Lies My Teacher Told Me Summary

Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, explores the failings of the traditional American historical education. It addresses the portions of history most textbooks willfully ignore, the overly optimistic and nationalistic narrative these selected events tell, and the unfortunate results of these inadequacies. For a subject, which encompasses every interesting event that has ever occurred, to be considered boring by the average student, something must be terribly wrong. Particular points of interest Loewen covers are the process by which historical figures are made uninteresting, the complicated and often unmentioned aspects of the European discovery of the Americas, the downplay of the importance of ideas and beliefs, and the glorification

of the federal government.
The first chapter specifically addresses the “heroification” of historical figures. This is the process through which events and facts are specifically left out of textbooks with the goal of spreading a narrative.

More often than not, the narrative is one of extreme positivity, removing controversial facts about otherwise complicated individuals and making them seem to be heroes. This process is one of the reasons students perceive history as a boring subject. Reading about an infallible subject is entirely uninteresting, while a realistic subject, complete with both flaws and strengths, is much more likely to hold a reader’s attention. An example Loewen uses to illustrate this is Helen Keller. A traditional history textbook glosses over the nuances of her life, describing her more as a miracle than a person. While her accomplishments as a blind and deaf woman are amazing, they are not the only things she ever did. She was, in fact, a controversial political figure. If a standard American history textbook was the only source of information, her radical socialist beliefs and support of the Soviet Union would be entirely unknown. At the time, the revelation of her economic beliefs was scandalous. At the height of her fame, the public’s opinion of Keller as a role model was reversed. Yet, this is rarely, if at

all, mentioned in American history textbooks. The exclusion of socialist politics also ties into the underlying nationalist messages of most American history textbooks. The aspects of historical role models that don’t fit the nationalist model are often almost entirely excluded. One example of this is President Woodrow Wilson’s racism. According to the average textbook, a president of the United States should be presented as a paragon of virtue. His shortcomings are ignored because they conflict with the story the textbooks try to tell. In reality, his policies were blatantly supportive of white supremacist groups such as the Klu Klux Klan, and the landslide presidential victory of Warren G. Harding was justified in a multitude of ways that many textbooks leave unexplained.
The second chapter shifts the focus to a very specific case, and perhaps the worst offender, of the ideas discussed in the first chapter, Christopher Columbus. He may be the single most undeservingly heroicized person in all of history. He is often presented as the man who singlehandedly discovered the Americas, however, numerous other explorers had arrived previously, and the native inhabitants had already lived there for centuries. His motives are also commonly misrepresented. Rather than out of a sense of curiosity about the world, or as an attempt to find alternative routes to trade spices, his primary goals were to help maintain the Spanish technological monopoly and to gain glory for himself. It would seem, if history textbooks are to be trusted, that Columbus succeeded in attaining his personal glory to a degree far beyond anything he could have imagined. However, in reality, he died poor and unknown, only able to take credit for the disastrous consequences of introducing foreign diseases to the native population of the Americas. History textbooks likely report inaccurately on his life for both of the reasons discussed in the prior chapter. His failures and motives are do not easily coexist with a narrative of overwhelming positivity, so they are replaced, and, due to his incredible potential to be considered an American hero, his negative impact is ignored.
The sixth chapter addresses the fact that history textbooks put little to no weight behind the value of beliefs and ideas.

Loewen suggests that the American educational system gives a disproportionate amount of importance to individual people and specific dates, compared to the ideas and beliefs that motivated these people. This is made particularly worse by the large percentage of American history in which ideas and beliefs played a large and important role. For example, any American history student who payed an ounce of attention in their class could list george Washington, Paul Revere, and 1776 when asked about the American Revolution, but very few are likely to explain it as an ideological war between traditional British monarchy and democracy. As important as it is to know the names and dates, George Washington did not singlehandedly win the war, the American people, motivated by their belief that British rule had to end, won the war. Another example of this is John Brown. Textbooks frequently discuss what his actions were, but, instead of providing examples of his writings or quotes, they often simply label him a madman or a religious fanatic. Brown was aware of his actions, and he had his reasons for doing so, yet these are rarely explored in a textbook. Without understanding the reasons behind the actions of important historical figures, the actions lose all significance and become an uninteresting fact to be memorized, rather than the, otherwise interesting,

potential mental debate over whether it was right or wrong.
The eighth chapter concerns textbook’s focus on the federal government rather than other important events and people. This is due to a combination of the heroification of presidents who accomplished little, or even had a negative impact, and the textbook’s ingrained nationalism. Traditional textbooks glorify the government, ignoring many of its darker sides. Whether it is foreign policy designed to benefit the country at the cost of harming other countries and causing internal corruption, or massive corporations using their influence to manipulate the law, the textbooks almost unanimously ignore the flaws of the government in favor of insignificant programs such as the peace corps, which, despite painting a happy picture for the students, accomplished a comparatively small amount. In fact most textbooks go as far as to leave out incredibly controversial events, including governmentally sponsored assassinations, rigged elections, and crippling entire governments. These events could qualify as terrorist acts, so, in order to spread their nationalist message, history textbooks are obligated to leave them out.