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crazybatlady
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« on: October 21, 2006, 11:32:13 AM » |
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I'm reading Lies My Teacher Told Me right now, and I wonder how accurate this book is. I was taught in my History courses about the east-west Columbian exchange, for example, and I learned about Helen Keller's communism (but not so much about Wilson's racism).
So, Larry C and others: how many people have read this book? How many high-school level History classes teach straight from crappy textbooks and don't incorporate the kind of information Loewen writes about here?
(And no, this isn't simply a ploy to get Larry C to post more. I swear. I'm really curious.)
cbl
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As always, CBL rules! All hail the CBL!
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,285
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2006, 04:14:43 PM » |
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I work a lot with teachers and they LOVE this book, but it is fairly terrible. It should really be called Lies My High School Teacher Told Me 25 Years Ago.
Loewen's method is to find the most outdated interpretations of history that he can in old textbooks, and then to throw up his hands in horror and tell us the REAL story, which he, James Loewen, was clever enough to decipher and brave enough to tell the world. It isn't that his historical interpretations are wrong (though some are--the Iroquois League was not an inspiration for the constitution) but rather that they are old hat among historians and in most text books. His book is a 300 page straw man argument.
He is also disrespectful of my profession (and maybe that is what really bothers me). In a lecture at my campus a few years ago, he pretty much told the students that historians don't know anything really about history, they just recycle old lies (Loewen is a sociologist). And he is a self-promoter--he brought a case of his book to the lecture and sold copies from the podium. At a history conference this spring he took a sharpie and wrote "AUTHOR: Lies My Teacher Told Me" on his name badge.
On the other hand, his Lies Across America where he analyzes historical sites is pretty good, and a worthy companion on any road trip. I have not read his new book on sundown towns, but it is an important topic that historians have not adequately addressed.
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crazybatlady
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« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2006, 04:43:56 PM » |
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And he is a self-promoter--he brought a case of his book to the lecture and sold copies from the podium. At a history conference this spring he took a sharpie and wrote "AUTHOR: Lies My Teacher Told Me" on his name badge.
Ewwww. Yuck. |
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As always, CBL rules! All hail the CBL!
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humanitiesanon
Junior member
Posts: 81
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« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2006, 06:56:29 PM » |
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What are sundown towns?
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yemaya
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« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2006, 07:03:12 PM » |
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My reaction is much the same as LarryC's. On one hand, the vast majority of h.s. history books are indeed garbage full of outdated information. Even to this day - in part because there are plenty of school systems that are still working from 20+ year-old textbooks.
On the other hand, as much as Loewen likes to pretend he's this profound scholarly figure, most of what he writes is not exactly earth-shattering. Historians were talking about this stuff ages before he ever published this book. Most of what he writes is now out-dated by several decades and his analysis/explanations are grossly over-simplified. Not just high school simplified - I'm talking a whole other level of watered-down, dumbed down, or however you'd like to put it. He knows jack about historical method and I'm not convinced he's that competent a sociologist either. Basically, I think he's a windbag and there are much better books out there.
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Historians are gossips who tease the dead. ~Voltaire
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dr_stones
We broke a six-pack in the store to get just one
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 5,445
пошлите законоведами пушки и деньг
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« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2006, 07:08:49 PM » |
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What are sundown towns?
Towns where it was illegal for an American Indian, Latino, or black person to reside or be in town after dark. Such laws were ruled unconstitutional about forty years ago. |
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"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Samuel "Steroid Free" Clemens
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crazybatlady
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« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2006, 08:08:07 PM » |
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Basically, I think he's a windbag and there are much better books out there.
Can you suggest some other books? |
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As always, CBL rules! All hail the CBL!
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spork
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« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2006, 08:13:10 PM » |
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Someone here needs to invent a word for these sorts of self-promoting windbags who try to sell anecdotal information to the public as real scholarship. You can add Jeremy Rifkin and Thomas Friedman to the list.
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a.k.a. gum-chewing monkey in a Tufts University jacket
"Please do not force people who are exhausted to take medication for hallucinations." -- Memo from the Chair, Department of White Privilege Studies, Fiork University
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crazybatlady
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« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2006, 08:21:55 PM » |
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Someone here needs to invent a word for these sorts of self-promoting windbags who try to sell anecdotal information to the public as real scholarship. You can add Jeremy Rifkin and Thomas Friedman to the list.
One of those is the Freakonomics guy, right? I just ordered that book. What's the deal? |
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As always, CBL rules! All hail the CBL!
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francie_
The Really Cheerful
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 3,815
The Voice of Reason
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« Reply #9 on: October 21, 2006, 08:22:17 PM » |
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Someone here needs to invent a word for these sorts of self-promoting windbags who try to sell anecdotal information to the public as real scholarship. You can add Jeremy Rifkin and Thomas Friedman to the list.
Horrorwitzian? I'm throwing in the pun on "wit" for free. |
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Oh realfrancie, so clever!
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spork
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« Reply #10 on: October 21, 2006, 08:31:04 PM » |
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No, Freakonomics is legit.
If you're interested in economics written for a popular audience, other good books are:
- Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, by Charles Wheelan
- New Ideas from Dead Economists, by Todd G. Buchholz
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a.k.a. gum-chewing monkey in a Tufts University jacket
"Please do not force people who are exhausted to take medication for hallucinations." -- Memo from the Chair, Department of White Privilege Studies, Fiork University
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yemaya
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« Reply #11 on: October 21, 2006, 08:40:33 PM » |
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Basically, I think he's a windbag and there are much better books out there.
Can you suggest some other books? I think in general, a lot of the textbook-style books that claim to debunk textbooks tend to be dreck. They have a lot of the same problems Loewen's book has - outdated info, over simplification, outright misinformation, lack of understanding of proper research, etc. (Which of course, is a bit part of what these windbags criticize textbooks for - but they're just as guilty much of the time.) There are certainly non-historians who've written decent stuff and have a more narrative/journalistic writing style that might be more palatable for those outside the field. If you're interested in learning more about history, you're much better off looking for those kinds of books. Here are a few to start: Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past. (Raphael is a historian.) Nathan Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (Some historians don't like Philbrick, but I think this particular book is pretty good and very readable for non-historians.) Mark Kurlansky is a journalist, but he's done some fine historical research and he's a good writer - Cod: a Biography of a Fish that Changed the World, 1968: the Year the Rocked the World (to name a few). Anne Farrow et al, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery. (By a group of journalists for The Hartford Courant) Colin Calloway, Our Hearts Fell to the Ground: Plains Indian Views of How the West was Lost. No doubt other historians can add here... |
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Historians are gossips who tease the dead. ~Voltaire
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cc_alan
is a wossname
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,242
Caution! Nekkid zamboni driver ahead.
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« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2006, 09:47:27 PM » |
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Mark Kurlansky is a journalist, but he's done some fine historical research and he's a good writer - Cod: a Biography of a Fish that Changed the World, 1968: the Year the Rocked the World (to name a few).
Salt: A World History A wonderful book. Alan |
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Excuse me... which aisle would I find the unicorns and rainbows? No, Alan is a man among men, striding the Earth like a Colossus with a really big bladder, wearing a tool belt.
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prytania3
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« Reply #13 on: October 21, 2006, 09:50:20 PM » |
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Anne Farrow et al, Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery. (By a group of journalists for The Hartford Courant) The Hartford Courant ruined my life. |
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Clowns, I tell you. Clowns.
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tamiam
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« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2006, 12:04:46 AM » |
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How did the Hartford Courant ruin your life (besides by being a really useless newspaper.)?
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Hey look! I have a tag line too!
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