TableofContents

ALSOBYJAMESW.LOEWENTitlePageDedicationAcknowledgementsIntroductionINTRODUCTIONChapter1.-HANDICAPPEDBYHISTORYChapter2.-1493Chapter3.-THETRUTHABOUTTHEFIRSTTHANKSGIVINGChapter4.-REDEYESChapter5.-“GONEWITHTHEWIND”Chapter6.-JOHNBROWNANDABRAHAMLINCOLNChapter7.-THELANDOFOPPORTUNITYChapter8.-WATCHINGBIGBROTHERChapter9.-SEENOEVILChapter10.-DOWNTHEMEMORYHOLE:Chapter11.-PROGRESSISOURMOSTIMPORTANTPRODUCTChapter12.-WHYISHISTORYTAUGHTLIKETHIS?Chapter13.-WHATISTHERESULTOFTEACHINGHISTORYLIKETHIS?AFTERWORDNOTESAPPENDIXINDEXCopyrightPage

ALSOBYJAMESW.LOEWEN

LiesAcrossAmerica:WhatOurHistoricSitesGetWrong

LiesMyTeacherToldMeAboutChristopherColumbus

TheMississippiChinese:BetweenBlackandWhite

Mississippi:ConflictandChange(withCharlesSallisetal.)

RethinkingOurPast:RecognizingFacts,Fiction,andLiesinAmericanHistory

SocialScienceintheCourtroom

SundownTowns:

AHiddenDimensionofAmericanRacism

DedicatedtoallAmericanhistoryteacherswhoteachagainsttheirtextbooks(andtheirranksaregrowing)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TOTHEFIRSTEDITION

THE PEOPLE LISTED BELOW in alphabetical order talked with me,commentedonchapters,suggestedsources,correctedmymistakes,orprovidedother moral or material aid. I thank them very much. They are: Ken Ames,Charles Arnaude, Stephen Aron, James Baker, Jose Barreiro, Carol Berkin,Sanford Berman, Robert Bieder, Bill Bigelow, Michael Blakey, Linda Brew,Tim Brookes, Josh Brown, Lonnie Bunch, Vernon Burton, Claire Cuddy,RichardN.Current,PeteDaniel,KevinDann,MarthaDay,MargoDelVecchio,Susan Dixon, Ariel Dorfman, Mary Dyer, Shirley Engel, Bill Evans, JohnFadden, Patrick Ferguson, Paul Finkelman, Frances FitzGerald, WilliamFitzhugh, John Franklin, Michael Frisch, Mel Gabler, James Gardiner, JohnGarraty, Elise Guyette, Mary E. Haas, Patrick Hagopian, William Haviland,GordonHenderson,MarkHilgendorf,RichardHill,MarkHirsch,DeanHoge,JoHoge, Jeanne Houck, Frederick Hoxie, David Hutchinson, Carolyn Jackson,Clifton H. Johnson, Elizabeth Judge, Stuart Kaufman, David Kelley, RogerKennedy, Paul Kleppner, J. Morgan Kousser, Gary Kulik, Jill Laramie, KenLawrence,MaryLehman,SteveLewin,GaretLivermore,LucyLoewen,NickLoewen,BarbaraM.Loste,MarkLytle,JohnMarciano,J.DanMarshall,JuanMauro, EdithMayo, JamesMcPherson, DennisMeadows, DonellaMeadows,Dennis Medina, Betty Meggars, Milton Meltzer, Deborah Menkart, DonnaMorgenstern, Nanepashemet, Janet Noble, Roger Norland, Jeff Nygaard, JimO’Brien,WardellPayne,MarkPendergrast,LarryPizer,BerniceReagon,EllenReeves, Joe Reidy, Roy Rozensweig, Harry Rubenstein, Faith Davis Ruffins,John Salter, Saul Schniderman, Barry Schwartz, John Anthony Scott, LouisSegal,RuthSelig,BettySharpe,BrianSherman,DavidShiman,BeatriceSiegel,BarbaraClarkSmith,LutherSpoehr,JeroldStarr,MarkStoler,BillSturtevant,LonnTaylor, Linda Tucker,Harriet Tyson, IvanVan Sertima,HermanViola,Virgil J. Vogel, Debbie Warner, Barbara Woods, Nancy Wright, and JohnYewell.

Threeinstitutionshelpedmaterially.TheSmithsonianInstitutionawardedmetwo senior postdoctoral fellowships. Members of its staff provided livelyintellectual stimulation, as did my fellow fellows at the NationalMuseum ofAmericanHistory.InternsattheSmithsonianfromtheUniversityofMichigan,Johns Hopkins, and especially Portland State University chased down errantfacts.TheflexibleUniversityofVermontallowedmetogoonleavetoworkonthisbook,includingasabbatical leavein1993.Finally,TheNewPress,AndréSchiffrin, and especially my editor, Diane Wachtell, provided consistentencouragementandintelligentcriticism.

