Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 2)

The second chapter of "Lies" takes another deeper step into the controversies American high school textbooks have left out. Christopher Columbus is introduced in this chapter, where not only is he whitewashed into a goody-goody character, but the entire history of the founding of Americas is perverted. I knew vaguely that the Santa-Maria wasn't the first vessel to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and that Columbus had exploited the native Americans on arrival. However, the detailed information written in this chapter caught my by surprise. For example, the Olmec heads are obviously a sign that the Negros had previously been in the Americas. The fact that Columbus had sent a thousand slaves off to Spain (and more than half died on the trip) singlehandedly hit me hard.
Some of the evidence written by Loewen was so sympathetic, that I almost felt like blindingly following Lowen's argument. Then it hit me. Maybe that was his plan? If I was a student in the US completely ignorant of the controversies, I would have definitely been moved into sucking Lowen's belief in one gulp. His evidence in this chapter is so strong (take De Bry's image for example) that many people may be so convinced that they do not even bother to question the arguments Lowern proposes. Not that he did a sloppy job on supporting his arguments. It is quite the opposite. This chapter really made me realize how hard it is to undermine a officially published piece of writing with criticism. For example, Lowen's belief that the American textbooks are written not to teach history but to build character (pg. 60) is well supported by two quotes by prominent historical figures and good arguments.
There was one belief that Lowen presented which has a very strong bias attached to it; racism. Lowen seems to lure the audience into the world of racism where he can fight in his own ground. "This may be because blaming Turks fits with the west's archetypal conviction that followers of Islam are likely to behave irrationally or nastily" (pg.34)
"Thus they keep students from understanding what caused the world to develop as it has, including why Europe Won" (pg. 64)
"Textbooks themselves it seems, practices cognitive dissonance" (p68)
These three examples on their own present how desperately Lowen is trying to connect the founding of USA with racism. This outright offense against Islamic countries, and the statement that "Europe won" compared to the rest of the world questions his creditability as a racism expert, casting shadow on his outlook of history as a whole.