James W. Loewen

James (Jim) W. Loewen (born February 6, 1942) is a sociologist, historian, and author whose best-known work is Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1995).

Early life and career

Loewen was born to Winifred and Dr. David F. Loewen in 1942. His mother was a librarian and teacher, and his father was a medical director. Loewen grew up in Decatur, Illinois. He was a National Merit Scholar as a graduate in 1960 from MacArthur High School.

He attended Carleton College. In 1963, as a junior, he spent a semester in Mississippi, an experience in a different culture that led to his questioning what he had been taught about United States history. He was intrigued by learning about the unique place of nineteenth-century Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Mississippi culture, commonly thought of as biracial. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University based on his research on the Chinese in Mississippi.

Loewen first taught in Mississippi at Tougaloo College, a historically black college founded by the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War. For 20 years, Loewen taught about racism at the University of Vermont. Since 1997, he has been a Visiting Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

First Amendment battle

Loewen co-authored a United States history textbook, Mississippi: Conflict and Change (1974), which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction in 1975. The Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board did not approve the textbook for use in the state school system. Loewen challenged the state's decision in a lawsuit, Loewen v. Turnipseed (1980).

The American Library Association considers Loewen v. Turnipseed, 488 F. Supp. 1138 (N.D. Miss. 1980), a historic First Amendment case, and one of the foundations of our "right to read freely." Mississippi: Conflict and Change was rejected for use in Mississippi's public schools by the Mississippi Textbook Purchasing Board on the grounds that it was too controversial and placed too much focus on racial matters. Judge Orma R. Smith of the U.S. District Court ruled that the rejection of the textbook was not based on "justifiable grounds", and that the authors were denied their right to free speech and press.

Lies My Teacher Told Me

Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institution, where he studied and compared twelve American history textbooks then widely used throughout the United States. He published his findings in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong (1995). He concluded that no one textbook does a decent job of making history interesting, memorable nor does any single textbook provide accurate documentation.

He believes that history should not be taught as straightforward facts and dates to memorize, but rather analysis of the context and root causes of events. Loewen recommends that teachers use two textbooks, so that students may realize the contradictions and ask questions, such as, "Why do the authors present the material like this?"

Recent writings

Continuing his interest in racial conflict in the United States, Loewen wrote Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (2005). The book documents the histories of sundown towns, which are towns where black people, Jews, and other minority groups were forced (or strongly encouraged) to leave prior to sundown in order to prevent racial violence threatened and perpetrated by majority white populations. Loewen has written about sundown towns repeatedly throughout his career, including in Lies Across America, where he notably cited the affluent suburb of Darien, Connecticut as meeting his definition of a modern-day de facto sundown town.

At present, Loewen is researching a new book, Surprises on the Landscape: Unexpected Places That Get History Right. The book is planned as follow-up to Lies Across America, which noted historically inaccurate or misleading historical markers and sites across the United States. Surprises will call attention to historical sites that are accurate and provide honest representations of events. His official website invites the public to comment on what towns and historical sites should be included in terms of presenting history "right".

Books

Loewen has written the following books:

• The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971; second edition, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press 1988
• Mississippi: Conflict and Change (co-authored with Charles Sallis), New York: Pantheon Books, 1974
• Social Science in the Courtroom, Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1982
• The Truth About Columbus 1989; second edition as Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus, paperback, 2006
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong, New York: The New Press, 1995
• Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong, New York: The New Press, 1999
• Sundown Towns, New York: The New Press, 2005
• Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History, New York: Teachers College Press, 2010
• The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The Great Truth about the Lost Cause (co-edited with Edward H. Sebesta), Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010

External links

• James W. Loewen: Official Website, University of Vermont
• James W. Loewen curriculum vitae, Catholic University of America
• Loewen v. Turnipseed (1980), Notable Court Cases, American Library Association
• Booknotes interview with Loewen on Lies My Teacher Told Me, March 26, 1995.