Book Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

Did you know that most Americans never take another history class after they complete high school, regardless of whether they attend college? And that history consistently ranks at the bottom of the list of classes students enjoy, because they find it to be boring, soporific even? Study after study shows that we, as a people, don't understand history, social studies, geography, and cultural issues. How can that be, when all of history is such a rich tapestry of human achievement and defeat, honesty and deceit, exploration of our inner and outer worlds?

James W. Loewen's book is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, and in it he explains to us why history is such a bitter pill for American students to swallow. He shows us that high school American History textbooks are riddled with factual errors, omissions, and outright lies and explains a bit of how that sorry situation came to be.

This is the second edition of Lies, the first having been published around 1993. Loewen updated the book at the request of many of his readers, who feared that without a new edition, the issue would fade away because new readers would assume that the problems no longer existed in newer, more updated textbooks. Alas, though there seem to have been some positive changes in the years between first and second editions, most of the same problems remain.

Abraham Lincoln said, "The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future." If that is true, and surely it is, then it is vital for the future of our country that our young people be given a true and accurate picture of our history. Mr. Loewen's book should be required reading for every teacher of American History, every student, and every parent.