Similarly when Columbus is glamorized the textbook would suggest we identify with the oppressor, but the new times can not judge Columbus from our own time. Thus they would not leave out Arawakas, Phoenician precursors, or glorify De Soto. The collective account given about Columbus on the history books are unfortunately not verifiable or practically wrong according to Loewen.ĭue to the diversity of the culture, the historians have struggled to make equilibrium thus not offending anyone. Whereas, describes Loewen every school child in America remembers the date 1492, but the historians fail to record “virtually everything that is important to know about Columbus” (Loewen 1995) on the other hand the authors make up beautiful stories to humanize Columbus. The True Importance of Christopher ColumbusĬhristopher could really be looked upon as the beginning point of the modern age of the Americas. Keeping all this in mind Loewen invites the Americans to do better on this front. Moreover, the textbooks do not really give a sense of the nature of history. At the same time, the history books have never been revised or corrected as the history profession does not spend time on them. The very presentation of the book itself makes the book uninteresting and not memorable.

According to Loewen, it is the presentation of the subject that does not illuminate the past with the present, hence the past loses its relevance for the present situation, as far as the students are concerned. At the same time, he emphasizes the fact that American history is more important than any other topic since it is their own past.

This dislike has been observed by almost all the history teachers. Students with African American, Latino, and Native American backgrounds approach history always with a particular distaste. Introducing the title ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me’ Loewen criticizes the distaste for history the American students have.

Lies our teacher told us