Specify About Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
| Title | : | Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |
| Author | : | James W. Loewen |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 383 pages |
| Published | : | September 3rd 1996 by Touchstone Books (first published October 14th 1995) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Education. Politics. North American Hi.... American History |
James W. Loewen
Paperback | Pages: 383 pages Rating: 3.96 | 51028 Users | 2675 Reviews
Narrative Supposing Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen 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 this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.
Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.
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| Original Title: | Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong |
| ISBN: | 0684818868 (ISBN13: 9780684818863) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | United States of America |
| Literary Awards: | American Book Award (1996), The Oliver C. Cox Anti-Racism Award |
Rating About Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
Ratings: 3.96 From 51028 Users | 2675 ReviewsCriticism About Books Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
I had to take a sociology course when I was in college and had a genuinely interesting professor. Hes one that I wont ever forget and still think about from time to time. He was the type of teacher that made learning interesting and it was a class I actually enjoyed going to. Anyhow, he gave us a recommended reading list of books he thought we should take a look at. None of them were mandatory, but I read them all. This is one of those books.I was never really interested in learning history whenWhen 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 found American history less boring had 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 of ignorance
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.
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
I read this a while ago and forgot about it until I saw a GR friend reading it. I liked its content and I agree that history is taught a certain way to bore us into stupidity. Who remembers liking history and who can remember what they learned? I don't/can't. Now that I am older I can appreciate it and want to discover what really happened. As "they say" history repeats itself.
Americans need to learn from the Wilson era, that there is a connection between racist presidential leadership and like-minded public response.This book is so important to read.I do not know if there is any other field of knowledge which suffers so badly as history from the sheer blind repetitions that occur year after year, and from book to book.History is a subject that I haven't taken since high school. Because I, like so many others, found it incredibly boring. I grew up in Canada but
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