Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong - Softcover

Loewen, James W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743296281 ISBN 13: 9780743296281

Publisher: Atria Books, 2007

Synopsis

Winner of the 1996 American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship
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.

About this title

Review:

"Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself." -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"An extremely convincing plea for truth in education." -- Mary Mackey, San Francisco Chronicle

"Remarkable." -- USA Today

"A lively critique." -- The New York Times

"Powerful and important...deserves to become an instant classic." -- The Washington Post Book World

About the Author:

James W. Loewen is the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America. He is a regular contributor to the History Channel's History magazine and is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont. He resides in Washington, D.C.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0743296281
• ISBN 13: 9780743296281
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 444