James W. Loewen

James Loewen, American sociologist and historian (died 2021)

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Born: February 6, 1942
Died: August 19, 2021
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
Birth year: 1942

About James W. Loewen

James William Loewen was an American sociologist, historian, and author. He was best known for his 1995 book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. A 2005 book, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, galvanized a national effort to develop a list of sundown towns. Loewen first taught in Mississippi at Tougaloo College, a historically black college founded by the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War. It won the Lillian Smith Book Award for Best Southern Nonfiction in 1975.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when James W. Loewen was born

James W. Loewen was born in 1942. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1942

#1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
Top movieCasablanca
Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
Defining fadRationing and war bonds
Notable inventionNapalm
World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in James W. Loewen's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1942	2026
Gas	$0.20	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,600	$435,000
Average income	$3,800	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.30	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.27	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	134.9M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.