COMMENT:Skeptically explores history education in American high schools, selectively covering little known information from the "discovery" of the Americas through the Viet Nam war. The author, a writer of history texts himself, surveys the mistakes and omissions of a dozen current high school American history texts. Since few Americans take another history course, these "lies" live on in the popular consciousness. The texts mythologize American history, adopting a white, European viewpoint; striving to make white males feel good about being Americans, no matter what actually happened. By depicting America as a constantly improving, progressive entity, we ignore the mistakes of the past, and make the texts deadly dull. By creating heroes of flawed historical figures, we lose insight into their otherwise incomprehensible behavior (e.g., Jefferson's slave ownership). Loewen also mentions the power of textbook selection committees, and argues that if we had better texts, we'd be better equipped to participate in our democracy. The final chapter is a gold mine for high school history teachers, with extensive suggestions in the chapter notes for improving history courses and a long list of source materials and where to obtain them.
DATE:19980924
KEYWORDS:education pseudohistory
MISC:372p.
PUBLISHER:The New Press
SUBMITADDR:keefer@msmary.edu
SUBMITNAME:Robert Keefer
TITLE:Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
