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Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong
This fabulous sequel to the bestselling "Lies My Teacher Told Me" looks at more than 100 sites where history is told on the landscape, including historical markers, monuments, outdoor museums, historic houses, forts, and ships. 40 photos.
Paperback, 449 pages
Published
October 16th 2007
by Touchstone
(first published 1999)
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Lies Across America: What our Historic Sites Get Wrong is an excellent book by James Loewen. He starts first with the western half of the United States since most history textbooks start with the eastern side. All of the information about historical markers is broken up into small sections for easy reading. Loewen proceeds to give state-by-state accounts of historical markers and their errors or in some cases their silliness. Many of the markers honor people as heroes who were in fact overt raci...more
This book sort of bored me. I didn't like it as much as his other book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. I think I'd like it more as a travel guide to read before I visit any of these places. I enjoyed reading the sections on states I've lived in or know a lot about (and finding out my home state, Oklahoma, has, in his opinion, the single worst museum presentation in the U.S.). I'm sure when I travel to other states I'll want to read the sections relating to them. It's just a little repetitive to r...more
Awesome book. If you've ever wondered what America really looks like to other countries, this is the book for you. Loewen chose over 100 historic sites/museums/markers to dispel the myths of. Some are more surprising than others, but all of them are interesting. So much that I didn't know about our country. Not everything in the past is as rosy as our government would have us believe. And if we would only learn about these blemishes on our past, then we could learn from them and not repeat them....more
This book actually deserves no stars or a minus star. James W. Loewen obviously has an extreme amount of guilt from being a "White, European-American Male" as his entire book speaks of nothing other than mistreatment and degradation of blacks, native Americans and women to the aggrandizing of WASP American males. The one monument he finds accurate and correct is actually wrong in its interpreting of the facts. The author was a professor at U of VT. He and his ilk are what is wrong ...more
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This book is about public monuments and the stories they tell. Many public monuments, historic sights, roadside plaques, etc. tell an inaccurate or biased story. The author has gone through a number of these and described what the monument got wrong.For example, in Scottsboro Alabama, the most important event ever to have happened there was the trial of the Scottsboro Boys in 1931-39. The town has several historic plaques in its central square, but nothing about that case.This is very much a pro...more
A both entertaining and well thought through "expose" of American monuments and memorials across the country that perpetuate historical inaccuracies that vary from small blunders to wild untruths ("why exactly is there a monument honoring the women of the Confederacy in Montana when there wasn't a Confederacy in Montana"). Loewen divides the book by region and each chapter is short and pithy--it reads like a travel book. His ultimate point about the myths that these markers ...more
James Loewen is best known for his breakthrough "Lies My Teacher Told Me," a scathing attack on traditional history textbooks for their superficial, nationalist, pro-imperialist views. It's fine to teach students about all the great accomplishments of the courageous people who built this country, he argues. But we're doing them, and our ancestors, a disservice if we fail to also identify how and where we went wrong.
This newer book focuses on the many historic sites (such as...more
This newer book focuses on the many historic sites (such as...more
I’ll bet the United Daughters of the Confederacy didn’t love this book. I will say that I didn’t love it either – though certainly not for the same reasons. As something of a follow up to his investigation into the dismal state of public school US History textbooks, Loewen sets his sights on the questionable state of monuments, markers, and historical plaques scattered throughout the US. It’s a valiant effort, and certainly makes for a clear thesis about how misinterpretations and misinformation...more
Great book. This is an everyman's book on histiography. He talks about revisionist history and how different areas in the US change history for their own reasons. For example, he talks about how there is a monument to "our confederate dead" in Montana, even though 1) Montana wasn't a state during the Civil War and 2) even if it was, it would probably have been a Union state. So why did the people in Montana make that monument? Turns out, that monument, like many throughout the country,...more
Surveys monuments, markers, and historical spots across the United States and tells us how the signs either get it wrong, outright lie, or leave facts out. This is interesting for all those who have traveled and visited such markers and memorials, but this book is also important.
He spends a lot of time debunking the neo-confederate revision of the Civil War and Reconstruction. How memorials and plaques put up after the fact often say more about who put them up and their politics and ...more
He spends a lot of time debunking the neo-confederate revision of the Civil War and Reconstruction. How memorials and plaques put up after the fact often say more about who put them up and their politics and ...more
Even better than his first book. Really blasts away at the institutional racism that exists all over our country. Brilliant writing. Very engaging. I highly recommend both books!
