Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
- ISBN13: 9780743296281
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Winner of the American Book Award and the Oliver C. CoxAnti-Racism Award of The American Sociological AssociationAmericans 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 rel… More >>
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
As a history teacher I thought this book could enlighten me, but really it only depresses me. According to Loewen, everything good about American history (and America) is a fake distortion by WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants)…wait a minute, America IS great! Columbus IS the first American hero. Washington SHOULD be honored. It IS okay for Peace Corps members to grow intellectually, even SPIRITUALLY; Vietnam WAS lost because a Democrat president escelated it, and hippy protestors gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
This miserable author is either a liberal Democrat, a former hippy, a member of Barack Obama’s church, a Marxist, or all of the above. Well, I’ll just pray and ask God to forgive him for wasting a bit of my life by reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”
Rating: 1 / 5
This was bad experience. I NEVER received the book. There seemed to be no way to let Amazon know the book had never come. I’m a bit disgusted because I lost my money. I hope someone at Amazon sees this and does something about it. At this point, I can’t rate this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
I bought this thinking it would have short stories. It reads like a text book. Not fun, not a good read.
Rating: 1 / 5
The author states that history is taught in a boring way. This book is worse than a boring history book. I like the idea of finding out the complete truth of undisclosed facts, like Helen Keller was a communist, but his constant harrang of school book writers gets old faster than the crusades. Telling obscured history, like the vikings may have lived in the New England area long before columbus, is fine and interesting. But then, page after page of criticism of the “subversive” text book industry makes this book unbearable. 10% of the book is interesting, 90% is whinning.
Rating: 1 / 5
Don’t waste your time on this book. It has little new information, especially for history teachers. It is pretty much a standard revisionist rehash. It vastly overrates the importance of using textbooks in the classroom. Most modern history teachers are not married to the textbook anymore. The author assumes that teachers are stuck in an outmoded method of instruction where teachers just teach out of the textbook every day. It ignores innovative teachers that use primary source readings, simulations, films, debates, projects, class discussions, etc. When was the last time the author actually stuck his head in a classroom to see what is going on today?
Rating: 1 / 5