Thaddeus Russell has re-written the story of America with A Renegade History of the United States.

Known as the “badass” professor for his incendiary lectures, Russell stuns his audiences with what one critic calls a “helter-skelter tour through the American past” that “will make you gasp and make you question the writing of ‘history as usual.’” Drunkards, laggards, prostitutes, and pirates were the real heroes of the American Revolution. Slaves created a culture that was the envy of “free” Americans. Prostitutes, not feminists, won women’s liberation. White people lost their rhythm when they became good Americans. Without organized crime, we might not have Hollywood, Las Vegas, legal alcohol, birth control, or gay rights. Zoot-suiters and rock-and-rollers, not generals or the Air Force, brought down the Soviet Union. And Britney Spears will win the war on terror.

Rather than the “great men” revered by conservatives or the radical icons of left-wing histories, Russell shows that it was the “degenerate” and “immoral” people on the fringes of society who made America the land of the free. Our history was driven by clashes between those interested in preserving social order and those more interested in pursuing their own desires — insiders versus outsiders, “good citizens” versus the “bad.” The more that “bad” people existed, resisted, and won, the greater was our common good.

Forget the history you learned in textbooks and class — this renegade historian will upend everything you believe about the American past.

Authors,