Rating: 
Summary: The truth must be told.
Review: I highly recommend this book. What I take away from it is that the need for civic myth and religion is so great that it has caused our nation's history text books to be severely warped by the omission of much information that is contrary to our national ideals and myths. In contrast to the history books, the author quotes primary sources as to what many historical figures thought at various points in their lives. These thoughts are frequently far from admirable but still, that is not a justifiable reason to deny that they occurred. We learn best from the complete truth, the least from omissions and lies. True history is a mess, filled with bad and good, sure steps and missteps, winners and losers, knowables and unknowables. Good history provides it all, and leaves the weighing of it up to the reader, not the author. Thus, this book argues by example in favor of good history.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Makes You Think
Review: As someone from the Show-Me state, I like this book.Whether you like this book or not, just look at how many reviews it has. The author has succeeded in making some people actually think. I used one of the text books he discussed (American Pageant), and still have it because I enjoyed it so much. However, he made me look at it in a new light. What I was most disappointed about was what my textbook had left out, such as entire military campaigns. I love military history. Don't the Americans who served in these campaigns have a right to be remembered? One thing I don't understand is why some people believe this book is leftist. The author discusses the possible connection of Castro in the assasination of John F. Kennedy. Why would a leftist do that? He discusses a time when we sent troops into Russia. In light of recent events, why wouldn't we all want to know more about that experience? Depending on who takes Yeltsin's place, we may have to do it again. I just wonder if some of the people criticizing this book even read it. The author clearly wants to improve American education and make Americans think for themselves and read the original sources rather than blindly trust textbooks designed to make schoolboards happy.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book. Should Be Read By Everyone.
Review: Even if you think you're well acquainted with American history, you're in for a surprise. The information contained in this book is that which every American should know. It truly shows how relevant the study of history is to an adequate understanding of todays issues. Some readers may try to characterize this book as a leftist diatribe. I assure you, I've read many leftist critiques of our society and it's history, and this book is definitely not a leftist critique. It is remarkably even handed in it's treatment of all sides of the issues it addresses. Apparently some people don't like hearing the truth, but that is precisely why the history taught in schools is so inadequate (disgraceful is a more appropriate discription). Loewen is not concerned with promoting a single point of view. He is first and foremost a teacher. One who understands how important the truth is to an adequate understanding of the issues facing us today and to our ability to effectively deal with them.
Rating: 
Summary: Good ideas don't make up for poor writing.
Review: Having learned the hard way (poor marks), I learned some time ago that good ideas do not compensate for poor writing. While Loewen has some legitimate gripes regarding the state of the teaching of history, I cannot understand why his editors allowed the publication of such a manuscript. From poor use of the language, to spotty annotation, to haphazard construction, it was difficult to enjoy a book full of errors that, as an undergraduate, I would not have been allowed to commit. Futher, his suggestions for helping the situation (of teaching history) were presented in such a way as to go almost unnoticed. If you're going to complain, you better have a strong argument for how to fix the problem. Right to the end (a point I had not even realized I had reached. Again, weak construction.), I had to strain to find the direction and specific point of the book. It is a nobel argument, and one well worth further research. I'd just prefer better writing.
Rating:
Summary: CENSORSHIP IS UNAMERICAN!!!
Review: This book should definitely be required reading for allAmerican students. It is eye-opening, thought-provoking, andbrilliantly written and argued. American students should also be taught how to use their libraries to research the original source material (such as that referenced by this author) and encouraged to draw their own conclusions about our American history.
Rating: 
Summary: Aging leftist rants about past glories
Review: James W. Loewen, one of the last of the leftist jedi knights, is having difficulties dealing with the reality of history as it is tought toi America's youth. He and his borderline socialist proclivities try to decry any of the myth and magic pertaining to America's past. He attempts to humble our founding fathers while glorifying the historical unknowns simply because their meaningless lives are not dignified by a three day weekend as they would have turn 300 years old. Regardless of Leowen's so-called statistics (he warns us to never believe any statistics), and an endorsement by the only other historian who still claims Kennedy was killed by the military-industrial-complex -- Howard Zinn, his book is without focus or cohesive point of view. I warn anyone from paying the $14 for this book when you can sit around at a soup-kitchen and hear the same halucenogenic babble from a wandering vagabond
Rating:
Summary: PC Leftist Bull for ex-hippie history teachers
Review: This is just more dead-white male bashing from PC Thugs. At times, Loewen makes sense, but most of the time its just boring, reactionary ranting and sucking up to ex hippies. My own history teacher worships the book like its the bible, and this is totally nonsense because the majority of the books is completely opinated, leftist oriented, and filled with plenty of Loewen's own lies and made up facts. I'm sick of people blinded by the left (or right) in their pursuit of history.
Rating:
Summary: All this book is is new left BS to please ex-hippies
Review: This book is the rant of a man wo is fed up with the way that contemporary history teachers teach their classes. He wrote a long and exceedingly boring text to please aging hippies who want to enstil the age old fire into the younger generation of history students. As a book is is poory composed and the chapters are disconnected. If zero stars were possible, that is what I would give this book. I plead with any teacher not to assign this book to any of their young ideological stustory students.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent examination of high school history texts
Review: As a kid, I read history the same way I read simplistic fiction. The story washed over me, taking me along the obvious path. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really make me think. "Lies My Teacher Told Me" shows how textbooks shortchange a facinating subject and in the process shortchanges our kids. It examines what textbooks have to say about a few specific subjects and then looks at what is left out. As and example, Helen Keller was not just a brave blind-deaf girl but a radical socialist woman who helped form the American Civil Liberties Union. Talking about her adult life would involve looking at parts of our history that are not admirable, which is something that the textbooks avoid like the plague. I intend to give this book to my daughter so that she can understand the limitations of what she reads in school. Hopefully, she will want to look for more for herself.
Rating: 
Summary: Smart people don't need this book
Review: The most shocking thing I came away with after reading this book is that it the author thought he was telling us something we don't know. The most shocking thing I came away with after reading the rest of these reviews is that people in this country aren't as smart as I would have hoped. This book is like an email that is funny at first...but after the 100th time you've received it its annoying. Retreads of factoids...I'm surprised he didn't devote a few chapters to "George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree." There are some passages that are simply the authors soapbox....throwing in facts and stats that are obviously part of an angenda, because they are not refuting anything specifically cited from a book. If I wrote a college paper like this, I would get a D at best... The more you like this book, the less thinking you've done for yourself.
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