I’M READING AS FAST AS I CAN (JUNE 2021 EDITION)
Busy month, you know. Also, the one book I finished this month? I actually started reading it May 1. So I could blame it on that.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I liked James Loewen’s Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, so when I came across this at a charity sale, I was keen to pick it up. This is his detailed critique of high school history textbooks and how they not only often get American history wrong, they also make it boring. The original 1995 edition reviewed 12 existing textbooks, while this revised edition from 2007 added six more to the list, and found things hadn’t improved much. Loewen focuses his analysis on the main areas you’d expect - from the glorification of Columbus and the Mayflower pilgrims to the Civil War, Native Americans, Vietnam, 9/11 and racism in general.
It’s not a spoiler to say that Loewen generally finds US history textbooks to be oversimplified, Eurocentric and designed to make unquestioning patriots out of students by making America the flawed yet virtuous protagonist of the story - I mean, we kind of knew that already. But Loewen lays out the case in meticulous detail, and also provides insights into how history textbooks are produced, and how decisions are made what to include and what to leave out. He’s also careful to point out that it’s not a simple matter of which political party has the most influence at publishing houses - there are many other factors at work at all levels of the educational system contributing to the problem.
What’s really striking about the book is how ahead of its time it seems reading it now in an age where some people are tearing down statues of Columbus and Robert E Lee, while others clutch their pearls over things like the 1619 Project and CRT and demand American history be taught even more patriotically (and with more whitewashing) than it already is. Which may prove Loewen’s point regarding the dangers of teaching history this way, as most of the same people likely learned history from many of the same textbooks reviewed here. (The rise of social media memes, cable TV news and “history” books by the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Brian Kilmeade and Rush Limbaugh is arguably making things worse.) Anyway, highly recommended reading, although the usual caveat applies: your current political headspace may determine your enjoyment level.
View all my reviews
The past is history,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1660366.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I liked James Loewen’s Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, so when I came across this at a charity sale, I was keen to pick it up. This is his detailed critique of high school history textbooks and how they not only often get American history wrong, they also make it boring. The original 1995 edition reviewed 12 existing textbooks, while this revised edition from 2007 added six more to the list, and found things hadn’t improved much. Loewen focuses his analysis on the main areas you’d expect - from the glorification of Columbus and the Mayflower pilgrims to the Civil War, Native Americans, Vietnam, 9/11 and racism in general.
It’s not a spoiler to say that Loewen generally finds US history textbooks to be oversimplified, Eurocentric and designed to make unquestioning patriots out of students by making America the flawed yet virtuous protagonist of the story - I mean, we kind of knew that already. But Loewen lays out the case in meticulous detail, and also provides insights into how history textbooks are produced, and how decisions are made what to include and what to leave out. He’s also careful to point out that it’s not a simple matter of which political party has the most influence at publishing houses - there are many other factors at work at all levels of the educational system contributing to the problem.
What’s really striking about the book is how ahead of its time it seems reading it now in an age where some people are tearing down statues of Columbus and Robert E Lee, while others clutch their pearls over things like the 1619 Project and CRT and demand American history be taught even more patriotically (and with more whitewashing) than it already is. Which may prove Loewen’s point regarding the dangers of teaching history this way, as most of the same people likely learned history from many of the same textbooks reviewed here. (The rise of social media memes, cable TV news and “history” books by the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Brian Kilmeade and Rush Limbaugh is arguably making things worse.) Anyway, highly recommended reading, although the usual caveat applies: your current political headspace may determine your enjoyment level.
View all my reviews
The past is history,
This is dF
This entry was originally posted at https://defrog.dreamwidth.org/1660366.html. Please comment there using OpenID.