Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

Description

A completely revised edition of James W. Loewen's classic retelling of American history, based on six new textbooks and including an all-new chapter on the recent past Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has gone on to win an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and has sold over a million copies in its various editions. What started out as a survey of the twelve leading American history textbooks has ended up being what the San Francisco Chronicle calls "an extremely convincing plea for truth in education." In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen brings history alive in all its complexity and ambiguity. Beginning with pre-Columbian history and ranging over characters and events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, and the My Lai massacre, Loewen offers an eye-opening critique of existing textbooks, and a wonderful retelling of American history as it should-and could-be taught to American students. This new edition also features a handsome new cover and a new introduction by the author.

James W. Loewen has won the American Book Award, the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, the Spirit of America Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, and the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. He is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont and lives in Washington, DC.

Praise for Lies My Teacher Told Me: "Powerful . . . it serves as a crucial counter-textbook to provide a more realistic and critical narrative about the American past." -Truthdig "A treat to read and a serious critique of American education." -Award Citation, American Book Award "Remarkable." -USA Today "A lively critique." -The New York Times "Honest and well-written." -Harper's Magazine "Loewen's book contains so much history that it ends up functioning not just as a critique, but also as a kind of counter-textbook that retells the story of the American past." -The Nation "Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself." -Howard Zinn