Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |  | Author: James W. Loewen
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 335
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.4
ISBN: 0743296281
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780743296281
ASIN: 0743296281
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Winner of the American Book Award and the Oliver C. Cox
Anti-Racism Award of The American Sociological Association Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses. Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
 Why kids hate history (but shouldn't have to) May 5, 2009
History Man (Potomac, Maryland USA)
112 out of 123 found this review helpful
This is a real eye-opener to anyone who thinks they learned about U.S. history in high school. Loewen spent eleven years reviewing the 12 most commonly-used U.S. history textbooks and found all to be seriously wanting. Textbook publishers want to avoid controversy (so, apparently, do many school systems), so they feed students a white-washed, non-controversial, over-simplified version of this country's history and its most important historical figures.
To make his point, Loewen emphasizes the "dark side" of U.S. history, because that's the part that's missing from our education system. So, for example, we never learned that Woodrow Wilson ran one of the most racist administrations in history and helped to set back progress in race relations that had begun after the Civil War. Helen Keller's socialist leanings and political views are omitted and we only learn that she overcame blindness and deafness. John Brown is portrayed as a wild-eyed nut who ran amok until he was caught and hung, rather than an eloquent and dedicated abolitionist who uttered many of the same words and thoughts that Lincoln later expressed.
Loewen's book vividly illustrates the maxim that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Ignorance of our real history also renders us incapable of fully understanding the present and coming to grips with the issues of our time. For example, from the Civil War until around 1890, real racial progress was underway in the United States and civil rights laws were Federally enforced in the South. The military was integrated and former slaves had the right to vote, serve on juries and as witnesses in trials, own property and operate businesses. They also received mandatory public education, which was automatically extended to white children for the first time in the south. But, between 1890 and 1920, the Feds gradually disengaged and allowed southern racist governments to strip these rights from blacks and relegate them to virtual non-citizenship. Only within the last half-century has that policy been gradually reversed, again through Federal intervention. This history casts current racial attitudes and issues in a different light than most of our high school graduates are likely to see unless they are taught the complete history of their country, warts and all.
Despite some of the reviews posted here, it is clear to me that Loewen is NOT out to bash the United States or offer up an equally one-dimensional, negative version of its history. He gives a balanced account of many of the figures whose weaknesses he exposes. Thus, we learn that, although Columbus was an unimaginative fortune hunter, a racist tyrant and slave trader, he (and Spain) were not much different than most people at the time. He points out that all societies, including Native Americans and Africans, kept slaves, for example (the very antithesis of "revisionist" or "post modern" approaches) and that it is unfair to single out Columbus as singularly evil.
The problem is that our kids never learn both sides of these stories, so history becomes a bland repetition of non-confrontational "events" that appear to have had no or vague causes. Historical events are not related to issues that people disputed or serious conflicts that placed them at irreversable odds with one another, the very stuff that drives history. No wonder kids are bored and disinterested. They are left with the distorted impression that, down deep, the United States always means well (rather than acting in its own best interests, like any other country) and, in the end, is always "right." With that view of our history, these students become putty in the hands of politicians who appeal to that dumbed-down, distorted view.
Loewen has presented fair accounts of key events in our history and indicated why our high school graduates know and care so little about it. He also suggests ways to correct this serioius shortcoming and every American ought to applaud that.
AW
Fascinating History Demonstrating Limited Weak Public School Texts: Needs Some Postives, Not All Historical Warts May 25, 2008
Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.)
