Miracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America

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To the man in Preston, Idaho, who stood and asked me when I would start “writing history as stories to make them more interesting”;

To the congressman who stopped himself in the middle of telling me that the history elitists wouldn’t like it if I make history entertaining;

And to my son, Raphe, who has curled up next to me to read great American stories, giving me memories I will never forget.

Author’s Note

There are many great history books (and many more that are not so great) that cover American history. Some focus on just one story, one event, one decade, or one era. Others take a broader view and try to cover it all, from Christopher Columbus to President Obama.

As I began looking through some of these books, two things struck me: First, most of them are about as exciting as an Al Gore speech; and second, none of them leave readers understanding just how complex and nuanced our history really is. My goal in writing this book was to solve both of those problems.

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