Why Is It Important To Read History Textbooks?

This history course was very eye-opening for me. I learned history that was different from history taught in classrooms. Authors and publishers of history textbooks can alter the information to make it appealing to their target audience (Loewen Ch. 1). I did not know this was allowed. I always believed that the information in history textbooks must be true. History textbooks have target audiences that they want to make happy. If these target audiences like how the history textbook portrays them and America, they will buy it (Loewen Ch. 1). Authors had to be very cautious when writing history textbooks. They could not use certain words or concepts that would offend groups of people. They could not even use the word, “imagine” (Loewen Ch. 1). “Imagine” would suggest that magic exists and would offend some people. …show more content…
In fact, the Afro-Phoenicians and Chinese came to America before Christopher Columbus (Discussion 1). Also there were many Native Americans in America before the Europeans arrived. Also, in history class, I learned that the Pilgrims and Native Americans got along very well. This course taught me that this was not true. When the Pilgrims arrived in America, the Native Americans’ lives were changed for the worse. The Europeans brought over many diseases that killed off many of the Native Americans. The Europeans did not have good hygiene and this resulted in diseases and sicknesses (Loewen Ch. 3). The Europeans also took over the Native Americans’ land (Zinn Ch. 2). The Native Americans helped teach the Pilgrims valuable skills and gave them supplies to survive. The Pilgrims did not appreciated this and they treated the Native Americans