Drowsy students around the country have finally discovered a sense of belonging with the publication of James W. Loewen’s novel, Lies My Teacher Told Me. The objective novel addresses the faults of modern-day society’s portrayal of our historical past, reawakening the instinct to question—something a history class so often has come to dull. The educating of history has been tainted and reinterpreted to best promote patriotism by embellishing lavish facts to glorify our nation’s accomplishments and heroes and omitting further important factors and events that would otherwise change the bias perspective.
Historical names and dates stand out in people’s minds such as Christopher Columbus and Thanksgiving. People celebrate these commemorative holidays without really assessing the validity of what really went down. Why did Columbus achieve all the glory? For it was not his direct “discovery” that prompted such celebration. Loewen brings up numerous other civilizations that explored the modern-day Americas, such as the Norse or Phoenician, that date hundreds of years B.C., but textbooks only accredit Columbus—a “white” Spaniard conqueror, “offending all people of color” as Loewen states in his opening chapters. To add to this, textbooks do not accompany grand stories of heroes with actual quotes from speeches or excerpts from diaries; the truth would have held too true. Columbus’s grandiose dreams of “Tierra!” were not absolutely exclusive to him as stories would like it to seem. Rather, Columbus was finally something settled for in the midst of radical changes in Europe at the time.
The Essay on Christopher Columbus World People Organization
"If Christopher Columbus Returned to the 'New World' in the year 2000, what evidence of his discovery would he find?" Christopher Columbus set sail August 3, 1492 in search for a new route to the West Indies. Sailing west from the Canaries, his ship was tossed around by trade winds, which ultimately guided his fleet off course. Due to his new route, Columbus came across land, which we know today ...
History textbooks are apt to lightly touch upon issues such as the Native Americans and do not delve into the full horrors of the slave trade. Loewen explains that, “Textbooks authors still write history to comfort descendants of the ‘settlers’”. What about historical closure for African or Native Americans? The Natives are just savages and Africans were all inferior. Many accounts of wars such as the French and Indian War neglect to really account for the masses of actual Indians that were in it. Even when the White-Native interaction proved to be accurate in a recent revision of a textbook, publishers rejected it stating it was just “too Indian” and fear that it would not be adopted. But, Loewen argues, “History through red eyes offers our children a deeper understanding than comes from encountering the past as a story of inevitable triumph by the good guys.” Another alternative is to see it through, perhaps, black eyes. Although textbooks have become a little more sensitive on the topic of slavery since the Civil War, they still leave out wonderful details of the mutilations performed on otherwise innocent slaves for acts of rebellion conduct. Novel such as Gone with the Wind go so far as to depict slavery on the wealthy plantations in the South as comfortable and natural.
It raises suspicion to the actual intent of history textbook publishers and writers. It is not all just an honest attempt to tell it like it is anymore. More like a propaganda to support our nation because “everything our nation does is right!” Are we being brainwashed here?
