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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
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High school students hate history. When they list their favorite subjects, history always comes in last. They consider it "the most irrelevant" of twenty-one school subjects; "bo-o-o-oring" is the adjective most often applied.
James Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution surveying twelve leading high school textbooks of American history. What he found was an embarrassing amalgam of bland optimism, blind patriotism, & misinformation pure & simple, weighing in at an average of four-and-a-half pounds & 888 pages.
In response he has written Lies My Teacher Told Me, in part a telling critique of existing textbooks but, more importantly, a wonderful retelling of American history as it should--and could--be taught to American students.
Beginning with pre-Columbian American history & ranging over characters & events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, & the My Lai massacre, Loewen supplies the conflict, suspence, unresolved drama, & connection with current-day issues so appallingly missing from textbook accounts.
A treat to read & a serious critique of American Education. Lies My Teacher Told Me is for anyone who has ever fallen asleep in history class.
James Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution surveying twelve leading high school textbooks of American history. What he found was an embarrassing amalgam of bland optimism, blind patriotism, & misinformation pure & simple, weighing in at an average of four-and-a-half pounds & 888 pages.
In response he has written Lies My Teacher Told Me, in part a telling critique of existing textbooks but, more importantly, a wonderful retelling of American history as it should--and could--be taught to American students.
Beginning with pre-Columbian American history & ranging over characters & events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, & the My Lai massacre, Loewen supplies the conflict, suspence, unresolved drama, & connection with current-day issues so appallingly missing from textbook accounts.
A treat to read & a serious critique of American Education. Lies My Teacher Told Me is for anyone who has ever fallen asleep in history class.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4,1995
This edition
- Format
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384 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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January 1, 1995 by The New Press Inc.
- ISBN
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9781565841000
- ASIN
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156584100X
- Language
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English
About the author
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A professor of sociology, James W. Loewen earned his bachelor's degree at Carleton College in 1964, and his master's (1967) and doctorate (1968) degrees from Harvard University. Loewen taught at Touglaloo College from 1968 until 1975, and at the University of Vermont from 1975 until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1995.
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