About this title: Based on careful research at the Smithsonian Institution, this volume issues a bold, direct challenge to the errors, misrepresentations, and omissions of the leading American history textbooks.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: 10th Anniversary ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: New Press
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 384 p. Audience: General/trade. This book is wavy due to bad storage. It is not water damage. Front cover does not lay flat. Some dirty smudges on first page. This is well wothr the pprice as it is in great reading and shelving condition/fast mail/ Informationstation read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Fair. Dust Cover Missing. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Press
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Good reading copy, light wear and edge spotting, I ship 6 days a week aa1. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 384 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Very good. PAPERBACK version-same ISBN-different cover-owner's name inside cover-slight stain to page edge-otherwise a clean like new copy-enjoy. read more
Description: NY: New Press 1995, HB, 372p., vg/vg, previous owner name on front end page, possible book club edition due to no price on dustjacket but is full 8vo size. read more
Binding: Hardback 6" x 9 1/4"
Publisher: New Press, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: photographs/drawings/maps. VG-, corners/spine ends a little worn, back a little soiled, 372 pp. underlining/marginalia/doodling on a few pages, front free endpaper attached to the front pastedown, ISBN 1-56584-100-X, read more
Description: Large octavo, hardcover, near fine in green and yellow pictorial dj. Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. sure to please liberals and infuriate conservatives. In condemning the way history is taught, he indicts everyone involved in the enterprise: authors, publishers, adoption committees, parents and teachers. Loewen (Mississippi: Conflict and Change) argues that the bland, Eurocentric treatment of history bores most elementary and high school students, ... read more
Edition: 10th Anniversary ed.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: New Press
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Glued binding. Paper over boards. 372 p. Audience: General/trade. Fine condition soft cover is as new. Clean inside and out with cover shine. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Fine in Very Good + jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Near-new copy. NO remainder marks or price clippings. Price inside dustcover: $24.95. Tight spine, bright pages NO writing, marks or tears inside book. Illustrated. 372 pages Dustcover is clean and bright, shows 1 small closed tear. Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Press, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. x, 372 pp., illus., bib. notes, index; 24 cm. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Spine slightly rolled at crown. Dust jacket, with a micro-nick/back cover, protected in a mylar book cover. "Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has gone on to win an American Book Award, the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and to sell over half a million copies in its various editions. What started out ... read more
Description: Very Good. 156584100X Softcover book is in excellent condition, no spine creases, mild shelf wear, different cover. Shop & Save With US. read more
Edition: Ninth Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The New Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Fine/Near Fine; Hardbound; 372 pp.; read more
Edition: Number Line 987
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New Press, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 9 1/4 X 6. Pages are tight, bright & clean. Binding firm and straight. If needed for reference, research, analysis, lucubrations or just enjoyment. this is the one. 372 pages, notes, appendix & indexed. Covers, spine, edges and corners good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Press
Date Published: 2005-03
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Very Good- Trade paperback. Illustrated. Clean internally, except for highlighting in the Table of Contents. Small ding to bottom edge of back cover. VG- read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New Pr, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Illustrated. Very Good in Very Good jacket. 6.5 x 9.5 hard cover book. Brown, white, and yellow lettering on the black dust jacket spine with a color illustrated cover. 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. 372 pages. Light wear. Tight binding. Very Good/Very Good condition. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New Press, New York
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9781565841000ISBN:156584100X
Description: Very Good. 156584100X. 372 pages, illustrations, pictorial wrappers, very good. From Publishers Weekly: Loewen's politically correct critique of 12 American history textbooks-including The American Pageant by Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy; and Triumph of the American Nation by Paul Lewis Todd and Merle Curti-is sure to please liberals and infuriate conservatives. In condemning the way history is taught, he indicts everyone involved in the enterprise: authors, publishers, adoption ... read more
"This biggest reason I'm rating this book so high is that it was so thought-provoking. Loewen reviewed 12 common American history textbooks and analyzed the content based on historical accuracy and bias. Unsurprisingly, they all presented a very sanitized and rosy view of American history. His argument is that most of the textbooks in use 1. are very Euro-centric, marginalizing minorities (especially african americans and native americans); 2. "heroify" major historical figures so much that they ignore any faults or human characteristics; 3. extinguish the possibility of critical thinking by avoiding controversy; 4. rely so much on memorization that students cram for tests and then purge their minds of the information to make room for the facts in the next chapter; 5. are factually inaccurate, because they regurgitate info from old textbooks without sourcing new historical research 6. Exclude primary sources... and there are probably some more important points that I'm forgetting.
