Term Paper on "Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen"

Term Paper 8 pages (2788 words) Sources: 1 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Lies My Teacher Told Me Critique

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

Wrong, by James Loewen, is one author's attempt to get to the bottom of

American history. In the book he begins with the heroification of

Americans, traces American history through the ages, and then tries to

account for the reasons American history education has reached its current

low point. Although appearing to be very left wing in his approach, and

clearly trying to make a point through his examples, Loewen offers great

insight to not only the faults in American history education but to the

truths about American history. He presents only one side, however it could

be argued that he only needs to present one side to his argument because

the other side has been ingrained in our consciences since our first days

in history class as children. Often vague in his interpretation of a

"system" that has brainwashed American perception of its historical past,

he does back up his investigation into US History textbooks with

substantial factual evidence. In Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen is

successful in presenting the side of American history that teachers do not

teach children in school.

James Loewen, the author, is a highly educated historian and

sociologist with a Harvard PHD. He has taught race relations in the United

States at institutions of higher learning. According to his official

website, he is now the author of a wide range of books that seek to uncover

the truth behind America's past including Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension

of American Racism and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Got

Wrong as well as audiotapes on the falsehood of many prominent American

historical beliefs (Homepage of James Loewen). Although his official site

maintains that he uncovers these falsehoods after unbiased research, the

very nature of his work indicates that in reality he must have some sort of

agenda. All of his prominent works, at least in his most recent years,

deal with disproving many beliefs about the United States. It is as if he

believes in a perpetuation of lies regarding American history. There is a

truth and he must uncover it. There very well may be truth that needs to

be uncovered, but surely Loewen is biased in his attempts to do so. His

website maintains that his goal is "to get students to challenge, rather

than memorize, their textbooks" (Homepage of James Loewen), therefore

illustrating the fact that he does in fact have an agenda in his works.

The agenda may be justified, as surely promoting independent thought in the

classroom is a beneficial approach to the study of history, however this

must be kept in mind when reading his works.

Furthermore, an incident in his past influenced him greatly to assume

the stance he has now against history textbooks. While studying race

relations in the south, he wrote a textbook on the history of Mississippi

called Conflict and Change which was a well received work critically

(Homepage of James Loewen). Yet the book was rejected by Mississippi

schools on account of being too controversial and he took his case to US

Federal Court winning a landmark First Amendment ruling in 1980 in Loewen

v. Turnipseed (Homepage of James Loewen). This shows the origins of his

dislike of American history textbooks as he had first hand experience with

the rejection of the use of an open and honest text book that he co-

authored. Naturally, before he began his evaluation of American history

text books that culminated in Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen surely had

his mind made up on what perspective he was going to take. He had to prove

that the textbooks did not reveal the entire truth.

Thus James Loewen wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your

American History Textbook Got Wrong to point out all the discrepancies in

American textbooks and the truth in American history. A very 'in your face

title,' Loewen does not hold back his true feelings for American textbooks

at all. He evaluates a dozen textbooks and compares them to historical

fact. He points out well researched details, like how textbooks paraphrase

to create a perceived notion of the person they want. One of the many

examples is how Lincoln is presented frequently as one whom if he "could

save the Union without freeing any slave" he would (Loewen 181). This

however is selected paraphrasing and ignores not only the rest of that

particular letter, but general historical truths as well. Loewen does not

just debunk individual facts, but comments on perceived generalities about

America such as progress and America as a land of opportunity. Loewen,

perhaps sums up his work best in his own words: "Ten chapters have shown

that textbooks supply irrelevant and even erroneous details, while omitting

pivotal questions and facts in their treatment of issues" (273). This

illustrates the core concept of his book, or at least the factual

representation behind his theories regarding the teaching of history. To

Loewen, American textbooks have a lot wrong and they refuse to reveal any

sort of controversy regarding American history. Loewen takes careful

consideration of ample factual evidence to make his point, and thus helps

to illustrate his numerous themes.

One theme Loewen touches upon is the notion that American textbooks

change their point of view and historical interpretation to fit the mold

caste by political correctness. For example, Columbus goes from legendary

'good guy' and discoverer of the Americas to one that perpetuated violence.

The early textbooks called Columbus's "1492 voyage 'a miracle'" (Loewen

302). But over the years his perception in the textbooks shifts, when

obviously history does not. This is because textbooks are not historically

accurate, but rely on public pressure to for approval and sales and

ultimately the right to be used in schools. Loewen uses an example of

adoption, in stating that these states "used to pressure publishers overtly

to espouse certain points of view" (Loewen 280). Numerous examples

illustrate this point and thus this is a central theme in Lies My Teacher

Told Me.

Another theme to Loewen is that history should be interpreted and not

dictated by an end all source. Primary sources should be teaching tools to

history, and students should use them to make their own judgments and

opinions on United States history. Loewen himself relies heavily on the

use of primary sources in his work. Textbooks present students with a

version of history that does not give the student amble ability to

interpret history for him or herself. It is pre-determined history almost

by forces other than those that enact change in history. This means that

students who learn of American History from the textbooks, according to

Loewen, do not have the skills necessary to apply their history to the

present day. The textbooks present a closed view of history, one that is

surprisingly uniform (although of course there are differences between

textbooks and textbooks do shift in their scope and direction over time).

To better understand history, one must better understand primary documents.

The current study of American history has lead to the simple fact "that

students successfully resist learning American history" (Loewen 300).

Regurgitation of textbooks is not how history should be taught.

An important study to Loewen's evaluation of American history

textbooks is his research on the depiction of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam

War, an important event in American history, is touched upon very lightly

in history textbooks. Loewen compares it to the significantly less

important War of 1812 which took place two hundred years ago and only cost

two thousand American lives (Loewen 241). Yet there is equal coverage to

that of the Vietnam War and for no apparent reason as textbooks make no

claim to the value and importance of the War of 1812 (Loewen 241). In the

coverage of the Vietnam War, Loewen finds further misconstructions of fact.

Loewen believes that incidents of atrocities are important to study

because they reflect the nature of the war which was guerilla with no true

identifiable enemy. He writes, "My Lai was not a minor event... but was

important precisely because it was emblematic of much of what went wrong

with the entire war in Vietnam" (Loewen 245). However, even authors who

are on record of knowing of the importance of this event, treat the event

as an isolated instance (Loewen 246). There are countless examples of

textbook authors excluding "the sights, the sounds, and the feelings of the

Vietnam era" that Loewen dedicates a large portion to his study of the

Vietnam War in textbooks.

The Vietnam War's depiction in history books is an example that

supports Loewen's contentions. The negative aspects of the War, even

though it was so recent, are excluded from textbooks. Loewen says American

students are given the "Disney" version of American history; that is the G

rated biased interpretation of America's past (Loewen 253). The Vietnam

War was important, and not only is… READ MORE

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