"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen (1995)

A book about history textbooks? Yes please!

This book is a scathing indictment of the way American History is taught (or at least how history textbooks are made) in The United States. It points out how willfully misleading and politicized our education system is when it comes to Social Studies or American History in a way that it is not when it comes to any other subject. The premise of the book is that textbook authors cater to textbook selection panels and their blatant Euro-centric biases. The results are textbooks that distort and omit truth, rather than ones that teach actual history.

Dude, there are so many great facts in this book, facts that are not widely known or admitted, that it would be pretty understandable if this whole post was just a big long list of them. This is kind of why you made this blog, to create a giant list of things that you don't want to forget. But making a blog post that was just one long list would be a bit lame, so here is a short list for you.

- Helen Keller was a raging communist! Once she was able to interact with her world, her (metaphorical) eyes were opened to the plight of the under classes in modern societies. She did speaking tours, not on overcoming disabilities (like you thought she did) but on reforming society. She realized that treating disabilities was just treating symptoms; reforming our social class systems would actually be treating the causes.
- Woodrow Wilson was a raging racist and a major military interventionist. He racially segregated the federal government and he invaded Russia! Wilson's term as President saw the KKK grow and dominate the Democratic Party and lynchings became acceptable public activities. At the behest of big business interests, he ordered the invasion of more central American nations than any other president.
- The gold extracted from the Americas by Europeans really shaped the world we think of when we think of "The West". It collapsed the Saharan trade routes, usurped Muslim primacy, altered the economy of the world, made Africa suddenly attractive to Imperialists only for its slaves not its natural resources, probably ignited the modern concept of capitalism, and surely sparked the Industrial Revolution.
- Native American cultures were EXTREMELY attractive and influential to most European settlers. The democratic and egalitarian  nature of the Iroqouis nation inspired philosophers like More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau's ideas of liberty and equality. These philosophers had direct influence on America's founding generation. Benjamin Franklin said, "No European who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in our societies." Early European settlements had to put up walls and post guards to keep the settlers IN, not to keep the natives OUT. When the Berlin Wall went up we all asked why, if communism was so nice, they had to keep their citizens from leaving. The same question could be applied to early American settlements.
- John Brown was long considered to be a noble hero before he was accused of insanity. Union soldiers marched to battle singing 'John Brown's Body'. They don't do that for insane people, they do that for heroes.
- Abraham Lincoln was much more of an abolitionist than most books make him out to be. A lot of his more moderate quotes were taken out of context. The quote, "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it," was followed by, "...I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere could be free." See? Much more abolitionist, much less moderate.

This list could go on and on, but it shouldn't. This list of omitted and ignored historical truths (however fascinating to you) is not really what this book was about. The fun and enlightening historical facts were really just an appetizer to the main point of the book. The main point being, Truth and history are complicated things that resist simplicity. Teaching them in simplified, pro-American ways is easy but not often wise, and it does a disservice to the students and to the rest of our society.

History is fraught with controversy and contradictions. Bringing these complications to students honestly, shows them why history happened, and why is a more important question than how or who or what. Learning why history unfolded the way it did is important because it teaches citizens (and that's what students are) how to judge current events, how to regard current laws, and why their votes on current politicians and policies actually do matter. Context is everything. Deleting the context of history (which this book proves is happening in our schools) robs citizens of the real story of American History.

Textbook authors are not interested in explaining why America did the things that it did. Page 229, "Instead, textbooks merely assume that the government (always) tried to do the right thing." But America doesn't always mean well. That doesn't, however, mean that America isn't a major force for good in the world. In fact, ignoring the bad things we've done dilutes how great the good things we've done really are. Electing our first black president is not nearly as significant if it is not placed in the context of a century of slavery followed by a century of racial repression and decades of Civil Rights struggles.

The case could be made that the authors of textbooks and the selection committees that chose them  love America so much that they only want to show their students its best face. But the truth is that if you truly love something, you have to be able to recognize what it really is. you have to be able to recognize and admit its faults and shortcomings. If you gloss over the sins and failures of the United States, you make it harder to make the country better, to make it a "More Perfect Union".

But what struck you the most while reading this book was the knowledge that good teachers can overcome bad textbooks. What it reminded you of was how you learned very little in your high School history classes, but just one great teacher lit a fire under you that ignited a passion to discover more truths about history, and to try and put the world in its proper context. You finished the book with the hope in your heart that there are enough good teachers out there, that the battle against bad textbooks can and will be won.

Maybe someday you should be one of those teachers.

On to the next book!

-Sam