Lies My Teacher Told Me

Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

By: James W. Loewen

Narrated by: Brian Keeler

Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

This national best seller is an entertaining, informative, and sometimes shocking expose of the way history is taught to American students. Lies My Teacher Told Me won the American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship.

James W. Loewen, a sociology professor and distinguished critic of history education, puts 12 popular textbooks under the microscope, and what he discovers will surprise you. In his opinion, every one of these texts fails to make its subject interesting or memorable. Worse still is the proliferation of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, and misinformation filling the pages.

From the truth about Christopher Columbus to the harsh reality of the Vietnam War, Loewen picks apart the lies we've been told. This is a book that will forever change your view of the past.

©1995 James W. Loewen (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"Lies My Teacher Told Me goes beyond recounting fallacies of history and correcting American image: it surveys social issues misreported, ideas misrepresented, and encourages students of history to think about not only the facts, but the reporting which embellishes and colors their presentation. An invaluable guide for the reader." (Midwest Book Review)
"An extremely convincing plea for truth in education." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Does the job

Opens your eyes and mind to the Anglo-centric written history in America. Makes a good argument for non-biased textbooks in the classroom. However, with current technology used in schools, teachers and students have more access to source material, which makes this argument a little dated.

A must hear/read book!

Really enjoyed hearing about the true history of the Americas. Definitely a type of book that you pass on to your children.

Profound and impactful!

Eye opener for me! The history that I learned was heavily tainted by politics. It helps me question what I read

A "MUST READ" for all Americans !!!

Outstanding, truly enlightening ....A "MUST READ" for all Americans !!! I hope there is a follow up book to continue exploring real American history.

Awesome read

Very good book. A must read. I've wanted to read it for years and finally took the time to do so. I'm glad that I did. Great book.

A must read for ALL AMERICANS

I have a graduate level college degree and this book had taught me more about America than any school I’ve ever attended. It makes me both sad and excited. Sad that I just learned but excited to apply the knowledge gained.

Eye opening.

This is a must read for all students and teachers of American history. I had no idea how much we leave out.

So eye opening. Wow!!! A must read.

Every citizen of the United States of America, needs to read this book. My mind is blown.

As advertised!

This book was everything I hoped it would be. Even my partner enjoyed it. I highly recommend it if you are looking to have an understanding of America's white nationalist rising of the modern era.

A Must Read!

We don’t know what we don’t know. But this book makes it very clear that our history text books have been censored to fit a tempered agenda. We are not as free as we think we are... until we are able to decide ourselves using all the information available.
This book is eye opening. The story well told though the performance can be monotone at times. Highly recommended.