Lies My Teacher Told Me Summary

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In the second chapter of James Loewen’s book Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen discusses the Eurocentric biases found throughout many American history books, particularly surrounding the significance of Christopher Columbus’s voyage, and identifies instances in which Europeans are portrayed in a much more favorable light at the expense of historical accuracy. To start with, one common occurrence of bias that Loewen points out is the disregard towards preceding explorers who voyaged before Columbus. As it is often said, Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, but on the contrary, there is evidence of the Norse, among other peoples, discovering North America. Their discovery became well known throughout places in western Europe, such as Iceland, where Loewen points out that Columbus should have learned of such information having claimed to have visited Iceland. Many textbooks neglect to mention previous discoverers such as the Norse, and the sources that do include the Norse are often brief and undetailed. Other explorers that are often neglected are Marco Polo and …show more content…
The Afro-Phoenicians, for instance, are one of the ignored non-European discoverers, as Prince Henry the navigator, another common name throughout American history, was inspired by their feats. Additionally, there were many ideas utilized by Henry from other cultures from China and Africa, yet often what happens is that texts only credit Henry alone, creating the inaccurate image of which Europe developed without global influence. The failure to include such information thus leaves other parts of the world seeming inferior in comparison to Europe, but at least do not alienate other cultures in American history where Loewen points out that some texts have casted the Turks as bad for cutting off the spice

Lies My Teacher Told Me Summary

James W. Loewen (a professor of sociology at the University of Vermont and teaches in Washington D.C.) wrote a book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1996) on how American history books are wrong on how they portray history in America. In his book, he describes how high school students dislike history and how students see it as boring. Loewen explains that history books are very predictable and lacks the depth to make the stories intriguing. He also states…

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