On today’s edition of Your Call, we talk with sociologist James Loewen about how history textbooks get things wrong, and how these inaccuracies often obscure or erase oppression and violence.
Loewen has combed through more than a dozen textbooks and exposed misinformation about everything from the first Thanksgiving to the Iraq War in his bestselling book Lies My Teacher Told Me. In a new version of the book, Loewen argues that in the age of cynicism and “alternative facts,” we must do a better job of teaching critical thinking. What lies are textbooks still telling? And how can better education restore civic health?
Guest:
James Loewen, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont, winner of the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and author of several books including Lies My Teacher Told Me
Web Resources:
NPR: 'Lies My Teacher Told Me,' And How American History Can Be Used As A Weapon
The Atlantic: How History Classes Helped Create a 'Post-Truth' America
The Atlantic: Letters: ‘Textbooks Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg’
