Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social life"(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that today's texts are written. This paper will compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies.
One of the biggest problems with today's texts is the process of heroification. This process turns real people, from our past, into "pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, creditability, or human interest"(Lies p.9). Several examples, including the lions from our history, in Pageant include Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson. Others are defamed, like Stephen A. Douglas, and John Brown.
In Pageant Christopher Columbus is one of the first people named as relevant to our history. He is built up as a hero, with words such as "a man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage" used to describe him (Pageant p.4). We are told that he knows the world is round, but that nobody will believe him. Finally he convinces Spain's monarchs to fund him, and is given "three tiny but seaworthy ships manned...
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...ils to explain why this song was so popular. In this case not giving all of the facts about a historical figure is to that person's detriment.
The lengths that many textbook writers go to keep our history on a positive note, and to make heroes out of many of our historical figures comes at a high cost, according to Loewen. These costs include incorrect history, and boring history. The end results are students who hate history class, and who come out of those classes not equipped to think about our past in a rational or coherent way.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant, A History of the Republic. Eighth edition. D.C. Heath and Company: Lexington, Massachusetts, 1987.
James W. Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me, Everything Your American History Teacher Got Wrong. The New Press: New York, 1995.
Tindall, G.B. & Shi, D.E. (2010). America a narrative history 8th edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.205-212.
Walens, Susann. A. United States History Since 1877. Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT. September 2007.
Henretta, James A and David* Brody. America: A concise History . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. Document.
Christopher Columbus was a renaissance explorer in 1492. he was sent by queen Isabelle and king Ferdinand of Spain to look for a trade route to east Asia
Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia Sullivan. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. U.S. History in Context. Web. The Web.
Christopher Columbus was one of the most legendary sailors and explorers of all time. Christopher Columbus , an italian explorer, was born in the year of 1451 in the Republic of Genoa. Christopher Columbus was a teenager when he first set sail the ocean in 1465. He became a sailor in 1476 and started to travel many places before going on his largest voyage in 1480. In 1492, Christopher Columbus exploration to the New World linked Europe and the Americas. His discoveries enlightened the globe and started a new age of exploration. His standards and morals changed the history of the whole globe. He was known for traveling for all types of reasons for many foreign monarchs. But why would a monarch from one country be interested in employing an explorer from a foreign country to complete such an important task?
Newman, John. UNITED STATES HISTORYPreparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. Second Edition. New York: AMSCO SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS, INC, 2010. eBook. .
Tindall, George, and David Shi. America: A Narrative History. Ed. 9, Vol. 1. New York: WW. Norton & Company, 2013. 544. Print.
Loewen begins with explaining the detrimental effects of teaching the youth of America with the information in the current history textbooks. Most
George Browm Tindall, David Emory Shi. American History: 5th Brief edition, W. W. Norton & Company; November 1999
... Conference.” Reader’s Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.historychannel.com/. 23 Sept 2001.
Christopher Columbus is a very important person in our country’s history. He found the “New World”, the one we live in today. Christopher Columbus was a navigator, explorer and pioneer that was born October 31,1451 in Genoa, Italy. His name was Cristoforo Colombo which was translated into English to which is Christopher Columbus. Columbus is cherished as one of the head navigator of the Age of Discovery. Columbus parents were known as” Individuals that weaved and made cloth” ("Christopher Columbus: Biography of An Explorer."), but he grew up wanting to be different from his family. He admired becoming a sailor by learning how to read and understand maps at an early age. As a child, Columbus visualized about sailing boats and he knew that he wanted to sail to many places across the ocean. According to the reference, “Columbus became a sailor on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic oceans, launching himself as a chart maker ("Christopher Columbus").
...s of the Americas, what was their life like, and how did it change when Columbus arrived ,’ wrote a student of mine in 1991. ‘However, back then everything was presented as if it were the full picture,’ she continued, ‘so I never thought to doubt that it was.’” Most students after high school, fail to analyze controversial issues in our society. What citizens know about our past is what they have learned in high school history courses.
Unfortunately, American history does have a habit of covering up its history for the sake of offering its younger generations a progress model. In a book titled Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen shows how the progress model mode of history telling has covered up many important events in American history to the point that children in public education are graduating high school with extremely warped views of history.
Loewen, James W. "The Truth about the First Thanksgiving." Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: New, 1995. 67. Print.