James W. Loewen

Born 1942

From Decatur, Illinois, United States · Nationality: United States · Writes nonfiction

Quotes

“Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat the eleventh grade.”
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, p. 1
“If knowledge is power, ignorance cannot be bliss.”
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, p. 342
“Emotion is the glue that causes history to stick.”
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, p. 342

Books by James W. Loewen in the order they were published, from The Mississippi Chinese (1971) to How to Teach College (2025).

Authors readers of James W. Loewen often like, from our AI-written notes

Howard ZinnA People's History of the United States offers a similar critique of mainstream national history from a different political angle, and it is often read alongside Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Frances FitzGeraldAmerica Revised examines how American history textbooks changed over the twentieth century, which matches Loewen's textbook focus.
Richard RothsteinThe Color of Law shows how government policy created residential segregation, which connects to the exclusion described in Sundown Towns.
Isabel WilkersonThe Warmth of Other Suns is a long history of the Great Migration and of racial exclusion in the US, suitable for readers of Sundown Towns.
Edward BallSlaves in the Family examines how Southern families remember slavery, which relates to Loewen's interest in public memory.
David W. BlightRace and Reunion analyzes how the Civil War was remembered and how reconciliation came at the expense of Black Americans, a theme Loewen addresses in his work on the Lost Cause.