Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

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 Institution surveying twelve leading high school textbooks of American history. What he found was an embarrassing amalgam of bland optimism, blind patriotism, and out-and-out misinformation. In response he has written Lies My Teacher Told Me--winner of the American Book Award and a national best-seller--in part a telling critique of existing textbooks but, more importantly, a wonderful retelling of American history as it should--and could--be taught to American students.