Earlier this year, my former officemate told me about Overdrive.

Overdrive is a wonderful app that allows you to listen to audiobooks from your local library for free as long as you are a member of that library system. This was a huge deal for me, because while I had tried to get my hands on free audiobooks before, I always ended up only being able to obtain popular books, and so my selection was rather limited. I like to listen to books at work or at the gym, because I frequently don’t have the chance to actually read at home.

Sooooo I got Overdrive ASAP. I think it’s weird that more the one person can’t listen to a book at a time, but what do I know?

I started with history books, because in the end, I am a nerd, and a sucker for a good story.

The first book I listened to on Overdrive was called America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Founding Fathers Who Shaped A Nation by Kenneth C. Davis.

There were six, loosely connected individual stories in this book, and while they were a bit anecdotal, I really enjoyed them and learned a lot. They cover about 300 years, from Columbus’s voyages to the Americas in the 1490s through to the Shays Rebellion in 1786 & 1787.

“Isabella’s Pigs” covered Columbus’s voyages to the Americas and what was going on with the Spaniards in the New World, particularly some of their activity in what we now know as Florida (spoiler alert: they were fucking miserable). There was also, IIRC, some good stuff about French Huguenots in there. They made wine (surprise!), and got here before the Pilgrims.

“Hannah’s Escape” tells the story of Hannah Duston, famous in New England but nearly unknown everywhere else, who was taken captive by Native Americans who killed her family and 27 colonists. She, in return, killed 10 Native Americans holding her and her daughter hostage and scalped them. Badass. It also goes into the stories of other “uppity” women of the period – Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson. Dyer and Hutchinson lived in Massachusetts at the same time, both were considered too outspoken for women, both were tried, both had significant childbirth issues. Hutchinson miscarried a strange mass of tissue believed now to be a molar pregnancy, while Dyer gave birth to a stillborn infant that probably had anencephaly (as in, the brain never developed). Dyer was later executed in Boston for being a Quaker and just refusing to leave permanently, and Hutchinson, after surviving what would have been a similar fate, was massacred by Native Americans along with her entire family in a dispute that really didn’t have much to do with them but the governor was a turd and antagonized the native people.

“Washington’s Confession” was a detailed account of Washington during the French and Indian War where he may have committed a war crime, and how it later affected his leadership during the American Revolutionary War.

“Warren’s Toga” was probably my favorite of the stories. It goes into detail about a much forgotten American patriot named Joseph Warren, a physician, the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and a secret rebel leader in Massachusetts. It was Warren who enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes to ride to Concord and alert Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the British were coming to arrest them. Warren fought at Lexington and Concord, and died fighting as a Major General at Bunker Hill. His body was treated brutally by the British, but was recovered by his brothers and Paul Revere ten months later, and forensically identified by Revere, who had done some dental work on Warren and had put an artificial tooth in his mouth. His death galvanized American colonists, who saw him as a martyr.

“Arnold’s Boot” was an in depth look at Benedict Arnold, who if he had died at Saratoga like he was supposed to, would be remembered as a great American hero instead of a great American traitor. And for some reason, the general public seems to think Arnold was hanged as a traitor. He wasn’t. He died in poverty and relative obscurity in London in the early 1800s. Arnold had a rough upbringing, but did well in the military after overcoming his discipline issues. One of the reasons for his defection to the British cause was that, in spite of his excellent military leadership, credit he deserved was often given to other guys – including Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys. Allen and Arnold had this sort of bizarre rivalry for George Washington’s approval and Arnold eventually lost his shit after not getting enough accolades or something to that effect. Arnold was also pessimistic about the rebels winning the war – a fair point, actually, considering the rebels didn’t win the war as much as they didn’t lose it. But the whole thing is Arnold’s life and why he did what he did. It was a fascinating story. I actually felt a bit sorry for the guy. Stop. It’s 250 years later, we can feel a bit sorry for Benedict Arnold.

“Lafayette’s Sword” was the story of Daniel Shays, a Revolutionary War veteran who got a very raw deal  – fought for the Continental army, wasn’t paid, was discharged after injury, and still in a lot of debt but had trouble working due to injury – and decided to revolt again over taxes and unfair hardships. It ended rather poorly but he wasn’t executed. I think most of the rebels were given amnesty in exchange for acknowledgement they participated in the rebellion. The leaders, including Shays, were sentenced to hang but most of these sentences were overturned or commuted. I had a vague understanding of this already from AP American History in high school and a book I read on the train from Boston to New York called The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss, which actually chronicled the events leading up to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, but also went into some of the details of Shays Rebellion. The reason it was called Lafayette’s sword is that Shays actually received a sword from Glibert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette for his service, which he had to sell to pay some of his debt. This was frowned upon by his peers. For those who don’t know, General Lafayette was a Frenchman who joined the Continental army during the Revolution after France entered the fray and lobbied for increased French support (which the Americans would have been lost without).

So in case you couldn’t tell by the sheer amount of information I retained, I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting, and fun, and if you want to learn some cool stuff about people who don’t always get the credit they deserve and isn’t overwhelmingly long, America’s Hidden History is for you.

Tagged: authors: kenneth c. davis, books: america's hidden history, genre: history