Comments on: Eric Recommends: ‘Lies My Teacher Told Me’

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:03:23 +0000

I’m Canadian, lived in Canada my entire life, went to school in Canada, learned history in Canada, and this is the first time I ever heard of anyone claiming that Canada won WWII.

By: Tern

Tern — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 03:38:36 +0000

Deirdre, whole towns full of people being massacred? I must be missing that one in my law school curriculum.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:35:13 +0000

Eric, if you were homeschooled, you might have grown up reading real books about history instead of textbooks.

By: heg

heg — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:11:26 +0000

James Loewen also wrote Lies Across America about historical markers in this country and inaccuracies. It is not as good as Lies Across America, but it is worth a read.

By: Deirdre

Deirdre — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:50:50 +0000

My undergraduate degree is iin History. I was always “against discrimination” in a vague, liberal sort of way, until I went to law school. Then I learned about things that really happened in this country, some of them not so long ago.

I don’t know what percentage of people ever get to law school, but I do know it’s much smaller than the percentage who need to know about whole towns full of people being massacred, whole racial groups being barred from citizenship, and Americans being thrown into prison camps, all within living memory, and all perfectly legal.

By: Sideshow

Sideshow — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:13:34 +0000

After double checking to make sure Eric read the same book I did, I thought I’d let you know that I don’t think it’s nearly as great. It sure is interesting, and it starts well, but it gets less interesting and (coincidentally?) objective the further you read.

I would still recommend it because it is useful. I hope Eric puts up an Amazon link — pay attention to the comments about the bias, because the author pretty clearly has an agenda and set of beliefs that aren’t completely supported by the facts he refers to. It’s too bad; a book on this topic is a great idea, and shouldn’t be just another chance for someone to tell us something they want us to believe that may not be as true as they’d like. Isn’t that one of the major problems with the high school history books in the first place?

By: Steven Gardner

Steven Gardner — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:09:37 +0000

I forgot that I had once read this book. I liked the book for a while, but just like “Freakanomics” I got tired of it before finishing. Despite that, I’d recommend them both for their ability to shake conventional wisdom. I’d also recommend “Blink” and “The Tipping Point.”

By: RandyTayler

RandyTayler — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 02:49:39 +0000

Eh, Canada, Russia, whatever. If they get too uppity we can just NUKE THEM WITH THE BOMBS WE USED TO END THE WAR.

By: John Doe

John Doe — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:53:06 +0000

The problem with history is you can’t look at all sources. History books are written by those who won/are the majority. You can get a bunch of different history books and there will be some consensus, but there will also be tons of contradictions. History is limited by A)what we have and B) our values. We use what we like, and discard the contradictory stuff because there can only be one right answer, so why not pick the one that agrees with you?

Americans claim to have won WWII. Yet my Canadian friend will tell you, in no uncertain terms and with tons of evidence, that Canada won WWII. I met a girl from Russia who proved to me that Russia won WWII. So whatever point of view you have decides who was good/bad and who won/lost. Everything can be spun.

By: Jesse Harris

Jesse Harris — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:03:17 +0000

I got this book as a gift many years ago (I think 8+) and very much enjoyed it. I can’t figure out how it is that college texts get so much right and high school texts get so much wrong. I fear that I’m going to have to do a lot of correcting with my future children.