Historical memory and the selective presentation of national figures

¶ … history seems only like a carefully curated set of facts, figures, and events that when taken together promote a specific ideology or worldview. Thus, Americans focus almost exclusively on people, places, and events that uphold the idea of American exceptionalism. Wars and the conquests of men overshadow the lives of women, and Europeans are given precedence. The quote by W.E.B. DuBois underscores the inherent falseness in approaching history, given that on some level there will always be editorializing. Howard Zinn also reassembles American history in a way that subverts the paradigm that had been taught related to the supremacy of capitalism and the white-washing of key turning points. A People's History of the United States gives voice to those who were systematically suppressed or oppressed. Likewise, Loewen's Lies My Teachers Told Me undoes the brainwashing that schoolchildren in the United States endure.

Loewen and Zinn take up W.E.B DuBois on his challenge. These authors unearth the painful parts of American history, in order to provide a more truthful picture of events and how they impacted communities other than the white men in power. Regarding the First Nations or Native Americans, Zinn critiques Columbus's own journals and asks the reader to view the unfolding of colonization from the perspective of the people whose land, livelihood, culture, and way of life would be grossly stolen and raped. When "the past is told from the point-of-view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders," the result is a skewed version of history designed only to support the notion that Europeans somehow brought a civilizing force to the savages they encountered (Zinn, Chapter 1). School children are taught to idolize Columbus, and make heroes out of slave owners like Thomas Jefferson. As DuBois points out, the fact that these claims have for so long remain unchallenged is the essence of what is wrong with history -- and with the country. Indoctrinating children is a sure way of perpetuating patterns of social injustice and inequity.

In Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewen also unravels the lies that strangle American schoolchildren in their brainwashing classes. The author points out that there are deep problems in the very questions that are being asked, and the assumptions built into terms like "settle." When his students are asked when the land now known as the United States was first settled, no one in his class can answer correctly. Their version of history leaves out thousands of years of human history -- an appalling testimony to the terrifyingly insincere version of history taught in public schools. Likewise, Loewen discusses the "invisibility of racism" in American history textbooks in Chapter 5. To make race more visible, Loewen states, "the most pervasive theme in our history is the domination of black America by white America," (p. 136). Loewen's assertion could just as easily refer to Native Americans and Latin Americans. Understanding American history in terms of systems of power and abuses of power better helps students of history understand what is going on today.