IndexIntroductionBook ReviewConclusionIntroductionPopular historical texts and history books provided to high school students often provide a superficial account of the events surrounding the colonization of the North America by Europeans. James Loewen is the author of a book that debunks myths rooted in American folklore known as Lies, My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Was Wrong. The following essay will use material from the book to analyze another history book. The book under analysis will be American Colonies: the sedimentation of North America by Alan Taylor. By analyzing this book, this article aims to determine whether Taylor accurately described European interaction with American Indians. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original EssayBook ReviewLoewen said that most history books gave the wrong account of the origin of thanksgiving and the animosity that European settlers showed to the American Indians. In the third chapter, Loewen is of the opinion that most history writers saw precolonial America as a virgin land and its inhabitants as primitive savages. Furthermore, he believed that they also viewed the Pilgrims as pious and wise people who had sailed to North America with the sole intent of finding a new society. He believed that the pilgrims had ulterior motives such as greed and profit. Loewen further stated that in truth the American Indians were helped by the Pilgrims for the sole reason that they did not know that the Pilgrims had brought the infectious disease that had decimated their population (Loewen). the American Indians helped the Pilgrims of their own free will. Another lie Loewen believes spread by historians is the Squanto case. As these historians state, Squanto had learned the English language from European fishermen and found their lifestyle admirable. For this reason, Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive in the hostile wilderness of North America, showing them how to plant crops and navigate foreign lands. However, as it clearly shows, Squanto was a former slave who escaped from captivity in Spain and hid in the pilgrim ship to return to his ancestral land. Arriving in Plymouth, he discovered that all the members of his tribe had died and so he joined the pilgrims in desperation (Loewen). Comparing the two books on the issue of the relationship between Indians and Pilgrims, it can be deduced that Alan Taylor did not fall victim to the accusation. what Loewen does about historians. This is because Alan respects the fact that the Indians only helped the Pilgrims because they had nowhere to go after most of their population was wiped out by smallpox and other infectious diseases. It also recognizes the fact that European expansion into North America was the cause of the death of most American Indians. He also makes a hypothesis similar to Loewen's that if the Indians had known that the Europeans were responsible for the mass death of their loved ones, they would not have helped the Pilgrims camp at Plymouth and the first Thanksgiving might have happened. Based on this evidence, it is safe to conclude that Alan Taylor did not distort real history as many textbooks have done (Taylor). This is because Taylor does not glorify the actions of the Pilgrims and does not even consider Thanksgiving to be a glorious day. holiday as it is commonly represented. However, unlike Loewen, Taylor believes that Thanksgiving has meaning because it chooses to.