Texas Matters: Is Texas Teaching Wrong History About The Civil War?

By David Martin Davies

Published July 24, 2015 at 2:22 PM CDT

Civil War monument on the Texas Capitol grounds

Civil War marker placed at the Palestine, Texas Confederacy Plaza

There are 12 monuments, plaques and other markers to the Confederacy on the grounds of the state capitol. They tell a carefully crafted story of an honorable and brave South that fought for freedom and independence from a dominating Federal Government. It’s a story that is reflected in modern day political philosophies in Texas and across the South and according to actual historians, it’s a story that is completely wrong.

Civil War marker in the Palestine, Texas Confederate Plaza

James Loewen is the author of “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, ” and The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The "Great Truth" about the "Lost Cause."
Loewen is a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont.