New Meaning to History: “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Loewen Book Review

It stands to reason that telling the truth about the past ought to be the primary aim of American History education. Yet that’s often not the case because—stop me if you’ve heard this one—the facts don’t fit the narrative. Perhaps you’re thinking, Isn’t the narrative of American History just an accurate recounting of what has happened throughout the history of our country?

As it turns out, no.

In Lies My Teacher Told Me, the author James Loewen examines the state of American history education—invariably derided by students as the least favorite and most boring subject—by turning a critical eye on the centerpiece of a typical American history course—the textbook. After reviewing 18 textbooks across the two editions of this book, he argues that the textbooks themselves are the chief problem in American history because they’re the means by which the narrative of American history is established. We know what we know—or at least what we think we know—about our history based on what we were taught in school, which was based on history books that Loewen contends are deeply flawed. Therefore, our understanding of American History, and our ability to apply its lessons to our lives, is flawed as well.

Loewen makes his case by dedicating the first 11 chapters of Lies My Teacher Told Me to examining key people, events, and periods of American history—Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, Vietnam—and along the way reveals how the textbooks from which so many of us were taught have let us down. He then spends the remaining two chapters explaining why the textbooks are the way they are and the implications of teaching history this way.

So, what’s wrong with the narrative of American history as presented in our textbooks? In large part, it boils down to the publishers’ desire to ensure their books are palatable to as many state textbook adoption boards as possible. As a result, publishers produce American history textbooks that (despite their shiny covers, eye-catching graphics, and learning tools that often prove to be little more than distractions) are gutless, bland. When it comes to actual content, facts are massaged or outright ignored until we’re left with a milquetoast version of history in which our American heroes are one-dimensional, unassailable, and ultimately unrelatable, and we’re told how America is a country that never fails to overcome a challenge, marching steadily onward from glory to glory.

I don’t know about you, but when I turn on the TV, I see that this is patently untrue. We’re in the middle of an exceptionally heated election cycle that provides daily evidence that our national leaders, regardless of political persuasion, are flawed people.

How many Americans have just recently awoken to the hard reality that racism is still alive and well in our country and that racial equality was not secured decades ago during the Civil Rights Movement?

There’s this idea in the preface that rang true when I started reading Lies my Teacher Told Me last December, but after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others, it’s become even more powerful and timely. Foretelling the America in which we find ourselves now, Loewen writes, “There is a reciprocal relationship between the truth about the past and justice in the present. When we achieve justice in the present, remedying some past event or practice, then we can face it and talk about it more openly, precisely because we have made it right… Conversely, a topic that is mystified or distorted in our history, like secession, usually signifies a continuing injustice in the present, like racism. Telling the truth about the past can help us make it right from here on.”

That’s an approach to American history that I can get excited about!

It’s American history with a purpose beyond memorizing names and dates. It’s an approach that acknowledges American history isn’t just the history of a place or a thing; it’s a history of a people. It’s our history. It’s the history that we internalize and that we take on as part of our identity.

Lies My Teacher Told Me is a book for this moment. American history comes at a cost. Right now, we’re paying the price of our false narrative because we’ve refused to look hard in the mirror, see the truth and our flaws, and find the courage to address them. The cost of rebuilding American history on the true narrative will be an honest critical examination of our past and making the necessary changes to address the current injustices.

I highly recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me. It’s a dense book, and if you’re anything like me or the group I read this book with, there will absolutely be moments when you’ll be angry at the ways you were shortchanged and others when you’re disappointed to realize the truth of historical events. However, if you stick with it until the end, you’ll likely find new meaning and renewed energy in American history. If that sounds interesting to you at all, you absolutely should read it. And students, as a bonus, reading this book will equip you to heckle your history teacher!

Chad Buel is the Student Minister at the Lake Mary Campus. If you have any questions for him about student ministries, the Bible, or The Office (he’s a big fan), he’d love to hear from you at cbuel@summitconnect.org.