Teaching What Really Happened
How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excited About Doing History
James W Loewen author James A Banks editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Teachers' College Press
Published:7th Sep '18
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
“Should be in the hands of every history teacher in the country.”— Howard Zinn
James Loewen has revised Teaching What Really Happened, the bestselling, go-to resource for social studies and history teachers wishing to break away from standard textbook retellings of the past. In addition to updating the scholarship and anecdotes throughout, the second edition features a timely new chapter entitled "Truth" that addresses how traditional and social media can distort current events and the historical record. Helping students understand what really happened in the past will empower them to use history as a tool to argue for better policies in the present. Our society needs engaged citizens now more than ever, and this book offers teachers concrete ideas for getting students excited about history while also teaching them to read critically. It will specifically help teachers and students tackle important content areas, including Eurocentrism, the American Indian experience, and slavery.
Book Features:
- An up-to-date assessment of the potential and pitfalls of U.S. and world history education.
- Information to help teachers expect, and get, good performance from students of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Strategies for incorporating project-oriented self-learning, having students conduct online historical research, and teaching historiography.
- Ideas from teachers across the country who are empowering students by teaching what really happened.
- Specific chapters dedicated to five content topics usually taught poorly in today’s schools. <
"The revised edition of Loewen’s book builds upon the first edition by applying these principles to contemporary circumstances. For example, a new chapter addresses post-truth politics and the Trump presidency. This makes Loewen’s work more valuable than ever for students, educators, and communities." —Teachers College Record
“In the sequel to his bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen has crafted a critique of how history is being taught in public education that should be in the hands of every practicing and pre-service social studies teacher in the United States.”
—The History Teacher (from the first edition)
"Loewen challenges us to critically reflect on the essence of what social studies and history education is and what social studies and history educators do. Doing so can only improve the experiences our students have."
—The Social Studies (from the first edition)
"The author's recommendations on how to teach touchy topics to diverse classes are exceptional. His counsel on defining nationalism and ethnocentrism for young people is expert too. All along, the reader is not only reintroduced to critical knowledge that may have been forgotten as a result of time spent within an unproductive educational system, but is also sure to find new and transformative information. Even the trained professional must be reminded of what once was. This book does that and more."
—The Journal of Negro Education (from the first edition)
“As the cover indicates, textbooks are one of the barriers to genuine learning about history. Textbook publishers don't want to offend school boards. In some cases, this means that textbook writers must avoid telling the truth about historical events and historical personages…. After reading this book, I'm willing to declare myself a fan of James W. Loewen. It may be difficult to uncover historical truth in some cases, but I applaud Loewen for prioritizing it and showing the importance of historical truth for all of us.”
—Shomeret: The Masked Reviewer
ISBN: 9780807759486
Dimensions: 229mm x 156mm x 14mm
Weight: 408g
288 pages
2nd edition