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. LoewenIt is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit... No one likes to think of him or herself as a bad person. To treat badly another person whom we consider a reasonable human being creates a tension between act and attitude that demands resolution. We cannot erase what we have done, and to alter our future behavior may not be in our interest. To change our attitude is easier.
James W. LoewenAs a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth . . . Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery.
James W. LoewenStudents will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.
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. Loewen