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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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Seller: ruddy_duck_books
Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 1471
Media: Paperback
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 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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| • | ISBN13: 9780743296281 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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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 76
 Why kids hate history (but shouldn't have to) May 5, 2009
History Man (Potomac, Maryland USA)
63 out of 71 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
Fantastic August 16, 2008
J. T. Florence (San Ramon, CA United States)
26 out of 29 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.
Fascinating History Demonstrating Limited Weak Public School Texts: Needs Some Postives, Not All Historical Warts May 25, 2008
Daniel Hurley (Chesapeake, VA.)
38 out of 47 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.
Needed by parents everywhere October 12, 2009
G. Horning (Rolla, MO)
8 out of 8 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.
Turkey Day Coverup Unmasked and...... October 7, 2009
Robert S. Newman (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If setting a lot of American history straight was the only function of this book, it would still be worth five stars. Yes, you will learn a lot of stuff your high school history teacher and textbook (much more the book) never told you. Maybe your teacher stuck to the book out of a well-placed sense of self-preservation. [Why get fired for teaching stuff that didn't go down well with the town fathers or rightwing citizen groups ?] I know that in my case, my teacher never mentioned the epidemics that virtually wiped out the Native Americans before the dear old Pilgrims even got to Plymouth Rock. How come Squanto could speak English ? Was Chris Columbus really the first to know that the Earth was round ? Did he actually discover America ? Was Reconstruction a vast failure caused by Black inexperience and (Northern) White greed ? How many times did the US send military forces to intervene in various Latin American countries ? Why were all those millions of African-Americans galvanized to get Obama elected ? Was it just because he looked like them ? Check your (real) history books. Was Woodrow Wilson such a paragon of virtue ? How come I never heard that a sitting president of the USA got inducted into the Ku Klux Klan right in the White House ? (Harding) Whoa, dude ! If these few rather radical differences from your textbook rouse your curiosity, hang onto your hat ! You are going to learn a lot more by reading LMTTM. Some people say that the author is too left wing. Well, we got the rightwing version stuffed into our brains as kids, and I think that's still going on. About time to hear a difference. Plus, history is not just a collection of facts, it's also interpretation. You may not like Loewen's interpretation, but you have to come up with a better one in order to discredit it---a better one that still adheres to known facts, but puts a different spin on them. If you are prepared for this in the average American high school history course, I'll eat my hat. My high school history book pontificated and we had a zillion quizzes on the stuff. The USA could do a lot better, unless you believe that thinking is a dangerous activity.
"An' that ain't all" as the song says. Loewen did more than just his homework. He analyzed 12 popular US history textbooks for eleventh graders and showed how they consistently valued colorful tales and personality over actual facts. He showed how they avoided serious issues that might have made us think---racism, social class, capitalism, labor history, immigration, and gender inequality (just for a start). Most of them presented feel-good history, trying to create patriots who believed that America was the ultimate triumph in nation states, the International Good Guy. While feeling bad about your country is not a great diet for kids, a bit of truth never hurt because if you think you live in "God's Country", there is no other explanation for why others don't like us except `jealousy' or simple `ill-will'. You won't be able to understand what happens now because you have no idea about the controversies of the past. Loewen argues that Americans don't like history because it is so phoney as presented, so willfully ignorant of actual conditions, and because the textbooks are syrupy when they should be insightful. He says that memorization of thousands of useless facts turns kids off. I think, personally, that the reason that Americans are so dismal in history stems from reasons beyond just textbooks, so right there I depart somewhat from the book. Still there is no gainsaying that his picture of the textbooks (and fact memorization) is right on. And it's not just a long diatribe about what's wrong. He offers plenty of suggestions as well, take them or leave them. Frankly, this is one of the most instructive books I've read in a long time on any subject. I'm sure it's the single book you need if you wonder how come kids today can't understand what's going on in the country or the world. And why should we point the finger at kids ? We all had those textbooks. Read this one.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 76
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