Just finished reading it.It was cool,learned a few things.

Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

A couple of pages from the book.

p79
The scarcity of disease in the Americas was also partly attributable to the basic hygiene practiced by the region's inhabitants. Residents of northern Europe and England rarely bathed, believing it unhealthy, and rarely removed all of their clothing at one time, believing it immodest. The Pilgrims smelled bad to the Indians. Squanto "tried, without success, to teach them to bathe," according to Feenie Ziner, his biographer.

For all these reasons, the inhabitants of North and South America (like Australian aborigines and the peoples of the far-flung Pacific islands) were "a remarkably healthy race" before Columbus. Ironically, their very health proved their undoing, for they had built up no resistance, genetically or through childhood diseases, to the microbes that Europeans and Africans would bring to them.

p146
Certainly the Founding Fathers never created one. "Popular modern depictions of Washington and Jefferson are utterly at variance with their lives as eighteenth-century slave-holding planters." Textbooks play their part by minimizing slavery in the lives of the founders ... authors cannot bear to reveal anything bad about our heroes. Nevertheless almost half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were slaveowners.

In real life the Founding Fathers and their wives wrestled with slavery Textbooks canonize Patrick Henry for his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. Not one tells us that eight months after delivering the speech he ordered "diligent patrols" to keep Virginia slaves from accepting the British offer of freedom to those who would join their side. Henry wrestled with the contradiction, exclaiming, "Would anyone believe I am the master of slaves of my own purchase!" Almost no one would today, because only two of the twelve textbooks, Land of Promise and The American Adventure, even mention the inconsistency. Henry's understanding of the discrepancy between his words and his deeds never led him to act differently, to his slaves' sorrow. Throughout the Revolutionary period he added slaves to his holdings, and even at his death, unlike some other Virginia planters, he freed not a one. Nevertheless Triumph of the American Nation quotes Henry calling slavery "as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive of liberty," without ever mentioning that he held slaves. American Adventures devotes three whole pages to Henry, constructing a fictitious melodrama in which his father worries, "How would he ever earn a living?" Adventures then tells how Henry failed at storekeeping, "tried to make a living by raising tobacco," "started another store," "had three children as well as a wife to support," "knew he had to make a living in some way," "so he decided to become a lawyer." The student who reads this chapter and later learns that Henry grew wealthy from the work of scores of slaves has a right to feel hoodwinked.

Even more embarrassing is the case of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. American history textbooks use several tactics to harmonize the contradiction between Jefferson's assertion that everyone has an equal right to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" and his enslavement of 175 human beings at the time he wrote those words. Jefferson's slaveholding affected almost everything he did, from his opposition to internal improvements to his foreign policy. Nonetheless, half of our textbooks never note that Jefferson owned slaves. Life and Liberty offers a half-page minibiography of Jefferson, revealing that he was "shy," "stammered," and "always worked hard at what he did." Elsewhere Life contrasts Jefferson's political beliefs with Alexander Hamilton's and supplies six paragraphs about "Jeffersonian Changes" of Federalist policies, noting that Jefferson refused to wear a wig, repealed a whiskey tax, and walked rather than rode in his inaugural parade. Life and Liberty says nothing about Jefferson and slavery, however. American History offers six different illustrations of the man for us to admire but makes no mention of his slaveholding. The Challenge of Freedom mentions Jefferson on sixteen different pages but never in the context of slavery.


http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-T ... 0684818868

Sounds interesting-I just might have to go look for it with in the next couple of weeks. It is true-so often textbooks and teachers try to 'cover the sun with their hand.' If you don't look for yourself and read primary sources you don't know. Yes, many of the very same men who 'preached' and end to slavery were in fact slaveowners themselves. Jefferson left it written in his will that upon his death ownership would be passed on to his wife and that upon her death they might secure their freedom. It was those very same slaves that built his Monticello. It was a sort of double jeopardy I suppose, because during those times slaveowning was like owning property, the more you owned the higher up you were in the social ranks. 2 books I read that caught my attention were Lance Banning Liberty and Order: The First American Party Struggle. and Joseph J Ellis Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. If you have limited vocabulary grab a dictionary, preferable collegiate and that gives English (not American) definitions, and remember words are not used in the same context as they are now, you have to remember the time period and what is going on. They focus on what the men argued about, banking, slavery, shipping, supremacy, etc., typical subjects during the time. Thanks for the suggestion Balam.

Yeah, it's only after leaving High School that you find out everything you know is BS.
I'm buying the book.

I never paid attention in History class, because I knew it was all BS. This book does sound interesting, but I rather not read it. It's only going to make me sick to read it. lol

Good stuff though! Thanks for the inserts!

Abraham Lincoln is looked upon as a great man because he helped established the 13th amendment and abolished slavery after the Civil War, but the only reason he offered slaves freedom was out of self interest and not so much because he was against slavery. The North was in bad shape at one point during the Civil War and was at risk of losing it, so good ol’ honest Abe pitched the slaves the promise of freedom if they were willing to fight for the North because he had no one else to help bail him out in his time of need and naturally the slaves accepted the offer and helped turn the tide in the North’s favor....

Another president that is looked highly upon is JFK for his involvement in civil rights work the truth of the matter is that he didn't show interest in the issue until one of his brothers was killed on a freedom rider buses when it was attacked with a bomb.....

Tx_2_Id wrote:Abraham Lincoln is looked upon as a great man because he helped established the 13th amendment and abolished slavery after the Civil War, but the only reason he offered slaves freedom was out of self interest and not so much because he was against slavery. The North was in bad shape at one point during the Civil War and was at risk of losing it, so good ol’ honest Abe pitched the slaves the promise of freedom if they were willing to fight for the North because he had no one else to help bail him out in his time of need and naturally the slaves accepted the offer and helped turn the tide in the North’s favor....

Another president that is looked highly upon is JFK for his involvement in civil rights work the truth of the matter is that he didn't show interest in the issue until one of his brothers was killed on a freedom rider buses when it was attacked with a bomb.....

Asi son los politicos. Not surprised or amazed. lol

Just how all of the wars that the US has ever been involved in were for other reasons, not what we learn in textbooks or what the media tells us.

You know I went looking for this book and was not able to find it- I might just have to look at our local library and see if they have it. You really got me interested in this one.

Why don't you order it?

That's what I was looking around at just a few minutes ago-as Pete says, 'Google is your friend!"

I put the link @ the bottom of the thread.

I bought this book couple weeks ago through Amazon at a very cheap price "like new" for a little under $6.00 ... that's including shipping. The new ones were 'sold out'... I got this though a company named Bookswim under Amazon.. the book is in good shape. has a few marker highlights throughout the book, but that's okay. Plus shopping for Books on Amazon, they show you other similar ones you might be interested in that you might want to check out... usually they hit it right on the spot showing you books that seem interesting.
This is the second time I've bought books though Amazon.

humm sounds cool ill look it up
graci Balam