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Summary: Interesting History
Review: Loewen does an incredible job at exposing the common mistruths written in the history books. It shows how incredibly misunderstood history can be, and how people take everything they hear as fact. Especially, if it is written in a social studies book. He covers american history from the more recognized beginning (Columbus) to the controversy surrounding the Vietnam War. An excellent buy that shows even history is not set in stone.
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Summary: Areas of Concern
Review: I teach US History and Economics on a Native American reservation and do understand some things that Loewen is trying to express. I am at loss at areas he should have talked about. Many Americans have a poor understanding of US History. I don't use the text much but use research methods on what interests students. I also start sometimes from the end of a text and work back. Students love this approach. For a sociologist talking about history gives a bias prospective. History is history. You can't lie about it but one can sure hope that something is remembered such as where New Mexico is located and not having to bring a passport to that state to visit one of our fifty states.Mark
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Summary: Grappling Book Meant to Be Controversial
Review: This book is very eye-opening, but avoid it if you dislike liberal bias or very radical ideas. It examines lives of Helen Keller, Woodrow Wilson, Christopher Columbus, and more and subjects like heroification, social class within textbooks, and more. Many of the reviews here say that parts of the book are not supported with enough evidence. Neither are textbooks. Many of the things presented in this books can be easily verified with a simple web search. My advice is read this. You may not like it, but it is eye-opening.
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Summary: Left Wing, Right Wing...irrelevant! Is the info accurate???
Review: Read Tannen's "The Argument Culture" to see some insight on some of the reviews here...whether or not you or I perceive Loewen's work as "left-wing" or "right-wing" is utterly irrelevant. The question here (and everywhere, for that matter) MUST be "Is it accurate?" Is it accurate? If we agree that the work is accurate in its description of events, we can work from there to discuss the resultants of that accuracy. But to try and color readers' perceptions by clouding the issues with political b.s. that has less meaning everyday for most humans is to try to keep people from making up their mind about this work on the merits of its accuracy. To try to use some trumped up category to discredit a work, when the ONLY criterion should be its accuracy s to lay bare your agenda. Now, what would a "right-wing" agenda be? Self-satisfying enjoyment of a status, lifestyle, and historical context that was, as the book suggests, ill-gotten, less than glamorous and in some cases patently evil? Did you know that Hitler took some of his cues for how to "deal" with Jews in Europe from the way in which Native Americans were "dealt with" in the "settling" of North America? Wake up. This book is excellent in that it is one of many tools that allow human beings to see differently, which is what the interlocking elites fear most. Anyone who is telling you NOT to read something, not to make up your own mind...well, you know where that person stands, what he or she wants, and how he or she wants it...
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Summary: I learned so much from this book!
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. At the end of every chapter I found myself saying, "That was my favorite one!" but then I would read the next one... and I just could not choose! I think I learned the most from the first few chapters, regarding Columbus and the European "settlement" of America, but every chapter had such extensive bibliography and footnotes, so the learning never stopped! I was blown away by the facts that the textbooks leave out.
Rating: 
Summary: Good beginning, then hypocrisy
Review: If there was ever a book that need to lose half of its content, here is the book. He does a good job in the early chapters detailing how classroom teachings about Indians and Wilson are inept. However, when it comes to the Civil War, he becomes quite hypocritical. He himself leaves out important facts about the Civil War; instead giving us an ignorant view of the South. How are we to trust what he says if he himself omits details? He makes outrageous statements about American soldiers in Vietnam taking body parts from Viet Cong, and then does not give us a suitable reference to this grisly detail. Avoid this book.
