Leland Gregory
Author of Stupid History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions Throughout the Ages
About the Author
Image credit: Leland Gregory
Works by Leland Gregory
Stupid History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions Throughout the Ages (2007) 750 copies, 17 reviews
Stupid American History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions (2009) 384 copies, 36 reviews
America's Dumbest Criminals: Wild and Weird Stories of Fumbling Felons, Clumsy Crooks, and Ridiculous Robbers (1995) 214 copies, 2 reviews
Great Government Goofs: Over 350 Loopy Laws, Hilarious Screw-Ups and Acts-Idents of Congress (1997) 48 copies
Presumed Ignorant!: Over 400 Cases of Legal Looniness, Daffy Defendants, and Bloopers from the Bench (1998) 33 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Gregory, Leland H., III
- Birthdate
- c. 1965
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Middle Tennessee State University (BS|Mass Communications)
Tennessee State University (MS|Political Communications) - Occupations
- political consultant
- Short biography
- Leland Gregory is the New York Times Bestselling author of "Stupid American History" and "America's Dumbest Criminals." He is also author of the National Bestsellers, "The Stupid Crook Book," "What's The Number for 911?" and "Stupid History." Leland is a former writer for Saturday Night Live, has written and sold a screenplay to Disney, optioned a screenplay to Touchstone and has written for a variety of magazines from Readers Digest to Maxim. A tireless promoter, he has made hundreds of radio and television appearances, including multiple appearances on NBC's Today show. Leland lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Nashville, Tennessee, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Very stupid: Leland Gregory's Stupid American History is billed as "informing us about myths", "lead[ing] us through American history's mythconceptions, exposing idiocy and inanity". It does nothing of the sort; the main idiocy and inanity the book exposes is its own.
A more-or-less random collection of largely uninteresting scraps of information, Gregory's book was not at all what I was expecting. Based on the book's publicity (and probably helped along by some wishful thinking of my own), I show more anticipated a more lighthearted approach to the same sort of myths and distortions discussed in James Loewen's fascinating (but sober) Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Instead, I "learned" that the Pilgrims were Marxian Communists (page 48), that "revisionists" are people who "rewrite history to make it politically correct" (page 147), and that the first line of the Constitution doesn't make sense (page 2): Gregory apparently believes that "more perfect" really means "better than perfect", as opposed to the "closer to perfect" meaning that seems obvious to me. Nothing in the book is referenced or sourced in any way (in some cases probably for good reason).
Even the entries that appear to be factually correct are often puzzlingly insignificant. Why should anyone care that Rachel Jackson was the only First Lady who smoked a pipe (page 2), or that George H. W. Bush was the only President with four names (page 16)? In at least one case, Gregory ignored what I consider the most interesting facet of the factoid: when he mentions Victor Berger's 1911 introduction of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate (page 232), he fails to note that Berger was one of only two Socialists to be elected to Congress (so far).
The book as a whole has no discernible organization. Unfortunately, some entries refer to earlier ones, which could inconvenience those who would prefer to flip to random pages instead of reading straight through. Like most books that overview American history, there is disproportionate focus on the Revolution, the "founding fathers", and the Civil War.
The two stars I give Stupid American History may be generous. I found some of Gregory' factoids amusing. Others were new to me, but given the material mentioned above, I can't trust the information or feel as though I learned anything. Be sure to read a few pages before buying this, to make sure it's what you expect, and what you want. show less
A more-or-less random collection of largely uninteresting scraps of information, Gregory's book was not at all what I was expecting. Based on the book's publicity (and probably helped along by some wishful thinking of my own), I show more anticipated a more lighthearted approach to the same sort of myths and distortions discussed in James Loewen's fascinating (but sober) Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Instead, I "learned" that the Pilgrims were Marxian Communists (page 48), that "revisionists" are people who "rewrite history to make it politically correct" (page 147), and that the first line of the Constitution doesn't make sense (page 2): Gregory apparently believes that "more perfect" really means "better than perfect", as opposed to the "closer to perfect" meaning that seems obvious to me. Nothing in the book is referenced or sourced in any way (in some cases probably for good reason).
