Lies My Teacher Told Me Analysis

Leadership is often the key for a unit to be successful whether it be a sports team, choir or a nation. Countries can be defined by what kind of leadership that they have and what these leaders to for their people. The Union during the Civil War was led by the great leader Abraham Lincoln. He eventually ended up winning the war for the union through his superior leadership skills and ideas that spread throughout the country. Lincoln used the idea of equality and freedom for the black people who were enslaved to inspire and motivate his people. Lincoln got his message out through the use of his great speeches. The Gettysburg Address is arguably the most important speech that was given by Lincoln. James Loewen analyzes this speech in his book Lies My Teacher Told Me. He talks about his ideas on how the speech should be taught through textbooks and the message that each of the important lines from the speech portrays. He does …show more content…
He states that Lincoln’s words were to redefine the cause of the union to imply that they are fighting on behalf of equal rights for all Americans. The unions new mission was to uphold the ideas of the Declaration of Independence by granting freedom to even the blacks in the country. I agree that this may have been part of Lincoln’s message, but it does not completely make sense. Just earlier in this chapter and in last chapter, Loewen pointed out time and time again that even in the Union many people did not want equality for the blacks in America. Loewen said that even Lincoln was indifferent about black equality. This being said, why would Lincoln want this idea to be main and only reason for fighting the war? What happened to keeping the country together and the other reasons the war began? Lincoln wanted to add another motive for Union fighters. He was not intending on making this idea the sole reason the Union is fighting like Loewen was

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