The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.
James W. LoewenThe layout of textbooks, I think, has been done with an assumption that students don't read.
James W. LoewenI often suggest in workshops that if you have 30 students in your American History course in 11th grade, or whatever grade level, that you maybe triple them up. You put, and have them choose, let's say 11 different Native American cultures. Maybe you give them a list of 15 and they choose 11 of those 15 so that they have some choice in the matter.
James W. LoewenTextbooks are written in an oracular monotone, so that they claim to be true and important.
James W. LoewenVery few college professors want high school graduates in their history class who are simply "gung ho" and "rah-rah" with regard to everything the United States has ever done, have never thought critically in their life, don't know the meaning of the word "historiography" and have never heard of it. They think that history is something you're supposed to memorize and that's about it. That's not what high school, or what college history teachers want.
James W. Loewen