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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Iowa History > Item 7
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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
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by James W. Loewen
Sales Rank: 7640
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List Price: $16.00
$16.00
At Amazon
on 4-17-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 384 pages
Published by: TouchstoneEdition: 1st Edition September 3, 1996
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0684818868
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0684818863
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 14.4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Loewen's politically correct critique of 12 American History textbooks—including The American Pageant by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy; and Triumph of the American Nation by Paul Lewis Todd and Merle Curti—is sure to please liberals and infuriate conservatives. In condemning the way History is taught, he indicts everyone involved in the enterprise: authors, publishers, adoption committees, parents and teachers. Loewen (Mississippi: Conflict and Change) argues that the bland, Eurocentric treatment of History bores most elementary and high school students, who also find it irrelevant to their lives. To make learning more compelling, Loewen urges authors, publishers and teachers to highlight the drama inherent in History by presenting students with different viewpoints and stressing that History is an ongoing process, not merely a collection of—often misleading—factoids. Readers interested in history, whether liberal or conservative, professional or layperson, will find food for thought here. Illustrated.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
When textbook gaffes make news, as with the tome that explained that the Korean War ended when Truman dropped the atom bomb, the expeditious remedy would be to fire the editor. Loewen would rather hire a new team of authors bent on the pursuit of context instead of factoids. In Loewen's ideal text, events and people illuminating the multicultural holy trinity of race, gender, and social class would predominate over the fixation on heroes and acts of government. Such is the mood adopted throughout this critique of 12 American History texts in current use. Vetting ten topics they commonly address--from the Pilgrims to the Vietnam War--Loewen bewails a long train of alleged omissions and distortions. To account for the deplorable situation, he offers this quasi-Marxist explanation: "Perhaps we are all dupes, manipulated by elite white male capitalists who orchestrate how History is written as part of their scheme to perpetuate their own power and privilege at the expense of the rest of us." Certainly students' appalling ignorance of History is troublesome, and broken families and excessive TV viewing are at least the equals of white male conspirators as the cause. However, libraries located where dissatisfaction with textbooks exists should be interested in Loewen's critique. Gilbert Taylor
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
James Loewen's book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" addresses a problem I could easily detect when I was in high school: history class is boring. Worse, it doesn't HAVE to be boring -- I've since read many fascinating history books on my own that have really expanded my knowledge and interest in the subject. In this book Loewer surveys twelve of the most commonly used high school American history books to determine what is wrong with them. Going into this book I expected it to be a straightforward and precise debunking of a lot of exaggerated and manufactured pieces of American folklore, much like Bill Bryson did in his books on the English language. "Lies My Teacher Told Me" is rather more blunt -- Loewen's premise is that history textbooks have been dumbed down and slanted to portray an endlessly optimistic and patriotic view of America which suits the needs of the conservative white people who sit on textbook adoption boards. Loewen does a good job of showing what goes in to publishing a history text -- to assure that the book will be adopted widely, authors must take care not to badmouth southerners, any of the American presidents and forefathers, or the United States in general. Conversely, textbooks are stuck including all sorts of minor historical characters in their narratives to satisfy the local pride of as many different school districts as possible. What results is pre-chewed history which is short on controversial ideas and long on names and dates. This is why history is polled to be students' least favorite subject, according to Loewen. I whole-heartedly agree with the author that history is far more engaging when presented warts-and-all, and with focus on the major debates and controversies of the time, instead of burnishing the reputations of all the major figures and presenting American history as a series of inexorable steps towards world hegemony. Also, it is terribly embarrassing that the United States accuses other countries of white-washing their pasts in their history classes, when of course America does the same thing, if perhaps to a lesser degree. Loewen presents many concrete examples of major omissions in history textbooks, from Columbus' enslavement of native Americans to Woodrow Wilson's overt racism. However. As many other reviewers here have noted, Loewen wears his left-wing biases flagrantly on his sleeve. I first noticed this in Chapter 2, when the author notes that Christopher Columbus is portrayed as "brave, wise, and godly" during his first transatlantic voyage, while "the sailors are stupid, superstitious, cowardly, and sometimes scheming". This description is harmful because "these portrayals amount to an 'anti-working class pro-boss polemic'". That is just the first of many instances where Loewen advances a personal viewpoint in critiquing the history texts. I find this a shame, because I agree with his general principle: Textbooks do contain harmful inaccuracies, from downplaying the complexity of native American cultures, to ignoring the government's open support of racist policies after the end of Reconstruction, to forgetting to mention the brutal and undemocratic regimes the United States supported during the Cold War. However, Loewen overplays his politically correct hand so strongly, it masks his overall point. The reader is forced to split the difference between the conservative, overly patriotic slant displayed by the textbooks and the doomsayer socialist slant of the author. Loewen states that textbooks should not present such a Eurocentric view because it harms the worldview of minority students. I believe that historical accuracy is a goal for its own sake. If textbooks would relate a true narrative about how America came to be where it is today, including both the proud triumphs and the embarrassing missteps, students would become interested in and even passionate about history. "Lies My Teacher Told Me" is good at showing some of the many areas where history textbooks fall short.
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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
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