James Loewen, historian and best-selling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, will give three presentations at Northern Michigan University on Wednesday, Jan. 28. All are free and open to the public.

Loewen will present “Lies My Teacher Told Me About Native Americans” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Whitman Hall commons. He will also address “Lies My Teacher Told Me and How To Do Better” from 4-5:30 p.m. in the same location. Loewen's evening talk from 7-8:30 p.m. in 1100 Jamrich Hall will be titled “The Most Important Era in U.S. History That You Never Heard Of, and Why It Is Still Important Today.”

Loewen is a sociologist who spent two years at the Smithsonian surveying 12 leading high school textbooks of American history and found “an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind nationalism and plain misinformation weighing in at an average of 888 pages and almost five pounds.” Loewen taught race relations at the University of Vermont for 20 years and now lives in Washington D.C., where he continues to conduct research on how Americans remember their past.

For more information, contact NMU history professor Gabe Logan at 227-1744 od the NMU Center for Native American Studies at 227-1397.