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 More Quotes by James W. Loewen More Quotes From James W. Loewen The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history. James W. Loewen honestfeel-goodfeels People have a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. Evidence must be located, not created, and opinions not backed by evidence cannot be given much weight. James W. Loewen creatingweightpeople History is important. More than any other topic, it is about us. Whether one deems our present society wondrous or awful or both, history reveals how we got to this point. James W. Loewen topicsawfulimportant We still have to realize that if you are say a historian of the Civil War, you don’t know anything special about say Columbus or for that matter the 20th century. You are a consumer of that information, especially if it’s stuff like Columbus and the American Indians. That information isn’t even in history, much of it. Much of it is in anthropology or archeology. James W. Loewen informationspecialwar Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere, leading to their near extermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass. James W. Loewen landracetwo Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them. James W. Loewen teacherlyinginteresting Those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat the eleventh grade. James W. Loewen infancy-ishistorypast What gets lost in the textbook is the overall narrative. It gets lost in all the boxes and all the photos and all the little stuff that's stuck in all the time. James W. Loewen narrativestufflittles Unfortunately, marketing textbooks is like marketing fishing lures: the point is to catch fishermen, not fish. Thus many adopted textbooks are flashy to catch the eye of adoption committees but dull when read by students. James W. Loewen adoptioneyefishing So long as our textbooks hide from us the roles that people of color have played in exploration, from at least 6000 BC to the twentieth century, they encourage us to look to Europe and its extensions as the seat of all knowledge and intelligence. So long as they say “discover,” they imply that whites are the only people who really matter. So long as they simply celebrate Columbus, rather than teach both sides of his exploit, they encourage us to identify with white Western exploitation rather than study it. James W. Loewen colorwhiteeurope You go to towns in Massachusetts, Greenfield, first settled in 1686. Wouldn’t it be cool if it said, “Greenfield. First settled c. 13,000 B.P. or approximately 13,000 Before the Present. Resettled.” Maybe we could say even, “Resettled by whites,” Or, “Resettled anyway, 1686.” It would have a different impact. And of course it would help explain why the town is called Greenfield, because it was a green field and the fields were left by Native people who had already been farming them. James W. Loewen impactgreen-fieldspeople All of the common core standards stuff about critical reading and critical thinking and so on can only be positive. James W. Loewen being-positivereadingthinking I'm looking forward to the future, which is a good thing, because it's coming. James W. Loewen looking-forward-to-the-futurelooking-forwardgood-things There's no excuse therefore, for a 1,152 page book. I think we should all be using 300-page paperbacks. These exist. James W. Loewen pagesbookthinking Many Americans have never owned a book, and I'm not talking about because of the recent digital revolution. I'm talking about before there even was a digital revolution. James W. Loewen digital-revolutiontalkingbook History can be a weapon, and it can be used against you. James W. Loewen usedweapons We preach democracy while supporting dictatorships. James W. Loewen democracydictatorship Native Americans are not and must not be props in a sort of theme park of the past, where we go to have a good time and see exotic cultures. “What we have done to the peoples who were living in North America” is, according to anthropologist Sol Tax, “our Original Sin. James W. Loewen native-americanculturepast It is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit... No one likes to think of him or herself as a bad person. To treat badly another person whom we consider a reasonable human being creates a tension between act and attitude that demands resolution. We cannot erase what we have done, and to alter our future behavior may not be in our interest. To change our attitude is easier. James W. Loewen attitudepeoplethinking The world, of course, doesn't come divided into disciplines. The world just is. James W. Loewen disciplinedividedworld
