Lies My Teacher Told Me

by James W. Loewen

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen (young readers edition) is a great book that tells you more about the topics you may have been briefly told about in school but did not delve deep into. People whom you see as glorified heroes in history textbooks are revealed to possess human qualities and flaws just like the ordinary people in this book. 

For example, in this book, Loewen says that we’ve probably heard of Helen Keller as an inspiring, hardworking role model. But he says that we’ve only been exposed to her first 20 years of life. Many of us don’t know what she did when she was older. Turns out she became a socialist and developed strong beliefs about class equality and justice.

I started this book to learn more about American history and I learned much more than I would have in my history class. This information can help me out in scholastic bowl. The first clues they give you are often the hardest and least known ones. Knowing more about each person is very useful.

This book also changed my views on certain people. An example is Woodrow Wilson. When you think of him, you think of the person who created the League of Nations after World War I. What you wouldn’t think of was how racist he was and how he was the inspiration for the movie The Birth of a Nation, the movie that sparked the Ku Klux Klan to return.

Overall, I think it is very educational. I learned a lot and hopefully more young adults will read this book to know who these people really were.