subject often disliked by students. Loewen contends that history is not appreciated because it may be considered intrinsically unappealing‚ but rather because history is taught in a poor manner. Although Loewen uses all three modes of persuasion in his book‚ his powerful use of pathos allows for his most convincing argument because he appeals to the emotions of his readers to convey a message that the methods by which American history is taught are flawed. Loewen writes with confidence and an authoritative
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According to James W. Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me‚ American students enter college less knowledgeable about their own history than any other subject. American history is the least liked and worst remembered subject in American curricular. Loewen argues that history is the only subject one has to unlearn in college because high school presents inaccurate information to students. Who is to blame? Despite the indicting title‚ James Loewen does not appear to be blaming only teachers for student
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Ashley Walker Mr. Scott INTD 101-18: The Art of Seduction 29 September 2011 A False History James Loewen uses his piece Lies my Teacher Told Me to reveal the flaws in America’s mainstream textbooks. Loewen points out the fact that textbooks try to “indoctrinate blind patriotism” (Loewen 6) and “keep students in the dark about the nature of history” (Loewen 8). Almost every American textbook sells history using the “soft seduction” approach‚ as explained in Robert Greene’s book‚ The Art of
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by James W. Loewen‚ takes a look at twelve popular American history textbooks and concludes that the information is false‚ viewed primarily from an European perspective‚ and made up to credit national myths. In addition‚ James Loewen presents many key historical events that he feels are missing from many of these textbooks and should be included. Published in 1995 by The New Press‚ Lies My Teacher Told Me rapidly became a multi-award winning novel. In roughly 400 pages‚ Loewen unfolds an engrossing
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in high schools all over the country. It is held as a core curriculum for every American student because of the importance found in teaching our youth of our “perfect nation” and our “perfect past”. However‚ contrary to popular belief‚ James W. Loewen‚ author of Lies My Teacher Told Me‚ has found American history to be taught with a completely nationalistic approach. Not only is the history of our country taught with a horribly strong patriotic sentiment‚ but generally with a misunderstood concept
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Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen History can be interpreted in many different ways‚ and has been‚ by many different people‚ who all have different views on politics and economics. Some authors try to change the audience’s opinions‚ some try to enhance them. Authors have different purposes for writing‚ different biases and ideas‚ different research and documentation as well. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen and To America: Personal
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greatest explorers of all time. In my mind there is no question about whether Christopher Columbus discovered America; of course he did‚ its Columbus! However‚ this is a highly debated issue and through writings by authors Jeffery Hart and James W. Loewen we will investigate the true importance of Columbus. In the essay written by Jeffrey Hart entitled‚ "Discovering Columbus"‚ he argues strongly that‚ in fact‚ Columbus did discover America. He starts off by describing Columbus as "a genuine titan
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Part I: After reading chapters 2 and 3 in Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen‚ which gave a new view on Christopher Columbus and the first thanksgiving. One concept that Loewen wrote about and Dr. J lectured about was that Christopher Columbus wasn’t actually the first one to “discover” the “New World”. In fact many people had been living there for sometime before he had arrived. They gave Columbus a sense of herofication which is "a degenerative process (much like calcification) that makes people
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the story‚ sometimes a bunch of lies or overly edited facts. In “Lies My Teacher Told Me” Loewen utilizes many different sources such as journals‚ images‚ newspaper clippings and oral accounts of events that took place through out history. With these sources Loewen proves that text books give false information or omit things all together to keep from offending people of a certain culture race or religion. Loewen also proves that the text books alter the events to create a more likeable story thus saving
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In the article “The Land of Opportunity” written by James Loewen the author argues that most students leave school (preferably high school) with no understanding of social inequality‚ mainly due to their assigned textbooks. When they are told by their teachers that America has a great deal of social inequality that continues to this day‚ the student’s reactions are never positive and almost always defensive. “The students blame the poor for not being successful. They have no understanding of the
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