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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
meggoose's review against another edition
3.0
This book started out interesting and informative. The other lays out not so much specific mistruths, but rather structural ways education is skewed. This is done with some historical information and source information. Towards the end, the points became repetitive and less easy to read through. The last few chapters are points that have been made throughout the other chapters, woven into the arguments laid out at that time and are belabored in the final chapters.
Overall, a good reminder to question and review the writer and background if where information is coming from and what the intent is in the writing.
Overall, a good reminder to question and review the writer and background if where information is coming from and what the intent is in the writing.
theabee's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, War, and Classism
claire91's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A good, interesting read. Discussing the less boring more flavorful history of the states and how it is important and relevant for society today.
I should have just skipped social studies class from 1st-12th grade and read this instead. It would have saved me a whole lot of time and effort.
I should have just skipped social studies class from 1st-12th grade and read this instead. It would have saved me a whole lot of time and effort.
lesserjoke's review against another edition
3.0
I have very mixed feelings about this work, which is partly a Howard Zinn sort of attempt to tell a more honest history of America informed by diverse voices and partly an exploration of why the high school textbook industry has gotten so much of it so wrong for so long. That overall mission is critically important, and author James W. Loewen is full of examples from Woodrow Wilson's racism to Helen Keller's socialism that could radically change a typical understanding of prominent figures and broader societal trends. I'm definitely on-board for the call to overhaul social studies classrooms, and this title is especially striking for how its survey of popular texts reveals minimal input from actual historians and scant acknowledgement of open questions within the field, as well as, of course, downright falsehoods.
On the other hand: Loewen himself is an academic sociologist with no apparent background in secondary educational pedagogy, and several of his particular complaints about how modern textbooks are structured to include discussion prompts, bolded terms, picture insets, etc. seem questionable at best. I've also found him to be a rather insufferable writer, who makes offhand remarks that we can't hold slavery against Christopher Columbus because it was so common at the time or wonders why his students were reluctant when he tried "to lead them in a sing-along" of a 19th-century ditty prominently featuring the n-word. These out-of-touch asides were already inappropriate in 1995; they certainly should have been edited out of this 2018 third edition, which spends its first 5% -- nearly an hour of the audiobook -- on a new introduction bragging how many people have said they love the book over the years. Despite all the pages here attacking the lazy scholarship behind publisher updates, there appears to be little effort put into keeping Lies itself factual and relevant for contemporary audiences.
[Content warning for mention of rape including child rape.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
On the other hand: Loewen himself is an academic sociologist with no apparent background in secondary educational pedagogy, and several of his particular complaints about how modern textbooks are structured to include discussion prompts, bolded terms, picture insets, etc. seem questionable at best. I've also found him to be a rather insufferable writer, who makes offhand remarks that we can't hold slavery against Christopher Columbus because it was so common at the time or wonders why his students were reluctant when he tried "to lead them in a sing-along" of a 19th-century ditty prominently featuring the n-word. These out-of-touch asides were already inappropriate in 1995; they certainly should have been edited out of this 2018 third edition, which spends its first 5% -- nearly an hour of the audiobook -- on a new introduction bragging how many people have said they love the book over the years. Despite all the pages here attacking the lazy scholarship behind publisher updates, there appears to be little effort put into keeping Lies itself factual and relevant for contemporary audiences.
[Content warning for mention of rape including child rape.]
Find me on Patreon | Goodreads | Blog | Twitter
knickknack's review against another edition
medium-paced
5.0
might be one of my new favorite books, not just even for the content presented but for the thinking and furthering of your own education that it encourages
deribash's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25