LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Many of us probably understand that, historically, history has been written by conquistadors.  So, a tyrant can be recast as a people’s hero, or vice versa.  For people of color, the lies by omission and historical distortions regarding slavery and genocidal campaigns waged against Native Americans are a couple of obvious signs that history books assigned in American primary and secondary schools were written from the victorious lens of white supremacy.  The comforts of white privilege have discouraged too many Euroamericans from challenging the status quo.  Dr. James Loewen, however, is one Euroamerican historian who doesn’t suffer from the trappings of white privilege.  Consequently, Dr. Loewen speaks honestly when it comes to American history.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong was originally published in 1995 by Dr. James Loewen as a comprehensive, and undisputed, refutation of a dozen leading American history textbooks.  Dr. Loewen’s contribution is reminiscent of Dr. Howard Zinn‘s classic People’s History of the United States, initially published in 1980.  The difference is that Dr. Loewen’s book explicitly targets academic textbooks, exposing their lies, faults, lies by omission, distortions, and deceptions.

Lies My Teacher Told Me is the winner of the 1996 American Book Award, the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and the Critics Choice Award of the American Educational Studies Association.

On free speech radio today, Dr. Loewen’s work was featured.  You don’t want to miss this.  Listen here. [1]

Messina

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UPDATE [4 AUG 2016]—Here is a list of free speech radio broadcasts featuring excerpts of Dr. Loewen’s audio book for Lies My Teacher Told Me for those interested in listening and, thereby, learning more about the false history, which has been forced on our students and children (but are unable to afford purchasing or getting a copy of the printed book or audio book as a thank-you gift for donating to, for example, listener-sponsored free speech radio KPFA).

• Special Programming: Audiobook Special, 5 AUG 2016, 12:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast featured x excerpts (c. 0:00; c. 0:00) [notes pending].
• UpFront, 4 AUG 2016, 07:00 PDT.  This hour-long radio broadcast featured x excerpts (c. 0:00; c. 0:00) [notes pending].

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[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  The Morning Show, this episode hosted by regularly scheduled hosts Aimee Allison and Philip Maldari, Monday, 22 SEP 2009, 07:00 PDT, two-hour broadcast.

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[Image entitled “Lies my teacher told me” by Source, used under Fair Use licensure via Wikipedia]

[4 AUG 2016]

[Last modified 18:44 PDT  5 AUG 2016]