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

4.0

Wow, I wish I'd read this back in school! This is a collection of case studies on how American history textbooks have ignored actual facts in favor of painting leaders and actions in a favorable light.

The biggest impact for me was finding out what a racist piece of crap Woodrow Wilson was. I actually did a paper on him in middle school, and thought he was so awesome with the League of Nations and all that. Turns out he was a massive tool, who kicked all non-white people out of federal service.

The chapters on the treatment of indigenous Americans are also rather eye-opening (I got this book at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian).

The book is very dense, with tons of endnotes, but should probably be a required read for all Americans. Definitely worth it if you have kids, so you can check out their textbooks and see if they're worth the paper they are printed on...