James W. Loewen, wrote 'Lies My Teacher Told Me,' dead at 79

NEW YORK – James W. Loewen, whose million-selling “Lies My Teacher Told Me” books challenged accepted ideas and cognition connected everything from Thanksgiving to the Iraq War, has died. He was 79.

Loewen's publisher, New Press, announced that the writer died Thursday astatine Suburban Hospital successful Bethesda, Maryland. A prof emeritus astatine the University of Vermont who lived successful Washington, D.C., helium had been diagnosed 2 years agone with Stage IV bladder cancer, capable clip for him to station “Notes toward an obituary” connected his website.

“Telling the information astir the past helps origin justness successful the present," was his guiding principle, helium wrote. "Achieving justness successful the contiguous helps america archer the information astir the past.”

Loewen's “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” was published successful 1995 and became a favourite of students and erstwhile students arsenic it challenged what Loewen considered a white, Eurocentric presumption of the past and the stale prose and bland presentations of schoolroom books.

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He based his findings connected his probe portion connected fellowship astatine the Smithsonian Institution, wherever helium spent 2 years looking done textbooks. He gave his chapters specified headlines arsenic “The Truth About the First Thanksgiving,” “Gone With the Wind: The Invisibility of American Racism successful American Textbooks” and “See No Evil: Choosing Not to Look astatine the War successful Vietnam."

Loewen prided himself connected pointing retired the socialist beliefs of Helen Keller oregon the diverseness of American Indian culture. He chastised textbook authors for ignoring the past of labour unions and leaving students with the content that the mistreatment of workers was thing “that happened agelong ago, similar slavery, and that, similar slavery, was corrected agelong ago.”

In a 2018 interrogation with NPR, helium said that inspiration for “Lies My Teacher Told Me” came portion helium was teaching astatine the historically Black Tougaloo College successful Mississippi, and asked his students for their thoughts connected Reconstruction.

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“And what happened to maine was an 'A-ha' experience, though you mightiness amended see it an 'Oh-no' experience: 16 retired of my 17 students said, ‘Well, Reconstruction was the play close aft the Civil War erstwhile Blacks took implicit the authorities of the Southern states. But they were excessively soon retired of slavery and truthful they screwed up and achromatic folks had to instrumentality power again.’

“My small bosom sank.”

Loewen's publication won the American Book Award and was sometimes likened to Howard Zinn's “A People's History” arsenic an alternate substance for progressives. A Publishers Weekly reappraisal called “Lies My Teacher Told Me” a “politically close critique of 12 American past textbooks” that was “sure to delight liberals and infuriate conservatives.”

He continued the bid with “Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus,” “Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong” and “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Young Readers’ Edition" and revised the archetypal enactment successful 2018, during the Donald Trump administration. His different books included “Teaching What Really Happened,” “The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White” and the memoir “Up a Creek, With a Paddle.” The New Press volition people a graphic variation successful 2023 of “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” which Loewen had been moving connected with creator Nate Powell, who had collaborated with Rep. John Lewis connected his acclaimed “March” graphic trilogy.

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Loewen is survived by his 2nd wife, Susan Robertson Loewen; children Nick Loewen and Lucy Loewen McMurrer; 4 grandchildren and his sister, Mary Cavalier.

“Fathering was his happiest role,” Loewen wrote successful his prepared obituary.

He was calved successful Decatur, Illinois, his begetter a doc and his parent a teacher and librarian. While studying sociology astatine Carleton College successful Northfield, Minnesota, during the tallness of the civilian rights movement, helium spent the aboriginal portion of 1963 auditing courses astatine Mississippi State University, portion besides visiting Tougaloo College and the Tuskegee Institute.

“He enjoyed each 3 Southern colleges but felt a peculiar kinship with Tougaloo, wherever students really bought and work books not assigned them successful courses, a rarity astatine MSU,” Loewen wrote connected his website.

Before establishing himself arsenic an author, Loewen co-wrote a textbook which helped pb to a ineligible conflict that anticipated existent debates implicit however contention should beryllium taught. In 1974, helium and Dr. Charles Sallis published “Mississippi: Conflict and Change,” an intended corrective to what they saw arsenic the racially biased accusation that his Tougaloo students had been assigned for a required 9th people people connected the state's history.

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The publication won the Lillian Smith Award for nonfiction, presented by the Southern Regional Council, but officials successful Mississippi voted to cull it for schoolroom use, alleging that “Mississippi: Conflict and Change” devoted excessively overmuch clip to Black history. Loewen and others sued. In 1980, U.S. District Court Judge Orma Smith ruled successful the plaintiffs' favour and ordered the publication placed connected the “approved list.”

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