"The Most Important Era in American History You Never Heard of, And Why It's So Important"

James Loewen has a habit of turning “common knowledge” on its head—revealing facts to be nothing more than oft-told fables.  His most popular book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, does just that, exposing outright inaccuracies as well what gets glossed over in order to provide a biased and bland historical narrative.  The summer before my senior year of high school, I was assigned the book in preparation for my AP U.S. History course.  More so than the falsehoods Loewen used as examples, I was struck by his desire to overhaul the teaching of history as a whole.  To make it less about memorizing and more about doing, students investigating and interpreting, and most importantly, discovering that history is not a definitive subject in the least.

When I visited my high school over Fall Break, I saw my AP U.S. History teacher and was excited to tell him that James Loewen was scheduled to speak at Susquehanna.   He asked if I planned to attend. 

Honestly, I hadn’t at the time, but I’m glad I went.

James Loewen’s lecture, “The Most Important Era in American History You Never Heard of, And Why It’s So Important,” focused on the nadir period of race relations from 1890 to 1940, a time of the Ku Klux Klan, lynching, construction of Confederate monuments, and most interesting to Loewen, sundown towns. 

Sundown towns were towns that purposely kept themselves all-white; minorities were restricted from the towns after nightfall.  Loewen shared with us his investigation on sundown towns, which to me seemed pretty extensive.  However, Loewen requires more research if he hopes to find sundown towns across the country—he requires us, college students and everyday citizens, to open our eyes and explore.   He asked the audience in attendance to try to find sundown towns on their own, an intimidating proposition.  What I classify as an impossibility Loewen views as my own capability—and the capability of all my fellow attendees. 

In person, Loewen proved to be of the same passion and philosophy Lies My Teacher Told Me espoused.  Perhaps this lecture shows one of the main differences between college and high school.  In high school, I read this man’s words.  He was a book, a summer assignment.  In college, he stood in front of me.  He was a person.  And just like his book, he had a lot to say and just as much to ask of us.