Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Lies My Teacher Told Me By James Loewen - 1,432 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen Though some wonderful and some ghastly, Lies My Teacher Told Me includes ten chapters of amazing stories in American history. Arranged in roughly chronological order, these chapters do not relate mere details but events and processes with important consequences. Since the book is about the truth about events that are well-known in history, it is non-fiction and there is no set setting. It begins with the early 1900 s when Helen Keller was a radical socialist and Woodrow Wilson was a white supremacist. It then moves back in time to the late 1400 s, early 1500 s, when Columbus supposedly discovered America, when in truth the Africans did.

Next, it moves on to the early 1600 s to when the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts and had the First Thanksgiving. Next, the book jumps to the mid 1700 s to early 1800 s to tell about the Native Americans and their struggle with Whites for their ancestral land. This leads to the mid and late 1800 s, when slavery was a key issue and people like John Brown and Abraham Lincoln were alive. The book ends in the 1900 s, explaining how social class affects everyone and also about the Vietnam War.

Loewen provides the reader with an introduction to the book, explaining the reason why he wrote this book. He explains to us his thesis about how history textbooks alter what really happened and even sometimes make up inaccurate detail to make the story or even sound better. His last two chapters of the book uses all the amazing stories that he told in the preceding chapters to further support his thesis. Chapter Eleven explains how textbooks are created to explain what causes them to be so bad.

Chapter Twelve explains the results of using standard American history textbooks and how they can actually make students stupid. At the beginning of each chapter, Loewen used three or four powerful quotes to foreshadow what the chapter is about. They also help the reader to establish what mood Loewen would like us to feel and to keep in mind while reading the chapter. Also, throughout the chapter, Loewen also uses quotes and passages from people, but mainly from textbooks. These passages are used to help the author show how vague textbooks are and even to show how textbook authors twist stories around what really happened. In addition, captivating pictures and charts are also included to illustrate some images and events that happened.

In this book, Loewen examines twelve United States History textbooks that "averaged four and a half pounds in weight and 888 pages in length. " (Loewen, p. 3) The underlying message in Lies My Teacher Told Me is that one can not trust their history books or their teachers because they (textbooks) are a security to teachers, manipulate our feelings, glorify heroes, and provide erroneous information and detail. First, relying on textbooks makes it easier for both the teachers and students to put forth minimal effort. Many think that textbooks countless lists of main ideas, key terms, people to remember, dates, review identifications are the main things students should learn and memorize. Also, "teaching against a textbook can also be scary. Textbooks offer security. Teachers can hide behind them when principals, parents, or students challenge them to defend their work. " (Loewen, p. 284) They are also afraid of being put on the spot and not knowing the answer to the students questions.

Therefore, textbooks provide them with all they think they need to know and to teach. Textbooks also manipulate our feelings and ideas to form our views accordingly and to make us fell more sympathy towards a certain side. For example, "the civil rights movement has allowed us to rethink our history. Having watched Northerners, black and white, go south to help black win civil rights in the 1960 s, todays textbook authors display more sympathy for Northerners who worked with Southern blacks during Reconstruction. " (Loewen, p. 190) Textbooks most likely downplay all this because they do not want to offend white Southerners today. The first chapter is about heroes, such as Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson, and what textbooks do to these heroes.

Many do not know that Keller was a radical socialist and Wilson was a white supremacist because textbook authors choose to leave out these facts. "As part of the process of hero fication, textbook authors treat America itself as a hero, indeed as the hero of their books, so they remove the wars. " (Loewen, p. 206) America needs heroes, so textbooks try to make them as sympathetic as possible sometimes omitting blemishes and even making up stories to make it sound more heroic. Though many think Christopher Columbus was a great hero for discovering America, which he did not, he was actually a cruel, barbaric man, who raped women and chopped of the hand of those who did not obey his commands. And, America was not even first discovered by the Europeans, but by the Africans. "The possibility of African discovery of America has never been a tempting one for American historians. " (Loewen, p. 37) Next, textbooks provide irrelevant and even erroneous detail failing to provide readers with pivotal information and facts. An example is Christopher Columbus because his very life is made up in the textbooks. Textbooks say that he was born in Genoa of poor parents who in the end died poor and penniless, none of that is certain. (Loewen, p. 54) Also, contrary to the popular belief and what we learn in textbooks, Native Americans and Whites worked together and even sometimes lived together. Thanks to the Natives, their influence on food, words, names, farming methods, and other contributions have made a lasting impact on all our lives.

But, because of the many wars over land the Native Americans were thought as a conflict partner and Americans eventually forgot everything they had once taught them. (Loewen, pp. 110 124) Loewen says in his book, "race is the sharpest and deepest diversion in American life. " (Loewen, p. 157) As more and more people began to join the slave trade, Europeans came to characterize Africans as stupid, ignorant, inferior, and uncivilized, forgetting about all the contributions that they had made during the Renaissance and other times. Though there are stories that Thomas Jefferson opposed slavery, in truth he actually was an eager advocate of the expansion of slavery to the western territories. Slavery was a key factor in many wars including the American Revolution, the Texas War, Mexican War, and of course Civil War. Contrary to the popular belief that Reconstruction was the time period when blacks took over the government of the Southern states right after the Civil War, but they were too soon out of slavery, and so they messed up and whites had to take control again. What really happened was that the Southern states were governed by a black-white coalition led by whites.

Many of the Southern states, particularly Mississippi, had good government during Reconstruction. In Mississippi, the state government during that time period started the public schools for whites as well as blacks, wrote a superb new constitution, and did many other non-segregated or discriminatory things. Unfortunately, many blacks still fell victim to violent comments and actions from groups like the Ku Klux Klan. One chapter in the book is devoted to John Brown and Abraham Lincoln informing us about their "real" ideas and beliefs and explaining why textbook authors describe the two as they do. Brown was the most radical white abolitionist of the Civil War era, who did what he could to help free the slaves until his unfortunate death.

Though many textbooks do not imply that Brown was crazy, he was insane. Though many do not even know why Lincoln was such a great hero, Loewen provides us with what he did and really said in his speeches to show what Lincoln did to deal with slavery. Throughout the book, Loewen provides the reader with interesting facts about what truly happened throughout history. For example, many do not know but the United States dropped three times as many tons of explosives in Vietnam as it dropped in all theaters of World War II, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Loewen closes the book giving us reasons why history is taught the way it is, which is through textbooks that supply irrelevant and even erroneous detail that omit pivotal facts.

Words Count: 1, 379. Bibliography: 1. Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me.

New York: Harper Collins, 2001.


Free research essays on topics related to: christopher columbus, woodrow wilson, helen keller, lies my teacher told, abraham lincoln

Research essay sample on Lies My Teacher Told Me By James Loewen

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com