James William Loewen was an American sociologist, historian, and author who became widely known for his work examining how history is presented to the public. His 1995 book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong challenged the accuracy and completeness of American history education, analyzing what textbooks omit or misrepresent. Beyond his most famous work, Loewen wrote Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism in 2005. This book documented the history and prevalence of sundown towns, communities that excluded Black residents through both formal and informal means. The work sparked a national effort to identify and document sundown towns across the United States. Through his research and writing, Loewen focused on gaps and distortions in how American history is understood and taught, bringing scholarly attention to overlooked or suppressed aspects of the nation's past.