Teaching What Really Happened · How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History by Loewen, James W. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Series Foreword by James A. Banks Acknowledgments Introduction: History as Weapon

A Lesson from Mississippi A Lesson from Vermont Why History Is Important to Students Why History Is Important to Society

1. The Tyranny of Coverage

Forests, Trees, and Twigs Winnowing Trees Deep Thinking Relevance to the Present Skills Getting the Principal on Board Coping with Reasons to Teach “As Usual” You Are Not Alone Bringing Students Along

2. Expecting Excellence

3. Historiography

A Tale of Two Eras The Civil Rights Movement, Cognitive Dissonance, and Historiography Studying Bad History Other Ways to Teach Historiography

4. Doing History

Doing History to Critique History Writing a Paper

5. How and When Did People Get Here?

A Crash Course on Archeological Issues Presentism Today’s Religions and Yesterday’s History Conclusions About Presentism Chronological Ethnocentrism Primitive to Civilized Costs of Chronological Ethnocentrism

6. Why Did Europe Win?

The Important Questions Looking Around the World Explaining Civilization Making the Earth Round Why Did Columbus Win? The Columbian Exchange Ideological Results of Europe’s Victory Cultural Diffusion and Syncretism Continue

7. The $24 Myth

Deconstructing the $24 Myth A More Accurate Story Functions of the Fable Overt Racism? Additional Considerations

8. Teaching Slavery

Relevance to the Present Hold a Meta-Conversation Slavery and Racism Four Key Problems of Slave Life Additional Problems in Teaching the History of Slavery

9. Why Did the South Secede?

Teachers Vote Teaching Against the Myth Examining Textbooks Genesis of the Problem

10. The Nadir

Contemporary Relevance Onset of the Nadir Historical Background Underlying Causes of the Nadir of Race Relations Students Can Reveal the Nadir Themselves During the Nadir, Whites Became White End of the Nadir Implications for Today

Afterword: Still More Ways to Teach History Notes Index About the Author