Lies My Teacher Told Me – Flashcards
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Why Study History?
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More than any topic, it is about us. It tells us how we got here
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The optimistic approach blames the victim for failures,
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Girls, people of color, working class children (and so on), don't see anyone like themselves in textbooks, and conclude that it must be their fault that they are not successful/represented in textbooks
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Why are history textbooks so bad?
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- Boring - Never use the present to illuminate the past or vis versa - Nationalism - patriotism sometimes gets in the way of the facts - Sometimes there is just too much information - No cause and effect, just facts - Lack of corrections; errors are left uncorrected
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What is heroification?
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The degenerative process that makes people into heroes (not always, or usually, for the best)
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How does Heroification affect learning?
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- Hurts learning because - Distors lives of important people to make them into who the textbooks want them to be (think Helen Keller, Woodrow Wilson) - Perpetuates a Disney version of history - It can make learning uneventful - Leaves out the humanity of people
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What do textbooks leave out about Helen Keller? and Why?
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- Textbooks make her to be an uncontroversial person - Actually was a raging socialist - (Why) Being a Marxist is at best unpatriotic, if not treasonous. This is not the look textbooks want to portray of one of America's greatest heroes
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What do textbooks leave out about Woodrow Wilson? Why?
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- That he was a racist - Had uncalled for invasions of Central America. Should not be looked upon favorably - Pretty much conquered half of Central America - Refused to let black people into his administration Openly hostile to black people - (Why)Racism is not a theme of our country that we practice
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What is the danger of using the passive voice in history writing?
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"Imparting information in a passive voice helps to insulate historical figures from their own unheroic or unethical deeds."
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Why do textbooks find it difficult to explain the results of the 1920 presidential election?
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The Democratic successor of Woodrow Wilson was destroyed by the Republican and it was something you wouldn't expect from a "hero"
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What are the first ten names that you think of in pre-Civil War American history? What does this list tell you?
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It tells us that we have a fixed perspective of history
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What are the three taboos in textbook writing?
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Sex, Religion, and Social Class
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How do Americans traditionally honor Columbus?
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- Most Americans make Columbus out to be a hero - Leave out all the bad things about him - Add a lot of false information - Make it out as if Columbus discovered America, and therefore modernized it
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Loewen writes, "In a sense Columbus' voyage was not the first but the last 'discovery' of the Americas" (33). What evidence does he cite to support this statement? (33; 38- 47)
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1. People from other continents had reached the Americas many of times before 1492 2. Table 1 provides a chronological list of expeditions that may have reached the Americas before Columbus, with comments on the quality of the evidence for each as of 1994 3. The finding of Ancient Roman Coins
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Syncretic
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A merging of different cultures
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Did the Turkish blockade of the overland spice trade lead to Columbus' voyage?
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No, because the Turks made money by the Mediterranean route being open
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What six factors led to and characterize European contact with Native Americans?
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1. Arms Race in Europe 2. Europe expanded the use of new forms of social technology 3. Gold, God and Glory 4. European Christianity 5. Route to Wealth 6. New and more deadly forms of smallpox and bubonic plague had arisen in Europe since the Vikings
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What information do we know is true about Columbus?
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- Columbus claimed everything he saw right off the boat - Columbus did not start from scratch - Prince Henry the Navigator led the way - The sources are perfectly clear about Columbus's motivation - his desire to search for gold - He stole land, gold, resources and people from native colonies
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What 'facts' about Columbus are indeed myth?
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- That he sailed the Atlantic to prove the world was round - Any picture of Columbus - He didn't die in shame - he was actually well respected by the Spanish gov - That his ships had a hard time crossing the Atlantic, the seas were actually quite quiet - The trip across the Atlantic only took 1 month, not 2 Columbus' ship was almost definitely not near mutiny
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How and why did Columbus' impression of the Arawaks change over time?
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His initial impression of them was good, but as time went on he slowly enslaved them and declared war on them
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In what ways did the Spanish disrupt native ecosystems and cultures?
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- Depopulation - Widespread malnutrition - Ecological disaster - Disease was a big killer
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What ideas emerged from the crisis of European Christianity?
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- Indians had not rejected Christianity, they had just never encountered it. - Questions about species shook orthodox Catholicism
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What does it mean to judge Columbus by modern standards?
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Attacking Columbus for doing what everyone else did
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How can we avoid this (judging Columbus by modern standards) in our examination of the explorer? In other words, how does Loewen want students to learn about Columbus?
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Comparing Columbus to people of his time
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What is cognitive dissonance?
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Having inconsistent thoughts, morals, ideals etc