pg. 37- "The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, living-dead. They are not wholly dead for they live on in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person ...more
pg. 37- "The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, living-dead. They are not wholly dead for they live on in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person ...more
I'm sorry, but Loewen's scathing attacks on history organizations for failing to preserve and interpret a more open and progressive past fails to take into account the restrictions placed on many organiations to do that. I worked for one of the organizations that was criticized in this book and take offense at his remarks that we failed to adequately preserve women's history in our state markers program. Markers are placed when a private source funds them, so if Mr. Loewen is that upset, he shou...more
As a history fan, this book took off the top of my head. Lowen set out to examine the truth or untruth of how historic sites are presented and ends up showing us the fault line of our private + public conscience. There are plenty of calls to action throughout but ultimately it's about taking back the landscape from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the KKK, and similar. Favorite line: "History--telling what happened in the past--is an ongoing process, not a product, and on the local ...more
This book can't possibly be for everbody...I, in fact, started out hating it... too repetitious, too dense, way too many footnotes and as an African American, too little of any new revelations...American history is racist so why should its markers and monumnets be any different? But as I read I became fascinated with the history and minutae thats slowly revealed. Much of it local and pasted by unnoticed by me for years (A statue honoring a founder of the KKK in Judiciary Square in majority Black...more
I mostly skimmed this one. Like all historians, Loewen has the true story and this book is that story. While certainly I know what he's done is grounded in good research and takes into account how everything America celebrates is Eurocentric, he's frustrating. I love reading the "true" stories behind issues, particularly with public history, but I really hate when it becomes a book that condemns European culture or the attempts to make history public (regardless of how wrong, isn't it ...more
Another Loewen book that was taken from me and a book I wished I still had. This book of "truths" is great for road trips. It's neat to read to how many national parks and monuments are worded and displayed to promote individual agendas that slowly influence our historical memory. Even though I was already aware that this type of thing happens all the time, the book still served as a reminder to read those memorial markers a little bit closer (for example the first time I stepped foot...more
Good, not as good as Lies my Teacher Told Me, but still a good read. This one was a solid 3 star book for me, worth the read but not required reading. I did learn that Mt McKinley being named as kind of an inside joke, when McKinley was still years away from the Presidency, when it was called Denali by the natives. His premise of starting in the west of the continent seems to be a natural progression of 60s leftists. He is not much of a fan of the Confederacy. Just a heads-up.
I bought this book after I read "Lies My Teacher Told Me", and again Mr. Loewen did not fail. This book discusses what some of our historic sites got wrong, the politics behind the markers, what they impley, and the damage they are doing to our society. It is very interesting to see how our culture changed, it's ideas and ideals, and if you look carefuly at the markers you could also tell and what time they were put up, buy whom, and what where the social state of mind than.
Loewen is one of my favourite history writers, and I love "Lies My Teacher Told Me" to death. This book is basically a romp through the states and historical markers and monuments, pointing out inaccuracies and downright fiction. It's an interesting view of the US and its inability to remember what happened not even a hundred years ago, much less longer.
This book reads less like a book than an encyclopedia. It is a series of 95 2-5 page essays on over 100 historic sites, markers, monuments, and homes across the United States that discuss the difference between the history represented by the sites and the "whole story". By picking apart the wording and claims at historic sites Loewen is able to discuss a very wide spectrum of issues in American history. Loewen does a satisfying job dispelling and rebuking myths and outright falsehoo...more
I would recommend this book to everyone, history buff or not. Like "Lies my Teacher Told Me", this book exposes half truths and downright lies on our landscape. The book is divided into many short essays, so you can read the whole thing through, or skip to those sites you are most interested in. It also includes a few examples of historical sites that get it "right".
The author has biases like any other human, and some may not agree with his interpretations, but I...more
The author has biases like any other human, and some may not agree with his interpretations, but I...more
2nd time i've read this. I (still) like it. it takes a subject that I find generally uninteresting (historical markers themselves) and provides a bunch o' small, good history lessons.
I might have actually liked this more than his previous book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. The set up with little essays on each monument or marker made the book easy to pick up and put down when I had a spare moment to read.
Loved this book and found many ways to incorporate it into the classroom. Also good as an 'art lesson' - really LOOKING at something.
Humerous or disturbing - how many of the roadside markers and historic landmarks are full of mistakes in the name of boosterism.
The section on the South was particularly depressing - they are still fighting the Civil War and the Civil Rights war continues.
More mis-educations revealed! Love it. Fun to read, even if I do get a bit angry at the inaccuracies of our "history".
Mark Singer
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in American history
Recommended to Mark by:
no one
Shelves:
usa-history,
usa-civil-war,
american-indians,
culture,
history,
military,
skepticism,
18th-century,
19th-century
Loewen traveled to one hundred historical sites across the United States and gives a devastating account about the misinformation and outright lies that are on the markers and taught by tour guides. Sometimes you can tell a lot about a book by the criticism that it receives, both here on Goodreads and on Amazon.com. Is Loewen biased? He's liberal and proud of it. Does he have an agenda? Yes, he wants the truth to be told, and does not care if it makes people uncomfortable. I do not consider myse...more
Interesting, informative and entertaining. History buffs will enjoy this one.
A good and entertaining corrective to the historical shenanigans foisted upon an unsuspecting and uncritical populace by those who establish historical markers and memorials. Some simply reflect the prejudices and misunderstandings of the past, and also the reluctance for many to correct and change omissions and misstatements in favor of the truth. But what really bugs me is the outright fabrications (such as making up an entire massacre). Maybe the country needs a truth commission for hsitorica...more
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