Lewis E. Kaplan’s 40 years of publishing and business experience have provided him with first-hand knowledge of the impact of currency exchange fluctuations on the domestic market, and the role of the U.S. dollar in the global economy. His first book was God Bless You, Joe Stalin: — The Man Who Saved Capitalism (Algora 2006).This is followed by The Making of the American Dream - An Unconventional History, a work in two volumes. A lifelong student of history, he attended Cornell University and completed his studies at the University of Aix-en-Provence. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force in the Pacific. Kaplan was founder of RetailWeek, an award-winning business publication, vice-president of marketing for GENESCO Europa, and president of PLADS, a division of Kellwood Company. He served as a consultant to Fortune 500 corporations.

What is America, after all? Author Lew Kaplan observes, "While this country is no longer the republic envisioned by the Founding Fathers, neither can it be construed to be a pure democracy since the checks and balances still remain in place. The...

What is America, after all? Author Lew Kaplan observes, "While this country is no longer the republic envisioned by the Founding Fathers, neither can it be construed to be a pure democracy since the checks and balances still remain in place. The federal government, which has encroached on the rights and obligations formerly delegated to the states with seeming impunity, is still restrained by the Constitution. The President needs the support of Congress for appointments to the Supreme Court. And even the Supreme Court can be overruled through a Constitutional amendment." In each chapter of his new work, Kaplan narrates major episodes of US history and shows how the three branches of government have worked with (and against) each other to achieve various national, Party, and personal goals. An unconventional history is one that challenges some of the myths scholars have employed to explain our past. This is not a criticism of their intelligence or capability, but of the methodology they used in arriving at the conclusions they wished to promote. In order to validate their theses, they refer to documents of well-established scholars who came before them. Notes citing these 'court historians'� and authorities become the standard by which a new historical work is judged. In this book the author has not relied on the conclusions offered by other writers. Instead, he views the established facts of United States history from the standpoint of commonsense to decipher instances of oversight, obfuscation and obvious (but masked or denied) interest. These are some of the distortions he highlights: (1) � The early settlers may have come to America in search of religious freedom, but the early colonies were marked by religious intolerance, and soon the pursuit of freedom became synonymous with the pursuit of wealth.(2) � The greatest blight on our past is the conscious and willful elimination of three million Amerindians in order to seize their lands.(3) � The Constitution was composed exclusively by and for men of means, and its fundamental goal was to maintain the status quo. Legitimizing slavery was simply one of numerous compromises made by local competing factions to ensure ratification.(4) � The conflict between the North and South was never over slavery; rather, it was over control of the Senate, the only legislative body appointed by the establishment.(5) � The major blunder committed by Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government was to actively solicit the military support of the Border States, which opened the door to a land invasion from the North ' impossible if they had remained within the Union.(6) � Lincoln was the worst wartime president in our history, in that his strategy was responsible for 600,000 deaths on the battlefield.(7) � The Emancipation Proclamation was designed to bring the Southern states back into the Union. (8) � Reconstruction was designed by the congressional leaders of the Republican Party to prevent the South from forming a solid electoral bloc around the Democratic Party, which would have enabled the Democrats to take over the presidency and the Congress.(9) � Economic depression is not a twentieth century construct, but occurred cyclically throughout the nineteenth century, brought on by incautious speculative investment in land and stocks committed by businessmen and banks, bought on unsupportable margin.(10) � What makes this nation unique is that it had to establish its own traditions and create its own mythology in short order, quickly weaving a narrative that would inspire and unify the citizenry.

It wasn't until Andrew JacksonÃ??'s amazing victory over the British at the battle of New Orleans that another American general would supersede Harrison as a victorious leader. Unlike Harrison, a Virginian whose father had been a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, Jackson was a man of the frontier. In many ways his career parallels that of Aaron Burr. Both men were fearless adventurers who viewed themselves as men of destiny. From his duels Jackson carried a bullet next to his...

