Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me

Being as I’m a teacher, it may come as a surprise that my favorite book I read in 2024 was Lies My Teacher Told Me. But the point of the book isn’t to bash teachers, but rather to criticize the way we teach history in American schools.

 

Specifically I read the graphic adaptation done by Nate Powell (adaptation and art) from the original book published in the 90s by James. W. Loewen. James worked with Nate to help update his original text until his death in 2021. I know James would be proud of the finished product and the success of the book.

But specifically, what is so good about this book? The answer is that it challenges the traditional ways that we teach children about the United States of America. Specifically, that we sugar-coat everything, making the good ol’ USA look great in all respects and everyone else looks inferior. I don’t think patriotism is a bad thing to have, but I also think we should acknowledge the mistakes our country made in the past, and not gloss over them pretending they did not happen.

Take the case of Christopher Columbus. I’ve been irked for quite awhile at how Americans make him such a big hero. He didn’t discover anything. He never set foot on the land that is now our country. He did not prove the Earth was round. He wasn’t particularly smart or brave. He just took advantage of people less technologically advanced than he was. The existence of the American continents was eventually going to be revealed to the Europeans. Columbus should get only the credit he deserves for opening up the trade route.

I won’t go into specifics about the other chapters and my thoughts, but let me say there’s a lot to consider. We need to get more in-depth with our education, especially of High-Schoolers, so they can understand our history better, and therefore understand our present better. We need to tackle the important even if controversial topics such as Vietnam and Black Lives Matter. My personal thought was about the use of nuclear weapons to end World War II. We need students to understand the reasons and controversy for the reasons that Truman decided to use the bombs. Maybe our students won’t agree with our views or each others’ views. That’s okay. But at least they will be informed about the history of the situation.

As to the book itself, Nate’s art is superb, the storytelling is clear and interesting, and the writing is insightful and easy to understand. This book gets my highest recommendation. And apparently it is being read, because it sold out at SPACE last year! (I ordered my copy from Amazon.)

I liked this so much I’m currently reading James Loewen’s sequel, Lies Across America. It’s about monuments.