In my youth, I was a huge fan of Paul Johnson‘s Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Eighties.  His revised edition pleased me less, but I still loved the book.  But whenever I mentioned Modern Times to professional historians, they scoffed at its inaccuracies – without actually specifying any. 

Now I’m rereading the book, and it still seems excellent.  I did spot one mistake in the first three chapters – contrary to Johnson, the Democrats had not been “out of office for fifty-three years” when Wilson was elected.  But this seems like a reasonable error rate for a genuine world history – and makes me wonder whether the professional historians’ real complaint is that ambitious, Actonian history shouldn’t be written.

Question: Does anyone know of any other glaring factual errors in Johnson?  Please show your work. 🙂