Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen Essay -- Papers History Com

Lies My teacher Told Me by James W. LoewenHigh condition history textual matterbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American narrative. Rarely, if ever, do they heading what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewens Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has played out considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the authors expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come a manner from their classes without having developed the king to think coherently about social life(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that todays texts are written. This paper exit compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies. one(a) of the biggest problems with todays texts is the process of heroification. This proce ss turns real masses, from our past, into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, creditability, or human interest group(Lies p.9). Several examples, including the lions from our history, in Pageant include Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Woodrow Wilson. Others are defamed, akin Stephen A. Douglas, and John Brown.In Pageant Christopher Columbus is one of the first people named as relevant to our history. He is built up as a hero, with words such as a man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage use to describe him (Pageant p.4). We are told that he knows the world is round, but that nobody will believe him. Finally he convinces Spains monarchs to fund him, and is given three tiny but seaworthy ships manned... ...ils to explain why this song was so popular. In this case not giving all of the facts about a historical figure is to that persons detriment.The lengths that many textbook writers go to keep our history on a positiv e note, and to make heroes out of many of our historical figures comes at a high cost, according to Loewen. These costs include incorrect history, and sluggish history. The end results are students who hate history class, and who come out of those classes not equipped to think about our past in a keen-sighted or coherent way. BibliographyWorks CitedThomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant, A invoice of the Republic. Eighth edition. D.C. Heath and Company Lexington, Massachusetts, 1987.James W. Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me, Everything Your American History Teacher Got Wrong. The New Press New York, 1995.