I'm looking forward to the future, which is a good thing, because it's coming. James W. Loewen More Quotes by James W. Loewen More Quotes From James W. Loewen Textbooks should show that neither morality nor immorality can simply be conferred upon us by history. Merely being part of the United States, without regard to our own acts and ideas, does not make us moral or immoral beings. History is more complicated than that. James W. Loewen united-statesdoeideas Columbus not only sent the first slaves acroiss the Atlantic, he sent more slaves than any other individual James W. Loewen columbusslavefirsts Taking ideas seriously does not fit with the rhetorical style of textbooks, which presents events so as to make them seem foreordained along a line of constant progress. Including ideas would make history contingent: things could go either way, and have on occasion. The 'right' people, armed with the 'right' ideas, have not always won. When they didn't, the authors would be in the embarrassing position of having to disapprove of an outcome in the past. Including ideas would introduce uncertainty. This is not textbook style. James W. Loewen peoplepastideas It is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit. James W. Loewen planspeoplethinking In sum, U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi - but neither is it exceptionally less violent. James W. Loewen violentrussiaengland Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history. James W. Loewen columbuscherishwhite Conclusions are not always pleasant. James W. Loewen pleasantconclusion Very few college professors want high school graduates in their history class who are simply "gung ho" and "rah-rah" with regard to everything the United States has ever done, have never thought critically in their life, don't know the meaning of the word "historiography" and have never heard of it. They think that history is something you're supposed to memorize and that's about it. That's not what high school, or what college history teachers want. James W. Loewen collegeteacherschool I don't think teachers read the textbooks. And I don't think adoption committees read the textbooks before they adopt them. I think they look at them. James W. Loewen adoptionteacherthinking Nobody would ever want to read a textbook about the Civil War and then interrupt that for two pages about water rights in the west. James W. Loewen rightswartwo The layout of textbooks, I think, has been done with an assumption that students don't read. James W. Loewen textbooksdonethinking Many Americans have never owned a book. And others have never owned a non-fiction book. Providing them with a 300-page paperback would get them started, maybe. And even if it didn't, at least they'd own that one. So that's a serious problem. James W. Loewen pagesbookfiction I've been in towns where there is no library, or where the library for the high school and the library for the town is one room, and it's smaller than my modest living room here. So you don't have many resources in 1950 or even 1970. This is the year, 2013, every town in America is connected to the web. Every town in America is therefore connected to all kinds of resources at the Library of Congress, at 100,000 websites. James W. Loewen americayearsschool There is no excuse for these 1,152 page textbooks. James W. Loewen no-excusestextbookspages Textbooks are written in an oracular monotone, so that they claim to be true and important. James W. Loewen textbooksimportantclaims Textbooks pretty much have no real drama. They have no real storyline. To the extent they have a storyline. James W. Loewen textbooksrealdrama I often suggest in workshops that if you have 30 students in your American History course in 11th grade, or whatever grade level, that you maybe triple them up. You put, and have them choose, let's say 11 different Native American cultures. Maybe you give them a list of 15 and they choose 11 of those 15 so that they have some choice in the matter. James W. Loewen choicesnative-americangiving Teachers need to teach the subject rather than to teach the textbook. James W. Loewen textbooksteacherneeds I think the first important thing is that usually most textbooks are not written by their authors. And so by author I mean the people who did not write them; so it's a new definition of "author." James W. Loewen writingmeanthinking
