HISTORIES’ RELEVENCE

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Lies My Teacher Told Me, 2nd Edition

Author: Dr. James Loewen

Narration by: L. J. Ganser

Revisiting “Lies My Teacher Told Me” in a second edition is interesting but not as rewarding as when it was first published. Contrary to James Loewen’s opinion in this second edition, the history of famous people and important events have significantly improved. Lowen did a great service to the public when he first wrote “Lies…” because history is written with more objectivity today than in 1995 when his original book is published. He lampoons the education industry by revealing the human fault of textbook historians making people and events of the past imprecise, sometimes wrong, and culturally misleading.

Loewen reviewed several published pre-college history books that were being used before 1995 that distorted the importance of major historical events and people. Narrowing the discovery of a new continent to Christopher Columbus and distorting his contribution to exploration in the 15th century is unquestionably exaggerated and misleading. On the other hand, Columbus represents many mariners that risked their lives in sailing thousands of miles away from their known lands to explore the wonders of the earth and sea. The many distortions of the trials of native Americans and sanitized narratives of slavery are an appalling truth of early history books. Pre-college students should be educated on the truth of American Indian trials and the appalling history of slavery. However, even the worst history books in today’s schools show the displacement of native Indians and a Civil War that is about more than States Rights. The details may not be revealed but general events and people are disclosed so that further education can fill in blanks of misleading characterizations.

As one raised in the 1960s, the distortions of which Loewen writes have largely been corrected by revisionist histories. Anyone who has learned to read cannot help but recognize inaccurate information they received in their school days. Maybe today’s schoolbooks are still inaccurate and incomplete, but no one can escape the evidence offered by the media of modern times. The lies told in history books are revealed by our living in the 21st century. Today’s pre-college textbooks may still sanitize, simplify, and distort the truth of history, but education never stops as we get older. There are many Martin Luther King believers today that are spreading the truth of American slavery’s history and white America’s continued discrimination based on the color of one’s skin.

Believing men and women are equal is a work in process despite the distorted inequality illustrated in school textbooks. The evidence is in the growing importance of women in business and politics in America. Misinformation is still causing societal polarization but every successful woman and person of color in modern times shows that change is coming and it is inevitable. As the Declaration of Independence noted “all men are created equal” despite the existence of slavery and unequal treatment of women in America.

There is little solace for people of color and women that continue to be discriminated against, but hope remains for tomorrow. There are setbacks but, as Martin Luther King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”