Dr. James Loewen, author of the 1995 bestseller “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,” will address a Bluffton University Forum on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

His talk, titled “The Most Important Era in U.S. History That You Never Heard Of, and Why It’s Still Important Today,” will begin at 11 a.m. in Founders Hall. It is free and open to the public.

As part of his presentation, the professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Vermont will examine the legacy of “sundown towns”—communities that kept out African-Americans after dark. Such towns were “especially common” in northwest Ohio, he says.

Loewen’s research for “Lies My Teacher Told Me” entailed study of 12 leading American history textbooks over two years. The book won the 1996 American Book Award and was republished in 2008.