Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Andrew Napolitano

Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Andrew Napolitano is a political science/non-fiction compilation of 17 commonly held beliefs/edicts of the American populace that the author shows to be untrue through current laws, government actions, court decisions, and practices aimed for readers looking to become informed about our government and interaction with us and the Constitution.

Now that the formality of it is out of the way, I found this a quick read. Napolitano uses common terminology as much as possible to make the instances where he discusses legal cases and terms understandable to those of us who are not in the legal profession.

He is very straight forward stating the purpose of the overall book as well as framing each of the 17 lies he discusses. He then systematically discusses the details of the lie and show time after time where the government (and he tends to name names, as in the judge who wrote the decision, the president to sign the law or executive order, etc.) has acted in turning the discussed widely held "truth" into a lie. Furthermore, he does a good job of citing cases, quotes, etc. as shown with several pages of citation at the end of the book.

Personally, I enjoyed the book, although the evidence provided did irritate me over what the government has done to work around the "truths" that many learn in school that are not valid today. It has definitely opened my eyes and further encouraged me to be an informed voter/stockholder in my government. I like the fact that Napolitano did not push his morality into the argument, but stuck to the legal side of it (Napolitano is considered by many to be conservative). The best examples would be abortion and drug use. Not once did I pick up any hint of his religious view on these topics, which I tend to think drives most people's opinion on these topics rather than the legal/rights associated with these.

Napolitano's is a classic debate book (opinion, supporting evidence, tying evidence to opinion, close) that I think anyone looking to become an informed voter or wanting to learn more about our government, especially the judicial branch (which tends to get overlooked in books on this topic I think) should pick up and read.

I'll be giving this book to anyone who starts to say, "There should be a law that..."

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