One of my favorite historical books is James Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong. The title is a bit deceptive, of course; the book doesn’t have everything our history books got wrong, of course. But it’s an eye-opening introduction into the major things that we are erroneously taught, and makes several valid points that we should all at least be exposed to and consider.

One point is that our history books often leave out key figures and events while spending entire pages on pointless subject matter. Take past presidents, for example. Many history books spend an entire page per president when, in fact, many presidents did so little or were so lackluster that a paragraph—or less—would suffice in depicting their importance in our history.

Take, for example, William Henry Harrison, who was only in office for a month before he died of pneumonia. Does he really need an entire page dedicated to him? His successor, John Tyler, didn’t do much in office, either. The same goes for several other presidents. Why spend so much time on people who really didn’t matter all that much in the scheme of things when we never hear from much more important voices in our collective past?

Especially, for example, voices that would be much more meaningful and relevant to our lives. How about a tale told from the perspective of an American miner, or a “Rosie the Riveter,” or simply people building their homes out west? We often heard from the journals of politicians and wealthy people, but not much, if anything, from the working class and poor. Were their thoughts and experiences of so little value that we simply ignore them, even though a vast number of Americans would be in the same boat today? Given that most of us are not wealthy or politicians, it would seem that these experiences and viewpoints would serve us well in understanding our past as well as our present and future.

Fortunately, there are other alternative history books for us to learn these things from—such as A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a series of books that are both relevant as well as enjoyable to read. These stories not only help educate us but also open a wider view of our history before our eyes, allowing us to really see what happened to the people of America who came before us. It’s simply too bad that most middle and high schools do not use these books as textbooks, or even supplemental materials, except in the case of advanced placement courses.