The Modern Scholar

Rethinking Our Past: Recognizing Facts, Fictions, and Lies in American History

By: Professor James W. Loewen

Narrated by: Professor James W. Loewen

You will get the most from this course by reading or listening to Professor Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Within that book are many facts about American (and world) history to which most people have simply never been exposed. Nationalist history by textbook authors and the descendants or biographers of the famous and infamous have given history students a very skewed vision of our true history - indeed, the true history of mankind. This course is designed to enlighten and encourage you to consider the factual basis of many of our most-cherished yet glossed-over stories and the real-life characters who populate them. From archaeological misinformation to investigations into the nature of modern public policy, Professor Loewen challenges you to consider the history of what "was" rather than what has been told by standard teaching methods and textbooks.Download the accompanying reference guide.©2004 James M. Loewen (P)2004 Recorded Books

Everyone should listen to this!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Modern Scholar to be better than the print version?

I am a huge fan of people who tell proper, truthful history. Much like Howard Zinn, Professor James W. Loewen is a master at telling us the truth about American history. Even better, he is very entertaining to listen to. I learned a plethora of incredible, amazing, and flabbergasting details about our history that I never even came close to getting in school. I wish every history teacher was like Professor Loewen. Everyone has to check out this audiobook!

New insights to consider

What did you like best about this story?

Wow! I have never been much of a history buff, which may be why I really appreciate this book; I think I learned more about history here that I learned all the way through grade school and high school (in college there was no particular reason that I should have learned anything about history)(although I have learned more about history since then…). The standard things about Native Americans and the way our history is skewed when it comes to "American Indians" was pretty much expected, but there were a lot of details. And it was interesting to learn how many things with "learned about" that really never wore. And in the end, learning then thought "historical sites" nationwide for the most part are a farce! Unfortunately, to verify most of it, I need to read a lot more – which I will admit I am not inclined to do :-), but it is really interesting what one person can determine about our texts and curriculum through high school! If nothing else, it opens up a lot of questions!

Any additional comments?

As I said, I'm not much of a history person, but I think that I will eventually read/listen to "Lies My Teacher Told Me Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" by the same author, for which I do already have the audio. But again, it will be "eventually", when I'm ready to steep myself in history some more :-)

Vital in its details; flawed in its scope

The title gets one star just for its iconoclasm. The biggest flaw is obvious. The lecture is looking to do a rewrite of American history starting with prehistory and the introduction of H. Sapiens to the continent. There's just no way that the lecture can provide sufficient detail on any one point. But this is information you (probably) don't know, and these are ideas you need to be thinking about. It's an important rewrite, and if you don't think you need it, the more likely it is that you do.I greatly disagree with some of the author's larger conclusions, but there are some vitally interesting facts in there that every good citizen should know.

Excellent Book! Honest Historical Account

Professor Loewen is one of the greatest historian of our times. Any opportunity to learn from him is a treasure.

History or PC?

There are important lessons to be learned from this listen. Professor Loewen points out the distortions and biases of history books and their writers and illustrates well that "history is told by the victors." Students at all levels of learning should be reminded often that this is the case and that we need to be aware that our ancestors did not often act in ways we now believe to be just and fair.

This does not come as shocking news to much of anybody. And these lectures, informative as they may be, should be presented as what they are: a PC balance. That's not a bad thing certainly, but perhaps the professor should remind us occasionally that he also speaks with a bias and a set of values that have and may again alter with time and circumstance.

No, history books should not be taken as absolute truth, and we should definitely learn from the mistakes of the past. But we can't present ourselves and our current interpretation of events as the last word either. This, in other words, was not my favorite in the excellent "Modern Scholar" series.