Lies my Teacher Told Me Part 1

   Lies my teacher told me is a book that aims, or at least seems to aim at discrediting High School history textbooks. I'm not the biggest history buff out there, but it may be my favorite class, so I checked this book out for an interesting interpretation of a subject I love so much. The book's slogan is "Everything your American History Book Got Wrong", but so far I have felt the ways it shows this isn't as good as I had hoped.

   For starters, I found the book tended to ramble, which wouldn't have been as bad a thing if the amount of general topics wasn't so limited. Each chapter tends to start with begin with the subject of the chapter's title, outside of the first, it doesn't feel as focused and with little over ten chapters, it gets way too specific on the topic and towards the end of the second, I couldn't help but skip through the rest. Since there is so much to write about on say, the chapter "The Importance of Christopher Columbus", it gives you a sense that the topics could've been a book in it's own, chapters could've been more general and in this case, along the lines of "The Lies of the New World Exploration". Of the first three chapters, the first "Handicapped By History" explained the process of hero making, which was the most interesting considering Helen Keller is considered a role model but is never mentioned as the socialist she became and If Woodrow Wilson is such a "hero", why is it omitted that he was a white supremacist? But problems arise when it the otherwise great writing eventually became Helen Keller, Helen Keller, Helen Keller, then Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Wilson. It becomes very wordy, and because there aren't enough examples, just a ton of specifics for each example, it takes away from the enormity of what the Author is trying to prove.

   This is a shame because it hampers the great writing that I mentioned before. I write up my debates for my history class, and I could really see how well certain passages can be use for one. I love how it rapidly discredits the opposing side. Here is a passage from the beginning of "Red Eyes"

   "There is not one Indian in the whole of this country who would not cringe in anguish and frustration because of these textbooks. There is not one Indian child who has not come home in shame and tears.
- Rupert Castro

   Historically, American Indians have been the most lied about subset of our population. That's why Michael Dorris said that in learning about Native Americans "One does not start from point zero, but from minus ten." High school students start from below zero because of their textbooks, which unapologetically present Native Americans through white eyes. Today" textbooks should do better especcially since what historians call Indian history (though really it is interracial) has flowered in the last twenty years, and the information on which new textbooks might be based currently rests on library shelves."

   Then it goes on (and on) from there, and what to the rapid discrediting of the textbooks, but the whole "Whitewashed" version of history concept isn't used or mentioned enough, which after reading a few pages it just starts preaching to the converted and the strong start to each chapter wears off. Especially if your not too good of a reader like myself, it becomes awkward reading "The Truth of Thanksgiving", then somehow transitioning to something about the black plague, which could've been a great one or two sentence example, but the specifics are just too much.

   Overall the attention to detail is positive, but it overshadows its self as a 300 plus page book.