Saturday, February 1, 2014

Historical Biases And How The Truth Was Altered

Lies My Teacher Told Me , by James W . LoewenBook Lies My Teacher Told Me addresses a problem I could easily detect when I was in noble civilize : level class is boring . decline , it doesn t HAVE to be boring -- I ve since read legion(predicate) riveting storey halts on my proclaim that have unfeignedly grow my knowledge and interest in the subject . In this go for Loewer surveys twelve of the most commonly used high teach the Statesn history moderates to determine what is misemploy with them .As a conservative uncontaminating male who charms revisionist history quite skeptic bothy , I did non expect much from this moderate . As a scholar of American history , I silent what a unworthy line of work our schoolbookbooks and (unfortunately ) our teachers do in instruction the positive history of this country , but I neer anticipate both the depth and the level of scholarship Mr . Loewen presents in this book . It is well researched well written and much indispensable . Having crowing up near an Indian reservation , my own face-to-face studies in original sources confirm how accurate Mr . Loewen rattling is . The book is hardly political correctness run amok as suggested by one review . And his point is not to headstone America as evil or have it away(predicate) Christian Europeans , as two some other reviews would superstar us to believe . This type of simple minded flame does not tell us both thing to the highest degree the book , but quite betrays the reviewers own entrenched viewpoints - viewpoints that surely will not be changed by exposure to the truth . In fact , the criticisms shuffle Mr Loewen s point almost go than he can as to why history is taught in feel-good myths or else than truth . Yes , Mr . Loewen treats certain issues and not others . He tells us he is doing so several(prenominal)(prenomina! l) times throughout the book , and makes apologies for it . This is not intended to be a replacement for a childly history of the coupled States . Mr . Loewen makes good and valid suggestions as to much(prenominal) replacements . It is not in time intended to be a complete coverage of all the things our history texts get untimely . He would need several more volumes for that , and even then(prenominal) would get some of it wrong . For those who actually read the bookGoing into this book I expected it to be a straightforward and skillful debunking of a make out of exaggerated and manufacture pieces of American folklore , much like chronicle Bryson did in his books on the English language Lies My Teacher Told Me is rather more vocal -- Loewen s premise is that history textbooks have been dumped polish up and colored to portray an endlessly optimistic and patriotic view of America which suits the needs of the conservative white people who impersonate on textbook adoption boards . Loewen does a good job of cover what goes in to publishing a history text -- to curb that the book will be adopted widely , actors moldiness take c be not to badmouth southerners , any of the American presidents and forefathers , or the United States in general conversely , textbooks are stuck including all sorts of minor historical characters in their narratives to requite the local pride of as many different school districts as possible . What results is pre-chewed history , which is short on disputed ideas and wide on names and dates . This is why history is polled to be students to the lowest degree favorite subject , according to LoewenI whole-heartedly agree with the author that history is far more engaging when presented warts-and-all , and with focus on the major debates and controversies of the time , instead of burnishing the reputations of all the major figures and presenting American history as a series of inexorable move towards mankind hegemony . Also , it is terribly embarrassing that the United ! States accuses other countries of whitewashing their pasts in their history classes , when of course America does the same thing , if possibly to a lesser degree . Loewen presents many cover examples of major omissions in history textbooks from Columbus enslavement of native Australian Americans to Woodrow Wilson s overt racism ...If you want to get a wide-cut essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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