In Lies Across America, James W. Loewen continues his mission, begun in the award-winning Lies My Teacher Told Me, of overturning the myths and misinformation that too often pass for American history. This is a one-of-a-kind examination of sites all over the country where history is literally written on the landscape, including historical markers, monuments, historic houses, forts, and ships. With entries drawn from each of the fifty states, Loewen reveals that:

• The USS Intrepid, the "feel-good" war museum, celebrates its glorious service in World War II but nowhere mentions the three tours it served in Vietnam.
• The Jefferson Memorial misquotes from the Declaration of Independence and skews Jefferson's writings to present this conflicted slave owner as a near abolitionist.
• Abraham Lincoln had been dead for thirty years when his birthplace cabin was built.

Lies Across America is a realty check for anyone who has ever sought to learn about America through the nation's public sites and markers. Entertaining and enlightening, it is destined to change the way American readers see their country.

"Brims with fascinating history." - Los Angeles Times

"Jim-dandy pop history...This is one work of history no one will call boring."- Jim O'Brien, USA Today

"Brims with fascinating history."

- Los Angeles Times

Michael Ross

The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

A remarkable achievement....A brisk, entertaining, and, at times, inspiring read....Lies Across America is full of fascinating facts, challenging ideas and important insights. You will never read a roadside historical marker the same way again.

"A winner by any criteria: informative, stimulating, and challenging. Loewen's wry wit is a welcome bonus." - Edwin C. Bearss, former chief historian, National Park Service

James W. Loewen taught race relations at the University of Vermont. His previous book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, won the American Book Award, the AESA Critics' Choice Award, and the Oliver C. Cox Anti-Racism Award of the American Sociological Association. He lives in Washington, D.C.

