James Loewen to Talk about History’s Omissions and Errors at Evergreen Graduation

2008 Evergreen Graduation Guest Speaker: James Loewen

2008 Graduation Ceremony

Friday, June 13, 2008

1:00 pm on Red Square—Rain or Shine

No tickets required for the ceremony

A sociologist, historian and professor who taught race relations for 20 years at the University of Vermont, James Loewen co-authored, Mississippi: Conflict and Change, which won the Lillian Smith Award for Best Southern Nonfiction, but was not approved for use in the Mississippi school system because it was considered too controversial and placed too much focus on racial issues. This led to the lawsuit, Loewen v. Turnipseed, which was considered by the American Library Association to be a historic First Amendment Case, and one of the foundations of our “right to read freely.”

Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong, is based on his two-year study at the Smithsonian Institution of twelve American history textbooks. The book focuses on alleged errors or deliberate omissions in history textbooks but also on the lack of controversy that he claims would make learning history exciting. The book sold 800,000 copies and continues to inspire teachers to encourage students to challenge – rather than memorize – their textbooks.

For more information, please visit:  
http://www.evergreen.edu/graduation/