Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got… (2007)

Loewen loses points in this, not for his basic premise, but for the fact that it takes him 318 pages (and roughly that many exclamation points) to make the simple statement that American history, as taught in our high schools, is full of vague references, misinformation, and outright lies.

He's right, of course -- the texts present sanitized and inaccurate information in formats that actively discourage discussion or true learning, opting instead for memorization and regurgitation of often unrelated factoids.

Folks concerned about "cancel culture" or "critical race theory" better pass this one up, lest they be striken with terminal cardiac arrest and/or mouth-foaming. Most adults eventually come to the realization that Columbus brutally wiped out the first Native Americans he came in contact with, that George Washington did not in fact chop down the cherry tree, and that yes, by golly, the Civil War **was** fought to maintain slavery.

Unfortunately, Loewen doesn't present many practical solutions for the problem. Mostly he acknowledges that textbooks are written primarily to make money and that they therefore must pass adoption boards in the major markets (Texas and California being primary here), and that any text which hints that Americans by and large are not trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent, is never going to make it to the printing press, let alone the classroom. ( )

This book is an expose on why high school students hate history and why Americans in general are ignorant of the historical facts of the United States. With the teaching of American history once again being challenged as "woke" and more ridiculously as "critical race theory" I thought it was a good time to revisit this book. Despite the title, this book is not an attack on teachers but on history textbooks which Lowen describes in detail as containing many inaccuracies and irrelevant details, as well as a boring writing style.

I have to note that when I was in middle school and high school, far from being bored, I was obsessed with history. I was privileged to have teachers who somehow dodged many of the pitfalls of American history teaching as well as the proclivity to learn a lot on my own through reading, watching documentaries, and visiting historic sites. I read the first edition way back when it came out in the mid 90s and remember it being mostly debunking the false histories propagated in several prominent history textbooks. On this reading I found it was less about debunking and more about why history isn't taught in a way that allows for critical thinking.

The original edition evaluated a dozen textbooks, while the 2004 second edition revisited some of those books as well as 6 new textbooks. This third and final edition was identical to the third edition but with a new introduction that pretty much noted that little progress had been made. The problem with history teaching isn't simple as one might imagine, and while fingers can be pointed at right wing politicians and parents for objecting to teaching warts and all history, they are just part of many complex and overlapping hindrances. From publishers who appeal to the lowest denominator to sell the most books to the authors whose names are on the cover having little to nothing to do with the books (and the ghost writers who do write the book having very little knowledge of the history), there's plenty of blame to go around.

As someone who loves history and thinks that kids should love studying as much as I did and gain the sense of perspective that critical thinking of history provides, I find this is an important book and highly recommend reading it.

Favorite Passages:
When confronting a claim about the distant past or a statement about what happened yesterday, students—indeed, all Americans—need to develop informed skepticism, not nihilistic cynicism.
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I had to read this for my History 271 class at university, and it was a really well done book (it has been a while since I read it, so I’m doing a not very insightful review).
I honestly liked how Lowen wrote, and his writing was easy to understand; he also keeps all of the events understandable without stopping to the overly obvious statements about the events.
I highly recommend this book as a must read! ( )

A real eye opener, this book will disabuse readers of the notion that American history is a straight line of progress, and that their high school textbooks were any good at presenting it. ( )

Whoa...a must read for anyone who loves history but need to hear multiple perspectives. It is important that we investigate what we have taken as fact because there are always multiple sides/perspectives. ( )