Revisionist History in the Making
Written: Nov 22 '04 (Updated Nov 23 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Obscure facts are presented; Some things will surprise you
Cons: Excessive use of exclamation marks; Too focused on certain topics
The Bottom Line: This is an interesting book that American history buffs will thoroughly enjoy.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: James W. Loewen - Lies Across America: What Our Hi... |
American history is often considering mundane and somewhat of a bore by high school students across the USA. A major part of the reason is the way history is presented to young students. Always under pressure to present a “pretty” picture as free as possible from controversy, American history textbooks often leave out important facts that are less than desirable, leaving behind a story that is mostly factual but seriously limited in perspective.
Back in 1996, there was a book published titled “Lies my Teacher Told Me” that explained some of the ways American history is subverted in the high school classroom. A few years later, the same author wrote another book that continued this theme about the many untruths about American history. The book is titled Lies Across America: What our Historic Sites Get Wrong, a book written by former history professor James Loewen.
Basic Contents of This Book:
This 480- page paperback book is divided into the following chapters:
Acknowledgments
In What Ways Were we Warped?
Some Functions of Public History
The Sociology of Historic Sites
Historic Sites are Always a Tale of Two Eras
Hieratic Scale in Historic Monuments
1. The Far West
2. Mountains and Plains States
3. The Great Plains
4. The Midwest
5. The South
6. The Atlantic States
7. New England
Snowplow Revisionism
Appendix A: Selecting the Sites
Ten Questions to ask at a Historic Site
Twenty Candidates for Toppling
Index
Loewen begins his book with some background information about American history and how misleading information makes its way into our historical sites and historic markers. Then, he makes his way across the nation, from west to east. He begins in Alaska, explaining how Mt. McKinley was named after President McKinley for no really good reason at all and how the original Native American name, Denali, was tossed aside in favor of the new, Americanized name. Loewen then continues his expose through Hawaii, California, and the rest of the western U.S. then continuing east through the New England states.
When applicable, Loewen displays the actual words from the historic marker or other information used at the historic site. Then, he gives the reader a short history lesson on what really took place, why the information was falsified, the activist group that applied pressure to have the information presented the way it was, and so on.
A total of 95 sites are included in this book. All 50 states and the District of Columbia are represented in some form. Some states have more sites than others, but every state has at least one site mentioned in the book.
In the appendices of this book, Loewen talks about how he came to the decision to include certain historic sites and not others. He then lists ten things that everyone should try to remember to ask whenever they visit a historic site. Finally, Loewen wraps up the book by listing twenty monuments that should be “toppled”- in other words, twenty monuments or historical markers that present completely false information and that need to be changed as quickly as possible.
Final Thoughts:
James Loewen is an author with a dual purpose in life. On one hand, he is an educator- someone who wants to spread the word about American history and let others discover what he knows about the past. On the other hand, Loewen is also an activist of sorts- someone who wants to see some major changes in the American landscape regarding history and the way it has been erroneously presented for centuries.
This book takes the theme of Loewen’s first book, “Lies my Teacher Told Me”, and applies it to the many National Historic Sites, National Parks, National Memorials, State Memorials, and historic markers that dot the American countryside. The purpose of this book is to let readers know how the information presented at many places of historical significance is misleading and sometimes a bald- faced lie. In the most extreme cases, for example, some historical markers falsely state that a battle or some other important event took place in a specific county when, in fact, it took place in a nearby county. Not only is the information false in these instances, but the local governments often try to pass legislation to keep it false because they don’t want to lose the prestige/honor of having the historical marker in their own area.
In the majority of cases, however, the information you find at historical sites isn’t necessarily false. It is true, but it doesn’t tell the full story. This is the category where the majority of the sites in this book should be properly placed. All across America, there are sites that conveniently fail to mention the ugly truth of what really happened. Most of the time, this is done to shield the truth from visitors and to avoid making the local area look bad. For example, throughout the southern states there are historical markers that portray a local person as a hero while completely failing to mention anything about the pain and suffering that the individual inflicted on African Americans in their fight for freedom and justice. Likewise, many historical markers in the west glorify the white “discoverers” who first set foot in the area, conveniently failing to mention that Native Americans had already been living in the same places for many hundreds of years.
