Two Major Studies of the Politics of History Textbooks You Should Know:
America Revised by Frances Fitzgerald and
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

, February 2, 2009

By Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) -

This review is from: America Revised (Paperback)

[A review of one book has its relevance supported by a self-described conservative. Which one? ]

Frances FitzGerald gained fame as a result of her book, "Fire in the Lake" (1972) when she brilliantly argued that the U.S. stumbled into Vietnam, and continued to stumble and fail for years, because of its inability to understand the history and psychology of the people who lived in the area. This 1979 book, "America Revised," turns her analytical capabilities on the manner in which we have understood our own history. She traces the evolution of the development of history textbooks and the debates over them through the years. The result is a fascinating portrait of the manner in which we define ourselves by what we teach our children about our past.

What FitzGerald finds is that for most people the history taught in secondary, and even universities, was consciously constructed to enhance the citizenship of the populace. The definition of enhanced citizenship might differ in time and space, but fundamentally it has emphasized a traditional vision of the American past in which a consensus interpretation--a one nation, one people emphasis--has been the norm rather than a story that is filled with conflict and counter narratives.

The fierceness of the debate over what is contained in history textbooks, and therefore what is taught in school, results from the need to redefine national identity and a concern that the bulwarks of traditional conceptions may be crumbling. This has recast historical inquiry as an intellectual battleground where the casualties are no longer theories about the past that matter mostly to historians but the overall "weltanschauung" of society in a post-modern, multicultural, anti-hierarchical age.

Since the 1960s, as FitzGerald makes clear, Americans have been seeking to understand an identity that is more multicultural, less hierarchical, and decidedly partisan. It was a coordinated effort. The author highlights the work of one group of reformers known as "The New Social Studies Movement," which urged the teaching of a more varied form of history in which race, ethnicity, class, and gender emerged as core areas of analysis. This represented, according to FitzGerald, "the most dramatic rewriting of history ever to take place" in America (p. 58).

In contrast, throughout most of American history, albeit with some challenge over time, most Americans have viewed their past as exceptionalistic, nationalistic, and triumphant. This consensus interpretation celebrated the long tradition of shared American ideals and values while de-emphasizing conflict, and that made the United States and the people that made it up somehow better. Its advocates questioned the ideas and people who challenged those cherished principles, seeing in many of them strains of authoritarianism, anarchy, and narrow- and simple-mindedness of all varieties.

"America Revised" is a powerful exploration of the politics of history textbook writing, publishing, and adoption. It also helps to show how the politics of history affect our children and educational system. Quintessential historian C. Vann Woodward commented on this important book in "The New York Review of Books": "Her major contribution has been to shed light on the reasons why generation after generation of Americans have been deprived...of any real sense of history, or their place or the place of their country in history."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best US historiography, September 1, 2010

This review is from: America Revised (Paperback)

The reviews here don't do this book justice. It's not "conspiracy theories" about "the truth." It is a nuanced book based on Fitzgerald's New Yorker articles in the late 1970s, drawing on her extensive, thoughtful reading of the broad collection of historic textbooks at Columbia Teacher's College. Fitzgerald offers a surprising historiography about the range of textbooks in the 1930s, the cracks in the supposedly-consensus history of the 1950s, and the 1960s and 70s shifts from social movements of the right as well as left, as well as the business pressures of textbook publishing. Smart and incredibly well-written, this book is better than more recently-written books about America's textbook controversies. Anyone interested in the teaching of U.S. history or public memory in America should read this book.

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

http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281

Book Description Publication Date: October 16, 2007

Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses. Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.

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Editorial Reviews

"Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself." -- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"An extremely convincing plea for truth in education." -- Mary Mackey, San Francisco Chronicle "Remarkable." -- USA Today

"A lively critique." -- The New York Times

"Powerful and important...deserves to become an instant classic." -- The Washington Post

About the Author

James W. Loewen is the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America. He is a regular contributor to the History Channel's History magazine and is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont. He resides in Washington, D.C.

1,417 of 1,511 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for any Student of American History, August 6, 2001

This review is from: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Paperback)

