Kenneth C. Davis
Encyclopedia
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Davis attended Concordia College, Bronxville
Concordia College, Bronxville
Concordia College is a four-year coeducational liberal arts college located in the village of Bronxville, in Westchester County, New York, United States....
in New York, and Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
at Lincoln Center, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Dorset, Vermont
Dorset, Vermont
Dorset is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,036 at the 2000 census. Dorset is famous for being home to America's oldest marble quarry and for being the birth place of Alcoholics Anonymnous co-founder Bill W...
, with his wife and two children.
Davis makes frequent media appearances, including NPR's All Things Considered
All Things Considered
All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, and he has lectured at museums, including the Smithsonian Museum and the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
. He has been a contributor to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
and other publications.
Davis's first book, Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America, offered an overview and in-depth history of paperback books, although some important publishers, such as Walter Zacharius and Irwin Stein's Lancer Books
Lancer Books
Lancer Books was a series of paperback books published from 1961 through 1973 by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularly its series of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian tales, the...
, were given little or no coverage.
Don't Know Much About History
Published by Crown in 1990, Davis's second book, Don't Know Much About History, spent 35 consecutive weeks on The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
bestseller list and sold nearly 1.5 million copies. This unexpected success launched the Don't Know Much About... series. The standardized format is a chronological coverage of a subject with each chapter divided into boldface subheads of questions, such as, "Did Pocahontas really save John Smith's life?" Davis then answers the questions with basic facts delivered in short easy-to-read essays which have a straightforward approach, but sometimes grab the reader's attention by beginning with light humor and anachronistic comparisons, for example: "Even the astronauts who flew to the moon had a pretty good idea of what to expect; Columbus was sailing, as Star Trek puts it, 'where no man has gone before'." Quotes from historical figures often follow the essays.
The titles were initially inspired by Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
's song "Wonderful World", with the lyrics, "Don't know much about history" or "geography," etc. Because Davis makes history palatable to bored students, the series has generally received favorable reviews, and praise from teachers and librarians. One mixed review criticized Davis for "treat[ing] his subject matter as a vehicle for his own editorials".
America's Hidden History
Davis's current publisher is HarperCollinsHarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
. In his most recent book, America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation (2008), he drops the earlier Q&A format for a more traditional style of writing which explores little-known aspects of American history. Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
to George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's 1789 inauguration, these narratives have a more serious tone than the earlier books, are more expansive, and focus not only on well-known names but also on forgotten figures such as Hannah Duston
Hannah Duston
Hannah Duston was a colonial Massachusetts Puritan woman who escaped Native American captivity by leading her fellow captives in killing their captors at night. Duston is believed to be the first woman honored in the United States with a statue...
.
Books
- Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America (Macmillan, 1984)
- Don't Know Much About History (1990)
- Don't Know Much About Geography (1992)
- Don't Know Much About the Bible(1999)
- Don't Know Much About the Civil War (1999)
- Don't Know Much About Space(2001)
- Don't Know Much About the Planet Earth(2001)
- Don't Know Much About the Presidents(2001)
- Don't Know Much About the Kings and Queens of England(2002)
- Don't Know Much About the Universe(2002)
- Don't Know Much About the Pilgrims(2002)
- Don't Know Much About Sitting Bull(2002)
- Don't Know Much About the Pioneers (2003)
- Don't Know Much About American History (2003)
- Don't Know Much About George Washington(2003)
- Don't Know Much About the 50 States(2004)
- Don't Know Much About the Solar System (2004)
- Don't Know Much About Dinosaurs (2004)
- Don't Know Much About Thomas Jefferson (2005)
- Don't Know Much About Abraham Lincoln (2005)
- Don't Know Much About World Myths (2005)
- Don't Know Much About Mummies (2005)
- Que Se Yo De Historia (2005)
- Don't Know Much About Martin Luther King Jr. (2002)
- Don't Know Much About Rosa Parks (2005)
- Don't Know Much About Mythology (2005)
- Don't Know Much About Anything (2007)
- America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation (2008)