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James W. Loewen

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Author

The Resume

    (February 6, 1942-August 19, 2021)
    Born in Decatur, Illinois
    Sociologist and author
    Best-known work is 'Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong' (1995)
    Also wrote 'Mississippi: Conflict and Change' (1974), 'The Truth About Columbus' (1989), 'Lies Across America: What Out Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong' (1999), 'Sundown Towns' (2005), and 'Teaching What Really Happened' (2010)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was a teacher at Tougaloo College, a historically black school in Mississippi, until he quit in protest after the college approved an Army ROTC program on campus.
    Although he was usually identified as a historian, he preferred calling himself a sociologist: 'I think sociologists are more critical and more likely to be muckraking than the average historian.'
    Publishers Weekly called 'Lies My Teacher Told Me' 'a politically correct critique of 12 American history books' that was 'sure to please liberals and infuriate conservatives.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a National Merit Scholar in high school.
    'Lies My Teacher Told Me' won a National Book Award.
    He felt teachers should move away from having students memorize facts and dates and instead have them analyze the causes and context of events.
    Noting the popularity of movies like 'Glory' and 'Dances with Wolves, Ken Burns' Civil War miniseries, and historical novels, he said, 'I think Americans are interested in the past. They are just put off by their ghastly boring high school history textbooks and courses that rely almost solely on those textbooks.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 22 Votes: 50.0% Annoying