The book “Lies My Teacher Told me” by James W. Loewen introduced the major problems in U.S history textbooks. What he found out in these twelve different high school American history textbooks were the lack of information about the historical events. Students would easily get bored during history class because there was no chance for them to debate and ask questions. What we taught in school was exactly as in the textbook and the teacher would not give you any additional information about it. What I really remember in history class was Christopher Columbus discovered the New World and George Washington was a father of United States. Everything in the textbook was written as facts. This result in students had no reason or opportunity to criticize and question about the truth of the history.
In chapter two, Loewen talked about the misrepresented details about Christopher Columbus that we have learned in school. In history class, what we learned about the role of Christopher Columbus was a great hero and scholarly explorer. He discovered the New World – America. I found the most interesting in chapter two was the title “1493”. Christopher Columbus discovered America on 1492. Almost most of the textbooks wrote about the year that Columbus arrived to America, but never discussed the year after he arrived. What did Columbus do after discovered the New World after 1492? This was the question I had in my mind and I thought the author was curious about the missing details. Beside discussing what he did after the New World, most textbooks mentioned what Columbus brought back to the country, such as gold and plants. Loewen also pointed out that many textbooks wrote about Columbus stated that he was the first explorer who discovered the New World. However, this perspective was wrong. Loewen argued that people from other countries had already reached America before Columbus arrived. I agree with the author’s perspective. Who could prove that Columbus was the first...