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saralynnburnett's review against another edition
4.0
Loved this book and found many ways to incorporate it into the classroom. Also good as an 'art lesson' - really LOOKING at something.
david_brent's review
3.0
Loewen makes some excellent points, though he does get repetitive at times. Although the book could have benefitted from some more thorough editing, no one can deny reading it is a valuable learning experience. It's a very good companion piece to "Lies My Teacher Told Me."
A recurring theme of the book is an indictment of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Given their history and motivations, I find it amusing that their headquarters is located at 328 N Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond.
A recurring theme of the book is an indictment of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Given their history and motivations, I find it amusing that their headquarters is located at 328 N Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond.
casandra_lovealwaysbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
carolynf's review against another edition
4.0
This book looks at US monuments and markers, state by state, and discusses the ones that do an especially bad job of telling history. Most of the bad histories are attributed to the Sons and Daughters of Confederate Veterans. I was back and forth between three and four starts. I went with four because there are a lot of stories in this book that are normally neglected and here they are told really well. Also it is neat to hear about the history of historical markers at the events that I was already familiar with, like the Colfax Riot. That kind of stuff makes students see that history is still being written today. I also liked a lot of the intro, which told about the process of putting up a historical marker. The downside: organizing it by state makes very little sense to me. I would have preferred it to be chronological, with a chart or appendix cross-referencing markers with states. Also, because so much of the bad history is the 1890-1920 era, the details in some of the stories start to blur together. Still it is a new way of looking at important events in US History.
senevilla's review against another edition
5.0
Loewen oversells how much people learn from monuments and historical markers- they aren’t textbooks, and most people simply won’t read them. I live near a ton of monuments, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what a single one of them says. Even so the revised edition of this book is amazing and fully deserves five stars. Monuments ARE important and do make a difference on the landscape, and removing them IS important, and adding more diverse markers is also worthwhile. But I hesitate to claim that changing them will change people, I think it’s more true that changing them is a product of a changed people.
cheryl6of8's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating book that managed to teach me as much about history as about sociology. I am a "collector" of historical markers and belong to a group of crazy people who do the same thing (one of whom passed this book along to me). So I found it educational and a good reminder to take into consideration the people who erected the monuments and markers, the people who fight the most flagrantly incorrect and insensitive markers being removed or corrected, and the people who bankroll museums and such, when viewing historical sites.
For example, the various markers erected by the neo-Confederates in such hotbeds of Civil War activity as Helena, Montana speaks to the latent (and not-so-latent) racism that motivates so much of our historical narrative in this country. Living in the Washington DC region and traveling just to Virginia, I have been amazed and appalled at the glorification and celebration of the Confederacy (don't people realize they LOST the war and that they were traitors to the country that the conservatives celebrating them claim to love?!!!) I was glad, though, to have additional information about the history of this country and grounds to counter my "genteel" Southern "friends" when they argue "states rights" as the basis of the Civil War, since the Confederate cause was opposed to the rights of, say, Kansas, to ban slavery within its borders. In addition, the lack of representation of women and minorities (particularly Native Americans) is something I have noticed, but always hoped wasn't as bad as it seems when you are only looking at the random marker here or there. Sadly, it is actually worse.
I finished the book a wiser woman, a more educated American, and an even greater skeptic of the texts of historical markers than I was before. And I will take more seriously my duty to publicly question the accuracy of history as it is presented to me, and will even consider working with people to bring more awareness of diversity to the forefront in historical markers. Heck, maybe I will even help put up one or two new ones that the author would not find as much fault with.
For example, the various markers erected by the neo-Confederates in such hotbeds of Civil War activity as Helena, Montana speaks to the latent (and not-so-latent) racism that motivates so much of our historical narrative in this country. Living in the Washington DC region and traveling just to Virginia, I have been amazed and appalled at the glorification and celebration of the Confederacy (don't people realize they LOST the war and that they were traitors to the country that the conservatives celebrating them claim to love?!!!) I was glad, though, to have additional information about the history of this country and grounds to counter my "genteel" Southern "friends" when they argue "states rights" as the basis of the Civil War, since the Confederate cause was opposed to the rights of, say, Kansas, to ban slavery within its borders. In addition, the lack of representation of women and minorities (particularly Native Americans) is something I have noticed, but always hoped wasn't as bad as it seems when you are only looking at the random marker here or there. Sadly, it is actually worse.
I finished the book a wiser woman, a more educated American, and an even greater skeptic of the texts of historical markers than I was before. And I will take more seriously my duty to publicly question the accuracy of history as it is presented to me, and will even consider working with people to bring more awareness of diversity to the forefront in historical markers. Heck, maybe I will even help put up one or two new ones that the author would not find as much fault with.
jinnayah's review against another edition
3.0
I am a big fan of Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, and I found his Sundown Towns to be fascinating and educational, so when I found Lies Across America in a used bookstore, it seemed like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, Loewen’s style is not well suited to the short-entry format of this book. His attempt to criticise at least one marker or monument in every state means that many entries come out petty and nitpicking. Some of his demands get downright ludicrous. For instance, he joins a tour for elementary students at the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, and complains that it doesn’t portray the full horror of war, such as soldiers being wounded by the dismembered body parts of their friends who have just been blown apart. During a tour for elementary school students? Seriously, James? He contrasts the Museum of the Pacific War to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, but the Holocaust museum specifically states that it is not appropriate for children under age 11. The reader also may want to follow up some entries with further reading of their own. For example, upon reading “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” for myself (available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp), I was very disappointed at how drastically Loewen had misrepresented the document’s contents.
These criticisms aside, the book does have some very interesting entries. I don’t suggest taking it at face value, and it’s not as good as Lies My Teacher Told Me, but it can be a good starting point for further study and discussion on some topics.
These criticisms aside, the book does have some very interesting entries. I don’t suggest taking it at face value, and it’s not as good as Lies My Teacher Told Me, but it can be a good starting point for further study and discussion on some topics.