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Summary: Lessons for history and the present
Review: There are three aspects of Prof. Loewen's book: facts that are often distorted or omitted from U.S. history textbooks, reasons the textbooks are written this way, and consequences for students and society. As a history teacher, I find the second and third aspects at least as interesting as the first, but the book is worth reading even if you don't aim to make curriculum reform into your life's work. The book's introduction (on the making of heroes) summarizes the biggest points of the book fairly well. Loewen argues that by leaving out the blemishes, controversies, and, well, the *humanity* of prominent Americans, somehow textbooks have made our history BORING. So not only is the standard treatment of (for example) Woodrow Wilson HISTORICALLY INACCURATE, it may also be harmful to America as a polity -- by teaching that our country's most magnificent individuals existed on some flawless plane above us, and by extension, that greatness can never come from flawed, controversial people among us today. In other words, we don't have to pretend that Columbus didn't enslave. That Wilson wasn't a racist. That Helen Keller didn't idealize the Soviet Union. That the Pilgrims didn't rob Native American graves during their first months at Plymouth. Because including the truth about these realities does not erase Columbus' courage, Wilson's vision, Keller's brilliance, or the Pilgrims' innovations. And these truthful blemishes will turn flat textbook descriptions into 3-D characters that students can really think about, and perhaps emulate in their own lives. (The reviews that cite political bias in Loewen's writing are missing his point: it is better to have well-informed Americans disagree about our history than for ignorant students to be force-fed uniform fallacies, be they liberal or conservative.) Unfortunately, given the national trend toward statewide standardized testing in nearly all subject areas, it appears that our educational leaders would rather all students swallow identical "facts" about historical figures than have students come to varying conclusions based on well-rounded evidence. Shades of gray are too tough to bubble in on an exam sheet. Nonetheless, Loewen convincingly makes the case for an American history textbook that is more colorful, more willing to admit that historical controversy exists, and (if you read his suggestions closely) SHORTER than the volumes that students are subjected to today. I pray for the day that such a text is delivered to my classroom. In the meantime, "Lies My Teacher Told Me" will have to do.
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Summary: An excellent critical review of US historic pedagogy
Review: Many are put off by Loewen's refusal to pull punches when criticizing the way history is taught in the US. However, Loewen's critics are merely wanting to kill the messenger, rather than actually examine the real message in Loewen's book. If these critics were mature enough to see past their own self denial, they would be able to see that Loewen is actually a brave patriot for the American Cause. I believe Loewen's message is not that history in the US is taught to make the populace more manageable, but rather, that it is "dumbed down" to make it more palatable for the teachers. A genuine discussion of the history of our great nation deserves more thought and effort than a lot of history teachers and departments are willing to accept, so that lessons are simplified to the point that they constitute mythology. Loewen's book examines these myths. Surprisingly, some of these myths (e.g., Abraham Lincoln was unsympathetic to the plight of the slaves) actually serve to UNDERMINE the US status quo, so that one must ask, "Why do educators continue to teach these myths?" Loewen presents what I believe are very convincing arguments as to why these myths are promulgated in the classroom. About a quarter of the book is Loewen's list of references, lending a great deal of weight to his arguments. This is a very good book, and should be required reading in every high school in the country.
Rating:
Summary: Too slanted...but fairly interesting, for awhile
Review: I think the author makes some very interesting points in this book, particularly in the first few chapters, where he talks about Columbus, the plight of Native Americans, and Woodrow Wilson's racism.
Unfortunately, I think the book starts to lose steam after that point, and he does indeed start pounding his political viewpoints down the reader's throat, as well as his apparent anger at people not liking his books that he wrote previously.
I do agree with many points he makes about how our society is geared towards success for the wealthy and against the poor, but I think to a certain degree that you can't expect textbooks for kids to present ideas like class warfare to kids that don't even care to know what happened in the Vietnam War. And I don't think it's really realistic to expect every individual minority group to be given equal time, even if it would be good for that to be the case.
It is a noble thought, though.
So, overall, I'd say it's an interesting book, and a worthy read for people looking for a different perspective on history, but he just doesn't take it in the direction that I hoped he would, and that is telling the historical stories that are not told in textbooks
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Summary: dictators rewrite history books
Review: My title sums it up. Read the other reviews to further support this point.
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