The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War Book

Just came across this gem:

"In 1844, America elected James Polk to the presidency. At the time of his election, the United States was a small country with states exclusively east of the Mississippi. The Louisiana Purchase territory was unorganized. Great Britain claimed the Oregon Territory in the Northwest, and Mexico held what would later be Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California."

Let us review all the errors in this paragraph.

1) The United States was never a small country. Even the original 13 states were larger than any European country save Russia, and by 1844 the United States was comparable in size to Western Europe.

2) There were three states west of the Mississippi in 1844 -- (most of) Louisiana (1812), Missouri (1821) and Arkansas (1836). Considering the Missouri compromise was one of the most important events in Antebellum politics, Bradley's ignorance on this score is astonishing.

3) If (2) didn't give it away, the "Louisiana Purchase territory" had been organized in part by 1844.

4) Mexico gave up possession of Texas in 1836. At the same time, he fails to mention Arizona, which Mexico did control.

This is third grade civics. The fact that an actul published history book cold contain these mistakes is astonishing.

EDIT: Another doozy -- Bradley says that Teddy Roosevelt's fellow politicians compared him to Oscar Wilde in the early 1880s. This is certainly true, but not in the way Bradley means -- this would be right around the time Wilde made his first appearance in the US, and he came across as quite the foppish dandy to many people. But Bradley thinks this means people perceived TR as a homosexual, which is entirely anachronistic as Wilde's sexual orientation remained secret until 1895. This is like someone finding an article from the 1950s that compares Ronald Reagan to Rock Hudson and concluding the author was suggesting Reagan was gay.