Loewen, Chapter One

Coming from a more conservative background I was cautious when I first began reading Lies. Having heard some conservative criticism of the book, I was prepared to read some radical revisionist propaganda! After reading chapter one, I realize that the points that Loewen brings up are research based facts that are for one reason or another have not been emphasized in traditional American history.

            Chapter One deals with the stories of Christopher Columbus, Thanksgiving and Woodrow Wilson. Traditionally, American’s think of Columbus as a great navigator who discovered the new world. This viewpoint is not wholly inaccurate but is certainly incomplete. Columbus, along with the soldiers under his command, was undeniably responsible for the annihilation of thousands of native Caribbean tribes. Choosing to view him only as a sailor is a way of marginalizing the perspective of Native American’s. Loewen goes on to show that Thanksgiving is presented in a similar manner, with the perspectives of natives either left out altogether or watered down to show a symbiotic relationship with Europeans.

            Although Loewen presented them in a unique way, the arguments over Columbus and Thanksgiving are fairly mainstream. The argument over President Wilson’s racist legacy was something new to me. I was surprised to hear that Wilson, who I understood had fought for the right of self-determination for all nations, actually only intended that right to be for Europeans. Segregating the Postal Service was perhaps the most overt, and least discussed, action that Wilson took to further a racist agenda.

I appreciated how thoroughly researched Loewen’s arguments were, backing his theories with facts from primary and secondary sources. I especially enjoyed his analysis of contemporary historians, like Morrison, who readily admitted that he was overlooking Columbus’ crimes against the natives.  I enjoyed the first chapter and once I have an opportunity to read more I intend to, but at the moment I have to finish the Grapes of Wrath!