As a conservative white male who views revisionist history quite skeptically, I did not expect much from this book. As a student of American history, I understood what a woeful job our textbooks and (unfortunately) our teachers do in teaching the actual history of this country, but I never expected both the depth and the level of scholarship Mr. Loewen presents in this book. It is well researched, well written and much needed. Having grown up near an Indian reservation, my own personal studies in original sources confirm how accurate Mr. Loewen really is. The book is hardly "political correctness" run amuck as suggested by one review. And his point is not to paint America as evil or bash Christian Europeans as two other reviews would lead us to believe. This type of simple minded attack does not tell us anything about the book, but rather betrays the reviewers' own entrenched viewpoints - viewpoints that certainly will not be changed by exposure to the truth. In fact, the criticisms make Mr. Loewen's point almost better than he can as to why history is taught in feel-good myths rather than truth. Yes, Mr. Loewen treats certain issues and not others. He tells us he is doing so several times throughout the book, and makes apologies for it. This is not intended to be a replacement for a full history of the United States. Mr. Loewen makes good and valid suggestions as to such replacements. It is not even intended to be a complete coverage of all the things our history texts get wrong. He would need several more volumes for that, and even then would get some of it wrong. For those who actually read the book (and many reviewers obviously did not), he admits all of this. Mr. Loewen's book is an important start. But it is only a start. One reviewer, in criticising the book, stated that we must learn from our past. But this is exactly the point of the book. We must and can learn from our past, but only if we have the objectivity and moral courage to accept what that past was. As a white Christian Anglo-Saxon male, I feel no need to beat myself up as a result of the deeds done by white Christian Anglo-Saxon males who are long dead. But I do feel the need to move forward with as good an understanding as I can have of the cultural and personal histories that cause people to act as they do - especially those whose backgrounds are so different from my own.

365 of 390 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why kids hate history (but shouldn't have to), May 5, 2009

By History Man (Potomac, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Paperback)

This is a real eye-opener to anyone who thinks they learned about U.S. history in high school. Loewen spent eleven years reviewing the 12 most commonly-used U.S. history textbooks and found all to be seriously wanting. Textbook publishers want to avoid controversy (so, apparently, do many school systems), so they feed students a white-washed, non-controversial, over-simplified version of this country's history and its most important historical figures.

To make his point, Loewen emphasizes the "dark side" of U.S. history, because that's the part that's missing from our education system. So, for example, we never learned that Woodrow Wilson ran one of the most racist administrations in history and helped to set back progress in race relations that had begun after the Civil War. Helen Keller's socialist leanings and political views are omitted and we only learn that she overcame blindness and deafness. John Brown is portrayed as a wild-eyed nut who ran amok until he was caught and hung, rather than an eloquent and dedicated abolitionist who uttered many of the same words and thoughts that Lincoln later expressed.

Loewen's book vividly illustrates the maxim that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Ignorance of our real history also renders us incapable of fully understanding the present and coming to grips with the issues of our time. For example, from the Civil War until around 1890, real racial progress was underway in the United States and civil rights laws were Federally enforced in the South. The military was integrated and former slaves had the right to vote, serve on juries and as witnesses in trials, own property and operate businesses. They also received mandatory public education, which was automatically extended to white children for the first time in the south. But, between 1890 and 1920, the Feds gradually disengaged and allowed southern racist governments to strip these rights from blacks and relegate them to virtual non-citizenship. Only within the last half-century has that policy been gradually reversed, again through Federal intervention. This history casts current racial attitudes and issues in a different light than most of our high school graduates are likely to see unless they are taught the complete history of their country, warts and all.

Despite some of the reviews posted here, it is clear to me that Loewen is NOT out to bash the United States or offer up an equally one-dimensional, negative version of its history. He gives a balanced account of many of the figures whose weaknesses he exposes. Thus, we learn that, although Columbus was an unimaginative fortune hunter, a racist tyrant and slave trader, he (and Spain) were not much different than most people at the time. He points out that all societies, including Native Americans and Africans, kept slaves, for example (the very antithesis of "revisionist" or "post modern" approaches) and that it is unfair to single out Columbus as singularly evil.

The problem is that our kids never learn both sides of these stories, so history becomes a bland repetition of non-confrontational "events" that appear to have had no or vague causes. Historical events are not related to issues that people disputed or serious conflicts that placed them at irreversible odds with one another, the very stuff that drives history. No wonder kids are bored and disinterested. They are left with the distorted impression that, down deep, the United States always means well (rather than acting in its own best interests, like any other country) and, in the end, is always "right." With that view of our history, these students become putty in the hands of politicians who appeal to that dumbed-down, distorted view.

Loewen has presented fair accounts of key events in our history and indicated why our high school graduates know and care so little about it. He also suggests ways to correct this serious shortcoming and every American ought to applaud that.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An important book to read, but..., June 22, 2010

This review is from: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Hardcover)

This is one of the books that changed the way I look at history and modern current events. So much of what I thought I knew about American History was overturned or cast in a new light, and some aspects of modern life make a lot more sense now. At times it can feel like you're getting beaten over the head with negativity, but if you can get past that you'll gain some valuable knowledge and insight. It's well worth the read.

Loewen makes a very good point that we shouldn't unthinkingly accept what textbooks teach us, but we shouldn't unthinkingly accept what Loewen teaches us either. He's not immune from his own historical misrepresentations and simplifications in service of making his point. I'm a liberal and his digs at Bush Sr. were tiresome even to me. The whole truth isn't here--the whole truth is best learned from multiple books, sources, and viewpoints. But, please don't let the above criticism stop you from reading. This book gives a great starting-off place for finding out more of the whole truth about American History.