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Nov. 24th, 2009 12:51 pmSo, uh, I suspect part of the reason that I was so angry about The Court of the Air is that I read it immediately after reading James Loewens' Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, which tears apart exactly the kind of cultural ethnocentrism that got me so mad in Court of the Air.
I've been meaning to read Lies My Teacher Told Me for years, and I'm really glad I finally got around to it. The book is a critique of inaccuracies and incomplete perspectives in high school istory textbooks, but, as well (and more importantly), it's a critique of a way of presenting history - as a set of Indisputable Facts that reinforces a reassuring view of Our History Is the Best History, YAY, with clearly delineated Good Guys and Bad Guys. Loewen mostly dedicates his book to turning up some of the perspectives that destabilize that view, including an emphasis on Native American history and race and class relations, and questioning a lot of the accepted myths that get dunned into students' heads.
In case it is not clear, I think it's hugely worth reading and would recommend it to just about anyone. Loewen is definitely not perfect, and he clearly has his biases too, but his basic point - that it's always better to look at the full confusing complexity of history than to essentialize it - is a thesis I can completely agree with.
(It was also probably kind of appropriate to read it right before Thanksgiving.)
I've been meaning to read Lies My Teacher Told Me for years, and I'm really glad I finally got around to it. The book is a critique of inaccuracies and incomplete perspectives in high school istory textbooks, but, as well (and more importantly), it's a critique of a way of presenting history - as a set of Indisputable Facts that reinforces a reassuring view of Our History Is the Best History, YAY, with clearly delineated Good Guys and Bad Guys. Loewen mostly dedicates his book to turning up some of the perspectives that destabilize that view, including an emphasis on Native American history and race and class relations, and questioning a lot of the accepted myths that get dunned into students' heads.
In case it is not clear, I think it's hugely worth reading and would recommend it to just about anyone. Loewen is definitely not perfect, and he clearly has his biases too, but his basic point - that it's always better to look at the full confusing complexity of history than to essentialize it - is a thesis I can completely agree with.
(It was also probably kind of appropriate to read it right before Thanksgiving.)
