An Interview with Ken Davis!

An Interview with Kenneth C. Davis, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Know Much About History, Anniversary Edition

Why do you think Don’t Know Much About History is still going strong after 20 years?

The most surprising things about the book’s longevity has to be the contrast between all the studies that show Americans are dumb and hate history, and the extraordinary enthusiasm I have seen from readers over twenty years. It’s easy to conclude that the people who don’t know the basics of our history or Constitution or government don’t care. I’ve seen the opposite. People do care. And, more than that, they love history if you give it to them in a style and a language they appreciate.

What style is that?

For me, it simply means presenting real stories of real people, told in an accessible fashion –not just a long, stale string of dates, battles and facts that need to be memorized. We all love good stories, but I have tried to tell good stories that are also true stories. When we hear about George

Washington crossing the Delaware and telling Henry Knox to “shift his fat ass or he’ll swamp the damn boat,” we are instantly captivated. That story is true –according to Knox—and completely at odds with the made-up story of the cherry true we all heard since we were kids. Or take Benedict Arnold. In most people’s minds, he is simply the nation’s most notorious traitor. But as one of the great heroes and best generals of the American Revolution, Arnold is a far more interesting and complex character.

You’ve been called a “conversational” writer. Do you take that as a “diss?

For me it’s high praise! On top of telling true stories, I think my approach is simply a matter of speaking in a voice that most people understand. That means using pop culture references, whether it is talking about Disney’s Pocahontas or Oliver Stone’s JFK, as well as using humor and connecting to the headlines. And that may be the most important point. History has to connect to what is going on in the country today. After all, that is the real point of learning history. Making it relevant to our own lives.

You are not an academically trained historian. Is that a disadvantage?

To me, it’s a plus. First and foremost, I am a lover of history and a student of history, with a goal of setting the record straight, busting myths and bringing more stories of women and minorities into the conversation, not settling for either the old “dead white guy” version nor the new “politically correct” version. The tools of the so-called academic or trained historian who resides in the Ivory Tower are available to anyone, especially in the age of the Internet. It is much harder to connect with the public. Academics tend to talk to each other and leave the rest of us out of the conversation. My books, I believe, are less a lecture about history than a conversation about history. And one final point: since I am not a so-called “trained historian,” I think it has made me be even more cautious about getting the real story and getting it right.

This 20th Anniversary Edition is revised, updated and expanded. What will a reader find here that is new?

Most of the new material in this book explores the events of the past decade. Especially since 9/11, our country has experienced some of the most extraordinary moments in the nation’s history. Of course, that includes our understanding of 9/11 and the dangerous conspiracy theories that day has inspired; two controversial wars that are still being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan; the greatest natural disaster in American History –Hurricane Katrina; America’s worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; and the totally unexpected election of the first African-American President.

Any of these events alone would be extraordinary, but when you consider them together, you can see this has been one of the most eventful decades in more than five hundred years of American History.

How does history get revised? Isn’t history a “settled” sequence of facts and events?

History isn’t dead. It’s a living thing and must constantly be edited, updated, and revised because new information is always coming to light. For instance, this revision of Don’t Know Much About History includes new material that resulted from discoveries coming out of the digs in Jamestown, Virginia that have presented a new and different picture of life in a new America 400 years ago; or the scientific confirmation through DNA that Thomas Jefferson was most likely the father of several slave children, a fact now acknowledged at Monticello. There are also very significant court decisions, including those that opened the way for same-sex marriage in several states and the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that overturned a handgun ban in Washington, D.C., a historical reinterpretation of the Second Amendment.

All of these revisions and changes to the book prove why history is a living, evolving thing and must constantly be edited, updated and revised.

You have often lectured to history teachers and students. What advice do you offer?

I go with William Butler Yeats: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Those are words I keep on my desk. Get out to historic places where history happened. Take field trips. And keep asking questions. One of the most essential lessons of the past decade’s history is that not enough people asked hard questions about the things we were told. The results –9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, New Orleans under water, the Great Recession— often have been devastating.