We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
How George Washington Fleeced the Nation: And Other Little Secrets Airbrushed From History
Share Tweet
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About How George Washington Fleeced The Nation: And Other
Product description Our view of the famous is one-dimensional—leading figures from history are summarized in history textbooks with one or two lines: Churchill the war-time genius, Gandhi the poor ascetic—but nobody is perfect and even the famous have their quirks and hidden secrets. How George Washington Fleeced the Nation reveals the often hilarious, sometimes shocking, and always highly informative foibles of the great and the good. Einstein, the most brilliant man who lived, regularly forgot his shoes and never learned to drive. Hitler possibly has a Jewish ancestor. Picasso avoided paying restaurant bills by doodling on their napkins instead. Prepared to be shocked, amused, and outraged at what they didn’t teach you in high school. From Publishers Weekly Mason, who rose to fame for tackling Napoleon's hemorrhoids, has fashioned himself into something of a historical tattler. Washington's big sin, it seems, was a carelessness with money, both his own and the nation's, and a greed for land that occasionally flouted the law. Amid the myth-busting "other little secrets" are tales of a cancer battle that left President Cleveland with a rubber jaw and the assertion that Lyndon Johnson was involved with the Kennedy assassination. Some stories included here are not quite as airbrushed as Mason may think; Hitler's Jewish ancestry and JFK's chronic womanizing are not exactly secrets. Still, there are mysteries to ponder and images to be shattered. Readers' eyebrows may rise at some of Mason's assertions; for instance, if his claims about Mahatma Gandhi are accurate, the world was duped into believing a well-crafted myth about a power-hungry narcissist. Few illustrious names are spared; even the innocuous Louis Pasteur is scrutinized for stealing the formula for a sheep vaccine from another scientist. It's a diverting read, and whether or not these tales are true or turn out to be myths themselves, Mason has crafted a provocative collection of secrets. (Sept.) (c) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist King Arthur was a political construct; Dr. Spock a mediocre father; James Watta forger; Conan Doyle a plagiarist. Or so we’re told. This highly entertaining book, which is also solidly documented, doesn’t set out to demolish the reputations of its subjects but rather to offer new takes on them. Sure, Watt did great things for the world, but in his early years he might have passed off some cheaply made flutes as the work of someone else. Mason isn’t making any serious accusations here, and he admits that some of the evidence is a bit thin. Think of his work as speculative history: if his suppositions are correct, what does it say about these great people? Do we think any less of George Washington when we find out that, as commander of the Continental Army, he declined a salary and asked to be paid only for his expenses, bilking the American people out of 10 times what a salary would have paid him? While Mason does cover some familiar ground (we know Isaac Newton didn’t really see an apple falling from a tree), much of his book is fresh and thought provoking. --David Pitt About the Author Phil Mason has amassed one of the world’s largest private collections of cuttings and books chronicling bizarre stories. He is the author of Mission Accomplished! and How George Washington Fleeced the Nation. He lives in England.
