A Renegade History of the United States

"Raucous, profane, and thrillingly original, Thaddeus Russell's A Renegade History of the United States turns the myths of the 'American character' on their heads with a rare mix of wit, scholarship, and storytelling flair." - Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for You and The Invention of Air

"Thaddeus Russell’s A Renegade History of The United States is a work of history like no other — a bold, controversial, original view of American history that will amuse, inspire, outrage, and most of all instruct readers. Russell strips away conventional wisdom and explodes many myths. In the process, he sheds new light on ideas, institutions, and people." - Alan Brinkley, Columbia University, author of The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century and American History: A Survey

"This lively, contrarian work [is] . . . A sharp, lucid, entertaining view of the 'bad' American past." - Kirkus Reviews, starred review ("assigned to books of unusual merit")

"Fascinating in content and style." - Publishers Weekly
"Thaddeus Russell is a trouble-maker for sure. Whether you call his book courageous or outrageous, his helter-skelter tour through the American past will make you gasp and make you question—as he does—the writing of 'history as usual.'" - Nancy Cott, Harvard University, author of The Grounding of Modern Feminism
"Calling into question our assumptions about liberty, democracy and the founding of the US, this book tells how drunkards, prostitutes, 'shiftless' slaves and white slackers, criminals and other outsiders shaped society. It is revisionist history at its best." - The Guardian
"Fascinating ideas that make my head spin." - John Stossel, on the "Stossel" show, Fox Business Network

"Howard Zinn wrote the 'People's History' of the United States. But Thaddeus Russell has written the history of the American People Whom Historians Would Rather Forget: the whores, delinquents, roustabouts -- the so-called bums and immoral minority who did more for our civil rights and personal freedoms than anyone could count -- until now. There is no understanding of American feminism, sexual liberation, civil rights, or dancing in the streets without this careful analysis that Russell has put before us." - Susie Bright, syndicated columnist and author of The Sexual State of the Union 

"Who knew jazz and rock 'n' roll toppled the Soviet Union?" - Margaret Atwood

"Provocative, fascinating, challenging, and great fun. There is no book that is a better argument-starter than A Renegade History of the United States."
- Michael Medved, on "The Michael Medved Show"

"This fully mesmerizing account . . . skewers lefties, righties, and even libertarians. Long after the Air Force has enough money to bomb all the schools holding bake sales and kids are free to attend slacker magnet schools, this should be the first book that gets crammed down their throats." - Reason Magazine, Best Books of 2010 

"A Renegade History of the United States takes us on a tour of backstreet America, introducing us to the rebels and prostitutes, the hipsters and hippies. The book tells good stories, all in the cause of illuminating larger historical struggles between social control and freedom, repression and letting go. Author Thaddeus Russell gives us a new pantheon of American heroes, and argues that those who expanded the realm of desire—for sex, for drugs, for illicit experiences—were the very ones who created our liberties. This is a controversial book, but certainly not a dull one." - Elliott Gorn, Brown University, author of Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One

"If you want to banish complacency you need to give the status quo a right old shake, and that's exactly what Thaddeus Russell administers in his lively revisionist work, A Renegade History of the United States. . . . It's always fascinating spending time with a devil's advocate, and Russell is one of the best. You'll shout at this book endlessly, but you won't be able to put it down, for it's chock full of startling, upsetting, and entertaining anecdotes." - The Scotsman

"Thaddeus Russell has broken free of the ideological prisons of Left and Right to give us a real, flesh-and-blood history of America, filled with untold stories and unlikely heroes.  No waving incense before the sacred personages of Washington, D.C. here.  This wonderful book follows the best American traditions of iconoclasm and -- what is the same thing -- truth-telling." - Thomas E. Woods, Jr., author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

"Thaddeus Russell's excellent new tome A Renegade History of the United States is the story of our country told by the fuck-ups. Prostitutes, zoot suiters, gangsters, drunks, minstrels, looters, et al -- the outsiders of American life -- are celebrated herein. His fascinating book reminds us that while the truth may hurt, it's rarely dull." - Michael Simmons, LA Weekly

 

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