Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong - Softcover

9780743296298: Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
From the author of the national bestseller Lies My Teacher Told Me, the second myth-busting history book which focuses on the inaccuracies, myths, and lies that can be found at national landmarks and historical sites all across America.

In Lies Across America, James W. Loewen continues his mission, begun in the award-winning Lies My Teacher Told Me, of overturning the myths and misinformation that too often pass for American history. This is a one-of-a-kind examination of sites all over the country where history is literally written on the landscape, including historical markers, monuments, historic houses, forts, and ships. With entries drawn from each of the fifty states, Loewen reveals that:
  • The USS Intrepid, the “feel-good” war museum, celebrates its glorious service in World War II but nowhere mentions the three tours it served in Vietnam.
  • The Jefferson Memorial misquotes from the Declaration of Independence and skews Jefferson’s writings to present this conflicted slave owner as a near abolitionist.
  • Abraham Lincoln had been dead for thirty years when his birthplace cabin was built.

Lies Across America is a reality check for anyone who has ever sought to learn about America through the nation’s public sites and markers. Entertaining and enlightening, it is destined to change the way American readers see their country.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Little seems to delight historian James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, more than picking apart the cherished myths of American history. Few Americans study history after high school--instead, Loewen writes, they turn to novels and Oliver Stone movies to learn about the past. And they turn to the landscape, to roadside historical markers, guidebooks, museums, and tours of battlefields, childhood homes, and massacre sites. If you were to trust those sources, Loewen suggests, you would learn, erroneously, that the first airplane flight took place not at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, but at Pittsburg, Texas. "It must be true--an impressive-looking Texas state historical marker says so!" Loewen chortles.

In these entertaining pages, Loewen takes a region-by-region tour of the United States, pointing out historical oddments as he travels. For example, a massacre of white pioneers by Indians commemorated in Almo, Idaho, never took place, Loewen continues; neither did many other such events. Indeed, he insists, "throughout the entire West between 1842 and 1859, of more than 400,000 pioneers crossing the plains, fewer than 400, or less than .1 percent, were killed by American Indians." And if you were to visit Helen Keller's Georgia birthplace, over which a Confederate flag flies, you would get the impression that Keller had been an unreconstructed daughter of the Old South, whereas she was in fact an early supporter of the NAACP. And so on.

After finishing Loewen's alternately angry and bemused exposé, readers will likely never trust a roadside historical marker or tour guide again--which may prompt them to turn to history books to check things out for themselves. As well they should. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:
James W. Loewen is the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America. He is a regular contributor to the History Channel's History magazine and is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont. He resides in Washington, D.C.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherAtria Books
  • Publication date2007
  • ISBN 10 074329629X
  • ISBN 13 9780743296298
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages464
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780684870670: Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780684870670
Publisher: Touchstone, 2000
Softcover

  • 9781565843448: Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong

    New Pr..., 1999
    Hardcover

  • 9780965003179: Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong

    New Press, 1999
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
KuleliBooks
(Phoenix, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Fast Shipping - Safe and secure Mailer. Seller Inventory # 521PY6001RF6

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 15.61
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 074329629X-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.12
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-074329629X-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 30.13
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard074329629X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 26.66
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.50
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think074329629X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 27.24
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Front Cover Books
(Denver, CO, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover074329629X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 28.89
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.30
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
The Book Spot
(Sioux Falls, SD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks589109

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 64.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Loewen, James W.
Published by Atria Books (2007)
ISBN 10: 074329629X ISBN 13: 9780743296298
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.2. Seller Inventory # Q-074329629X

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 59.06
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 5.02
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds