Jim Loewen

James W. Loewen was a sociologist.  The New Press published paperbacks of Loewen's bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and Sundown Towns, about places that were/are all-white on purpose. 

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• 
  Feb 27, 2021
  

  The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Joins a Proud Tradition

  by Jim Loewen

  "Presidential libraries exist to get visitors to think well of their namesakes, not to think about them."

  

• 
  Sep 6, 2020
  

  "Have You Lived Your Whole Life in Vermont? Well, Not Yet!": One State's Joke Culture

  by Jim Loewen

  Not every state has a sufficiently particular identity to sustain a culture of jokes about its inhabitants and their relationship to outsiders. Vermont does.

   

  

• 
  Jul 21, 2020
  

  Don’t Tear Down the Wrong Monuments; Don’t Attack Every Holiday

  by Jim Loewen

  When COVID concerns allow, visit the Gettysburg and Vicksburg battlefields, and come to your own conclusion about how the National Park Service is meeting its 1999 Congressional mandate "to recognize and include ... the unique role that the institution of slavery played in causing the Civil War."

  

• 
  Jul 6, 2020
  

  A Renaming Everyone Can Get Behind

  by Jim Loewen

  Delaware is the only U.S. state without a name for its highest point. Naming it after Ronald Reagan would probably satisfy fans and critics alike. 

  

• 
  May 15, 2020
  

  Tax Protesting on the Cheap

  by Jim Loewen

  Leaving certain federal taxes unpaid was a common but poorly remembered form of protest against the U.S. war in Vietnam.

  

• 
  Oct 3, 2019
  

  My Life with Books

  by Jim Loewen

  The books that have shaped Jim Loewen. 

  

• 
  Jul 7, 2019
  

  Gresham's Law of Reading: Bad Reading Drives Out Good

  by Jim Loewen

  On my last day on earth, however, I shall be sad if I have not finished Cloud Atlas. I doubt I'll lament not having finished the latest AARP. 

  

• 
  Mar 12, 2019
  

  Mennonite Values

  by Jim Loewen

  "At the end of my life, I publish these lines thinking that they may come to be meaningful to you."

  

• 
  Jan 4, 2019
  

  That Other Dick Cheney Movie

  by Jim Loewen

  What “The World According to Dick Cheney” got wrong and how "Vice" corrects it. 

  

• 
  Nov 20, 2018
  

  Censorship at Amazon

  by Jim Loewen

  What happened when Jim Loewen posted a comment on a neo-Confederate pamphlet sold on Amazon.

  

• 
  Oct 19, 2018
  

  The Lawyers Are At It Again

  by Jim Loewen

  Case in point:  What Princeton required when I gave a talk. 
  

• 
  Aug 16, 2018
  

  How Charlottesville Transformed the Confederate Monuments Debate

  by Jim Loewen

  You can literally see the change in the graffiti left on statues all over the country. 

  

• 
  Jun 4, 2018
  

  Dinesh D’Souza Lied About My Work

  by Jim Loewen

  And now the Liar-in-Chief has given the liar a pardon.
  

• 
  Apr 11, 2018
  

  They Thought He Was Black, so They Claimed the Inn Was Full.

  by Jim Loewen

  Motels and race relations in the Mississippi Delta in the 1970s.

  

• 
  Mar 19, 2018
  

  Coming of Age in the Heartland

  by Jim Loewen

  I am from Decatur, Illinois.  It was boring, but a good place to grow up.
  

• 
  Feb 27, 2018
  

  Farewell to the U.S. History Textbook?

  by Jim Loewen

  Pearson is selling its K-12 division. Good riddance! Pearson lists as authors famous historians who didn't write "their" textbooks, never knew who did, and didn't even bother to read them.
  

• 
  Feb 6, 2018
  

  Florida Is Doing the Right Thing. May Other States Follow Quickly.

  by Jim Loewen

  Florida is replacing its Confederate statue in the U.S. Capitol.  So should other Southern states. 
  

• 
  Oct 18, 2017
  

  Books, Blacks, and Bigots

  by Jim Loewen

  The baseless claim that African Americans are anti-intellectual hurts race relations, as does the assertion that "they" are stupider than "us."
  

• 
  Aug 3, 2017
  

  My Lynching Photo Problem, and Ours

  by Jim Loewen

  The first textbook in the USA to feature a photo of a lynching was mine in 1974. But there was a problem. 
  

• 
  Jun 30, 2017
  

  On Dealing with Serious Problems

  by Jim Loewen

  What pieces of music reach you deeply?  Bruckner's Eighth reaches me.