50 out of 62 found this review helpful
A very interesting book as the author's main premise is that many standard school history books provide superficial history and quite often only put a positive spin on all subjects whether actions by the government (Vietnam) or individuals such as Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson. For example, he debunks the importance of Columbus and explains why modern Native Americans despise Columbus as one who was very harsh to Indians he encountered and he documents that fairly well and he contrasts his facts with what is typically printed virtually as pabulum in several history books he quotes. Other contrasts include the image of John Brown as a violent religious fanatic in contrast to being a fervent abolitionist, Lincoln as doing what was politically expedient regarding race relations and slavery, Woodrow Wilson's support of the Klan and segregation of government employees, the post Civil War treatment of blacks in America that was frequently and geographically severe and the U.S. government's questionable involvement in Vietnam. A number of the points the author makes are fascinating and in particular the post Civil War race relations needs to be told as the "Jim Crow" laws were very harsh and discriminatory. The criticisms of the book lie in that it tends to be too negative and part of the culture of total destroying all heroes. The book would be much better served to discuss the relative positive points of those in our history with more balance. For example, Columbus was harsh to many Indians he encountered but most if not all the Conquistadors were extraordinary cruel to the Indians particularly Desoto. Columbus is not exempt from those cruelties but there is evidence that he may not have been directly involved in them certainly to the extent of others of his vain. The author does show some individuals very positively such as Helen Keller who's early modern controversial politics were deemed unworthy to mention. Lastly, I was more interested in the historical nuggets that the author writes about and became a little tired of the time out documentation of all the school books' with weak descriptions, I got the point early and would have preferred limited references to these public books as time went on as the history was much more interesting. This is a very good book but emphasizes too many of mankind's warts without balance, thus not for the faint of heart. A greater mix of human positives would have enhanced the book.
Fantastic August 16, 2008
J. T. Florence (San Ramon, CA United States)
32 out of 40 found this review helpful
I purchased this book years ago and I still have it. I purchased it after high school (catchy title - what can I say) and have been a history fan ever since. This book should be required reading. Who decided that dry facts and dates are what should comprise a history class? History becomes fun and fascinating when you move past the whitewashed versions of people and truly examine their motivation, inner demons and flaws. I have gone on to read a multitude of history books and continue to search for the soul in people who have accomplished things that aren't regulated to footnotes.
Teachers Should Read This January 20, 2009
Scandalous Sanity (Texas)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
How accurate are history textbooks? That is a question James W. Loewen tries to answer in his book Lies My Teacher Told Me. The name of the book is slightly misleading. Loewen doesn't attack teachers or their lack of knowledge. His intent is to display the generalism and mythology that American history textbooks promote, and what teachers can do to make history interesting again.
Loewen sampled twelve history textbooks that have been published at various times within the last thirty years, some more modern than others. The heroification of the founding fathers is covered, as well as the stereotyping of Native Americans. Loewen shows how the myths and generalizations that textbooks promote can distract students from asking serious questions and seeing historical figures as actual people with faults and eccentrencities.
This book is filled with interesting facts and little known stories that will keep a reader intrigued from start to finish. While learning that Helen Keller was a communist and that the U.S. invaded Russia in the early twentieth century don't change the overall theme of historical events and timelines, it does help explain effects by adequately illuminating the causes. A great read for history enthusiasts.
Needed by parents everywhere October 12, 2009
G. Horning (Rolla, MO)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This was an excellent book and I recommend it to anybody and everybody. I was a history minor in college, a business major, having decided not to teach history somewhere around my second year, I relegated my knowledge of history to something useful on trivia night. That is until the kids came around. I first realized there might be a problem with my son's education when he told me that Adolf Hitler had been a Genius, and that he had simply suffered from bad luck, later I heard that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, and even that Puritan settlers taught the Indians to farm and saved them from starvation...I had trouble believing that a teacher ever told my son such lies, and that he must be mistaken somehow; either way I began taking the education of my children much more seriously than our public schools do. In his book James Loewen takes on some of these myths, explains why they have persisted, and gives reasonable solutions for teachers and parents. He manages to present some new information (at least for me), and writes an extremely important critique of the textbook writing process and the approval process still used today. This book should be read by every parent and given as a gift to every teacher of History and Social Studies you can find. Teaching happy history doesn't make it so-lets teach our kids the truth so that they can engage the world with a clean slate.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
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