Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

by James W. Loewen

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

published	October 16th 2007 by Touchstone
first published	1996
binding	Paperback
isbn	0743296281 (isbn13: 9780743296281)
ebook
pages	384
literary awards	American Book Award
description	Winner of the 1996 American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship Americans have lost touch ...more [close] Winner of the 1996 American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve 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 ten powerful chapters, Loewen reveals that: <ul> <li>The United States dropped three times as many tons of explosives in Vietman as it dropped in all theaters of World War II, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki</li> <li>Ponce de Leon went to Florida mainly to capture Native Americans as slaves for Hispaniola, not to find the mythical fountain of youth <li>Woodrow Wilson, known as a progressive leader, was in fact a white supremacist who personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations</li> <li>The first colony to legalize slavery was not Virginia but Massachusetts</li> </ul> From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring to it the vitality and relevance it truly possesses. [close]
date added	03-21-07 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.

discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

groups with this book

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2570)

Chak

Chak rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

07/03/08

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Chak by: Jennifer Dikes
recommends it for: Parents, educators, students who are bored by history

This is an important book, and I don't think I'm going too far by saying every American should read it. Children (up to and including high school students) are not only taught history poorly, but they are taught lies. The good news is that personally, I feel much better now about not remembering a damn thing from history class. The bad news is that the problems that arise from this particular corruption of education are deep and far reaching very negatively impact the lives of its victims. ...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Jamie

Jamie rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

08/01/08

Read in November, 2007

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 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 and you probably wouldn't read the book, would you?

After a brief false start involving how Hellen Keller was a raging Communist, Loewen starts his review of American history in precolonial days, beginning with the atrocities of the Conquistadors and other European explorers. Then it moves on to the atrocities of the White European settlers. Then the atrocities of the early American, White colonists. Then the atrocities of the antebellum slave owners. Then the atrocities of the postbellum racists. Then the atrocities of the opponents of the civil rights movement. You see the pattern here? It holds up for most of the book.

Throughout it all, Loewen does a pretty good job of showing how textbooks often omit information and whitewash (pun intended) the characters of prominent Europeans and Americans, such as Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln. And it is pretty interesting to read how, for example, textbooks describe how the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria were "storm battered" and floundered into the shores of the new world full of crews on the brink of mutiny, while Columbus's own personal journal pretty much says that hey, the weather has been awesome this whole trip and everyone is still in a great mood. Or how Lincoln made several campaign speeches in which he turned his nose at the idea of racial equality.

And Loewen makes good points about how these omissions seem to be systematic done towards the end of downplaying the unpleasant (like, say, the genocide of Native Americans through disease and murder) and emphasizing the heroic (like, say, taming a wilderness that in truth wasn't that wild because the Indians had already cultivated it but are dead now). At times, his comments are impressively subtle, like when he notes how textbooks often credit President Kennedy and other governmental institutions for coming up with anti-discrimination legislation during the 60s, when the government was, for the most part, bowing to pressure from civil rights activists, who really deserve all the credit. This kind of misinformation, he argues, teaches that Blacks and their White allies were not the ones who enacted these changes can thus not expect to view them as inspirations for future battles. It's a subtle point, but Loewen makes good arguments that stuff like this is all in the name of making us feel good about our country and unquestioning about our pride in our history. And he's good about describing how this is doing a disservice to people both as students of history and as eventual participants in our system of government.

BUT, that all being said, I'm not quite sure I've ever read anything so awash in liberal White guilt as this book. It's not that I necessarily disagree with any of this, but the tone of the work is often offsetting and sometimes approaches zealotry. I was really hoping to read more interesting tidbits about stuff that history books get wrong, the kind of stuff that might serve well as idle chit-chat at my next dinner party or bar crawl. But it doesn't take long for it to become apparent that that's not what this books is about. It's really just a vehicle for Loewen's politics. Not that there's anything wrong with that and not that I found myself disagreeing with his politics too often (well, sometimes). It's just not the book I expected or even really wanted....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Chris

Chris rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

02/09/08

bookshelves: history

Read in May, 2006

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 of ignora...more 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 of ignorance in basic American history. So, he decided to try and figure out what went wrong and why.

His conclusion? Textbooks. The textbooks that we use in American history classes are simplistic, dry and patronizing, aimed not at teaching the students about the rich epic that is American history, but rather at reinforcing what they already believe to be true: America is a great place, and it's just getting greater.

Loewen has a lot of bones to pick with the history texts, but he limits himself here to ten. He looks at things like heroification, social biases, omission of the underclass and so on. With twelve common texts to draw upon, he tries to see what they omit and what they include, and he is shocked and appalled.

