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Perhaps the both the biggest and broadest historical misconception of all is that the US "won" the war in Europe.
While D-Day, the Battle of Normandy, and the Battle of the Bulge were very significant actions, and I, as an American am justifiably proud, the war in the west was at best a sideshow.
I suggest the US logistics support of the Russians was as, if not more, instrumental in winning the war in Europe than US led combat operations in the west.
I think that JFK is remembered as a "Dove" when he was pretty "Hawkish". He gets a free pass on the Vietnam war but his "Kennedy Doctrine" set the stage for a massive involvement in South Vietnam and our eventual defeat.
The biggest historical misconception is the definition of history itself. People seem to believe that history is whatever happened in the past, yet history is an argument about why things happened in the past and who/what caused change over time. The reasons and contexts surrounding past events are not fixed things, which many people seem to believe that they are. The reasons and interpretations of the past are constantly changing due to attitudes and contexts existent in the present. These things affect how people draw conclusions on why past events happened and why they are important.
As an example, people have routinely told me that Truman dropped the bombs on Japan to save American lives. Yet his diary about Potsdam reveals many different justifications as to why Truman dropped the bombs.
Some of these have been a bit more about political interpretation than misconceptions. Which might be inevitable and maybe in my try it will even pop-up on occasion.
Some I remember
Religious persecution did not happen in polytheistic societies - Not really debating how much it happened, just that it did occur. The Romans persecuted the Druids, granted due to real or alleged human sacrifice. During the T'ang the Chinese persecuted the Buddhists. This was due to Confucian ideas on proper order, so it might be a bit of a stretch, but the Chinese could be deemed "polytheistic" as the people worshiped numerous gods.
Gutenberg invented movable type - Movable type had existed in China centuries before. In Korea they had movable type and an alphabetic script by the time of Gutenberg, although the alphabetic script was not widely adopted in Korea until much later.
Before Constantine legalized it Christianity was illegal everywhere - King Tiridates of Armenia made Christianity official in his land before Constantine did in the Empire. Also persecution of Christians varied. Some Emperors were tolerant, or disinterested, and others were intensely hostile.
In New England the Puritans burned hundreds of women for witchcraft - The Puritans did not use burning as a punishment, even for witchcraft, the punishment they used was mostly hanging. It seems like they may have sometimes used drowning too. Looking it up I'm not sure a hundred were even executed for this. In part this might be because their population wasn't all that large.
Hitler started the Nazi Party - The Nazi Party was the successor of the "German Worker's Party" which was founded by Anton Drexler. Drexler remained chairman when it switched names to "National Socialist." However this misconception is understandable as when Hitler joined it only had 55 people, so he is the one who led it to rise and become significant.
Oh what the hey I'll do some more. This one will be more "all American" as the Fourth is next Monday.
John Smith married Pocahontas - She married a John Rolfe. Also when John Smith knew her she was 12 to 14 years old and although 14 was not unreasonably young for the era I seem to recall she was basically seen as "the young girl" in the colonials writing.
Benjamin Franklin died of syphillis - Not sure where this misconception started, although he did have an illegitimate kid and all. Anyway he died of a ruptured lung artery, in his 80s, and never had VD.
washingtonpost.com - Live Online - (http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/03/sp_books_isaacson070903.htm - broken link)
Abraham Lincoln was born in Illinois - He was born in Kentucky and apparently spent his childhood in Indiana. He didn't move to Illinois until early adulthood it seems.
Thomas Jefferson opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts because he was an extraterrestrial alien - I blanked and didn't have many US misconceptions so I am ending with a joke/weirdness.
And even more: the colonies declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. Actually it was July 2, but not all of the members of congress signed it on that date. Some of the last to sign it did so in Jan. 1777. According to a few essays on the topic from historians, few members of congress even found declaring independence unworthy of mention in their personal papers and letters. I think it was John Adams or Ben Franklin who stated that July 2 would live on as a day of celebration. Few newspapers even commented on it in the month of July.
This has probably been covered on this thread, but during Federal Reconstruction, Southerners have the idea that thousands of federal troops were stationed in the South as an occupation army. Not true at all. I think the total number of troops stationed were around 6,500 -- most of which could be found in Louisiana, Mississippi, Memphis, Charleston, SC, and Richmond, Va. The feds purposely used black troops in many stations, which had the effect of furthering southern anger and despondency after military defeat of their cause.
There are more Reconstruction misconceptions...too many to list here.
Woodrow Wilson was really a great guy. No, he was a racist and a bigot, many of his friends profited on the US staying out of WWI and selling arms to both sides, he refused women the right to vote, he thought that the Sedition Acts to curb free speech were a good thing along with deporting people for no good cause, he was against the american worker and supported business. No the man was a rotten person and terrible president and deserved what he got.
my favorite myth is Abner Doubleday is the inventor of Base ball.
not even close. Baseball evolved from an English game known as rounders. Its not even proven that Doubleday ever played the game of baseball. The rumor was started by a man from Akron, Ohio. It gained so much momentum that even the Baseball Hall of Fame named a baseball field on its grounds as Doubleday field. Baseball historians today brush off the Double day myth as simply that and in fact the 'BASEBALL' Documentary produced by Ken Burns for PBS (excellent baseball documentary) makes no mention of Abner Doubleday, not even to dispute the myth.
The Waterloo thread inspired me to post a misconception...
Napoleon was short.
Not true at all, he was actually slightly taller then the average man of his day. When Napoleons body was autopsied in France following his death his height was recorded as 5' 2". This was of course in French feet or "pied de roi". The people reporting on this in England and elsewhere never did the proper conversion to English standard feet, instead leaving the reported height as 5' 2". Properly converted Napoleon stood at 5' 6.5", which made him slightly taller than average and nothing to be ashamed of.
Contributing to the image of him being short was the fact that he was quite fond of and often seen standing next to members of his Imperial Guard, who were all in the 6' 3" range, as were most guard/grenadier troops of the day. Even an average person at 5' 6" or so looks short next to a bunch of people who are all 6' 3" and wearing tall hats.
I think one of Napoleons quotes is very appropriate for the thread in general, "History is a series of lies that have been agreed upon."
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