Reviewing "A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans" by Michael Farquhar

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

~ Winston Churchill

Minoring in history in college I was fascinated by what made some people “memorable” or considered major influences to how the world was shaped during their time. Why do some names go down in history, and others fade into obscurity?

“The Past” is what has really happened. “History” is how the past is remembered. “The Past” is complete, unbiased, and true. “History” is susceptible to massive omissions, lies, interpretations, and manipulations.

W.H. Auden said that “Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.” I think the same might be true for people. Because every person is significant, there is no one who is undeservedly remembered (though some historical figures might have their importance undeservedly amplified). Yet there are many people that contributed to the world in ways that have gone unrecognized.

In A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans: Pirates, Skinflints, Patriots, and Other Colorful Characters Stuck in the Footnotes of History author Michael Farquhar seeks to remedy this oversight. Although a few names might be familiar (Anne Bonny, Elizabeth Bonaparte, ___ Johnson were the ones I recognized), most are pulled from obscurity and assembled into a mixed bag of personalities: a serial killer, a few spies, an heiress with an obsession with the North Pole, an “American Sherlock Holmes” (and his colleague who was more like Moriarty than Watson), a black woman preacher risking slavery to give sermons in the antebellum South, a Native American princess vainly fighting for the rights of her people, the “other” rider that participated in Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride, and the richest woman in the world (who went around pretending to be homeless to get handouts), among others.

This book was very fun to read, with colorful characters brought to life by energetic narration. It’s sort of like that cable show Mysteries at the Museum where little, seemingly trivial objects in museum exhibits or storehouses are given their fifteen minutes of fame. A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans is just a sampling of the famous—and infamous—figures that have been taken for granted in the textbooks.