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Review title: just awful work from a historian-wannabee
Product review: Some journalists write excellent history. Others produce mediocre but acceptable historical books. But some are simply awful, like Thomas Laird, who tried hard to write something profound but failed. Having seen the substantive criticism from experts, one could hardly believe the bad reviews were true, but they didn't reveal just how badly this is done. Besides the multitude of factual errors, it's stylistically annoying--as if Laird were trying to write a screenplay for Oliver Stone, another propagandist with an agenda who cares little for facts if they get in the way of the story he wants to tell.