It wasn't until Andrew Jackson�?'s amazing victory over the British at the battle of New Orleans that another American general would supersede Harrison as a victorious leader. Unlike Harrison, a Virginian whose father had been a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, Jackson was a man of the frontier. In many ways his career parallels that of Aaron Burr. Both men were fearless adventurers who viewed themselves as men of destiny. From his duels Jackson carried a bullet next to his heart as well as in his shoulder and arm. Both men were ruthless and vindictive. As a touch of irony, they had met when Burr was attempting to establish a separate nation from the Louisiana Purchase; Jackson had sold him some boats and even considered joining up with him. Fortunately for Jackson, his name never surfaced during Burr's trial for treason. Jackson's rise in politics was meteoric. Asked by a friend of his youth, who had been appointed a judge for the western district, to become prosecuting attorney for the district, Jackson joined the judge in Nashville, Tennessee, population 300. Given his position he became a prominent figure in the growing town, so that when Tennessee was admitted as a state, he was the first man to be elected to the House of Representatives. Shortly after, he was appointed a senator when one of the incumbents was accused of treacherous dealings with the Spanish and resigned his seat. Jackson resigned that seat to become a Supreme Court judge in Tennessee because it paid the second highest salary. He also married a woman whom he believed to be divorced but who actually wasn't. Finally, like most successful Westerners, he speculated in land which left him heavily in debt. Determined to succeed, he resigned his judgeship and set out to become an entrepreneur. With 400 acres and some slaves he became a player in the cotton market. He also acquired a cotton gin machine, which he leased out to smaller farmers, and a famous Arabian stallion who he rented to sire horses.�  A wealthy man by Western standards, he built a large house which he named The Hermitage and settled down to the life of a country gentleman who entertained lavishly. Prior to the battle of New Orleans, Jackson�?'s claim to fame as a military commander was developed during the war he waged against the Creek Indians. Unlike the northern Indian tribes who were hunters and gatherers, the Creeks tended to be sedentary and adopted the lifestyle of the white settlers. They lived in houses rather than tepees, dressed like whites, owned and cultivated lands, and even acquired slaves. A certain percentage, however, especially among the young, viewed this mimicry as a betrayal of their heritage. Some had been indoctrinated by Tecumseh in his effort to have them form an alliance with the northern tribes; others had been influenced by the British in Canada and in western Alabama and Florida, who provided them with guns and ammunition. It was these anti-America young braves called Red Sticks who were responsible for the massacre of 250 men, women and children barricaded in Fort Mims whose gates had been left wide open. Jackson, who had yet to acquire a military reputation, viewed this incident as an opportunity to achieve battlefield fame. While he had no problem raising troops to wage war against the Red Sticks (he amassed 3,300 men), he was unable to engage them in a fixed battle where they could be destroyed. It was his friend and military strategist, John Coffee, who devised the plan to entrap and defeat them. Forging an alliance with friendly Creeks, he located the Red Stick force of 800-plus warriors. Coffee's Creek allies were the ones who stole the canoes the Red Sticks had left in the river in the event they needed to escape. Coffee and his men were the ones who attacked from the rear while Jackson, his arm in a sling from a wound he had suffered from a duel, directed the cannon fire from the front. Jackson did offer them the opportunity to surrender but they fought until virtually all were killed. While Jackson had yet to exhibit his prowess as a military leader he was an astute politician. Jackson's peace terms were ruthless and vindictive. All 30,000 Creeks would have to vacate their lands and move across the Mississippi River. Three fifths of Alabama and one third of Georgia would have to be evacuated by the 30,000 Creeks who had lived there to make room for white squatters. All their entreaties were in vain. The lands they had cultivated and the houses they had built were to be left behind. Their departure was the federal government�?'s gain since 23 million acres of uncontested land now became its property and could be put up for sale. Madison, who used the pulpit of his presidency to counsel his fellow citizens to treat the Amerindians fairly, rewarded Jackson by commissioning him a Major General in the US Army, with the responsibility for the defense of the Southwest which included Louisiana, now a state, as well as the territories of Alabama and Mississippi.A Fleet Admiral in the British Navy tended to view himself as independent of his nation's political leaders since on the sea he was master of that domain. Admiral Cochrane had received no instructions or orders to capture New Orleans. His only motivation was greed and his reasoning logical. Because of Britain's naval blockade the . . .