Mini-Review: The 10 Big Lies About America

Michael Medved’s “The Ten Big Lies About America” is an ambitious book. Medved, a conservative radio host, sets out to single-handedly undo two decades of revisionist history. He is an anti-iconoclast, intent on restoring a little bit of America’s lost luster. He comes, not to bury America, but to praise it to high heaven.

The book’s pugnacious subtitle, “Combating Destructive Distortions Our Nation,” sets the tone early on. Medved heaps scorn upon what he calls the “America bashers,” who peddle a message of “victimhood, powerlessness, guilt, and decline.” There’s plenty to be proud about in America, Medved writes, and he sets about proving it by debunking the titular ten myths.

There is little rhyme or reason in Medved’s books. He jumps from myth to myth willy-nilly, without any kind of clear organizing principle. One second, he’s attacking those who claim that “The founders intended a secular, not a Christian, nation.” Just a few pages later, he’s fulminating against the myth that “The power of big business hurts the country and oppresses the people.”

Then again, the book is not about the big picture. Medved is more concerned with the nitty-gritty details. He marshals an impressive list of facts to counter each and every myth, drawing on sources ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Drew Carey. Every chapter is loaded down with facts and figures, all bolstering Medved’s thesis that America is a uniquely great nation.

He begins at the beginning. The first myth on his hit list is that “America was founded on genocide against Native Americans.” Not true, says Medved. It was smallpox that wiped out the Indians, not bloodthirsty pilgrims. Having absolved America of its original sin, Medved then proceeds to tackle an even bigger challenge: the myth, as he puts it, that “The United States is uniquely guilty for the crime of slavery.”

That chapter showcases the greatest strength of Medved’s book—and its greatest weakness. On the one hand, Medved persuasively argues that America was hardly the world’s only slave nation. He cites numbers to show that our nation imported far fewer slaves than did the sugar-growing nations of the Caribbean and South America, which chewed up boatloads of imported Africans.

Now for the weakness. At times, Medved gets carried away. He interprets any criticism of America as a myth, no matter how valid it might be. Yes, America was certainly far less guilty of slavery than, say, Brazil or Cuba. But does that completely wash away the sin of slavery? No, Medved writes, but he says it only grudgingly.

It’s hard to criticize an author for being overly passionate, though. Medved clearly believes combating these “destructive distortions” is a noble cause. America, he reminds us, is the “last, best hope” for the world. Rehabilitating America’s image is not just a matter of historical bookkeeping. It’s a sacred cause. America is indeed that “city on a hill,” and Medved is its self-proclaimed guardian.