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Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, Revised and Updated Edition | 
| Author: James W. Loewen
Publisher: New Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $17.78
You Save: $9.17 (34%)
New (14) Used (5) from $17.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  416 reviews
Sales Rank: 2766
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 1595583262
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781595583260
ASIN: 1595583262
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The national bestseller and winner of the American Book Award, thoroughly updated for the first time since its initial publication to include textbooks written since 2000 and featuring a new chapter on what textbooks get wrong about 9/11 and Iraq.
Since its initial publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has gone on to win an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and to sell one million copies in its various editions.
What started out as a survey of the twelve leading American history textbooks has ended up being what the San Francisco Chronicle calls "an extremely convincing plea for truth in education" beginning with the pre-Columbian period and ranging over characters and events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, and the My Lai massacre.
In this revised and updated edition, James Loewen surveys six new high school history textbooks written since the first edition of Lies was published. In his inimitable style, he adds material to each chapter noting where the new books have gotten more accurate and where they are still fatally flawed. Loewen also writes at length about the way these textbooks treat the 2001 terrorist attacks and our "response" in Iraq. In fact, while researching this new edition Loewen made the front page of the New York Times in 2006 when he discovered that publishers were passing off as original virtually identical passages on important recent events in a number of history books. And in yet another example of the failure of American history textbooks, he found that "celebrity" historians whose names appear as authors in some cases have never read, let alone written, the texts attributed to them.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 411 more reviews...
 Fantastic August 16, 2008
I purchased this book years ago and I still have it. I purchased it after high school (catchy title - what can I say) and have been a history fan ever since. This book should be required reading. Who decided that dry facts and dates are what should comprise a history class? History becomes fun and fascinating when you move past the whitewashed versions of people and truly examine their motivation, inner demons and flaws. I have gone on to read a multitude of history books and continue to search for the soul in people who have accomplished things that aren't regulated to footnotes.
Great read for anyone who hasn't thought about history since high school August 13, 2008
If you've never had in interest in history and remember cringing at the site of your 1000-page textbook and droll high school American History teacher, this book will engage and enthrall you.
Even people with a profound interest in history and some historians will learn a thing or two from this eye-opening Loewen account of how and why history textbooks failed us as children and continue to fail children K-12 today.
Excellent listen and eye-opening information July 29, 2008
This is an excellent book. I listened to most of it during a long drive. It kept my attention without overwheleming me so I could drive safely. The information presented is informative and will change your perspective on a number of issuse in American history.
 One Third History -- Two Thirds Oratory July 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was extremely disappointed in this book. I don't argue with the majority of what the author has to say, or most of his information, but it seems as if every other paragraph he's telling you why misinformation is a bad thing, how you've been duped, his opinion on why you've been duped, and what you should be doing about it. Not a bad idea in small doses, however, the non-stop rhetoric distracts from the information he's providing. I found the book tiring after a mere 50 pages.
If you've read nothing but history textbooks from high school, a lot of the information contained within these pages might surprise you, as well as keep you interested. If you're a history buff there's not a lot new here.
I don't dispute the author's basic message, only his seeming determination to repeat it ad nauseam. Do yourself a favor and read the intro, absorb the premise, look for your own primary sources (Compare, compare, compare!) and easier-to-digest secondary sources, then as the author seems to recommend--think it through for yourself.
Axe to grind....right down to the handle. July 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I must begin by saying that the author has some very valid points to make...actually, about 4 or 5. The points are then belaboured and repeated to the point where you think: "Didn't he already say this three times already?". This book came out during the very popular, "everything is so dammed Eurocentric" sentiment bandwagon of the 90s. The question is whether you wish to teach kids to be so incredibly cynical as a learning foundation. It's a bit like reading a book on the world by Abbie Hoffman. There's truth in there somewhere but you have to filter out the ranting--and there's a lot of that! To be honest, the truth is probably somewhere in between.
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