Rewriting American History Textbooks Summary

Arthur M. Schlesinger once stated,“Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.”As seen through Schlesinger's book The Cycles of American History really defining throughout the book how America has changed throughout each chapter answering a question or managing to go in depth throughout the chapter. As seen in Chapter 1, the title being “The Theory of America: Experiment or Destiny?” Throughout that chapter as seen on page 10 where Schlesinger states, “The Founding Fathers saw the American republic not as a divine consecration but as the test against history of a hypothesis. Yet the very faith in experiment implied the rejection of the classical republican dogma that time guaranteed decay.” (10) The Founding Fathers imposing a government that would last centuries: as seen through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. However, as see on page 11 Schlesinger states, “Washington, said Andrew Jackson in his own Farewell

1. Describe the conditions of the western "borderlands" of the 1830s as well as the factors attracting American settlers.

In The Death of History is Bunk, Patrick Watson argues that the decrease of historical content in the curriculum does not indicate that history, as a subject, is declining. While many complain about the decreasing prominence of history classes in Canadian schools, the content of those classes is excessively dull as it consists of memorizing lists of facts. Despite this, there are still protests that knowledge of “defining events” is required to contribute to “the National Conversation”. However, history is not so simple as a list of events—it is the sum of the small happenings in society around the events. A whole variety of factors influence history, which is created by the common people. Unlike Americans, who turn to their constitution for

Also, the variety of viewpoints presented in this book help to expand the reader’s knowledge. The editors provide a well-rounded collection of additional works that show the reader some of the major theories on a historical event. Basically, a reader is able to see historical issues through the eyes of professional historians. Interpretations of American History does not merely state the facts, it allows the reader to decide where they stand on the historical event in question. This can lead to a deeper, more profound study of history.

The world is full of rich culture, diversity and experiences unique to each individual. When determining the validity of historic accounts we must factor in that particular historian’s point of view, which should be characterized by ethnicity, idealogy, theoretical or methodological preference. With these factors views of the past often vary from person to person. In this essay I will be discussing the four different stages that shaped the writing of American history over the last 400 years.

High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social

“Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths” is the introduction of the ninth edition book Rereading America, published in 2013 by Bedford/St. Martin’s Press and edited by Gary Colombo from Los Angeles City College, Robert Cullen from San Jose State University, and Bonnie Lisle from University of California, Los Angeles. In this section, the editors state the target of this book is toward the college students and emphasize the importance of thinking critically and challenging cultural myths as the readers will face with more complicated writings in the future. Some methods are given to help us to reach the purpose more easily. The introduction also gives an overview of the entire book’s structure and the purposes of each kind of chosen articles.

I do not know if there is any other field of knowledge which suffers so badly as history from the sheer blind repetitions that occur year after year, and from book to book.

The study of history and the teaching of history has come under intense public debate in the United States in the last few decades. The “culture-wars” began with the call to add more works by non-Caucasians and women and has bled into the study of history. Not only in the study of history or literature, this debate has spread into American culture like wildfire.

The book “Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History” by Madaras, Larry and James SoRelle draws attention on controversial issues. James and Madaras wrote the book in a debate-style format, which intrigues many students, hence supporting them in enhancing their critical thinking skills. James and Madaras ensured that every issue in the book has a summary, introduction, challenge question and postscript. Therefore, the paper will focus on issue 10, which debates on whether the new deal prolonged the great depression. The great depression refers to an era in US history, which happened from 1929 to 1941 during president Franklin Delano Roosevelt era, and it made the US citizens face economic hard times. The great depression era had much overproduction, inequality in wealth distribution and over borrowing. Consequently, the president implemented the new deal with the aim of saving American citizens from the great depression. However, people had different feelings regarding the effectiveness of the new deal, which brought up the debate in the book. For example, Burton Folsom believed that the new deal was not effective because he thought that it prolonged the great depression. On the contrary, Roger Biles alleged that the new deal was effective, and it did not prolong the great depression (Madaras and James 227).

James Loewen uses his piece Lies my Teacher Told Me to reveal the flaws in America’s mainstream textbooks. Loewen points out the fact that textbooks try to “indoctrinate blind patriotism” (Loewen 6) and “keep students in the dark about the nature of history” (Loewen 8). Almost every American textbook sells history using the “soft seduction” approach, as explained in Robert Greene’s book, The Art of Seduction. Textbooks try to seduce Americans into being proud of their country by making American historical figures look like heroes, like in the case of Helen Keller, Woodrow Wilson, and Christopher Columbus. “Heroification” (Loewen 11) has a

For example, Document B discusses Europe being in a dark age because it explains events taking place with specific details. This document states, “ Europe suffered a decline in trade, manufacturing, education, ligatures, arts, and almost all that makes it possible to have a successful civilization.” Another example in document A in the crusades packet is that, Europe is shown in a dark age because; people would cut off the heads of their enemies. According to this document, one direct quote is, “In the temple of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.” All evidence in these documents supports the theory that Europe was in a dark

James W. Loewen wrote the book “Lies My Teacher Told Me” to help students understand the past of the United States, and how it is effecting the present time. “Lies My Teacher Told Me” looks at 12 different American history textbooks, and points out the different lies, flaws, and sugar coated stories the textbooks present. Lowen explains how textbooks practice heroification, and how race and race relations are a major issue when it comes to American history. Among these topics, Lowen also sheds light on the truth about social classes in America, and how textbooks lie about the past and try to avoid the recent past all together.

The Civil War lasted about four years. In April, from the years 1861-1865. So much blood was shed and a lot of deaths. The North known as the Union and the South known as the Confederate States were at war. People have their views and opinions on the war. Author, Michael Holt has three reasons as to what happened he suggests that 1. The breakdown to the Whig Party; 2. The realignment of voters and thirdly a shift from a nationally balanced party system where both major parties competed on fairly even terms in all parts of the nation to a sectionalized polarized one with Republicans dominant in the North and Democrats in the South (page 208). So, the biggest questions is why? Why were these two sides at war? Was the Civil War over Slavery? Two authors think they have the answers to these questions. In the book, Taking Sides: Clashing Views in U.S History, Charles B. Dew say yes slavery was the cause of the Civil War. He basically

There are so many in this world that simply does not adhere to the ideals we believe in, maybe that is why they feel what’s in the textbooks today are useful information. The author’s of the textbooks should think back to when they were growing up, what they remembered and be sure to include it in the textbooks. There are so many significant events that have happened within the past ten years. History is important for our children to understand, to give them a better sense of how to understand what we do and a sense of what it means to be an American; a sense of importance and serving something greater than yourself in life.