You probably remember your high school history textbook. It was likely a ten-pound brick, filled with glossy pictures of heroic men in wigs and optimistic maps showing the "expansion" of the United States. It felt authoritative. It felt like the final word. But if you've ever picked up James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, you know that those books were less about teaching history and more about building a myth.
Loewen wasn't some fringe conspiracy theorist. He was a sociologist who spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution. He pored over the twelve most popular American history textbooks used in schools across the country. What he found wasn't just a few typos or minor omissions. He found a systematic process of "heroification" that turns real, complex human beings into plastic icons.
The book changed everything. Honestly, it’s a bit of a gut punch. You realize that the history you were graded on was often a curated version of reality designed to make you a "good citizen" rather than a critical thinker.
The Myth of the First Thanksgiving and the Heroification of Columbus
We have to talk about Christopher Columbus. In most textbooks, he’s the brave explorer who "discovered" America. But as Loewen points out, you can’t discover a place where millions of people are already living. That's just common sense, right? Yet, textbooks for decades omitted the darker side of his arrival—the gold mining, the enslavement of the Arawak people, and the sheer brutality that followed his landing in 1492.
Loewen argues that by scrubbing Columbus of his flaws, we lose the ability to understand the actual foundations of the Atlantic world. We get a caricature.
Then there’s the Thanksgiving story. We love the imagery of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag sharing a peaceful meal. It’s cozy. It’s comforting. But Loewen digs into the "plague" that wiped out roughly 90% of the indigenous population in coastal New England just before the Pilgrims arrived. The settlers didn't find an "empty" wilderness; they found a graveyard. They moved into abandoned villages where the corn was already planted. Textbooks usually skip that part because it makes the "manifest destiny" narrative feel a lot less like divine providence and a lot more like a tragic accident of biology.
Why Textbooks Are So Boring
Have you ever wondered why history class felt like a slog through wet cement? Loewen has a theory. It’s because textbooks present history as a finished product.
🔗 Read more: Johnny Somali AI Deepfake: What Really Happened in South Korea
Everything is a "fact." There’s no debate. No "maybe." No "we don't actually know."
When you remove the conflict, you remove the drama. History is essentially a series of arguments about how we should live and who gets to hold power. When textbooks smooth over those arguments to avoid offending school boards or conservative textbook committees in Texas (who have an outsized influence on what the rest of the country reads), they suck the life out of the subject.
Loewen notes that authors often "write down" to students. They use a tone of omniscient authority. This prevents students from asking the most important question in history: "How do we know this?" If the book says it, it must be true. That’s a dangerous way to teach kids how to process information in the real world.
The Erasure of Recent History
One of the most startling points in Lies My Teacher Told Me is how textbooks handle—or don’t handle—the recent past. Loewen found that the closer a book gets to the present day, the more vague it becomes.
Take the Vietnam War. Or the Civil Rights Movement.
While textbooks might mention Martin Luther King Jr., they usually stop at the "I Have a Dream" speech. They rarely discuss his later work on economic justice or his staunch opposition to the Vietnam War. They turn him into a safe, non-threatening figure who just wanted everyone to get along. This "Disney-fication" of history makes it impossible for students to see how the struggles of the 1960s are directly connected to the politics of today.
💡 You might also like: Sweden School Shooting 2025: What Really Happened at Campus Risbergska
And let’s talk about the missed opportunities.
- The book highlights how Helen Keller is taught as a "miracle worker" who overcame blindness and deafness.
- Almost no textbook mentions that she was a radical socialist and a founding member of the ACLU.
- Why? Because a radical Keller doesn't fit the mold of the "inspirational" figure that fits neatly into a curriculum.
By ignoring her politics, we do her a massive disservice. We treat her like a puppet rather than a woman with a fierce, independent mind.
The Invisible Hand of Class and Labor
If you look for the word "class" in a standard American history textbook, you’ll be searching for a long time. Loewen observed that textbooks go to great lengths to avoid the idea that America has a social hierarchy.
We talk about the "middle class" as if it’s the only group that exists.
But history is full of labor strikes, union organizing, and intense battles over wealth. From the Pullman Strike to the Lawrence Textile strike, these events shaped the 40-hour work week and the safety standards we take for granted today. When textbooks ignore these struggles, they make it seem like "progress" just happened because some benevolent factory owners decided to be nice. It erases the agency of everyday people.
The Problem With "International Self-Righteousness"
Loewen uses a great term: "international self-righteousness." It’s the idea that the United States is the only country that acts out of purely altruistic motives.
📖 Related: Will Palestine Ever Be Free: What Most People Get Wrong
While every nation has its own brand of nationalism, American textbooks often portray U.S. foreign policy as a series of well-intentioned mistakes rather than calculated interests. We see this in the coverage of the Spanish-American War or the various interventions in Latin America during the Cold War. By refusing to look at our own history with a critical eye, we fail to prepare students for the complexities of modern global politics.
Basically, if we’re always the "good guys," we never have to learn from our mistakes.
What Can We Do About It?
So, is all hope lost? Not really. James Loewen didn’t write this book just to complain. He wrote it as a call to action for teachers, students, and parents.
The reality is that history isn't just a list of dates. It's an ongoing investigation.
If you're a student, or if you're helping your kids with homework, the best thing you can do is look for secondary sources. Don't rely on the textbook as the "bible." Look at primary documents—letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts from the time. Compare what the textbook says with what people were actually writing in the moment.
Teachers have it tough. They're often forced to teach to the test and cover 500 years of history in 180 days. But many are moving away from the "lecture and textbook" model. They’re using Loewen’s work to teach "historiography"—the study of how history is written.
Actionable Steps for Better History Literacy
To move beyond the "lies" and develop a sharper understanding of the past, try these practical approaches:
- Question the "Why": When you read about an event, ask why the author chose to include it and what they might have left out. If a historical figure seems too perfect, they probably were edited.
- Consult Primary Sources: Use sites like the Library of Congress or the National Archives to read the actual words of the people you're studying. You’ll find they were much more "messy" and interesting than the textbook suggests.
- Support Local History: Often, the most accurate and raw history is found in your own backyard. Visit local historical societies to see how national events impacted your specific community.
- Check the Bibliographies: Look at where the information is coming from. If a book relies solely on other textbooks rather than original research, it’s likely just repeating old myths.
- Read Comparative Histories: If you're reading about the American Revolution, try to find a British perspective. If you're reading about the Mexican-American War, see how it’s taught in Mexico. The contrast is usually eye-opening.
History is a living thing. It’s not just a collection of dusty facts. By recognizing the biases and omissions in our education, we can start to see the world as it actually is, rather than how we wish it were. James Loewen's work remains a vital tool for anyone who wants to stop being a passive consumer of information and start being an active participant in understanding the human story.