Don't Know Much About History?

If John Adams had had his way, the United States would have already celebrated Independence Day on July 2nd. And Thomas Jefferson, the author of the declaration of Independence, wasn't exactly gung ho about writing the famous document when the time came. All kinds of events in early American history are marked with back stories that never made the textbooks. We talk about some of them with Ken Davis, the author of the book Don't Know Much About History.

Later in the show, we get to know the legendary figure Casey Jones. The train engineer from the late 17th century has been immortalized in countless folk tunes over the past century. Hal Cannon of the Western Folklife Center went looking for information on Casey Jones to find out why the man became such a prominent figure in American music. (This story comes to us from the Public Radio Exchange, where you can listen to and comment on all kinds of radio stories. Click here to go directly to the Casey Jones piece.)