Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me

Debunking the False Narratives Defining America’s School Curricula

By: Wilfred Reilly

Narrated by: Mirron Willis

A college professor debunks the myths that have infiltrated America's school curricula.

In 1995, James W. Loewen penned the classic work of criticism Lies My Teacher Told Me, a left-leaning corrective that addressed much of what was sanitized and omitted from American history books.

But in the decades that followed, false leftist narratives—as wrong as those they supplanted—have come to dominate American academia and education. Now, in the same spirit but updated for 2024, Wilfred Reilly demolishes the scholastic myths propagated by the left, uncovers fresh angles on “established” events, and turns what we think we know about history upside down. Among the popular lies he debunks:

• “The ‘Red Scare’ was a moral panic that caught no commies”
• “Native Americans were peaceful people who spent all day dancing”
• “European colonialism was—empirically—a no-good, terrible, very bad thing”
• “The racist ‘Southern Strategy’ turned the South Republican”
• “The Vietnam War was unpopular and pointless”

Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me sets the record straight on many of these myths, explaining that there actually were communists in Hollywood; that many Native American tribes were cannibals, owned slaves and made them march the Trail of Tears with them; and that history, while almost always bad for Black Americans, was much worse for all of us than we tend to think it was.

Smart, irreverent, and deeply researched, Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me will revolutionize your understanding of history and reveal a new and refreshing way to teach and think about the past.

slavery

as a history major, I am very glad to know the ideas discussed in this book. Excellent research. can't wait to finish this.

Good Format

I Liked the book's format e.g. numbering the "lies." On the other hand, the Narrator made too many mistakes in pronunciation, and sometimes even an incorrect choice of a word.

Well-researched and supported counterpoint to popular myths disguised as fact

Dr. Reilly’s main theme is that many of the welknown and accepted “facts” currently being reported in the media and taught in the classroom are simply not true. As a careful historian, he presents data from multiple sources to support his points. This could be soporific in an audio format but for the entertaining narration and relatively short focused chapters. Terrific and enlightening book!

Good information

It’s a good book filled with a lot of good information. The reader provides a great performance. But this is a book that suffers from being in an audio format. It is number and list heavy. While the synopsis at the end of these parts is useful for understanding the point being made, the underlying facts and figures can fly by unnoticed. The transition line between quotes and text can also be blurred.

On a personal note, I don’t enjoy how glib the author is when discussing issues presented in this book. I didn’t factor this into the review but it might be useful information for potential buyers. There are other sources of this information that are more serious. Though it would require more effort to find them.

So, so, so good!!!

I loved this book. I grew up around the Ute Indians in Utah. Many of the things mentioned in the book regarding the natives ring true based on interactions with modern natives.
The Battle of Okinawa was another item that was critical to supporting the idea that the Atomic bomb was the right choice. I was really glad to hear him bring it in as part of the story.
I have shared this book with a few friends and will definitely keep sharing it!