Even the entries that appear to be factually correct are often puzzlingly insignificant. Why should anyone care that Rachel Jackson was the only First Lady who smoked a pipe (page 2), or that George H. W. Bush was the only President with four names (page 16)? In at least one case, Gregory ignored what I consider the most interesting facet of the factoid: when he mentions Victor Berger's 1911 introduction of a Constitutional amendment to abolish the Senate (page 232), he fails to note that Berger was one of only two Socialists to be elected to Congress (so far).
The book as a whole has no discernible organization. Unfortunately, some entries refer to earlier ones, which could inconvenience those who would prefer to flip to random pages instead of reading straight through. Like most books that overview American history, there is disproportionate focus on the Revolution, the "founding fathers", and the Civil War.
The two stars I give Stupid American History may be generous. I found some of Gregory' factoids amusing. Others were new to me, but given the material mentioned above, I can't trust the information or feel as though I learned anything. Be sure to read a few pages before buying this, to make sure it's what you expect, and what you want. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Once again, Leland Gregory has changed the way I look at history, American history, this time.
We all grew up learning this in school that this book now debunks as legend or myth. Sometimes the truth just isn't as interesting, so someone says something a little beyond the truth and off the stories grow.
The vignettes can be read in short spurts or all at one time and they'll keep you pondering and maybe even laughing the entire time.
This book just proves that one should keep learning or show more relearning, in this case, all their lives as sometimes things aren't always as they seem or we were made to think they were. show less
We all grew up learning this in school that this book now debunks as legend or myth. Sometimes the truth just isn't as interesting, so someone says something a little beyond the truth and off the stories grow.
The vignettes can be read in short spurts or all at one time and they'll keep you pondering and maybe even laughing the entire time.
This book just proves that one should keep learning or show more relearning, in this case, all their lives as sometimes things aren't always as they seem or we were made to think they were. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
The point of this book is to see the humor in calls to 911. This fact is clear in the title, and so it is not fair of me to write a negative review because the book does what it sets out to do. So, I'll limit myself to one comment: while nuisance calls deserve all the mocking people want to give them, taking people who are distressed enough to call for emergency help and making fun of them just because they are less intelligent at that moment than the author is not my idea of humor.
That show more said, why do I have this book in my library? Because included at the end of the book is the transcript of the 911 call to Atlanta prior to the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. The author, having set out to soften us up with humor, presents us with the flaw to the 911 system and a very vivid example of why we should fix it.
He tells us something we need to know and I must admit, as a society we're probably more likely to read this message in this book making fun of 911 calls than we are in a serious report penned as part of a focus group on the effectiveness of the emergency telecommunications system. Kudos to Mr. Gregory for that. show less
That show more said, why do I have this book in my library? Because included at the end of the book is the transcript of the 911 call to Atlanta prior to the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. The author, having set out to soften us up with humor, presents us with the flaw to the 911 system and a very vivid example of why we should fix it.
He tells us something we need to know and I must admit, as a society we're probably more likely to read this message in this book making fun of 911 calls than we are in a serious report penned as part of a focus group on the effectiveness of the emergency telecommunications system. Kudos to Mr. Gregory for that. show less
As a history major, the main reason I requested this book during the ER month was to see what dumb little incidents in history the author could highlight, starting in a chronological order from the very beginning of our history.
What I got was a mish-mash of historical anecdotes that are in no perceivable order, nor are there any citations given, which any person who has even been to a high school history course knows are a necessity to prove the veracity of what you are claiming. With no show more discernable way to find out the truth behind all these little vignettes, one must doubt the truth in them.
Stupid American History? No, I say Irresponsible American Author. show less
What I got was a mish-mash of historical anecdotes that are in no perceivable order, nor are there any citations given, which any person who has even been to a high school history course knows are a necessity to prove the veracity of what you are claiming. With no show more discernable way to find out the truth behind all these little vignettes, one must doubt the truth in them.
Stupid American History? No, I say Irresponsible American Author. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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Statistics
- Works
- 35
- Members
- 2,223
- Popularity
- #11,533
- Rating
- 3.0
- Reviews
- 71
- ISBNs
- 79
- Languages
- 1
