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Question: Does anyone find the material about Christopher Columbus in our textbooks today staggering!?
I was reading some History textbooks on early American history when I found a huge lack of information in the text!. Christopher Columbus did not cope with the natives, him and his slaves enslaved them, and put them to work in cotton fields, mining gold, and other things!. The pilgrims did not come to the Americas in search of new land!. They came because of their want of gold! The texbooks don't mention any thing on this and what kind of person Columbus was!. They don't even say how he paid for the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
You absolutely MUST read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen!.
He covers these topics and many others!. He taught history at a unversity and couldn't figure out why he first had to get his students to "unlearn" what they'd gotten from their high school American history textbooks!.
One reason is that these textbooks are not presenting history as it was; they are trying to teach patriotism and a sense of civic duty!. Loewen calls this "civil religion!." It's silly, and it does a disservice to everyone: teachers and students!.
Why not tell things as they were, warts and all!? What the founding fathers did, for example, was monumental and unprecedented!. Do they also have to have been saints!? Can't they be portrayed as the flawed human beings they were!?
You will love this book!. Wait until you learn the truth about Helen Keller and what you were never told about her!.Www@QuestionHome@Com