The Politically Correct Guide to American History

To the flood of books targeting P.C., add this witty look at U.S. history by a contributing writer to TV's Tonight Show. Moser concentrates here on highlights that led him to point up egregious absurdities. He takes particular aim at environmentalists, beginning with George Washington and the cherry tree, but also works over antisexist vocabulary and defenders of those charged with violent crimes and so-called gangs of the Old West, which they excuse as freedom-loving private militias. The Founding Parents, particularly the ""Virginia Mafia,"" French cuisine, those who insist that lumberjane Paula Bunyan was actually a male, the Menendez brothers and Antioch College's notorious dating code get their lumps as well. Moser is expert at reconstructing the tortured vocabulary and syntax of P.C. enthusiasts and should appeal to the verbally sophisticated. Author tour. (Mar.)