James W. Loewen, wrote 'Lies My Teacher Told Me,' dead at 79

The author of the million-selling “Lies My Teacher Told Me” books has died

NEW YORK -- James W. Loewen, whose million-selling “Lies My Teacher Told Me” books challenged traditional ideas and knowledge on everything from Thanksgiving to the Iraq War, has died. He was 79. Loewen's publisher, New Press, announced that the author died Thursday at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. A professor emeritus at the University of Vermont who lived in Washington, D.C., he had been diagnosed two years ago with Stage IV bladder cancer, enough time for him to post “Notes toward an obituary” on his website. “Telling the truth about the past helps cause justice in the present," was his guiding principle, he wrote. "Achieving justice in the present helps us tell the truth about the past.” Loewen's “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” was published in 1995 and became a favorite of students and former students as it challenged what Loewen considered a white, Eurocentric view of the past and the stale prose and bland presentations of classroom books.