crowd won't necessarily appreciate everything he relates, … more

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review by Cascadian. December 10, 2008

posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

The exceptionally bloody stories behind American exceptionalism

I have to say I didn't think especially highly of Cormac O'Brien's earlier book Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents. It struck me as a People magazine approach to history, with a focus on the personal and trivial at the expense of the relevant and meaningful. "The Forgotten History of America" is a much better book. While still told in an accessible, narrative way that reads like a collection of stories instead of a weighty history tome, the book is nevertheless well-researched, balanced, and presented … more

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review by pcunix. December 06, 2008

I'm not sure how I feel about this

I'm truly conflicted about this one. On the one hand, I like obscure history snippets and am very interested in the early conflicts of Amerindians with Europeans; this certainly offers a lot in that regard. On the other hand, I dislike interpretive history. In some places the author says things like "We cannot know.." but in others he seems to casually supply motives, thoughts and even actions that couldn't possibly be more than speculation. Reasonable … more

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