A review by bykarajacobsen
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

4.0

Truth is socially constructed. There is a reciprocal relationship between the truth of the past and justice for the present and future. Author's tone comes across sassy and salty. And don't mention Columbus and textbook publishers...dude haaates em.

-Heroification to support patriotism removes blemishes like racism, socialism, colonialism leading to an ignorant public devoid of the ability to critically think.

-American Indians & other minorities deserve more credit for the role they played in establishing America. We borrowed a lot of their technology and ideas. They were just as smart as White settlers.

-History should be studied as a series of arguments, issues, and controversies rather than a set of facts to memorize and regurgitate.

-Cognitive dissonance destroyed our national idealism. From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology of white supremacy. We molded our ideas to rationalize acts like slavery.

-We like to blame victims not systems. We deserve the ability to see our country accurately even if it's not pretty but we don't want to confront the truth. We lie to ourselves about our ethnocentric past, fall into the mind trap of progress, and sometimes take the international good guy reputation too far.

-Progress as an ideology has been intrinsically anti-revolutionary. Because things are getting better all the time everyone should believe in the system.

-Core issues of deservedness for economic equality

-What is our democracy if it doesn't teach its citizens the truth?