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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780684818863 
|
Awards
Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
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:
- 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
- Ponce de Leon went to Florida mainly to capture Native Americans as slaves for Hispaniola, not to find the mythical fountain of youth
- 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
- The first colony to legalize slavery was not Virginia but Massachusetts
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.
Review:
The Nation
"One of the virtues of Loewen's book is that in addition to highlighting some subjects the textbooks neglect, he also examines the topics they emphasize."
Review:
San Jose Mercury News
"Every history teacher in the land (including Professor Gingrich) needs to read this book."
Review:
"Readers interested in history, whether liberal or conservative, professional or layperson, will find food for thought here."
About the Author
James W. Loewen is professor of sociology at the University of Vermont. He is coauthor of the first integrated state-history textbook,
Mississippi: Conflict and Change, and creator of The Truth About Columbus: A Subversively True Poster Book for a Dubiously
Celebratory Occasion.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Something Has Gone Very Wrong
1 Handicapped by History: The Process of Hero-making
2 1493: The True Importance of Christopher Columbus
5 The Truth about the First Thanksgiving
4 Red Eyes
5 "Gone with the Wind": The Invisibility of Racism in American History Textbooks
6 John Brown and Abraham Lincoln: The Invisibility of Antiracism in American History Textbooks
7 The Land of Opportunity
8 Watching Big Brother: What Textbooks Teach about the Federal Government
9 Down the Memory Hole: The Disappearance of the Recent Past
10 Progress Is Our Most Important Product
11 Why Is History Taught Like This?
12 What Is the Result of Teaching History Like This?
Afterword: The Future Lies Ahead — and What to Do about Them
Notes
Appendix
Index
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
-
crowyhead, October 18, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
This book is extremely enlightening, and the author's tone is both witty and informative.
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Brook, June 13, 2007 (view all comments by Brook)
To use a recently-learned 'textclamation' I picked up from playing World of Warcraft... ZOMG!!!
This book is amazing, disturbing, depressing, and fascinating all at once. Loewen doesn't just tell you what your teacher left out; he also explains why it was left out in the first place. Either because of the teacher's own bias, the economics of textbook publishing, or politics of 'faith,' there are numerous factors unrelated to a child's education that influence what he or she will be taught in American schools.
This is a must-read for anyone that aspires to independent thinking.
-
Margaret FalerSweany, December 19, 2006 (view all comments by Margaret FalerSweany)
As a teacher, I was frustrated with how little my students knew of America's history. The Vietnam War was in 1952; Abraham Lincoln was president in the 1700s! Lies My Teacher Told Me provides an excellent analysis of why American History textbooks are bland, inaccurate, and even blatantly wrong. He shows us how vibrant individuals like Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Columbus have been turned into 1-dimensional, perfect heroes. His discussions of race, women's rights efforts, and progress--which permeate the book--sculpt an exciting tale of the shaping of American attitudes. Much of what is happening in current political scenes can be seen as replicating the actions of previous eras. Much of the rhetoric we hear today can be found in the poorly written history our children have learned from textbooks that try to offend no special interest group. My copy has now been read/heard by seven people, each who has found it exhilarating to read and passed it along to another. I'm hoping it eventually returns to me.
View all 4 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780684818863
- Subtitle:
- Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Touchstone Books
- Location:
- New York :
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- United states
- Subject:
- United States - General
- Subject:
- Study & Teaching
- Subject:
- Historiography
- Subject:
- Textbooks
- Subject:
- General education.
- Subject:
- Indians of North America in textbooks.
- Subject:
- Thanksgiving Day in textbooks.
- Subject:
- General Education
- Subject:
- General History
- Copyright:
- 1996
- Edition Number:
- 1st Touchstone ed.
- Edition Description:
- B102
- Series Volume:
- 104-231
- Publication Date:
- January 1995
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Yes
- Pages:
- 384
- Dimensions:
- 9.28x6.18x.66 in. .92 lbs.
