We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.
Owing to what sociologists call “neolocal residence,” there is no geographic or historical mooring for the Loewen family. I chose the cemetery in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, because it’s beautiful, because I do value my Mennonite heritage, and because my parents’ ashes are there. Loewen valued his children, Bruce Nicholas Loewen and Lucy Loewen McMurrer, whom …
Take This U.S. History Quiz You’ll flunk it, but you’ll have more fun flunking it than you did passing any of those multiple-choice history quizzes you took back in high school. Continuing Historical Controversies Should we have dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki? Why did we drop it? What was its impact upon the course …
Loewen’s Writing Made a Difference Loewen’s books probably have made his biggest influence. Luke Abaffy interviewed Loewen about his writing years ago; the interview tells something about the overall flow of his work. Loewen’s books, including foreign editions, as of 4/2020 The Mississippi Chinese: Between Black and White Loewen’s first book, The Mississippi Chinese, was …
James Loewen addresses K-12 teachers and undergraduates and grad students at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. (Image Credit: Medgar Evers College, Image Source: Flickr) Using Lies My Teacher Told Me In the college classroom, in graduate seminars, and as a common reading. Using Teaching What Really Happened In various courses in departments or schools of …
Truthful history lays bare those areas in our social structure marked by continuing injustice. Much of our culture has evolved to “explain” – really, to explain away – injustice. It is up to each of us to change our social structure and culture to eliminate racism, overt and subtle. Change the Calendar to Promote Better …
In K-12 Schools Using Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened Teaching with Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened is much more fun than just plugging away at the textbook. Textbook Problems One reason why U.S. history gets liked least is because it is more dominated by the …
Telling the Truth about the Past “Once you learn something terrible about our past, you can’t unlearn it. And if it’s important, not telling others, not teaching it, makes you complicit with the act itself. There’s no innocence — only honesty.” – James Loewen In K-12 Schools Across the nation, when asked “What’s your favorite …
You cannot underestimate the American tourist. Well, no, that’s not fair; many tourists know a lot of history and ask very intelligent questions. Still, this box shows the result of Loewen’s asking various NPS rangers and managers “What are the silliest questions you get asked, more than once?” You’ll enjoy them! Also, you might imagine …
Silly Queries Asked at Historic Sites and National Parks Read More »
Essay 3: How to Teach Secession Recognizing that inaccurate history often subtly promotes continuing white supremacy, the National Education Association (NEA) commissioned these articles and has posted some of them in slightly different form at its website. I thank Harry Lawson and others at NEA for the commission, for editorial suggestions, and for other assistance. Since …
Teaching What Really Happened This book calls K-12 teachers to teach history, civics, and social studies in a new way. It offers specific ideas for how to get students excited about history, how to get them to DO history, and how to help them read critically. It also helps teachers tackle difficult but important topics like …