Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
by James W. Loewen
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Book Summary Information
Author: James W. LoewenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-16
ISBN: 0743296281
Number of pages: 464
Publisher: Touchstone
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780743296281
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
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Book Reviews of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Book Review: A plea to my fellow conservatives: read this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me state at the outset, unequivocally, that this is a superb book. Understand, however, that I am not a member of the choir: as far as Dr. Loewen is oriented to the left, I am his antipode on the right.
That said, Loewen is a brilliant, serious scholar, with a non-pedantic writing style, a refreshing sense of humor, and a surfeit of insight and thoughtful analysis vis-a-vis the book's thesis, that students are being stultified in history classes all over the United States.
Why this is so, what are the consequences, and how (or if) it can be redressed are Loewen's main themes. He explores each one in a meticulous, intellectual, yet most importantly, READABLE manner.
It's a five-star achievement.
Now, conservative brethren, why should YOU read a book by a very liberal guy, with a very liberal world-view, whose book was blurbed by--horrors!--Howard Zinn?
Because you have to know how the other side thinks. If you understand their point of view, you can make better predictions of their likely behavior, and hold an advantage in the ideological gymkhana. You can't shut yourself off from opposing viewpoints...that is a surefire road to intellectual stagnation.
[passage censored by Amazon]. He quotes Bill Moyers and neo-Lysenkoist Stephen Jay Gould. He uses the term "fisherfolk."
But...he must be reckoned with. He must be listened to. He cannot be immediately dismissed as a ridiculous fanatic like Ward Churchill. And while his book is almost air-tight, it is not unassailable. As a springboard for informed debate, Loewen could not have written a better work.
That history, generally speaking, is poorly taught in high school--and elementary school--is a proposition hard to deny by anyone who's sat through a year's worth of classes. (Also hard to deny is the fact that history textbooks are bloated monstrosities filled with an unfortunate amount of utter nonsense.) Loewen attacks the issue from a multicultural, class-based standpoint: where are the blacks, women, workers, Indians, Hispanics? Why aren't they given more credit and currency? Why aren't Columbus's horrendous misdeeds mentioned? Why the romanticization of Washington, Lincoln, Wilson, et al.? Why the lies of omission? Why the (right-wing) bias?
(I think we should teach children the whole truth about Columbus...and also the whole truth about left-wing "saints" such as Martin Luther King, Jr. "Columbus was an avaricious murderer, Timmy, and King was a plagiarist who liked beating up women...remember that when you celebrate their holidays!")
Loewen is quite self-aware, and acknowledges that his book probably is not error-free. It isn't: he falls victim to one of his hated cultural archetypes when he writes that Noah took two of every animal on board the Ark. (Read Genesis again, Dr. Loewen, carefully!) He also casually mentions that Salvador Allende was murdered (untrue: Allende committed suicide in La Moneda--but in 1994, when the book was written, this may not have been established as fact). This demonstrates how easy it is for misinformation to seep into a (text)book.
(My second-grade social studies textbook claimed that after Jesse Owens won a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics, thus disproving Aryan superiority, "Hitler was so angry, he refused to shake hands." Completely apocryphal...and the fact that Germany won the most gold medals at the Games was omitted--for obvious reasons.)
The only place where I thought Loewen really over-reached was when he, once again, adduced a Biblical passage, Psalm 90, as evidence that non-white peoples in ages past enjoyed long lives, contra the Eurocentric view of "primitives" having Hobbesian existences. I shook my head at that, recalling other claims the Bible makes about human longevity, viz. Methuselah.
(I also shook my head at this sentence: "Anthropology professors despair of the severe ethnocentrism shown by many first-year college students." That may be true, but the flip-side is that many first-year college students despair of the severe bias and politicization shown by many anthropology professors!)
Loewen, though, is as objective as you could hope, given his background. The book is terrific, and, let me reiterate, immensely edifying for all people--but especially conservatives--to read.
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Summary of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
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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