Lies My Teacher Told Me - Lies Across America

James Loewen is in Kansas City this week. He was interviewed on KCUR this morning. Well worth your time and attention - PARTICULARLY - if you haven't heard of Loewen before. Most folks familiar with him are familiar with his book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism.

But you oughta know that the rabbit hole pointed out by Loewen goes a whole lot deeper than just the hidden dimension he documented in this book. As a hardworking and truthseeking historian, Loewen has also carefully documented the extent to which the American Education System is also complicit in maintaining collective American amnesia.

Americans like to remember only the positive things, and communities like to publicize the great things that happened in them. These misrepresentations on the American landscape help keep us ignorant as a people, less able to understand what really happened in the past, and less able to apply our understanding to issues facing the United States today.