Proving yet again that history is far from a cut-and-dried (as well as just plain dry) field, Paul Aron gives us the basic facts and opinions regarding thirty of the most perplexing issues in the history and pre-history of the US, from when human beings first arrived in the Americas to what Reagan knew about the Iran-contra affair.

To his great credit, Aron doesn't try to solve these bafflers. Instead he presents various clues, competing theories, and divergent opinions, ultimately deciding that the evidence points in a certain direction but (usually) not pretending that there is a definitive answer.

For example, orthodox historians and archeologists believe that humans first came to North America around 12,000 years ago by crossing the land bridge that existed between Siberia and Alaska. However, some archeologists have found a small number of human artifacts and art that date back 13,000 to 34,000 years. Scientists holding the traditional view have offered counter-arguments. "In some cases the artifacts supporting earlier dates may have been natural and not man-made: trees may have fallen in ways that could be mistaken for human dwellings, natural deposits may appear to be hearths, pebbles eroded my streams may seem to be tools. In other cases the dating process may have been corrupted; radiocarbon dating depends on finding organic material (which can be carbon-dated) at the same level as human artifacts (which can't be carbon-dated), and then assuming that the latter are the same age as the former--but all sorts of geological disturbances could result in older organic matter ending up in the same layer as more recent human artifacts."

Aron implies that the preponderance of evidence suggests that humans set up camp in North America about 12,000 years ago, although he says that more archeologists than ever are willing to admit that a small number of people might possibly have made it over here at an earlier date, and there is certainly always a chance that some definitive proof of an earlier civilization will be found.

Similarly, there are differing clues regarding the lost colony at Roanoke. Were the settlers slaughtered by Native Americans or Spaniards? Did their ship sink when they attempted to sail back to England? We don't know for sure, but the scenario that makes the most sense given the clues is that most of the colonists went to Chesapeake Bay (which was their original destination) and lived with the Indians there but were killed when a neighboring tribe took over. The colonists who had stayed behind eventually went south to the island of Croatan, which accounts for the word "croatoan" that was famously carved into a post at the abandoned settlement.

As Aron moves into recent times, his inquiries start dealing with conspiracies, which gets extremely hairy. With the thousands of books written about the JFK assassination, it's impossible to come up with a good answer in a few pages, but he does a good job of showing the flaws in the dominant theories of who orchestrated the murder.

In perhaps the only chapter where he presents a definite answer, Aron says that Roosevelt did not know in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor, although FDR was provoking Japan by aiding its enemies. The belief in Roosevelt's lack of foreknowledge, though, is undermined by the book, Day of Deceit (New York: Free Press, 1999) by Robert J. Stinnett, which presents a smoking gun showing the FDR and his closest advisors both provoked the attack and knew of it in advance.

Aron also looks at the ticklish issues of whether Leif Ericsson discovered America, where Columbus landed, how Cortes conquered the Aztecs, whether Pocahantas saved John Smith, whether Daniel Boone was a traitor, whether Jefferson got it on with his slave Sally Hemings, what destroyed the battleship Maine, why Truman dropped the Bomb, whether the Rosenbergs were guilty, what happened at the Gulf of Tonkin, and who was to blame for the killings at Kent State. Still other chapters turn the spotlight on Benedict Arnold, Davy Crockett, Wounded Knee, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Lindbergh kidnapping, Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, Malcolm X, and Watergate. Each chapter is followed by a handy annotated guide to books that examine the topic in question from all sides. Make no mistake--history is stranger and murkier than you think.

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.