Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As President, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling on January 29, 2025, aimed at reshaping how history, race, and social issues are taught in American public schools. Key objectives of the executive order include:
• Promote “Patriotic Education”: The order directs federal resources and strategies toward fostering a traditional, pride-focused understanding of American history and founding principles.
• Restrict Curriculum Topics: It targets instruction that suggests the United States is "fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory," seeking to curtail concepts like white privilege, unconscious bias, and gender identity frameworks.
The 2025 action builds upon similar efforts from Trump's first term, notably the creation of the 1776 Commission in late 2020, which was designed as a pushback against the 1619 Project and critical race theory. Proponents argue the order combats left-wing bias and restores a unifying sense of national heritage and pride. Conversely, educators' unions like the National Education Association (NEA) and historical organizations such as the American Historical Association (AHA) have strongly criticized the order as an act of federal censorship that punishes teachers for presenting an inclusive and honest account of American history.
• The AHA-OAH Statement on the historical community's response.
• New York Times coverage detailing the signing of the January 2025 orders.
• The NEA Press Release for the educators' perspective on the mandate. (NEA President: “Trump’s latest punitive executive order silences and punishes educators for teaching the truth… The Trump administration has issued an executive order that aims to … Restrict educators' ability to teach an honest and accurate...”)
Having been first published in 1995, this book predates Trump’s actions while fighting for high school history education to go further in the direction Trump dislikes. Hiding genocide, racism, and a fear of socialism are exposed in the author’s review of multiple history textbooks. (For burying socialism, it is an interesting angle that Helen Keller’s life as a radical socialist is one thing ignored. Read her writing for yourself.) Also considered is the way such textbooks are composed and updated to fit state boards, especially that of Texas. Maybe at times the author “doth protest too much”. In mentioning the Saigon execution the victim is only a “scared man”. I recall there being at least supposition or even evidence of some crime, although what could justify extrajudicial execution in front of news cameras? It is actually just issues the author wants to see discussed in classrooms. Also, putting a warts-and-all requirement on fantasy fiction machine Disney for their American history display seems a bit much.


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