Knight Of > Knight's Quotes

“In sum, U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi - but neither is it exceptionally less violent.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“History is furious debate informed by evidence and reason.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. —FREDERICK DOUGLASS”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“History textbooks still present Union and Confederate sympathizers as equally idealistic. The North fought to hold the Union together, while the South fought, according to 'The American Way', 'for the preservation of their rights and the freedom to decide for themselves'. Nobody fought to preserve racial slavery; nobody fought to end it. As one result, unlike the Nazi swastika, which lies disgraced, even in the North whites still proudly display the stars and bars of the Confederacy on den walls, license plates, t-shirts, and high school logos. Even some (white) Northerners vaguely regret the defeat of the 'lost cause'. It is as if racism against blacks could be remembered with nostalgia. In this sense, long after Appomattox, the Confederacy finally won.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history. If textbook authors feel compelled to give good moral instruction, the way origin myths have always done, they could accomplish this aim by allowing students to learn both the "good" and the "bad" sides of the Pilgrim tale. Conflict would then become part of the story, and students might discover that the knowledge they gain has implication for their lives today. Correctly taught, the issues of the era of the first Thanksgiving could help Americans grow more thoughtful and more tolerant, rather than more ethnocentric.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“To get lost in a story, or even a study, is inherently to acknowledge the voice of another, to broaden one’s perspective beyond the confines of one’s own understanding. A good book is the opposite of a selfie; the right book at the right time can expand our lives in the way love does, making us more thoughtful, more generous, more brave, more alert to the world’s wonders and more pained by its inequities, more wise, more kind.”
― James Mustich, 1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List

“If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate

“A Russian astronaut and a Russian brain surgeon were once discussing religion. The brain surgeon was a Christian but the astronaut was not. The astronaut said, 'I've been out in space many times but I've never seen God or angels.' And the brain surgeon said, 'And I've operated on many clever brains but I've never seen a single thought.”
― Jostein Gaarder, Sophie’s World