The primary sin of American history textbooks, he believes, is a lack of conflict. They present our history as a series of semi-benign events that all turned out okay in the end. These were not things that we (the government, a president, society) did, they were things that just happened. There is no causality, no emotion, no contradiction. Nothing ever leads to anything else, and none of it certainly is reflected in modern times. And so what is left is a bright-eyed, doped up view of America, where everything is just fine, and whatever may happen in the future, we'll get through that as well.

His position is that if we could teach history properly, as a continuum that affects us even now, it would be more interesting. If we showed the contradictions and the unpleasantness, we could teach students to think critically and, in turn, be better citizens. The cynic in me, of course, immediately thinks, "Well, no one wants that!"

He does try to offer solutions, things that a good textbook should do - focus on fewer topics, offer a broader view, and force students to work outside the text, for example - but he also acknowledges that it's not nearly as easy as it sounds. One of the reasons why history texts have to be so bland and inoffensive is because they have to be. If the subject matter is too controversial, the economic implications could be catastrophic. Too much focus on Black achievement during the Reconstruction? Southern schools won't buy your book. Not enough focus on the achievements of women? Say hello to NOW, you'll be hearing from them a lot. For every page and every paragraph, there's some parent, teacher, administrator, student, or just plan nutjob who might take offense, and so the solution is to be as inoffensive as possible. And in a country where people get very offended very quickly, I can see how textbook publishers might find it easier just to give up and put out the same crap edition after edition.

It's a tough problem to solve, and Loewen admits that he doesn't really have the solution. All he can really do is shine a light on the problem, and hope that we can figure it out. Because history is essential to knowing what to do with the future of America. And, of course, the rest of the world.......less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Jim

Jim rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

01/30/08

Read in January, 2008

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 to 200 wi...more 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 to 200 within 60 years - now seen as history's first documented genocide. Columbus practically invented genocide.

The new world was not populated by sparsely-scattered tribes, but by as many as 100 million Indians, which were systematically wiped out by one plague after another, most introduced purposely. Columbus's role in setting up the system is never mentioned. Indians were hunted for sport, murdered for dog food, and given to officers as sex slaves. Tributes in gold or cotton were due every 3 months, and Indians who did not comply had their hands chopped off.

The book goes on to discuss the invisibility of both racism and anti-racism in history books, and example after example of how history books white-wash our history, always making America look like the good guys, and never mentioning our mistakes.

The author would like to see history taught showing both sides of each event, and involve students in discussions of the pros and cons, which might make it more interesting to study.

Why is history taught this way? The author speculates that, although we strive for the truth in all other subjects, we purposely lie in history books, beasue we are trying to use history to build patriotism and a love of America in our children, and the truth might get in the way of that goal. We also want to shield our children from the harsh realities of the world, at least till they study history in college.

But most students never study history in college, and the facts go unlearned. I found much in this book that I never knew. Except for the controversy about teaching Evolution, history is the only subject whose content is dictated by parental groups and school boards.

This is a book that will make you stop and think like few others will....less

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

1 comments

Maurean

Maurean rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

02/20/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in February, 2008

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 History t...more 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 History textbooks, the author successfully presents several topics which they currently address, and uncovers the alleged omissions and distortions.

I completely agree with the author’s basic belief that American students are getting short-changed when we present only the PC-version of our country’s heritage, not to mention the fact that this watered down presentation only serves to bore them all to tears (students consider history to be “the most irrelevant” and “boring” of all the 21 subjects commonly taught in school). I, personally, was interested to learn that not one of the twelve textbooks described the geopolitical implications of Christopher Columbus’s encounter with the Americans; none mention that Columbus was the first to send slaves across the Atlantic. When we present our youth the world through rose-colored glasses, where no controversial subjects arise, it no doubt causes them to be ill prepared for the real world that exists beyond the classroom.

Having said all that, however, I found Loewen was overplaying the “politically correct” hand himself, replacing the conservative, Euro-centric rhetoric with his own overtly socialist and liberal leanings. His strong opinions on historical events may cause some readers to overlook his message on education. For this reader, it made for just the kind of boring recitation of skewed political propaganda the author claims to be rallying against. If you are interested in the topic of education and how it is being inseminated to our children through textbook censorship and abridgement of the facts, then I would recommend Diane Ratvitch’s “The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn” for a more balanced examination of this issue. (clicking on the title will link you to a reader's journal/discussion of the book) ...less

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

Dustin

Dustin rated it:

03/07/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: EVERYONE

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. ...more 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 is far richer and more interesting than any one book (including this one) can possibly tell, so relying on a single book to teach a class like this is setting everyone, teacher and student alike, up for failure.

4. That while history is based on facts, the interpretation of those facts really does constantly change, and how we learn about them is based on previous societal changes. It is up to every student and teacher to separate fact from interpretation, and then to apply their own interpretation as needed. A discussion of slavery and Reconstruction written by a privileged European-American before the Civil Rights movement will not carry much water if read critically instead of just read to memorize the factoids for the test.