TOTHESECONDEDITION

ASIENDUREDTHEMORALandintellectualtortureofsubjectingmyselftosix new high school American history textbooks in 2006-07, the followingassisted in important ways: Cindy King, David Luchs, Susan Luchs, NatalieMartin,JyothiNatarajan, theLifeCycleInstituteandDepartmentofSociologyatCatholicUniversityofAmerica,andJoeytheguidedogintraining.Manyofthe folks thanked for their assistancewith the first edition—including those atThe New Press—also helped this time. So did Amanda Patten at Simon &Schuster.

INTRODUCTION

TOTHESECONDEDITION

I really like your book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. I’ve beenusingittohecklemyhistoryteacherfromthebackoftheroom.

—HIGHSCHOOLSTUDENT1

I just wanted to let you know that I don’t consider Lies MyTeacherToldMeoutdated;Ireallydon’tseemuchimprovementintextbooksatall!

—HIGHSCHOOLTEACHER,SHERWOOD,AR2

Iwasexpectingsome liberalbullshit,but I thought itwas righton.—WORKER,BAYERPHARMACEUTICALS,BERKELEY,CA3

READERSNEWTOLiesMyTeacherToldMeshouldgostraighttopageone.This introductiontellsoldfriends(andenemies?)howthiseditiondiffersfromthe first and why it came to be. Since it came to be largely because readerresponse to the first edition was so positive, the introduction seems self-congratulatorytome—anotherreasontoskipit.LiesMyTeacherToldMedoestake readers on a voyage of discovery through our past, however, and somereadersmaywanttolearnofthereactionsoffellowpassengers.

Fromthefirstday,readersmadeLiesasuccess.Asitsnameimplies,TheNewPress was a small fledgling publisher without an advertising budget; word of

mouth caused Lies to sell. The book first created a stir on the West Coast.“Although the book is considered controversial by some, libraries inAlamedaCounty [California] can’t keep it on their shelves,” reported an article atCalifornia State University at Hayward. A high school student wrote to theeditoroftheSanFranciscoExaminer:“Iwasapoor(D-plus)studentinhistoryuntilIreadPeople’sHistoryoftheUnitedStatesandLiesMyTeacherToldMe.Afterreadingthosetwobooks,myGPAinhistoryroseto3.8andstayedthere.IfyoutrulywantstudentstotakeaninterestinAmericanhistory,thenstoplyingto them.” 4 An early review in the San Francisco Chronicle called Lies “anextremely convincing plea for truth in education,” andmy book spent severalweeksontheBayAreabestsellerlistin1995.5

Independent bookstores—thekindwhose owners and clerks read books andwhosecustomersaskthemforrecommendations—spreadthebuzzacrossNorthAmerica. “TurnsAmerican history upside down,”wrote “Joan” of Toronto in1995 in a column called “Best New Books Recommended by LeadingIndependentBookstores.” “A landmarkbook,” shewenton, “amust read, notonly for teachers of history and those who write it, but for any thinkingindividual.”6TheNation,anationalmagazine,saidthatLies“containssomuchhistory that it ends up functioning not just as a critique but also as a kind ofcounter-textbookthatretellsthestoryoftheAmericanpast.”SoonLiesreachedthebestsellerlistsinBoston;Burlington,Vermont;andothercities.ItwasalsoabestsellerfortheHistoryandQualityPaperbackBookClubs.Inpaperback,Lieshas gone through more than thirty printings at Simon & Schuster. From thelaunch of Amazon.com, Lies has been the sales leader in its category(historiography).So,asfarasIcantell,Liesisthebestsellingbookbyalivingsociologist.7Countingalleditions,includingRecordedBooks,salesofthefirsteditiontotaledaboutamillioncopies.

IwroteLiesMyTeacherToldMe partly because I believed thatAmericanstookgreatinterestintheirpastbuthadbeenboredtotearsbytheirhighschoolAmerican history courses. Readers’ reactions confirmed this belief. Theirresponseswerenot onlywide, but deep. “Myhistory classes inhigh school, Ifound,werenotimportanttomeormylife,”e-mailedonereaderfromtheSanFranciscoarea,because they“didnotmake it relevant towhatwashappeningtoday.” Some adult readers had always blamed themselves for their lack ofinterestinhighschoolhistory.“Foralltheseyears(Iamforty-nine),IhavehadtheopinionthatIdon’tlikehistory,”wroteawomanfromUtah,“whenintruth,

whatIdon’tlikeisillogic,orinconsistency.Thankyouforyourwork.Youhavechangedmylife.”

Many readers found the book to be a life-changing experience. A forkliftoperatorinOhio,aforty-seven-year-oldhousewifeinDenver,a“do-gooder”inupstateNewYorkwereinspiredtofinishcollegeorgraduateschoolandchangecareersbyreadingthisbook.“Wordscannotdescribehowmuchyourbookhaschangedme,”wroteawomanfromNewYorkCity.“It’slikeseeingeverythingthroughnew eyes.The eyes of truth as I like to call it.”While readers repeatadjectiveslike“shocked,”“stunned,”and“disillusioned,”manyhavealsofoundLiestobeuplifting.

