Lies My Teacher Told Me Discussion and Review

Austin
Jul 5, 2017
3 min read

Bonjour et bienvenue ! J’espère que tous ont appréciés leur jour de l’Indépendance des États-Unis. (Hello and welcome back everyone! I hope everyone had a great fourth of July!)

In celebration of Independence day, I decided that this week’s blog post will be about America! So today we will be discussing, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me, is a nonfiction history book that was originally published in 1995 and then later updated and republished in 2007. So let’s begin!

I was first introduced to this book, back when I was in high school taking my AP US history class during my tenth grade year. Our teacher assigned this book to us a must read for the summer because it would start the critical thinking process needed to analysis and think about US history in a non biased manor. See James Loewen, reviewed several various big named history text books and found out that the history told in them, was not exactly true or accurate. Lies My Teacher Told Me is a book that covers a lot of topics that our history books often omit various details from. The biggest and most prime example would be about Christopher Columbus. Textbooks often times hail him as a great voyager and a hero, when in reality he was quite ruthless, got lost, and was the reason why so many indigenous populations no longer exist.

Lies My Teacher Told Me is a little more than 450 page long and is broken down into twelve sections each detailing various people and points in history. Such examples include: Helen Keller, Betsy Ross, Woodrow Wilson, the Native Americans, Abraham Lincoln, state-sponsored terrorism, the reconstruction period and many more. The final sections focus more on, “why are history books written like this? Finally, the book ends with an afterword about what the future might hold and what we need to do to prevent it.

This is very important book that I believe everyone should read! That being said if you are about to take an AP history class, or a college history class, you have even more reason why to read this. Loewen’s book is not simply debunking myths surrounding various figures and time periods in history, rather its an analytical and annotated history detailing the omissions left by the various textbooks student have been taught with while in school. The sad reality is that - many Americans do not actually know what’s happened in their own backyards – they’re left with a skewed knowledge that is then passed down generations until no one knows better. Thus creating an environment when these alternative facts run rampant, and no know one is cognizant of the diversity that makes us all so great. This book is set up to help fix those issues. After all, those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

Reading books like this help set up the knowledge base that students and citizens a like need in order to be functional members of society. Now while this book is far from perfect, and does not cover everything, it enables people to start thinking critically about how history is often double sided and usually written by the victor. That parts of history are erased sometimes simply because it makes us look bad. Whereas now, if we knew said history, often times we wouldn’t be facing similar issues that are prevalent in todays society.

It is by learning about different peoples, cultures, religions and walks of life that we ourselves can grow as a people and a nation. It is educating ourselves and our young ones that can make this country great again. Educating ourselves on our history and on diversity should be fundamental in schools, but sadly its not – thus the need for James Loewen’s book. However, I am thankful that said book and other books like this exist so that we may educate ourselves. It is my hope that with books like this we become more aware of ourselves, our legacy and the vastness that is the human experience.

As always, thank y’all so much for reading! Please let me know your thoughts about this book in the comments or on social media! Until next time!

Au revoir!

~Austin