I’ve been looking through potential new textbooks for our U.S. History A & B classes, and have been disappointed thus far. The various sample copies I have viewed have either been incredibly dry (boring) or incredibly slanted. This pains me. For example, Eric Foner’s “Giver Me Liberty” is at times too leading and obviously tilted.
Eric’s Civil War & Reconstruction work I am a big fan of, however, it seems with his general U.S. History writing he allows his political beliefs to interfere too much with a fair presentation.
For example, according to Mr. Foner, the Communist and Socialist movements in the U.S. during the 1930s were actually a good thing and played a pivotal role in the “expansion of freedom in the United States,” yet their membership never exceeded 100,000. He completely fails to give a complete picture of their doings and the corruption that saturated these organizations and discredited them.
Also, just read through his fawning and apologetic presentation of Bill Clinton, and then compare it to his biting and loathing descriptions of Ronald Reagan and of course George Bush.
I’m not asking for the reverse, but I am sick of politics getting in the way of straight forward historical analysis.
Maybe Foner’s book would be good to use, and could lead to discussion with the students about author’s intentions and biases, as well as cognitive dissonance, get in the way of historical scholarship.
Nope, not unless this was an AP class, which it simply is not.
“… I am sick of politics getting in the way of straight forward historical analysis.”
I agree with you! When did this ever become acceptable as scholarly writing? I don’t allow it in papers my students write; how could I accept it in a textbook?
Am i wrong to think that these textbooks are not written by the “authors’ but rather by the publishing company’s editors?
I was always under the impression that the names listed in the book were there for legitimacy and that those people wouldn’t waste there time with a mere text book.
PS – i was a history teacher too and was a little disappointed with the content. so much so that i convinced my school to buy 30 copies of Zinn’s “A People’s History…” and would compare the two… kids loved it.
I was sent a US history textbook and discovered some incredible omissions and some downright lies. It is disingenuous to make obvious omissions and certainly we should have no textbooks with lies. I lived through some of these events and find it unconscionable that “history” records them in such an obvious altered manner. One example is Senator Joseph McCarthy who should have been exonerated by the Venona Papers—but some authors fail to see the value of putting truth ahead of agenda.