I agree with most of these conclusions, but to prove them, Loewen was a bit extreme in the opposite direction. To prove his point, the book ended up presenting a very sensationalized version of American history, because he was including only the worst examples of our past, to show what was excluded. By the end, I was exhausted.
Ultimately, I finished the book realizing that I have a lot of gaps to fill in my knowledge of American history, especially in the recent past. Although I already realized that there it is impossible to write an unbiased history, it's made me more aware of how to study history more objectively and review my sources more critically.
Wow. I didn't intend to write an essay. Sorry about that."
"I love works that give you the uncensored truth about history, but this particular book left me feeling as though the author had something to prove, rather than reveal."
"Ostensibly, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen is a book about factual inaccuracies found in a survey of twelve popular History textbooks. That's a good hook, but unfortunately once the hook gets you the place it pulls you into is slightly different than what you might expect. This book might more accurately be titled Subtle Biases Created by Questionable Omissions in A Few Textbooks. But that, of course, is not quite as bombastic a title and you probably wouldn't read the book, would you?
After a brief false start involving how Hellen Keller was a raging Communist, Loewen starts his review of American history in precolonial days, beginning with the atrocities of the Conquistadors and other European explorers. Then it moves on to the atrocities of the White European settlers. Then the atrocities of the early American, White colonists. Then the atrocities of the antebellum slave owners. Then the atrocities of the postbellum racists. Then the atrocities of the opponents of the civil rights movement. You see the pattern here? It holds up for most of the book.
Throughout it all, Loewen does a pretty good job of showing how textbooks often omit information and whitewash (pun intended) the characters of prominent Europeans and Americans, such as Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln. And it is pretty interesting to read how, for example, textbooks describe how the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria were "storm battered" and floundered into the shores of the new world full of crews on the brink of mutiny, while Columbus's own personal journal pretty much says that hey, the weather has been awesome this whole trip and everyone is still in a great mood. Or how Lincoln made several campaign speeches in which he turned his nose at the idea of racial equality.
And Loewen makes good points about how these omissions seem to be systematic done towards the end of downplaying the unpleasant (like, say, the genocide of Native Americans through disease and murder) and emphasizing the heroic (like, say, taming a wilderness that in truth wasn't that wild because the Indians had already cultivated it but are dead now). At times, his comments are impressively subtle, like when he notes how textbooks often credit President Kennedy and other governmental institutions for coming up with anti-discrimination legislation during the 60s, when the government was, for the most part, bowing to pressure from civil rights activists, who really deserve all the credit. This kind of misinformation, he argues, teaches that Blacks and their White allies were not the ones who enacted these changes can thus not expect to view them as inspirations for future battles. It's a subtle point, but Loewen makes good arguments that stuff like this is all in the name of making us feel good about our country and unquestioning about our pride in our history. And he's good about describing how this is doing a disservice to people both as students of history and as eventual participants in our system of government.
BUT, that all being said, I'm not quite sure I've ever read anything so awash in liberal White guilt as this book. It's not that I necessarily disagree with any of this, but the tone of the work is often offsetting and sometimes approaches zealotry. I was really hoping to read more interesting tidbits about stuff that history books get wrong, the kind of stuff that might serve well as idle chit-chat at my next dinner party or bar crawl. But it doesn't take long for it to become apparent that that's not what this books is about. It's really just a vehicle for Loewen's politics. Not that there's anything wrong with that and not that I found myself disagreeing with his politics too often (well, sometimes). It's just not the book I expected or even really wanted."
"The thesis of the book is interesting and well supported, however, I found it pretty dry which was disappointing considering a main point Loewen makes is that Middle School/High School History books are too boring. He goes into too much depth in the first two chapters making the same point over and over again, while quickly and concisely exploring more current history, which again is the same criticism he makes of the textbooks he attacks. I also thing the extreme liberal tone of the book took away from the authors credibility and it would have been more successful without his unnecessary bashing conservatives. Despite my criticism I found the book very thought provoking and relevant. I would love to see Loewen included a comparison of how the same "history" is taught in different countries providing support with passages from different textbooks in France and Germany during WWII for instance."
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