James W. Loewen - History Quotes

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Textbooks should show that neither morality nor immorality can simply be conferred upon us by history. Merely being part of the United States, without regard to our own acts and ideas, does not make us moral or immoral beings. History is more complicated than that.

James W. Loewen
Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.

James W. Loewen
In sum, U.S. history is no more violent and oppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi - but neither is it exceptionally less violent.

James W. Loewen
The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.

James W. Loewen
It's one thing to remember history and to put up historical markers that get it right. It's quite another thing to commemorate someone and to name stuff for him. You don't learn anything from driving the Jefferson Davis Highway about Jefferson Davis except that he was a great man and should be honored. And it's precisely that last little bit - should be honored - that we need to take away from him.

James W. Loewen
Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history.

James W. Loewen
History is important. More than any other topic, it is about us. Whether one deems our present society wondrous or awful or both, history reveals how we got to this point.

James W. Loewen