Lies My Teacher Told Me

Very interesting description of the pieces of history left out of (or completely distorted by) high-school U.S. history books. The analysis throughout the book about what this incomplete picture does to the way students think has really made me think a lot about what I accept as true and what I need to understand better.

A classic, well written critique of the way we teach history in American public schools and its social and political consequences. For me the biggest revelation of this book was realizing that most Americans do not study history past high school. (I know, that's an incredibly naive, elitist thing to be surprised by, but I hadn't really thought it through before.) I've always known that grade school history textbooks were problematic, but of course students are taught more than just that, right? Unfortunately, for many students, the answer is no. And that is scary.

While the book does expose lies, many of them aren't nation wide phenomena (I remember elementary school textbooks, some published decades ago, that did present truthfully the facts).

Also, the author seems to have an agenda of nonconformist, disillusioned anti-capitalism (I almost included a spoilers alert...)

Fortunately, the author only makes his agenda clear in the last 30% of the book, and the first 70% are an unadulterated, fun and informative reading.

I wish I had this book when I was in high school, before I took any history classes. The book lays out many of the “lies” people in the US learn about our history in great detail in the first part of the book. So much detail, that I was wondering how he could fit everything in at the rate he was covering issues, but I guess that would be an impossible task, he just covers the most glaring problems. Then, at the end he walks through what he thinks could change in our educational system. I was less into the latter portion most of the way through, but by the end I was feeling hopeful that at least some of the changes would come to pass. Now, I'll pass this book on to my friends and family, I think anyone can learn something from this book!

Must read for every American. I read the revised version, which doesn't seem to be on Good Reads.

Not only should everyone read this book for the insight into history that they may or may not know (much in the style of “stuff you missed in history class,”), they should read it for the second layer, the meta one, that of how this flawed history is chosen and pruned from the author all the way down to the teacher level.

Not sure I by this book story. The author compares the “real” story with 12 textbooks. It's all over the place and I think inconsistent logic. For example, he spends a fair about of time about the racism of Woodrow Wilson then complains that the textbooks don't mention it. I say “so what”. It was not key to his presidency and in 1900's most people were pretty racist in post civil war years. I don't consider that a “Lie My Teacher Told Me”. But he goes on and on about Christopher Columbus and the plague and how people “idolize” him. This one I do agree the there is LOTS of false information that needs to be corrected. My summary is that most of what he complains about is not the purpose of the discussion in textbooks anyway. It's more a matter of opinion in how much they could add in the context of a textbook but not really “Lie's”.

When it comes to classic books on education, none is more prevalent for Social Studies teachers than this text. It is considered a staple in many circles, and is one that I looked forward to reading. Did it hold up to the hype? Yes, with a few minor problems.

One of the best things about this book is how it manages to balance the ideas of both education and history in one text by exploring the omissions left out of American History textbooks. Loewen explores the half truths and the outright lies that can be found in your textbooks today. In all fairness, the books themselves have to perform a delicate balance between instilling patriotism and judgment of America's faults, a difficult and polarizing thing to do. This often goes beyond the fairly obvious negative points in history such as slavery, but also the treatment of those who spoke out against the government during WWI, and the development and relationship between the native populations and early colonists which was complicated at the best of times. The book manages to explore these points fairly well and it almost never lost my interest.

On the note of how terrible textbooks are, I think that Loewen would like what has been accomplished with the modern day internet. Today, we have a variety of secondary documentary, texts, and other tools to choose from. Instead of tell my students about the Gettysburg address, I can have them read and study it online. I can also have them listen to a speech given by FDR, as opposed to merely reading it. There are a whole host of sources I can use in my lesson plans, and with the advent of chromebooks being given to individual students, that only will increase with time. This makes for the average American textbook seem old and dull by comparison, and it makes for an excellent change of pace for the student growing up in the digital age.

This book does contain flaws, however, and while they may not be as massive as other books I've read, their cumulative effect makes them the more noticeable the further the text continues. Firstly, the author has a habit of repeating his thesis about how textbooks are dishonorable for excluding X information on a topic. At first, this makes sense, but to hear it after every topic almost every chapter means that it gets predictable after a while. Secondly, this book tends to be somewhat depressing in terms of the tone. While it isn't as bad as say something by Howard Zinn, it can lean toward that mode of revisionist history at times, where no matter who you are or what you have done, you are part of the problem as to why our students can't remember their history. And finally, it does tend to get a little conspiracy heavy in later chapters, particularly, where Loewen claims that it is the political elite try to stop our students from learning about the negative aspects of our history. While this may be true, I think it is more likely a combination of the way schools are funded, and textbooks are sold that is the issue.

In either case, this is an excellent text, and I will definitely revisit this author again. He has some interesting texts that continue the train of thought, going from why textbooks are so ill equipped to teach students, to what a teacher can do about it, and how they can keep students interested in history. I can't wait to read more of his books. As for this one, I am going to give it a four out of five.