We still have to realize that if you are say a historian of the Civil War, you donโt know anything special about say Columbus or for that matter the 20th century. You are a consumer of that information, especially if itโs stuff like Columbus and the American Indians. That information isnโt even in history, much of it. Much of it is in anthropology or archeology.
James W. LoewenStudents will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.
James W. LoewenTaking ideas seriously does not fit with the rhetorical style of textbooks, which presents events so as to make them seem foreordained along a line of constant progress. Including ideas would make history contingent: things could go either way, and have on occasion. The 'right' people, armed with the 'right' ideas, have not always won. When they didn't, the authors would be in the embarrassing position of having to disapprove of an outcome in the past. Including ideas would introduce uncertainty. This is not textbook style.
James W. Loewen