Labor Lies Teachers Tell

I read Loewin's book years ago and still treasure it - because everything in it is still true, only worse.

Kenneth Quinnell at Crooks and Liars:

James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me discusses the avoidance of social class in high school history education.

A new report shows major problems with the way American textbooks teach labor history to students. Specifically:

The report found that these textbooks often present labor history in a biased, negative way, focusing on strikes and strike violence while giving little or no attention to the employer abuse and violence that caused the strikes.

In addition, it notes that the textbooks virtually ignore:

• The role of unions in passing protections and reforms such as the eight-hour work day, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, occupational safety and health, the end of abusive child labor, and environmental protection;
  

• Unions’ strong support for the civil rights movement; and
  

• The role unions played in the 1960s in particular, when the rise of public sector unions brought many more Americans into the middle class and gave new rights to public employees.

AFT President Randi Weingarten said the report “explains why so few Americans know much about labor’s history and contributions.”

"It paints a devastating picture of distortion and omission. Too often, labor’s role in U.S. history is misrepresented, downplayed, or ignored. The result is that most American students have little sense of how the labor movement changed the lives of Americans for the better. A vital piece of U.S. history is disappearing before our eyes."

The report is from the Albert Shanker Institute and the American Labor Studies Center and furthermore reports:

Many of the textbooks we reviewed do not tell the full story of the existence of the organized working women’s movement in the United States, instead often focusing on middle class women. For example, the books do not tell the full story of the Lowell Mill girls’ formation of an early, all-female union, including the awareness by the Lowell Mill girls that their union rights stemmed directly from their democratic rights, and their union’s sophistication in launching a public and political campaign against abusive mill owners. Another example: the books fail to mention important women union leaders of the 19th century, such as Kate Mullany and Augusta Lewis Troup. The books do not adequately cover key events spearheaded by women’s labor unions, such as the massive 1909 Uprising of the 20,000, led by the ILGWU.

Liberals don't lie about history because history justifies liberalism.