Wilfred Reilly, an associate professor at Kentucky State University and author of "Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me," discusses the troubling revisionism in American school curricula. He critiques dominant historical narratives about slavery and colonization, pointing out the oversights in contemporary education. Reilly argues for a balanced view of historical morality, examining complex legacies like the Red Scare and the 1960s cultural revolution. He emphasizes the importance of accessible writing to convey intricate topics effectively.
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insights INSIGHT
Western Culture Narrative
Many high school and college texts frame Western culture as historically negative, emphasizing slavery and oppression.
This narrative often ignores the global context of historical practices and the progress made by Western societies.
insights INSIGHT
Reinterpreting History
Historical narratives are being reinterpreted and contemporary American history education focuses on specific narratives like Native Americans and slavery.
This often excludes broader historical contexts and other important figures and events.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Misconceptions about Slavery
41% of American students believe only the USA had slaves, highlighting a lack of understanding about global slavery.
Many accept this narrative due to its prevalence in educational materials and media.
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Written in 1568, 'The True History of the Conquest of New Spain' is Bernal Díaz del Castillo's eyewitness narrative of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The book details his participation in the expeditions led by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, Juan de Grijalva, and Hernán Cortés. Díaz del Castillo wrote this account to counter the histories of other chroniclers, emphasizing the roles and humanity of the common soldiers involved in the conquest. The narrative covers key events, including the battles, the surrender of Mexico City, and the interactions with native peoples, providing a unique perspective on the early Spanish colonization of Mesoamerica[1][4][5].
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Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me
Debunking the False Narratives Defining America's School Curricula
Wilfred Reilly
Wilfred Reilly's "Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me" challenges commonly held beliefs presented in American school curricula. The book examines historical narratives and social science claims, providing empirical evidence to counter what Reilly argues are misleading or inaccurate portrayals. Reilly's analysis covers various topics, including the nature of slavery, the impact of the sexual revolution, and the role of critical theory in education. He aims to present a more balanced and factual account of American history and social issues, encouraging critical thinking and a deeper understanding of complex topics. The book has sparked significant debate and discussion among educators, historians, and the general public.
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
An Indian History of the American West
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent and meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the late nineteenth century. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warriors of various tribes, revealing the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of their freedom. The book is a forceful narrative that has permanently altered our understanding of how the American West was defined and the devastating effects of American expansionism on Native American populations.
Razib and Reilly tackle the reality that over the last few decades the American education system has reoriented itself to teach values by slanting a neutral historical narrative not specific to a particular viewpoint in the direction of what is arguably distortion and misinformation. Perhaps the most egregious case of this is the narrative about slavery, making the institution a uniquely American sin when the reality is that until the 19th century it was a widespread practice across almost all societies. In fact, as Reilly points out, it was the West, and in particular Britain, that ended the practice across much of the world. An aspect of counterfactually reorienting the historical narrative for didactic purposes is that many educators have reinvented peoples and places to serve their own idealism; Native Americans for example have become repurposed into premodern environmentalist activists, even though their arrival in the New World over 10,000 years ago was indisputably associated with megafaunal extinction. Reilly shows that this pattern of reinterpreting and shading the past applies even to events within the lifetimes of the living. The various retellings of the “Red Scare” periods of American history after World War I and World War II obfuscate the reality that the US in the 20th century did have a Communist movement that infiltrated the professions and even the diplomatic corps; Joe McCarthy’s excesses seem to have ended up justifying amnesia about a global political movement that transformed much of the world and had very real aims to take over the USA.
Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me highlights that current attempts to retell history are not actually even liberal, but simply radical, and reflect the capture of education schools by Leftist activists since the 1970s. Rather than equipping children for the modern economy and expanding their understanding of the world, the regnant generation of educational practitioners seems intent on creating a cadre of 21st century radicals whose vague view of the past is rooted in ideology rather than any observable reality.
Razib Khan's Unsupervised Learning 
