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| Original Title: | Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |
| ISBN: | 0684818868 (ISBN13: 9780684818863) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | United States of America |
| Literary Awards: | American Book Award (1996), The Oliver C. Cox Anti-Racism Award |
James W. Loewen
Paperback | Pages: 383 pages Rating: 3.96 | 51028 Users | 2675 Reviews
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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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| Title | : | Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |
| Author | : | James W. Loewen |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 383 pages |
| Published | : | September 3rd 1996 by Touchstone Books (first published October 14th 1995) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Education. Politics. North American Hi.... American History |
Rating Epithetical Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Ratings: 3.96 From 51028 Users | 2675 ReviewsWeigh Up Epithetical Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
What I learned from this textbook:1. That it is not weird that I hated history/social studies in high school, but now find it interesting.2. That textbook "authors" can't be bothered to do their own research, so all the textbooks tell the same apocryphal stories (George Washington and the cherry tree, the first Thanksgiving, Columbus as all-round good guy, the US as "international good-guy peacekeeper, with NO ulterior motives), making every factoid on every page suspect.3. That our history isThis book is a TOTAL eye-opener about how we're taught cultural prejudices and distorted American history through classroom textbooks. I mean, I'm pretty liberal, but the perspective of this author totally opened my eyes to things that I just took for granted about how our history was founded, about people we deify who were not the gods we simplify them into being, like Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc, and how racial inequality and sexual inequality is subtly established in the text
I originally picked this up several years ago because the blurb on the back cover appealed to me:Lies My Teacher Told Me is for anyone who has ever fallen asleep in history class."Mr. Loewens premise is that history textbooks have been presented to portray a slanted, optimistic and patriotic dumbed-down view of America, because this suits the needs of the conservative white people who sit on the textbook adoption boards. By critiquing 12 highly used American History textbooks, the author
When I started this book, I thought it would be along the lines of "your teacher told you this...but this is what happened..." You know like "hey columbus didn't discover the new world...blah blah blah" and there was some of that.But more importantly, and far more interestingly, this book is an indictment of how American history is taught. As the book went forward, even I found myself thinking "yep, that's what I was taught" and wondering if I would have found American history less boring had it
Americans need to learn from the Wilson era, that there is a connection between racist presidential leadership and like-minded public response.This book is so important to read.I do not know if there is any other field of knowledge which suffers so badly as history from the sheer blind repetitions that occur year after year, and from book to book.History is a subject that I haven't taken since high school. Because I, like so many others, found it incredibly boring. I grew up in Canada but
This is an important book for anyone living in the United States. James Loewen takes a look at some of our shared national history, primarily through the lens of the textbook. He has combed thoroughly through 18 of the top-selling American history textbooks (and 6 additional ones as of the 2007 update I read). In those textbooks, he has found a pervasive Euro-centrism, in which the accomplishments of white people are given undue weight, drowning out the other peoples and cultures who have
I read this a while ago and forgot about it until I saw a GR friend reading it. I liked its content and I agree that history is taught a certain way to bore us into stupidity. Who remembers liking history and who can remember what they learned? I don't/can't. Now that I am older I can appreciate it and want to discover what really happened. As "they say" history repeats itself.
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