| Best Selling Book by a Living Sociologist! 
High school students hate history. When they list their favorite subjects, history always comes in last. They consider it the most irrelevant of twenty-one school subjects; bo-o-o-oring is the adjective most often applied. James Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institute surveying twelve leading high school textbooks of American History. What he found was 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. In response, he has written Lies My Teacher Told Me, in part a telling critique of existing books but, more importantly, a wonderful retelling of American history as it should - and could - be taught to American students. Beginning with pre-Columbian American history and ranging over characters and events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, and the My Lai massacre, Loewen supplies the conflict, suspense, unresolved drama, and connection with current-day issues so appallingly missing from textbook accounts. A treat to read and a serious critique of American education, Lies My Teacher Told Me is for anyone who has ever fallen asleep in history class. | |
| Teaching the "Great Explorers" In K-12, students learn the pantheon of "Great Explorers": Prince Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, etc. Soon most forget which explorer did what (except Columbus, who "discovered America"), but they do think of them as Great White Men, our forebears. Always, the question to be asked is, what did they do when they got there?
 Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus
Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus selected as one of ten "Engaging & Informative Books About American History." | |
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| Lies My Teacher Told Me Awards 1996 American Book Award: The American Book Awards were created by the Before Columbus Foundation seventeen years ago to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America's diverse literary community. The awards recognize literary excellence without limitation to categories, quotas, or other restrictions. Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship: The Oliver Cromwell Cox Award is made by the Section on Racial and Ethnic Relations of the American Sociological Association. AESA Critics' Choice Award: Each year, a panel of AESA members selects a number of titles it regards as outstanding books of interest to those in educational studies, broadly defined. | |
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