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Jan 30, 2008

Jim rated it:

This was a great book! The first two-thirds gives example after example of the many lies, omissions, and half-truths found in American high school history books, and the last third speculates why this has happened. Here's one example:

Almost everyone knew the world was round before 1492. Columbus's main reason for traveling to the new world to find gold, and he was responsible for killing, torturing and enslaving natives by the millions. Eight million in Haiti alone were reduced t More...

7 comments like (47 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Maurean rated it:

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. Loewen’s 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 His More...

3 comments like (39 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Jamie rated it:

Ostensibly, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen is a book about factual inaccuracies found in a survey of twelve popular History textbooks. That's a good hook, but unfortunately once the hook gets you the place it pulls you into is slightly different than what you might expect. This book might more accurately be titled Subtle Biases Created by Questionable Omissions in A Few Textbooks. But that, of course, is not quite as bombastic a title More...

0 comments like (34 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Chris rated it:

Why does nobody like high school history? Or civics, or social studies, or whatever they're calling it these days. Why does pretty much everybody hate this class? I mean, you have people who can memorize irrelevant sporting statistics for the last fifty years, but they can't name more than two nineteenth-century presidents.

The author of this book, a teacher and researcher of history, started looking into this. He'd found among his high school and college students an appalling level o More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Justin rated it:

Lies My Teacher Told Me is a well-written and insightful expose of some of the problems inherent in the teaching of US History in public schools. From outdated textbooks to gross distortions of basic events and major figures, Loewen exposes readers to a side of US History that most do not get in high school. However, I had a problem with some of his methodology. His survey of 12 textbooks didn't seem like enough to make a truly damning critique of education in the country. In addition, his judgm More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

kendall rated it:

The thesis of the book is interesting and well supported, however, I found it pretty dry which was disappointing considering a main point Loewen makes is that Middle School/High School History books are too boring. He goes into too much depth in the first two chapters making the same point over and over again, while quickly and concisely exploring more current history, which again is the same criticism he makes of the textbooks he attacks. I also thing the extreme liberal tone of the book took More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Daniel rated it:

As a history major in college, I still have an affinity for the subject. This book was very interesting, because it challenged many of the things we were all taught in the American educational system.
It's a real eye opener, and while you may have a superficial knowledge of some of the events and trends that we were never taught,or taught in such a way that the real issues were glossed over, this book delves into them in depth.
I would highly recommend this book, even if you are not in More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2009

Whitney rated it:

This biggest reason I'm rating this book so high is that it was so thought-provoking. Loewen reviewed 12 common American history textbooks and analyzed the content based on historical accuracy and bias. Unsurprisingly, they all presented a very sanitized and rosy view of American history. His argument is that most of the textbooks in use 1. are very Euro-centric, marginalizing minorities (especially african americans and native americans); 2. "heroify" major historical figures so much More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

Kristina rated it:

I love works that give you the uncensored truth about history, but this particular book left me feeling as though the author had something to prove, rather than reveal.

3 comments like (18 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2007

Emily rated it:

Wonderful read for students of American History and sociologists. Loewen conducted a fabulous study of American History textbooks in the late 80s and early 90s. What he found was a narrative lacking much depth, diversity, and frankly, any excitement. He was right. Most texts still adhered to the "great white father's" narrative of American history that our parents and grandparents learned throughout the 20th century. Much of American history, from Columbus to Lincoln to Vietnam More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Lisa rated it:

GREAT title! Really makes you think about all those HS History Classes you sat through and wondered what they were leaving out of the discussion. For example: how come we never discussed Vietnam? History magically "ended" at WWII; we always assumed that it just coinsided with the end of the school year (oops - "no time" to discuss anything after! Have a good summer kids!). This book really explores how the top 10 American History Textbooks taught in 95% of American High Sc More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 11, 2007

Cyndy rated it:

great cocktail fodder.

i think the author has a great overall point. especially since my mom is navajo and was raised as a baby in tuba city, az. but c'mon. does anyone out there still believe the shite printed during the cold war anyway?

some of the examples in the book are pure sensationalistic crap. that's ok, it's no worse than the religious right's crap and in this case much more interesting and less mystical.

i find it just as hard to bite at each More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2009

Deenbat rated it:

It is all well and fine for people to criticize historians for being snobs about who writes the history books... but this book is a great example of what goes wrong when non-historians try to write history. Everything in this book is taken out of context - and is therefore at best skewed and at worst just wrong. Context is everything. Nothing happens in a vacuum; historical events out of context are just stories - and usually not very good ones at that.

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2009

Jen rated it:

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 More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2010

Josh rated it:

Without question, this is the greatest non-fiction book I have ever read. To illustrate that claim, let me highlight that it served, in large part, as the inspiration for my master's thesis.

In it, Loewen, a college professor, is constantly frustrated by how little his young, incoming freshmen know about history. So, in the late 90s he wrote a scathing investigation of the most common history textbooks used in secondary classes. He details how poorly these textbooks link events, leav More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2008

Dustin rated it:

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 ever More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2008

Andrew rated it:

This is a powerful attack on American history textbooks. The author hammers high school text book makers for falsehoods, overstating American's accomplishments, and shortchanging its sins. It is difficult to make a defense of American history textbooks and this book certainly has a good point.

