Summary
The fifth chapter suggests that the first non-Native settlement in the US was comprised of African ex-slaves in 1526. It examines how important understanding race relations is to understanding America.
It also describes how up until the civil rights era, textbooks generally shared a "Gone with the Wind" view of slavery—a nostalgic view that lamented the loss of a culture and papered over its sins. Loewen also argues that saying the Civil War was caused by anything other than slavery is a form of Southern apologetics (134).
The author says that the legacy of slavery continues to this day in the form of the socio-economic inferiority it conferred on African-Americans and the ideology—racism—that continues (165). He also points out the fact that many founding fathers and signers of the Declaration of Independence were slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, who owned 175 slaves at the time that he wrote the document.
The chapter also debunks myths about Reconstruction, which painted African-Americans in a negative light and were untrue yet accepted as fact by textbooks up until the mid-1900s. It reveals that the major problem during the Reconstruction in the South was white violence. Increased segregation, negative media portrayals, and second-class citizenship all persisted long after the Civil War.
The next chapter discusses the changing perception of John Brown, who tried to start a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1859 (165). From 1890-1970 textbooks depicted him as "insane" in order to discourage sympathy for his views. In fact, Loewen shows, His trial and execution captured the imagination of the nation, and his willingness to die for his belief inspired others.
It also discusses the position and portrayal of Lincoln (174). There are many myths surrounding his life, including one surrounding his birth—that he was born in a log cabin that still stands. In fact, the cabin that is often referred to was actually built in 1894. Lincoln also inspired Lincoln logs and hero-worship.
The true cause of the Civil War was not just safeguarding states rights, as many have tried to say over the years. Rather, the primary cause was the injustice of slavery slavery, and over 180,000 African Americans served and played crucial roles during the war.
Analysis
Loewen begins "Gone with the Wind" with an anecdote about some cocktail party trivia that he has often used (131). He eases the reader into the difficult topic of racism by using his trivia as a vessel, ensuring that the reader will stay to find out how the story ends. The author is self-aware, saying that he supposes though this is cocktail party trivia, that designation actually reveals a great deal about America's approach to racism—it treats it as a side note, an interesting anecdote best shuffled away, even rendered invisible in students' textbooks.
The author does not believe that the US is progressing meaningfully, pointing out that slavery had been legal in the US much longer than it has been illegal (152). Loewen shows that America is inherently full of contradictions—on the one hand, its history has been deeply shaped by racism and racial politics, while much of the way history is taught obscures this connection, thus neutering the motivations of the historical people involved for fear of offending someone. He points out that textbooks have trouble showing flaws in the US or with white Americans, that they often skate over how influential the fight for freedom from slavery was, and how ex-slaves played a crucial role in many wars and foreign policy.
It is here that Loewen begins to answer the question he posed at the beginning—why are students so bored by history—in addition to posing a new question that he answers towards the end of the book: why is history taught this way? The long and the short of it, according to Loewen, is that in removing race from the equation, many students, who know the truth from their family members' and communities' stories, are alienated. Yet many authors remove race in order not to risk alienating those who are unaware of the role it has played in history, and whose parents might force the school district to fire the teacher.
Loewen brings race into perspective as not just something that textbooks get wrong, but as something that continues to shape the lives of modern Americans. By ignoring it, textbooks do a disservice not just to history, but also to students, by assuming that they are not intelligent enough to see past the smoke screen. Loewen argues that this is what makes history 'boring': the students know better.
Loewen systematically reveals racism's presence in our history by showing a different side of the most mythical moments in American history, such as the Alamo (fought by pro-slavery Texans), the fact that the first non-Native settlers of the US were likely Africans (thus destroying the Pilgrim myth), etc. (132). By taking down the darlings of US history, Loewen makes the reader more receptive to his thesis. When people see that nothing they were taught as children was completely right, then they are more receptive to seeing everything, both historical and modern, through new, clearer eyes.
