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.

Some readers will object to Loewen's obvious "liberal bias." There is a case to be made for this. I, for one, would like to see a deconstruction of textbooks' pervasive anti-capitalistic mentality. Is it honest history, for example, to mention the antitrust suit against Standard Oil but not to mention the fact that its business practices did not harm consumers but benefited them? Or that many of the reforms of the Progressive Era--the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, to name but two--were lobbied for by "big business" (appropriate here, but what a loaded term!) to throttle their competitors? Or that there is more than one theory of the causes of the Great Depression--and that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal only prolonged it?

But, no matter. Such criticisms are beside the point. False and careless statements like "President Truman 'easily settled' the Korean War by dropping the atomic bomb"--a real example from a textbook--are simply not open to dispute on grounds of ideology. And while some of Loewen's other examples of textbook distortion (or his proposed remedies) are questionable, enough are valid that he makes his general case. All of us, liberals, conservatives or otherwise, should be able to agree that to teach a one-dimensional, "Disney version of history" (as Loewen calls it), in which complexities and controversies are smoothed over or ignored and students' understanding of causality in history is impaired, is plain wrong.

Loewen also tries--and not necessarily with an outsider's perspective, as he himself is a high school history textbook author, who knows firsthand the near futility of publishing a textbook of integrity--to explain the causes of our American history textbook troubles. In this connection, I must say that the *Booklist* editorial review that Amazon.com has posted to this webpage is misleading. The review states that "To account for the deplorable situation, he [Loewen] offers this quasi-Marxist explanation: 'Perhaps we are all dupes, manipulated by elite white male capitalists who orchestrate how history is written as part of their scheme to perpetuate their own power and privilege at the expense of the rest of us.'" But even Dr. Loewen is not *that* bad. Contrary to the review's implication, he ultimately dismisses this "elitist" explanation as an oversimplification, stating that "power elite theories may credit the upper class with more power, unity, and conscious self-interest than it has." He then discusses other explanations, such as the way textbooks are chosen--often by state-appointed adoption boards, which are sensitive to organized interest groups out to promote textbooks that further their own agendas, and which never have time to read 800+-page textbooks, in any case. Blame is also laid on textbook publishers, which have a financial incentive to copy success (i.e., traditional, mediocre textbooks) and to refrain from rocking the boat by being original and, thus, possibly arousing controversy; textbook authors, who for a variety of reasons have no incentive to do quality work; and teachers, many of whom aren't as expert in their subject as they should be or are afraid (not without good reason) of getting into trouble with parents and administrators should they teach against the book. Loewen's full account, which is fairly complex and discerning, of the various factors that interact to produce our high school American history textbooks, I leave for the reader to examine.

In closing, I would like to observe, in regard to the aforementioned ridiculous review by *Booklist*, that if one looks at *Booklist's* webpage, one sees that the publication itself is responsible for the review of textbooks that are used in public schools. Given this fact, the disrespectful, dismissive, even dishonest, treatment it accords *Lies My Teacher Told Me* should not surprise us. How ironic it is that Dr. Loewen's point has been made for him here, in this very forum, by his opponents.

35 of 37 found the following review helpful:


An important book to read, but...  Jun 22, 2010 By lilygirl
This is one of the books that changed the way I look at history and modern current events. So much of what I thought I knew about American History was overturned or cast in a new light, and some aspects of modern life make a lot more sense now. At times it can feel like you're getting beaten over the head with negativity, but if you can get past that you'll gain some valuable knowledge and insight. It's well worth the read.

Loewen makes a very good point that we shouldn't unthinkingly accept what textbooks teach us, but we shouldn't unthinkingly accept what Loewen teaches us either. He's not immune from his own historical misrepresentations and simplifications in service of making his point. I'm a liberal and his digs at Bush Sr. were tiresome even to me. The whole truth isn't here--the whole truth is best learned from multiple books, sources, and viewpoints. But, please don't let the above criticism stop you from reading. This book gives a great starting-off place for finding out more of the whole truth about American History.

221 of 261 found the following review helpful:


Excellent content, excruciating delivery  Apr 06, 2010 By Michael Rossander
My initial impression of this was very positive. I was appalled at how much I did not know of my own history. Worse, I am dismayed at how much my ignorance affects my understanding of current affairs. The Haitian response to recent hurricane relief efforts makes much more sense now that I know how recently we invaded that country. I was grateful and enthusiastic at getting a new perspective on history.

The fascinating historical content, however, was undercut by the repetitive and pedantic delivery. High school history textbooks are inadequate - okay, I got that after the first fifteen times. I don't need to be beaten over the head with endless quotes proving and reproving the point.

This was not so much a corrective history as a diatribe against history textbook authors. Rants have a place but that's not what I hoped to get from the text.

I also found the author to be a bit hypocritical in his criticisms. He repeatedly accuses textbook authors of having a single reason (heroficiation) for their biased and inadequate coverage. He never strays from his own narrative that the textbook authors are bigots. He never acknowledges that, like history, the real story is probably more complex - that a textbook may be inadequate without the textbook author being evil.

For example, he repeatedly berates the textbooks for oversimplifying and removing controversy. He argues persuasively that textbooks need more and deeper content. That's a wonderful ideal - if you are unconstrained by space, teaching capacity or time. Real textbooks have practical limits on the feasible size and scope and are written for a specific audience. These are high-school texts, after all, not graduate-level material. The material is meant to be digested in one class of one year by students with a reading level that's... Well, that's a different rant. My point is that history textbooks must take the available time, reading level and cognitive skills of the students as a given. Some simplification is essential. High school physics textbooks include lots of simplifying assumptions and reduced detail which college texts then revisit, correct and expand upon. That doesn't make the high school versions evil or inadequate - merely appropriate to their respective audiences. The author of this seemingly endless rant never suggests how a teacher can realistically get through his proposed version of the material in the classtime available.

Could the high school textbook authors do a better job? Absolutely. Is this the recipe to doing it better? Hardly. This book defines the problem but offers little in the way of practical solution to the better teaching of history. Personally, I would have been much happier with a Cliff Notes version of this book that presented the historical content and context without all the editorializing about textbook failings.

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