In What Ways Were We Warped? Some Functions of Public History The Sociology of Historic Sites Historic Sites Are Always a Tale of Two Eras Hieratic Scale in Historic Monuments The Far West"1 Alaska - Denali (Mt. McKinley): The Tallest Mountain  —  The Silliest Naming "2 Hawaii - Honolulu: King Kamehameha I, The Roman!  3 California - Sacramento: The Flat Earth Myth on the West Coast "4 California - Sacramento: Exploiting vs. Exterminating the Natives "5 California - San Francisco: China Beach Leaves Out the Bad Parts "6 California - Downieville: Killing a Man Is Not News "7 Oregon - La Grande: Don't "Discover" 'Til You See the Eyes of the Whites! "8 Washington - Cowlitz County: No Communists Here! "9 Washington - Centralia: Using Nationalism to Redefine a Troublesome Statue 10 Nevada - Hickison Summit: What We Know and What We Don't Know About Rock Art11 Nevada - Nye County: Don't Criticize Big Brother The Mountains12 Idaho - Almo: Circle the Wagons, Boys  —  It's Tourist Season 13 Utah - North of St. George: Bad Things Happen in the Passive Voice 14 Arizona - Navajo Reservation: Calling Native Americans Bad Names 15 Montana - Helena: No Confederate Dead? No Problem! Invent Them! 16 Wyoming - South Pass City: A Woman Shoulda Done It! 17 Colorado - Pagosa Springs: Tall Tales in the West 18 Colorado - Leadville: Licking the Corporate Hand That Feeds You 19 New Mexico - Alcalde: The Footloose StatueThe Great Plains20 Oklahoma - Oklahoma City: The Oklahoma State History Museum Confederate Room Tells No History 21 Kansas - Gardner: Which Came First, Wilderness or Civilization? 22 Nebraska - Red Cloud: No Lesbians on the Landscape 23 South Dakota - Brookings: American Indians Only Roved for About a Hundred Years 24 North Dakota - Devils Lake: The Devil Is Winning, Six to One The Midwest25 Minnesota - St. Paul: "Serving the Cause of Humanity" 26 Iowa - Muscatine: Red Men Only  —  No Indians Allowed 27 Missouri - Hannibal: Domesticating Mark Twain 28 Wisconsin - Racine: Not the First Auto 29 Illinois - Chicago: America's Most Toppled Monument 30 Indiana - Graysville: Coming into Indiana Minus a Body Part 31 Indiana - Indianapolis: The Invisible Empire Remains Invisible 32 Kentucky - Lexington: Putting the He in Hero 33 Kentucky - Hodgenville: Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace Cabin  —  Built Thirty Years after His Death! 34 Michigan - Dearborn: Honoring a Segregationist 35 Ohio - Delaware: Who Menaced Whom? The South36 Texas - Gainesville: "No Nation Rose So White and Fair; None Fell So Free of Crime"37 Texas - Alba: The Only Honest Sundown Town in the United States 38 Texas - Pittsburg: It Never Got Off the Ground 39 Texas - Fredericksburg: The Real War Will Never Get into the War Museums 40 Texas - Galveston: This Building Used to Be a Hardware Store 41 Arkansas - Little Rock: Men Make History; Women Make Wives 42 Louisiana - Laplace: Suppressing a Slave Revolt for the Second Time 43 Louisiana - Colfax: Mystifying the Colfax Riot and Lying About Reconstruction 44 Louisiana - New Orleans: The White League Begins to Take a Beating 45 Louisiana - Baton Rouge: The Toppled "Darky" 46 Louisiana - Fort Jackson: Let Us Now Praise Famous Thieves 47 Mississippi - Itta Bena: A Black College Celebrates White Racists 48 Alabama - Calhoun County: If Russia Can Do It, Why Can't We? 49 Alabama - Tuscumbia: Confining Helen Keller Under House Arrest 50 Alabama - Scottsboro: Famous Everywhere but at Home 51 Tennessee - Fort Pillow: Remember Fort Pillow! 52 Tennessee - Woodbury: Forrest Rested Here 53 Georgia - Stone Mountain: A Confederate-KKK Shrine Encounters 54 Florida - Near Cedar Key: The Missing Town of Rosewood 55 South Carolina - Beech Island: The Beech Island Agricultural Club Was Hardly What the Marker Implies 56 South Carolina - Fort Mill: To the Loyal Slaves 57 South Carolina - Columbia: Who Burned Columbia? 58 North Carolina - Bentonville Battlefield: The Last Major Confederate Offensive of the Civil War 59 Virginia - Alexandria: The Invisible Slave Trade 60 Virginia - Alexandria: The Clash of the Martyrs 61 Virginia - Richmond: "One of the Great Female Spies of All Times" 62 Virginia - Richmond: Slavery and Redemption 63 Virginia - Richmond: The Liberation of Richmond 64 Virginia - Richmond: Abraham Lincoln Walks Through Richmond 65 Virginia - Appomattox: Getting Even the Numbers Wrong 66 Virginia - Stickleyville: A Sign of Good Breeding The Atlantic States67 West Virginia - Union: Is California West of the Alleghenies? 68 District of Columbia - Jefferson Memorial: Juxtaposing Quotations to Misrepresent a Founding Father 69 Maryland - Hampton: "No History to Tell" 70 Delaware - Reliance: The Reverse Underground Railroad 71 Pennsylvania - Philadelphia: Telling Amusing Incidents for the Tourists 72 Pennsylvania - Valley Forge: George Washington's Desperate Prayer 73 Pennsylvania - Lancaster: "You're Here to See the House" 74 Pennsylvania - Gettysburg: South Carolina Defines the Civil War in 196575 Pennsylvania - Philadelphia: Remember the "Splendid Little War"  —  Forget the Tawdry Larger Wars 76 Pennsylvania - Philadelphia: Celebrating Illegal Submarine Warfare 77 New Jersey - Trenton: The Pilgrims and Religious Freedom 78 New York - Manhattan: Making Native Americans Look Stupid 79 New York - Alabama: Which George Washington? 80 New York - North Elba: John Brown's Plaque Puts Blacks at the Bottom!81 New York - Manhattan: The Union League Club: Traitors to Their Own Cause 82 New York - Manhattan: Selective Memory at USS Intrepid New England83 Connecticut - Darien: Omitting the Town's Continuing Claim to Fame 84 Massachusetts - Boston: The Problem of the Common 85 Massachusetts - Amherst: Celebrating Genocide 86 Vermont - Burlington: Shards of Minstrelsy on a Far-North Campus 87 New Hampshire - Peterborough and Dublin: Local History Wars 88 New Hampshire - Concord: "Effective Political Leader" 89 Rhode Island - Block Island: "Settlement" Means Fewer People! 90 Rhode Island - Warren and Barrington: Fighting Over the "Good Indian" 91 Maine - Bar Harbor: At Last  —  An Accurate Marker  Snowplow RevisionismGetting into a Dialogue with the Landscape AppendicesSelecting the Sites Ten Questions to Ask at a Historic Site Twenty Candidates for "Toppling" Index