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Lies My Teacher Told Me
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When students are asked what their least favorite subject in school is, they overwhelmingly say history. History classes tend to have the greatest percentage of semi-conscious students. Is that because history is just inherently boring? Historian and history-book critic James Loewen says no. After studying a dozen high school history textbooks, Loewen concluded that the vast majority of them are “an embarrassing amalgam of bland optimism, blind patriotism, and misinformation pure and simple, weighing in at an average of four-and-a-half pounds and 888 pages.” Today we spend the hour with James Loewen, author of the best-selling book, “Lies My teacher told me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong.”

Loewen is a familiar voice on Pacifica Radio. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Vermont and coauthor of the first integrated state-history textbook, Mississippi: Conflict and Change, and creator of The Truth About Columbus: A Subversively True Poster Book for a Dubiously Celebratory Occasion. Among his other books are “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong,” and “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism.”

Loewen’s latest book is “Teaching What Really Happened: How To Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History.”

Thank you Gifts:

– Lies My Teacher Told me – 12 CD set – $150
– Lies My Teacher Told me – book – $80
– Howard Zinn CD on War and Civil Disobedience – $50
– Young People’s History of the United States – Zinn – $100
– People’s History Pack – All of the Above – $365