The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America

If you’ve ever opened a history book and felt like something was missing — it’s because something was.

Entire chapters were removed.
Whole truths were softened.
Entire people erased.
Motives rewritten.
Crimes rebranded as “progress.”

And the most important question isn’t what they left out…
It’s who got to decide.

Because the truth is this:

Only a handful of corporations and politicians decide what 50 million American students learn every year.

Not teachers.
Not historians.
Not scholars.

Corporations.
Lobbyists.
State committees.
Political ideologues.

And they make billions doing it.

Let’s pull back the curtain.

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⭐ ACT I: The Textbook Cartel — The Companies That Write America’s Memory

Three companies control over 80% of all K–12 textbooks in the United States:

1. Pearson Education

• A global education conglomerate
• Makes over $4.5 billion annually
• Has been repeatedly sued for unethical testing & publishing practices
• Writes standards and then sells the tests that align with them

2. McGraw Hill

• Revenue ~$1.7 billion yearly
• Deep ties to banking and corporate sponsors
• Influences STEM and history narratives heavily

3. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

• Revenue $1.0+ billion
• Historically known for altering historical narratives to satisfy state demands

Together, these companies form what researchers call:

“The Education Industrial Complex.”

They produce:

• the textbooks
• the teacher guides
• the standardized tests
• the digital software
• the homework systems

And they market themselves not as educators…
but as shareholder-driven corporations.

If the truth threatens sales?
It gets edited out.

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⭐ ACT II: The REAL Deciders — Texas & Florida

(Yes, two states shape the entire nation’s books.)

Most people don’t know this, but:

Texas and Florida buy so many textbooks that publishers rewrite content to satisfy their political boards.

Whatever Texas approves…
The rest of the nation gets by default.

Why?

Because corporations do not want to print 50 different versions of a history book.
They want one.

So what Texas demands…
America learns.

Examples (documented):

✔ Slavery renamed to “the Atlantic triangular trade.”
✔ Capitalism called “the free enterprise system.”
✔ Textbooks required to list the “positives” of slavery.
✔ The Civil War reframed as a “states’ rights disagreement.”
✔ Climate change minimized or omitted.
✔ Creationism inserted as “alternative theory.”
✔ American imperialism softened or erased.
✔ Native genocide rebranded as “westward expansion.”

Sources:

• Texas State Board of Education records, 2010–2022
• New York Times textbook investigations (2019)
• Washington Post analysis of FL/TX curriculum influence
• National Education Policy Center (NEPC) textbook studies

Politicians — not historians — determine “truth.”

And publishers obey, because the profits are enormous.

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⭐ ACT III: Why They Want Americans Uninformed

(This is where it gets uncomfortable.)

A miseducated public is:

✔ Easier to control
✔ Easier to manipulate
✔ Less likely to revolt
✔ Less likely to question government decisions
✔ More likely to be patriotic consumers
✔ More likely to accept corporate power
✔ More likely to vote based on emotion, not knowledge

An educated public is dangerous, because:

• They ask questions
• They think critically
• They recognize propaganda
• They demand accountability
• They see through political marketing
• They cannot be easily divided

This is why the American school system was designed — from the industrial era — to produce obedient workers, not thinkers.

John D. Rockefeller said it himself:

“I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.”

His foundation funded modern schooling.
His values became policy.

This was not an accident.

It was infrastructure.

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⭐ ACT IV: The Money Trail — How Much They Make From Every Child

Every child in America represents:

✔ textbook purchases
✔ digital access fees
✔ testing fees
✔ “test prep” add-ons
✔ online curriculum subscriptions

Pearson alone earns hundreds of millions annually from state contracts.

When you multiply:

50 million students ×
$100–$300 per student ×
annual district purchases…

You get a multi-billion-dollar propaganda pipeline.

It is the most profitable misinformation system in the country — because nobody questions schoolbooks.

You’re told:

“This is history.”
“This is fact.”
“This is truth.”

But truth has never been the point.
Compliance has.

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⭐ ACT V: Receipts — Historical Documentation & Academic Sources

1. “Lies My Teacher Told Me” — James W. Loewen

A Pulitzer-nominated work exposing textbook distortion.

2. NEPC (National Education Policy Center) Textbook Studies

Documents political interference in content.

3. “The Revisionaries” — PBS Documentary

Exposes Texas politicians rewriting history standards.

4. New York Times Investigation (2019):

Showed differences in CA vs TX textbooks — SAME publisher, TWO different truths.

5. “The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools” — Berliner & Biddle

Documents corporate influence over curriculum.

6. Texas SBOE Public Hearing Records

Show politicians demanding religious, ideological, and corporate edits.

7. Pearson Annual Reports

Show billions in profit structured around state contracts and testing.

8. Howard Zinn — A People’s History of the United States

Exposes omitted narratives and marginalized voices.

9. Academic paper: “Curriculum Politics: Who Should Decide What Children Learn?”

Published in The Social Studies Review.

These are not conspiracy theories.
These are receipts.
Documented, archived, and verifiable.

Just hidden from the public.

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📘 The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America

This book connects directly to this topic — because textbook creation is just another form of national advertising.

A brand story.
A curated identity.
A product called “America.”

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Who really writes American textbooks? Discover the corporations, political boards, and financial motives shaping what 50 million students learn—and why the truth is edited, softened, or erased. Includes real references, receipts, and analysis from A.L. Childers.

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⭐ ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A.L. Childers is a journalist, researcher, and author specializing in hidden history, propaganda analysis, and the unseen machinery shaping American life. Her book The Lies We Loved: How Advertising Invented America exposes how corporations and government institutions manufacture national narratives, rewrite collective memory, and sell patriotism like a product.

She believes truth belongs to the people — not the publishers.

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⭐ DISCLAIMER

This blog is for educational and investigative purposes. All claims are supported by publicly available academic studies, corporate financial documents, textbook committee records, and journalistic investigations. This article does not allege illegal activity but analyzes structural and political influences on curriculum creation.