With other historical places, the information excluded is done because of controversy. For example, James Buchanan, the fifteenth president of the United States, was the nation’s only bachelor president. My historians agree that Buchanan wasn’t just another guy who decided not to get married. He was actually homosexual. Yet if a tourist visits his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, there is no mention of this at all. In fact, when pressed for an answer, tour guides usually insist that Buchanan wasn’t gay at all, in spite of the evidence to the contrary. Similar deceptions take place at other historic sites, like Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Everyone knows that Keller was a woman who overcame deafness and blindness to live a productive and pioneering life. But how many people know that Keller was also a strong advocate for women’s rights and birth control or that she was a supporter of Communism? These facts, once again, are conveniently tucked away if you visit her childhood home. The people who operate sites like this presumably leave out the “bad” facts about these and other people because they don’t want to deal with the controversy when conducting tours and because they want these people to serve as “positive” role models.
Of all the different lies reported in this book, the ones that seem to get the most coverage are those regarding the Civil War; Native Americans; and the civil rights struggles of African Americans. With the Civil War, Loewen points out the many cases where modern- day confederate loyalists have erected markers around the Southern U.S. that degrade General Sherman, Grant, and other union leaders while simultaneously placing their own Confederate leaders on a pedestal. With Native Americans, the most common “lie” at different historical areas is the arrogance displayed by white people about being the “first” settlers and/or the way Native Americans are left out of anything significant, even when they made great contributions to a specific area or to an important event. And with African Americans, the most common lie involves cover- ups, where historical sites omit anything dealing with lynchings, beatings, and blatant acts of discrimination when history shows that these events did occur and with much frequency.
Loewen seems to know what he is talking about in this book and he provides long and short historical stories to get his point across. But one thing I don’t like about his writing is HIS CONSTANT USE OF EXCLAMATION MARKS! LOEWEN FEELS THAT MOST EVERY ONE OF HIS FINDINGS IS SOMETHING INCREDIBLE! HE THNKS HE HAS UNCOVERED FACTUAL DATA NEVER BEFORE SEEN OR HEARD IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND! I HATE TO BREAK THIS TO YOU, MY LOEWEN, BUT EVEN THOUGH I LIKE YOUR WORK, I DON’T THINK WHAT YOU PRESENT IS SO EXTRAORDINARY THAT EVERY FOURTH SENTENCE IS DESERVING OF EXCLAMATORY REFERENCE! JUST POINT OUT THE FACTS THAT YOU KNOW AND LET THE READERS INGEST THE INFORMATION AT THEIR OWN PACE! WE DON’T NEED TO BE REMINDED HOW OUTRAGEOUSLY SHOCKING THESE LIES ACROSS AMERICA ARE BY YOUR LIBERAL USE OF EXCLAMATION MARKS!
My only other complaint about this book is that some of the themes do get a little bit too repetitive. I get tired of hearing about groups like the Daughters of the Confederacy and how nasty these women are in their quest to honor the soldiers and leaders of the confederacy. Likewise, I get a little tired of reading about the plight of specific oppressed groups of people. It almost seems like Loewen has an agenda he is pushing, based on his selection of sites and events for this publication. Hundred and hundreds of historical sites leave out important facts, but Loewen sticks primarily to ones that center around oppressed groups of people and the Civil War.
Loewen titled this book “Lies Across America” but only a small number of the sites under examination really deal with outright lies. A better title for this book would be “Omissions Across America”, since the majority of the sites presented and discussed convey information that isn’t necessarily false, but that only tells part of the story nonetheless. The main reason for these omissions is the failure of people to deal with the truth. We don’t like to think about some of the atrocities that were committed in the past against African Americans, Native Americans, and other groups. In addition, we tend to avoid controversy in regards to our historic site because we don’t want to offend anyone and we don’t want to degrade our heroes in any way. We want the past to be filled with inspiring stories of patriotism, courage, and loyalty so we tend to sweep the negative stuff under the rug and pretend it never happened.
It’s interesting to read about all of these places across the American landscape and how misleading much of the information about them really is. I can sympathize with anyone who wants to hear the truth, even when the truth is something less than ideal. But at the same time, I can see why these different historical markers and historical societies want people to see only one side of the equation. I can also agree that it would be better if a stronger effort was made to let the facts be known. I can’t see a major change taking place anytime soon, since it will cost a lot of time and money to make these changes and because many traditionalist groups will fight these attempts at “revisionist” history every step of the way. But I predict that the habit of portraying people in history only in a positive light will slowly change over time. Like everything in the USA, change takes time and we, as a people, are often very reluctant to accept it.
James Loewen wants to change the excessively optimistic trend at our historical monuments and replace it with a more realistic and more balanced way of looking at the past, even if the facts are not very good and might make some people uncomfortable. “Lies Across America” is one step in that direction. It identifies the historic sites, the historic markers, the National Park service units, and other visible remnants of American history that don’t quite tell the whole story and lets the reader know what really took place.
Recommended:
Yes
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