I recently wrote,

I love [Gary] North the most when he's writing about education. Second best: history. I used to love his stuff on gold and banking and money in general, but since I deal with Austrian economics all day every day, I don't learn as much from his economic writings as I used to. On education and history, I still learn plenty.

Well his LRC article today is a perfect example of the kind of history I was talking about. It even includes a bit on education (the fact that the slogan "No taxation without representation" is a fabrication of history textbook writers) and on gold and banking and money.

This passage alone is worth the cost of admission:

The British in 1763 had signed a treaty with France settling the Seven Years War, which was called the French and Indian War in the colonies. This war had drained the treasuries of both countries.

The name of the war is incorrect. It refers to the dates of the official hostilities: 1756–63. It should be called the Nine Years War, because it began, not in 1756, but in 1754. It began on May 28, when an inexperienced 22-year-old Virginia militia officer led about thirty-five troops in an unprovoked surprise attack on a small group of Frenchmen commanded by Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. The battle is called the Battle of Jumonville Glen. It took place in Western Pennsylvania.

The previous year, the militia's commander had established an alliance with a village of Seneca Indians. He consulted with their leader the day before the attack. The Indian had encouraged him to strike first, without warning, which he did the next morning. The French lost the skirmish. Nine were killed; 21 were captured. Thirteen were wounded, but the group of about eight Indians without warning killed them. The Virginian met with the wounded French commander to discuss the terms of surrender. Before he could formally surrender, the Indians' leader smashed his skull with a tomahawk.

France and England had not been at war. This was the opening salvo.

Another 400 men soon arrived. This was not enough. He surrendered on July 3 to a French and Indian force of 600 French and 100 Indians. As a condition of his troops' release, he signed a document admitting that the French commander had been assassinated while surrendering to him. The French word was "l'assassignat," which the young officer later said he thought meant "killing."

The officer was Lt. Col. George Washington.

From "Shorn on the Fourth of July" by Gary North