Summary
This chapter explains that America is not the land of equal opportunity, and that motivation and hard work by themselves do not ensure that you can achieve your dreams (195). Class struggles, and the significant disadvantages faces by the poor, are not addressed in textbooks. Textbooks make labor struggles seem like a thing of the past, not mentioning those that have happened more recently.
This is done in an effort to maintain the picture of the American dream. Likewise, much of more recent US history is skated over. Class is glossed over during colonial times as well; colonial society is referred to as "classless" (197). However, this was not the case; the Boxer and Shay's Rebellions illustrate a different history.
The issue is compounded by the rags-to-riches narrative strewn throughout American textbooks, which suggest that if a person just worked a little harder, they too could be a billionaire. Loewen discusses few of the many barriers to upward mobility that are present in society today.
The next chapter deals with how the government is portrayed in textbooks, highlighting that textbooks often do not show that the interpretation of the Constitution has evolved over the centuries—and thus our government has evolved as well (209).
The author believes that textbooks stress the influence of the president too much, especially before the 20th century, when the executive branch had significantly less power than it had later. The dedication of entries to each individual president, even those who did little or served a short while (for example William Henry Harrison, who served one month) takes valuable space away from more influential individuals.
Textbooks' bias comes through in their overemphasis on the executive branch of the government. They also consistently gloss over the US's less defensible actions, such as maintaining its hegemony and suppressing self-determination, despite being born of a revolution itself.
The US is portrayed as the 'international good guy,' spreading knowledge and helping others, as opposed to working merely for its own interests, or on behalf of the interests of multinational corporations who adversely affect entire nations with their policies (i.e. United Fruit in Guatemala) (212).
Analysis
Class is often ignored in the US, which often imagines itself as a classless society, thinking "class" is something that matters only in places such as in England, where the very way a person speaks can betray their class. However, Loewen argues, class struggles are present in the US, though they may be less visible or talked about. Here Loewen attacks another deeply held American myth—that anyone who is willing to work hard enough and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, can achieve stratospheric success. The poor coal miner can become a millionaire if he just perseveres and words hard enough, right? The reality, Loewen shows, is much harsher. Such leaps across class lines are extraordinarily rare, though they form a big part of the American myth, due to our inherent optimism that we too can live the American Dream.
Loewen brings the class struggle in from the theoretical to something that all teenagers find very tangible and understandable: the SATs. This is something that Loewen excels at throughout this book—taking something dense and confusing, and framing it in a context that every high school student will immediately understand and get angry about. The author shows that the class struggle, previously seen in events like the labor movement, continues to this day, even in things like the SATs, success in which has been shown to be closely correlated to social class.
Loewen shows that this is partially due to how teachers perceive the child and parents' social status, allowing it to cloud their expectations of what a child is capable of and thus giving them less or more attention based on that—something that every kid who has ever felt persecuted or unfairly treated by a teacher can relate to. Instead of preaching at his audience, Loewen speaks to them as their peers would.
In the next chapter, "Watching Big Brother," the author continues in his attack on the perceptions that Americans hold dear. He calls the US hypocritical, pointing out how it calls actions such as assassinations and regime change state-sponsored terrorism when other countries try them on the US, but sweeping them under the rug when the US itself engages in these actions. Loewen does not hold back and uses harsh language in order to get his theme across: we should question the federal government and what it does. To do so makes us better and more informed citizens.
The author's language when he analyzes the US' role in interfering in other countries betrays his own views, as seen when he says the US "has indulged" (Loewen 214). This marks a return to the more biting and harsh tone that the author used earlier, before he delves again into the cold, hard facts of what the US has been involved in. Loewen strives to keep his bias out of the paragraphs where he speaks of historical events, but allows it to color those sections where he is framing the discussion. Here again we see that the author is not simply an objective historian, but one with a distinct message to convey.