The difficulty in reading this book is that is a very long list of negatives about the United States. While one can accept that the U.S. has not behaved well in many respects, it is equally unt More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2007

Daniel rated it:

Should be required reading for collegiate American history students. Deducted a star because the author makes no attempt to hide his liberal bias - which I like, of course, but which might make it hard for some to take as anything other than the pointless character assassination of our shared cultural and national heroes. But the author argues that American history should not primarily be used as a tool for instilling patriotism and commitment but as a means of learning to avoid the same mistake More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 07, 2007

Brianna rated it:

I love history. I love reading about it, I love memorizing it, I love questioning it, I love finding new interpretations of major events. So you would think I and this book would get along famously.

I've read (and enjoyed) some pretty dry non-fiction in my time, but I found this a bit of a drag. In addition, I already knew most of the shocking untruths that were revealed to us.

I feel like this book would only be really beneficial to people who really weren't paying at More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 20, 2008

Patrick rated it:

This book was incredible. The title is a little misleading though. As I learned from the book. there is no possible way that this book could detail EVERYTHING your textbook got wrong. Not only does it give interesting facts that are blatantly wrong or completely overlooked in textbooks (Did you know that in a race riot in Tulsa, OK in 1921 whites dropped dynamite from an airplane on a black slum killing more that 75 people or that President Harding was inducted into the KKK in the White House?) More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 02, 2007

Vinh rated it:

Whatever you had learned in your high school textbooks and college textbooks probably were presented to you in carefully modified forms. Truths were distorted to make facts look pretty. For example, Woodrow Wilson was a very racist president but in fact most textbooks never had written to present that ugly side of our dear president. All I can say is that this book is super controversial book; if you ever going to pick up this book for a good read, just prepare to be offending somewhat due to More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 01, 2007

Selena rated it:

I had never liked history in school or high school. Only later did I ever develop an interest from things like the History Channel, movies, and actually visiting historical sites. I wish I had read this book when I was younger because it is really enlightening, not only about history, but about why there is such lack of interest in history in students and adults. The author only covers 10 important topics in American history, but I feel I have a better understanding of them than I ever did in More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2011

Travis rated it:

This is an excellent book. The author examines twelve popular American history textbooks (all high school level, I believe) and discusses what they leave out or even flat-out lie about, and the way they end up with a history that is extremely bland, where no one ever causes anything, things just magically happen (because to discuss causes might put America or Americans in a bad light, and we can't have that!), and how they present a picture of uninterrupted progress, where things have never got More...

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Mar 31, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

This was an EYE-OPENING look at REAL American History.

Did your teacher or college professor ever tell you that Christopher Columbus is not really the hero we all thought, and responsible for genicide of a million people in Haiti, as he "claimed" that territory for Spain? Did you know that Helen Keller was a communist and fought for a socialist America throughout her lifetime, risking charges of treason? Did you know American Indians died off in droves from diseases Europe More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 28, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This book talks about the common mistakes that the textbooks tell you..
for example, heroification...
it talks about the unknown parts of Helen Keller, Woodrow Wilson, Betsy Ross and Christopher Columbus..
it had really interesting facts... but it wasn't as enjoyable as I thought...
actually, the title looks like it's a book of kids.. but it's not.. it's really for adults..

I would enjoy his book much more if i read it in the future...
some of the interesting More...

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Jan 19, 2009

Kelly rated it:

I loved this book. At first I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through it because I've always thought history was boring. But I was probably basing that on my experience with history classes in school, which I now know is not unique to me. This book was very easy to read and extremely interesting.[return][return]As the quotation from Howard Zinn on the front says, "every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book." I learned so much more about our nation's his More...

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Dec 19, 2008

melydia rated it:

Though the title sounds like a rant on education in general, this book deals specifically with what history textbooks get wrong, using a dozen textbooks as examples. It's no mere quibble. In the very first chapter I learned that Woodrow Wilson was a flaming racist and Helen Keller was a radical socialist, neither of which were even hinted at during my schooling.

It's a little depressing in spots. I'm young enough that much of my history class dealt with how white people have done noth More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Karen rated it:

This book not only answers the question, why students find US history boring, but also tells why, the repercussions, and much more. Loewen starts with the errors in the accepted history based on myths and nationalism which are perpetuated by the textbooks and other communication. Thus our basis for choosing leaders and determining the future of the country are based on these same myths and nationalistic untrue stories. He recommends the interesting unbiased ‘truth’ with well researched documenta More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Mike rated it:

This one is hard for me to assess and describe, so I'll start with the basics: the author reviewed a dozen high school American history textbooks and came to the conclusion that they are full of errors and present history blandly and with poor depth and analysis. The examples given are certainly convincing as far as they go. I didn't know that Columbus enslaved the natives of Haiti and cut off their hands if they didn't bring him their monthly quota of gold for him to ship back to Europe, but More...

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Jan 03, 2012

April rated it:

What ages would I recommend it too? – Twelve and up.

Length? – Several evening's read.

Characters? – Multiple characters.

Setting? – Historical, global.

Written approximately? – 1995.

Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – How many stories are there that he couldn't cover in this book? How much of history, like science, is a theory, and not a fact?

Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? For students More...

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