Lies My Teacher Told Me about Christopher Columbus: What Your History Books Got Wrong

Some myths dont die, and lies are still being told about Christopher Columbus: that he “discovered” the Americas (not only was the land familiar to native inhabitants, but it had also been visited before by Europeans), that the land was sparsely populated by native people (there were fourteen million inhabitants in 1492), that those people were primitive (Europeans learned a lot and gained technology and agricultural skill from Native Americans), and that they submitted to Columbuss “God-like” authority (they submitted to the deadly smallpox and bubonic plague that Columbuss crew imported from Europe).

Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus disproves the myths about Columbus still enshrined in American textbooks with quotations from primary source material that sets the record straight. The poster and accompanying 48-page paperback book sum up the mistellings—and reveal the real story—in a graphically appealing and accessible format that shows the degree to which textbooks have “lied” by knowingly substituting crowd-pleasing myths for grim and gruesome historical evidence.

Praise for the previous edition of Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus:

"A perfect antidote for the nonsense about Columbus conveyed to our children for generations."

—Howard Zinn, author of A Peoples History of the United States

"Absolutely indispensable for at least the next hundred years. This book is a real Discovery and a real Exploration."

—Ariel Dorfman, Walter Hines Page Chair of Literature and Latin American Studies, Duke University

"Every teacher in America could benefit by reading this fine work."

—Bill Bigelow, co-editor, Rethinking Columbus

James W. Loewen is the bestselling and award-winning author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, Lies Across America, and Sundown Towns (all available from The New Press), among many other books and articles. He won a Sydney Spivack Award from the American Sociological Association, the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and the Spirit of America Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, among many other honors. He is a regular contributor to the History Channels History magazine. Loewen is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont and lives in Washington, D.C.