Lies My Teacher Told Me

Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

By: James W. Loewen

Narrated by: Brian Keeler

This national best seller is an entertaining, informative, and sometimes shocking expose of the way history is taught to American students. Lies My Teacher Told Me won the American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship.

James W. Loewen, a sociology professor and distinguished critic of history education, puts 12 popular textbooks under the microscope, and what he discovers will surprise you. In his opinion, every one of these texts fails to make its subject interesting or memorable. Worse still is the proliferation of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, and misinformation filling the pages.

From the truth about Christopher Columbus to the harsh reality of the Vietnam War, Loewen picks apart the lies we've been told. This is a book that will forever change your view of the past.

©1995 James W. Loewen (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Lies My Teacher Told Me goes beyond recounting fallacies of history and correcting American image: it surveys social issues misreported, ideas misrepresented, and encourages students of history to think about not only the facts, but the reporting which embellishes and colors their presentation. An invaluable guide for the reader." (Midwest Book Review)
"An extremely convincing plea for truth in education." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Historical Fiction Stranger Than Truth

Who was the first black major league baseball player? Which iconic child hero grew up to be a radical socialist communist feminist? Which president lionized for his prescient foreign policy and progressive domestic initiatives ordered some half dozen foreign invasions, even sending troops into Soviet Russia, and re-institutionalized racism? Which great American hero, one of only two honored by name with a national holiday, launched genocide and slavery in the western hemisphere? Was Lincoln actually racist?

Why don't we know these things? Because, according to author James Loewen, a professor of sociology, our high school history textbooks omit, distort, or outright misstate some facts of our history, striving to tell a nationalistic story based on pride, patriotism, rationalization, and self-congratulation rather than the truth of the matter. Our history was, as the saying goes, written by the winners.

But, warns Loewen, if you elevate that cliche from explanation to excuse, you risk falling into another cliche: those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Twenty years after Loewen wrote his cautionary tale, recent history demonstrate his point -- the fictional rationale for invading Iraq, ongoing debates that sometimes devolve into turmoil over social justice, racial inequality, and environmental disaster, and (on the more specific issue of how these things are taught), the introduction of controversial textbooks in some states that exacerbate the distortions Loewen wrote about two decades earlier to further a particular political agenda.

How you react to this book, to its premise, to its highly detailed decimation of history texts, will depend on how willing you are to re-examine what you were taught in high school, how you feel about the truth behind myths taught as history. It will likely also depend on whether your personal opinion tacks to starboard, because this book decidedly leans to port. Loewen has an unmistakable point of view -- I believe his case would pack more punch if he took an objective approach, even though I align with him almost 100% ideologically.

As a one-time history major back in my long-ago college days, I always prefer truth over mythology. So I ate up Oliver Stone's TV documentary and companion book, The Untold History of the United States, and I devoured this book in audio format. I already knew many of these things, but I was still capable of being surprised by other revelations. I would heartily recommend this to others willing to re-examine the truth behind some of our beliefs. If you're not comfortable with that, I suspect you don't need me to tell you stay away, you'll get that from the title and description.

My only criticism is that the last three chapters are no longer about the distortions in our history texts, but about how these texts are created and adopted, how they affects people's perceptions, and what can be done to rectify the situation. The context of how history is taught in high school is perfect for unmasking the truth of our history, but for me personally, the subject of the textbooks themselves is less interesting. So this ultimately cost the book one star in the story category (I would really like to rate it 4 1/2 stars, so I go with 4 for story and 5 overall to get a 4 1/2 average -- the narration gets only a 4 because it sometimes borders on strident).

The answers to the questions in the opening paragraph: a) not Jackie Robinson, b) Helen Keller, c) Woodrow Wilson, d) Columbus, and e) other than being against slavery, yes, in his early days, as was almost everyone in his era, but he evolved rapidly once he became president.

Worthwhile, but not a classic

It's an easy listen but a tremendous amount is missing without the illustrations and notes of the print copy, which my daughter had as required reading in her seconary AP American History class -- which caused me to listen in the first place.

This is NOT a history book. It's a sociology book about secondary history education. Unfortunately while the author makes an impassioned plea for the problem he fails to provide any comprehensive solution. More textbooks with less scope and more depth won't do it, yet that, along with a change in the approach of teachers and school boards (and no methodology for achieving that) are about all that's really proposed.

Likewise, it's easy to say that we should not publish inaccurate or misleading data and then feed it to our students under the guise of unalterable facts. I agree strongly with the fact that we should not publish information that is untrue -- but its nowhere near as clear how far we should go to _draw_attention_ to the humanity and foibles of our "heros" without destroying the reason for mentioning the hero at all.

Stong "liberal" agenda to the book, but the fundamental message that students should be taught to THINK, and that avoiding controversy is destructive to that end, is valid.

I Thought everyone who could think already knew

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes it is worth a read, and what is written is true, I myself thought that most already knew most of the facts within this book. You may have to plow your way though some of the book.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The conclusion could be seen long before the ending of the book. I do go along with the idea put forth that too much is covered in the teaching of our history, and that more important than remembering dates and names would be to open up the minds of the student to what was their take on the information put before them. Teach history as an interesting story and the student will learn and take an interest in it.

Any additional comments?

History can be the most interesting class that a high school student would take. It is up to the teacher to make it so. Our present school systems do not allow our teachers to do this. Don't teach to test teach to Think!

An eye-opener, for sure!

What a book! After hearing the author's account of our "missing" American history, I can understand why much of the world scorns us. I graduated from high school in 1957, and let me tell you, I was certainly duped by history books of the period. I do agree with Mr. Loewen, if students are given a chance to see our national figures in their true light, rather than as sainted stick figures, history would be so much more interesting. Now, in the 21st century, we almost forget that our country lived in slavery and segregation far longer than in equality. The true motives and actions of our forefathers which have led up to the present situation in our country is mind-blowing. Read this book, and then tell me what you really think of Woodrow Wilson now. I have now only read the first part of this book, and greatly anticipate the rest of it. I cannot stop listening to it!

Outstanding!

Previously, I was completely unaware of the true history and bloody past of our for fathers

Outstanding!!! Highly Recommend!!!

Great book! Very enlightening and educational. Explores how our high school history books leave out important information to create a specific 'positive spin' on people or flat out lie or use made up information on historical people. Also explains how anything controversial is left out.

very eye opening

Shows a great deal many short comings in the way we teach American history, and the damaging impact that omitting negative details, and avoiding controversial and recent topics has on our societies' ability to understand our past and give context to our present. I enjoyed it greatly and would recommend it to all.

Book didn't go far enough

I liked some of the points made, but ultimately I feel like the book didn't go far enough into explaining why American history is suppressed and why it benefits the elite of this country to have brainwashed citizens.

Truly enlightening.

Definitely worth a listen or read, reviews all aspects of what you didn't know about history.

Fabulous

I absolutely loved this book. The content, the narration - everything. It's one of the best books I've found at Audible.