5. That our leaders have learned from the past and are applying its lessons to the present and the future:

"Of course the people do not want war....But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism." - German Field Marshall Hermann Goering, Nuremberg, April 18, 1946

Read this book, now. Then go out, and read more books, preferably primary and secondary sources, which tell the actual story, and include the controversies that still remain, both in ascribing motives to the people who made history, but also the controversies in interpreting what the facts actually mean, both for the present and the future....less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Emily

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

04/07/07

bookshelves: history

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

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Betsy

Betsy rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

05/29/07

bookshelves: history, non-fiction, trivia

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: Teachers / Historical Trivia nerds / lovers of pop-history

Did you know Woodrow Wilson was a white supremacist and so disliked by the nation for getting into unneccesary wars that the next election had the largest margin of votes in US History (against the person Wilson was backing)? Or that the only reason Europeans were able to settle easily in America was because the entire coastal population had been wiped out by plagues brought over by fisherman years before? Europeans walked right into organized farms, complex irrigation systems, and land cleared...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Tim

Tim rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

08/31/08

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in August, 2008

[Author: James W. Loewen] usefully distinguishes between making an argument and presenting vague propoganda. He does not seem opposed to history textbooks making a particular argument, nor does he oppose the presentation of multiple arguments (including those he disagrees with). But he is wholly opposed to the vague propoganda of American progress presented in the 12 American history textbooks that he examines in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. He s...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Nate

Nate rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

11/05/07

bookshelves: history

Read in October, 2007

ummm...I loved this book.

Loewen's cases on why american history textbook editors feel they need to sugarcoat events from our past (Vasco de Gama's Fountain of Youth was actually a business venture for more slaves), the reasons certain truths are left out of student's lessons (Woodrow Wilson was a raging racist, having almost single handedly removing African Americans from the White House during his presidency) and the overtly biased slant in our textbooks toward European conquests (in 1492 ...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Sarah

Sarah rated it:

01/07/08

bookshelves: political

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Interested in U.S. history, race relations, and class issues?

This book was a captivating summary of what my high school American history class SHOULD have taught as well as what it probably did teach. It was a fascinating read, covering the truth and complexity behind America's less than glamorous past, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in race issues, class struggles, and a fascinating treatment of historical struggles. My only real complaint is that the chapters aren't broken down into sections, which makes some of the transitions abrupt. ...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Greg

Greg rated it:

(review of isbn 156584100X)

02/22/07

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: People who hate American history

This book explains why young people don't like history: Our textbooks are terrible and don't give us the full story about how America came to be. They don't want to teach us the truth. Instead, they try to build ideal citizens. Maybe textbook authors don't realize that character comes from experiences not myths....

This book is great for a person like me who loves true primary source history but doesn't like post-modernist categorizations of everything into identity discussions on race, c...more

Like this review? yes

1 comments

Justin

Justin rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

01/20/08

bookshelves: historybooks

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

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

add a comment

k8lane

k8lane rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

01/23/08

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: everyone, especially Americans

An excellent read -- the author surveyed 11th grade US History textbooks and the stories/myths/values they perpetuate about historical figures and American cultural identity. Incredibly thought provoking and interesting, if only to realize how much we are spoonfed about freedom and other hallmark ideals. For example, the story of Helen Keller focuses only on her achievements through young adulthood -- by consistently leaving out the controversy and political activism of her later years (things I...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Ginnie

Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

05/31/08

bookshelves: history

This book shows that history is always more interesting than what you learned in school. 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 predomina...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

Louise

Louise rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

02/04/08

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: history buffs

I picked up this book thinking it would just be a "regular" history book, focused on some areas of history that my public school education neglected, but instead I got a book that was not only full of interesting information, but included an interesting discussion on how history is taught in the US and its effect on our country. Some of the chapters weren't that surprising (Columbus massacred the Native Americans, the Pilgrams weren't tolerant of anyone but other strict Protestants, e...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Thomas

Thomas rated it:

(review of isbn 0760735484)

05/03/08

Read in April, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Like this review? yes

add a comment

Cyndy

Cyndy rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

10/11/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: neoconservatives - to light them up

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 'fact' given in this bo...more

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

add a comment

Matthew

Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 0684818868)

02/10/08

bookshelves: non-fiction

Despite my enjoyment of historical information now, I never found any excitement in it during my K-12 years. Only after reading this book did I finally realize why: in their mad preparation to impart as much knowledge to children as they can, teachers in elementary schools and high schools opted to remove all controversy and uncertainty from history. Learning a list of the American Presidents is dusty and dull. Discovering that Wilson was an ardent racist, Columbus began a wave of vicious ge...more

Like this review? yes

add a comment

kendall

kendall rated it: