James Loewen
Encyclopedia
James W. Loewen (born February 6, 1942) is a sociologist, historian, and author whose best-known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
(1995).
and teacher, and his father was a medical director. Loewen grew up in Decatur
, Illinois
. He was a National Merit Scholar as a graduate in 1960 from MacArthur High School.
He attended Carleton College
. In 1963, as a junior, he spent a semester in Mississippi
, an experience in a different culture that led to his questioning what he had been taught about United States history. He was intrigued by learning about the unique place of nineteenth-century Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Mississippi culture, commonly thought of as biracial. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University
based on his research on the Chinese in Mississippi.
Loewen first taught in Mississippi at Tougaloo College
, a historically black college founded by the American Missionary Association
after the American Civil War
. For 20 years, Loewen taught about racism at the University of Vermont
. Since 1997, he has been a Visiting Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America
in Washington, DC.
The American Library Association
considers Loewen v. Turnipseed, 488 F. Supp. 1138
(N.D. Miss.
1980), a historic First Amendment
case, and one of the foundations of our "right to read freely." Mississippi: Conflict and Change was rejected for use in Mississippi's public schools by the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board on the grounds that it was too controversial and placed too much focus on racial matters. Judge Orma R. Smith of the U.S. District Court ruled that the rejection of the textbook was not based on "justifiable grounds", and that the authors were denied their right to free speech and press.
, where he studied and compared twelve American history textbooks then widely used throughout the United States
. He published his findings in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong
(1995). He concluded that no one textbook does a decent job of making history interesting, memorable nor does any single textbook provide accurate documentation.
He believes that history should not be taught as straightforward facts and dates to memorize, but rather analysis of the context and root causes of events. Loewen recommends that teachers use two textbooks, so that students may realize the contradictions and ask questions, such as, "Why do the authors present the material like this?"
s, which are towns where black people
, Jews, and other minority groups were forced (or strongly encouraged) to leave prior to sundown in order to prevent racial violence threatened and perpetrated by majority white populations. Loewen has written about sundown towns repeatedly throughout his career, including in Lies Across America, where he notably cited the affluent suburb of Darien
, Connecticut
as meeting his definition of a modern-day de facto sundown town.
At present, Loewen is researching a new book, Surprises on the Landscape: Unexpected Places That Get History Right. The book is planned as follow-up to Lies Across America
, which noted historically inaccurate or misleading historical markers and sites across the United States
. Surprises will call attention to historical sites that are accurate and provide honest representations of events. His official website invites the public to comment on what towns and historical sites should be included in terms of presenting history "right".
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is a 1995 book by sociologist James Loewen. It critically examines twelve American history textbooks and concludes that textbook authors propagate factually false, Eurocentric, and mythologized views of history...
(1995).
Early life and career
Loewen was born to Winifred and Dr. David F. Loewen in 1942. His mother was a librarianLibrarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
and teacher, and his father was a medical director. Loewen grew up in Decatur
Decatur, Illinois
Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city, sometimes called "the Soybean Capital of the World", was founded in 1823 and is located along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. In 2000 the city population was 81,500,...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He was a National Merit Scholar as a graduate in 1960 from MacArthur High School.
He attended Carleton College
Carleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
. In 1963, as a junior, he spent a semester in Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, an experience in a different culture that led to his questioning what he had been taught about United States history. He was intrigued by learning about the unique place of nineteenth-century Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Mississippi culture, commonly thought of as biracial. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
based on his research on the Chinese in Mississippi.
Loewen first taught in Mississippi at Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College
Tougaloo College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts institution of higher education founded in 1869, in Madison County, north of Jackson, Mississippi, USA.Academically, Tougaloo College has received high ranks in recent years...
, a historically black college founded by the American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association
The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...
after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. For 20 years, Loewen taught about racism at the University of Vermont
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
. Since 1997, he has been a Visiting Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...
in Washington, DC.
First Amendment battle
Loewen co-authored a United States history textbook, Mississippi: Conflict and Change (1974), which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction in 1975. The Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board did not approve the textbook for use in the state school system. Loewen challenged the state's decision in a lawsuit, Loewen v. Turnipseed (1980).The American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
considers Loewen v. Turnipseed, 488 F. Supp. 1138
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(N.D. Miss.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi is a federal court in the Fifth Circuit with facilities in Aberdeen, Ackerman, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Corinth, Greenville, and Oxford....
1980), a historic First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
case, and one of the foundations of our "right to read freely." Mississippi: Conflict and Change was rejected for use in Mississippi's public schools by the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board on the grounds that it was too controversial and placed too much focus on racial matters. Judge Orma R. Smith of the U.S. District Court ruled that the rejection of the textbook was not based on "justifiable grounds", and that the authors were denied their right to free speech and press.
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, where he studied and compared twelve American history textbooks then widely used throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He published his findings in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong
Lies My Teacher Told Me
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is a 1995 book by sociologist James Loewen. It critically examines twelve American history textbooks and concludes that textbook authors propagate factually false, Eurocentric, and mythologized views of history...
(1995). He concluded that no one textbook does a decent job of making history interesting, memorable nor does any single textbook provide accurate documentation.
He believes that history should not be taught as straightforward facts and dates to memorize, but rather analysis of the context and root causes of events. Loewen recommends that teachers use two textbooks, so that students may realize the contradictions and ask questions, such as, "Why do the authors present the material like this?"
Recent writings
Continuing his interest in racial conflict in the United States, Loewen wrote Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (2005). The book documents the histories of sundown townSundown town
A sundown town is a town that is or was purposely all-White. The term is widely used in the United States in areas from Ohio to Oregon and well into the South. The term came from signs that were allegedly posted stating that people of color had to leave the town by sundown...
s, which are towns where black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, Jews, and other minority groups were forced (or strongly encouraged) to leave prior to sundown in order to prevent racial violence threatened and perpetrated by majority white populations. Loewen has written about sundown towns repeatedly throughout his career, including in Lies Across America, where he notably cited the affluent suburb of Darien
Darien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
as meeting his definition of a modern-day de facto sundown town.
At present, Loewen is researching a new book, Surprises on the Landscape: Unexpected Places That Get History Right. The book is planned as follow-up to Lies Across America
Lies Across America
Lies Across America is James Loewen's follow up to his 1995 work Lies My Teacher Told Me. The book, published in 2000, focuses on historical markers and museums across the United States....
, which noted historically inaccurate or misleading historical markers and sites across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Surprises will call attention to historical sites that are accurate and provide honest representations of events. His official website invites the public to comment on what towns and historical sites should be included in terms of presenting history "right".
Books
Loewen has written the following books:- The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971; second edition, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press 1988
- Mississippi: Conflict and Change (co-authored with Charles Sallis), New York: Pantheon Books, 1974
- Social Science in the Courtroom, Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1982
- The Truth About Columbus 1989; second edition as Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus, paperback, 2006
- Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got WrongLies My Teacher Told MeLies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong is a 1995 book by sociologist James Loewen. It critically examines twelve American history textbooks and concludes that textbook authors propagate factually false, Eurocentric, and mythologized views of history...
, New York: The New Press, 1995 - Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get WrongLies Across AmericaLies Across America is James Loewen's follow up to his 1995 work Lies My Teacher Told Me. The book, published in 2000, focuses on historical markers and museums across the United States....
, New York: The New Press, 1999 - Sundown Towns, New York: The New Press, 2005
- The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The Great Truth about the Lost Cause (co-edited with Edward H. Sebesta), Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010
External links
- James W. Loewen: Official Website, University of Vermont
- James W. Loewen curriculum vitae, Catholic University of America
- Loewen v. Turnipseed (1980), Notable Court Cases, American Library Association