Not So!: Popular Myths about America's Past from Columbus to Clinton

Boller, an emeritus professor of history at Texas Christian University, aims this compendium at a specialized audience: those who think they know a lot about history, but don't. Boller begins each short section by stating the ``myth'' he is about to debunk (``Washington's dentures were made of wood''; ``Harry Truman was an obscurity when President Roosevelt picked him as his running mate in 1944''), after which he presents a pithy lecture on what really happened. Boller doesn't distinguish between matters of fact (e.g., Millard Fillmore installing the first bathtub in the White House) and matters of interpretation (whether U.S. policymakers were soft on communism and therefore ``lost'' China). It doesn't matter. The writing is lively, and readers will come away knowing-or thinking they know-something they didn't. (Aug.)