Was The Wild West Really So Wild?

One specific chapter of “33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed To Ask” by Thomas E Woods, Jr., was chapter 6, “Was the ‘Wild West’ Really So Wild?”. Dr. Woods goes on about how the crime rate in the “Wild West” is surprisingly low. An example of that is that he says how Larry Schweikart, from the University of Dayton, explains that from 1859 to 1900, a whole 41 years, there had been less than one dozen bank robberies. That’s one of the most popular crimes you would normally see in Wild West movies. He also mentions how from 1870 through 1885, only 45 homicides were reported; though that still is an exceptionally high number, it’s less than you would think. One last example of the west being the exact opposite of wild, is that …show more content…
He wrote about how historian Ted Widmer said that FDR was one of the best presidents ever and that he “Reinvented presidency” and “Saved democracy”, which Dr. Woods disagrees with greatly. He also mentioned that Lowell Gallaway summed it up: “The Great Depression was very significantly prolonged in both its duration and its magnitude by the impact of New Deal programs.”. Which basically answered the question whether the New Deal lifted the United States out of the Great Depression; no it did not, it made it even longer than it already was.

Also, like the chapter about labor unions, I was surprised because of the things I had learned about the New Deal. I had always thought it was a major aid to helping America get out of the Great Depression, but I was wrong. Dr. Woods talks about how the New Deal helped somewhat with providing jobs and economic stimulus, but those were only short-term blessings. He said that FDR should’ve thought about what his massive spending was going to do in the long-run. In closing, this chapter was very riveting; it held my attention throughout the whole entire …show more content…
Dr. Woods says George Washington Carver was, in fact, smart, but he wasn’t a great scientific genius. There have been many reasons for people to think that he was though; Henry Ford said that he replaced Thomas Edison because of his accomplishments, Franklin Roosevelt made his birthplace a national monument, he was entered into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans and the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and he had many awards, degrees, and honors. Carver had said that he invented more than 300 peanut products, which later it was found out that there were 287, that’s still a lot, however, the list had many duplications. He quoted Lina McMurry, a sympathetic biographer, “Carver contributed to the erroneous interpretation of his work because of his deep need for recognition. Carver was guilty of prostituting his creative genius and of resorting to gimmickry, either consciously or unconsciously, not for monetary gain, but for recognition.”. Carver also was included in assisting to the myth that he was one of the greatest