Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me

(Please excuse my incompetence regarding the quote format. Any suggestions, corrections, and critiques are willingly accepted and encouraged.)

Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong

James W. Loewen has written a groundbreaking coalition of analytical essays, separated by chapter, which work to enlighten us to the various inaccuracies that can be found in all of 18 leading American history textbooks. It poses to us subjects we should all be familiar with- and goes on to reinvent our ideas on the subjects into an unbiased and accurate truth. Chances are that if you read the book, you will come across many facts that will disagree with what you've learned from your history textbook. A refreshing and scathingly courageous addition to any library, Lies My Teacher Told Me will recreate your knowledge of American history forever.

In this review several questions will be attempted; the first being: What were the author's purposes in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved? Well, there are clearly several purposes that can be assumed to exist upon reading a book like this. The author's intent was clearly to spark distrust in the American high school education, but it was also to propose solutions to the myriad of problems which appear. It highlights the unsatisfactory content in our textbooks, but doesn't hesitate to show us situations which challenge that content- situations in which teachers or the community have risen up to create better understanding of the crucial information ignored by the majority of our textbooks. Here's an example:

"Many of the books that criticize American education are published by companies that also put out the textbooks they criticize. One of the glories of capitalism is that somewhere there are publishers who will publish almost any book, so long as they can stand to make a profit from it."

"Across America, new, more accurate historical markers and monuments are going up... Perhaps we must conclude... that the power elite did not have its thumb in every pie."

"On the other hand, if textbooks are devised by the upper class to manipulate youngsters to support the status quo, they hardly seem to be succeeding. Instead of revering Columbus et al., students wind up detesting history. Evidence suggests that history textbooks and courses make little impact in increasing trust in the United States or inducing good citizenship, however these are measured."

This selection of quotes has been chosen to draw attention to the myriad of ideas and facts that are brought together to create an unbiased and informative piece of literature. The author clearly states his distaste for the capitalist grip on our American history education, but doesn't hesitate to remind us that at least some of our youths and faculty are aware of these problems and are simultaneously working towards the truth they desire. Clearly, Loewen is confident in change, but at the same time argumentative, which is considered by this reviewer to be an admirable quality that does his critique well.

A less general but equally important topic that Loewen addresses is "the invisibility of racism in American history textbooks," which is surely a topic of interest for American high school students. As a high school student experiencing history class, it's very easy to recognize the tendency to ignore racism in the textbooks. When racism is addressed, it's done very mildly, usually without firsthand evidence of the horrendous treatment many groups of people faced throughout history. While that's arguably an optional addition to a text that aims to properly explain an instance of racism, there are hardly any alternative and equivalent options at our disposal to properly define the horrors that racism brings.

Another intriguing question is posed, and that is "for what groups or audiences was this book intended?" Clearly, the book is aimed at several different kinds of people. Not only ones who have been directly affected by the lies produced in our leading history textbooks, but others who might perhaps be concerned with the situation. In this reviewer's case, it was because a student who had not yet begun an American high school history class wanted to know about the inevitable prejudice that was present. In every person, there is a deep-rooted desire for truth. It's this desire that drives us to engage ourselves in muckraking books such as this. We know that our world, and specifically our country is imperfect in race relations and many other areas, so an enlightening text would surely be beneficial in teaching us to be skeptical of all the right things.

And surely, it is in everyone's best interest to be skeptical- blind trust can lead to disaster, especially when it deals with material that is taught to our youth. The youth is indeed the most dependent of all. We are forced to attend school and must learn what they have to tell us, no matter our opinion, which is often times undervalued. Thus, without books such as Loewen's, there is nothing within our grasp which we can use to make a legitimate challenge against the material that is forced upon each of us. His book is considered by many to be an indisposable tool against the tyrannically controlled information that appears in nearly all American history textbooks.

Of course, we cannot limit the relevance of this text to the youth alone, for all educated American-born citizens have at one point been subjected to the information in American history textbooks. Many of them may never have encountered evidence contradictory to that which they acquired in their education. Whilst many Americans may accept the corrections found in Lies, it is perhaps fact that many of them will guard the beliefs they first learned many years ago. Fact because without fail, history has proven to us that a new generation is imperative for change of even this small magnitude. In my opinion, it is then no longer a matter of convincing the people who run the textbooks now to change; rather, it is a matter of recreating the system ourselves. It is our job to delve into the unforgiven depths of neglected history and bring back with us an assurance that our children, the children of our brothers and sisters, will know the truth.