Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your History Textbook Got Wrong

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Summary: excellent examination of high school history texts
Review: As a kid, I read history the same way I read simplistic fiction. The story washed over me, taking me along the obvious path. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really make me think. "Lies My Teacher Told Me" shows how textbooks shortchange a facinating subject and in the process shortchanges our kids. It examines what textbooks have to say about a few specific subjects and then looks at what is left out. As and example, Helen Keller was not just a brave blind-deaf girl but a radical socialist woman who helped form the American Civil Liberties Union. Talking about her adult life would involve looking at parts of our history that are not admirable, which is something that the textbooks avoid like the plague. I intend to give this book to my daughter so that she can understand the limitations of what she reads in school. Hopefully, she will want to look for more for herself.

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Summary: Smart people don't need this book
Review: The most shocking thing I came away with after reading this book is that it the author thought he was telling us something we don't know. The most shocking thing I came away with after reading the rest of these reviews is that people in this country aren't as smart as I would have hoped. This book is like an email that is funny at first...but after the 100th time you've received it its annoying. Retreads of factoids...I'm surprised he didn't devote a few chapters to "George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree." There are some passages that are simply the authors soapbox....throwing in facts and stats that are obviously part of an angenda, because they are not refuting anything specifically cited from a book. If I wrote a college paper like this, I would get a D at best... The more you like this book, the less thinking you've done for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Not very factful
Review: Some things in this book are true. But after speaking with a few time travelers (yes, we are being visited by people from the future, I recommend listening to Art Bell on talk radio. It is surprising that so little of the truth is in our current history books. For example, who knew that Paul Revere was a phony?, the british weren't coming, they were already here, everyone in America was British prior to the end of the revolution. One time traveler even told me that the U.S. secretly helped Hitler establish extermination camps in order to reduce the worlds population that is still exploding. The bottom line is don't beleive the history books. The world is constantly changing and todays history might well be tomorrows lies...

Rating:
Summary: This should be required reading in every h.s. history class.
Review: Constant cover-ups of unfavorable events/fact bring a bad taste to everyone's mouth. Is it any wonder that our image is less than bright in many foreign countries, where the fact have.'t been swept under the nearest carpet? This book is a real eye-opener.

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Summary: A Necessary Topic Poorly Covered
Review: Mr. Loewen thesis is relevant to anyone with a child in today's educational system, or anyone interested in truth in history. However, he commits some of the same mistakes as those history books he reviews. While the book is rich in references, he too often proposes that "this probably occured". Your money is better spent on Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

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Summary: Required reading for everyone in this country!
Review: This is the most thought provoking book I have read regarding American history, public policy, and foreign policy. Many of Loewen's observations are not new to the critical student of American history. What is new is his research on how these "lies" are perpetrated in the history textbooks he surveys, and how the media, government, and public continue to believe them. Loewen's wit, sarcasm, dry humor make the book a great read. It is succinct and very well researched. An to top it off, it is a FUN READ (I didn't realize until now that history books COULD be fun to read!). It should be required reading for everyone in this country.

Rating:
Summary: the book was tight
Review: the book was great it tells all

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Summary: Most people miss the point
Review: After reading the book and then reading most of the reviews, I believe most people are missing the point. Mr. Loewen's text is not meant to be used as a reference historical text but the historical examples he uses are to support his major thesis: there is no one "correct" version of history and different views should be address in secondary school textbook when the texts review major historical events including historical viewpoints on race, gender, culture, and proximity.

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Summary: I Wanted More Lies
Review: Although the book is excellent, I wanted more history and less of a call for a multicultural approach to history. I am also getting tired of hearing people bash the public education system. Somehow, it seems, despite the efforts of the American educational system, most of us learn to read, do some math, and avoid believing everything we see on TV. The author is clearly judging the world by the insular and tedious standards of academia. Still, I must pay this book the highest compliment: it will make you think! A must read and a great launching pad for further research.

Rating:
Summary: A must read. Antidote to US bought-and-paid-for press.
Review: Anyone trying to make sense out of the current Iraq crisis will be unable to without this book. Saddam just didn't come out of nowhere. The US and Britain have been playing with middle East leaders for 100 years for control of their oil. Leaders like Saddam are romanced then discarded when it serves the big oil companies' interests. How many times must General Smedly D. Butler - one of the most decorated marines in history - be quoted: "War is a racket" He admits being a stooge for the big corporations, not a purveyor of Democracy. Wake up America. ....CB