Tobesure,noteveryreactionwaspositive.Althoughonereader“nevercoulddecidewhetheryouwereaSocialistoraRepublican,”othersthoughttheycouldand that Lies suffers from a leftward bias. “Marxist/hippie/socialist/ anti-American/anti-Christian”commentedonereaderatAmazon.com,whowouldbeshocked to learn my real feelings about capitalism. “What a piece of racisttrash,” said an anonymous postcard from El Paso. “Take your sour mind toAfricawhereyoucanadjustthathistory.”

Thatwas,ofcourse,awhiteresponse—averywhiteresponse.Verydifferenthasbeenthereactionfrom“Indiancountry.”AreaderwhoIinferispart-Indianwrote:

YourbookLiesMyTeacherToldMe, and especially the chapter “RedEyes,”hashadanunprecedentedeffectonhowIviewtheworld.Ihavenever felt inclined to write a letter of approval for anything I’ve readbefore. Your description of the Indian experience in the United Statesand,more importantly, theconceptofasyncreticAmericansocietyhassubtly,butpowerfully,changedmyunderstandingofmycountry,and,infact,myownancestry.

If, as Lies My Teacher Told Me shows, history is the least-liked subject inAmericanhighschools,itispositivelyabhorredinIndiancountry.Thereitistherecordoffivecenturiesofdefeat.Yet,properlyunderstood,Americanhistoryisnot a record of Native incompetence but of survival and perseverance. Fromspeaking before Native audiences in six states, I have come to understand towhatextentfalsehistoryholdsNativeAmericansdown.Inowbelievethatonlywhen they accurately understand their past—including their recent past—willyoungAmericanIndiansfindthesocialandintellectualpowertomakehistoryin

the twenty-first century. That understanding must include the concept ofsyncretism—blending elements from two different cultures to come up withsomethingnew.Syncretismishowculturestypicallychangeandsurvive,andallAmericansneedtounderstandthatNativeAmericancultures,too,mustchangetosurvive.Nativesaswellasnon-Nativesoftenlaborunderthemisapprehensionthat“real”Indianculturewas thosepractices thatexistedbeforewhitecontact.Actually, real Indianculture is stillbeingproduced—bysculptors likeNalenikTemela (page133),musicians likeKeithSecola, andAmerican Indianparentseverywhere.

LieshasalsoenjoyedhugesuccessamongAfricanAmericans. In thefallof2004, for example, it reached number three on the bestseller list of Essencemagazineandwastheonlybookonthatlistbyanonblackauthor.“Mystudents,whoareallAfricanAmericans,wereimmenselyenthusedandenergizedbyyourbook,”wrote a sociologyprofessor atHamptonUniversity.AMissouri nativewrote that he found Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America“incrediblyempowering”andplanned“tobuyanextracopyofbothbooksandleavetheminthebarbershopIpatronizeindowntownSt.Louis.Ifigureifoneortwokidsreadit,itwillmakeahugedifferenceforgenerationstocome.”

Working-class groups and labor historians have also enjoyedLies. “Thanksagain foryour scholarshipand solidarity inhelping show the sideof the storythatbestreflectstherootsoftheother90percentwhoaren’twealthy,”wroteanonwealthy reader in2004.Programs ingayand lesbian studies andwomen’sstudieshavealsoinvitedmetospeak,eventhoughLiesMyTeacherToldMe—unlike its successor Lies Across America—contains no explicit treatment ofsexualidentityorpreferenceorgenderissues.8Prisonersrespondpositively,too:a Wisconsin inmate, for example, wrote, “My congratulations to you for thecourage you had to have to write such a book that goes against the grain.”Hardly least, “regular” white folks—even males—like my book, too, perhapsbecause I takeobvioussatisfaction inandgivecredit to thosewhitemenfromBartolomé de Las Casas through Robert Flournoy toMississippi judge OrmaSmithwhohavefoughtforjusticeforallofus.

IfLiesMyTeacherToldMehasmadesuchanimpact,whythisnewedition?Especiallywhen the book, as of 2007,was selling better than ever, averagingnearlytwothousandcopiesperweek?

Back in 2003, writing from Walnut Creek, California, a devoted reader

convincedmeof theneedforanewedition.“I thinkmanypeoplebelievethatyourbookdescribesproblems thatUSEDTOexist inschool textbooks,notascurrent problems,” she e-mailedme. “My own anecdotal experience withmyownkids’schooltextbooksisthatmanyofyouroriginalfindingsremainvalid.An updated editionwouldmake it harder for people tominimize your book’struth by characterizing it as dated.” Questions from audiences over the yearstaughtmethatdespitemydebunkingofautomaticprogressinChapter11,manyreaders still believe in the myth, even as applied to the textbook publishingindustry.TheproblemsInotedwithhighschoolhistorybooksweresogallingthat these readerswant to believe—and therefore do believe—that the booksmust have improved. Unfortunately, we cannot assume progress. Whetherhistory textbooks have improved is an empirical question. It can only beansweredwithdata.Anditisaninterestingquestion,especiallytome,becauseitsubsumesanotherquery:Didmybookmakeanydifference?

SoIspentmuchof2006-07ponderingsixnewU.S.historytextbooks.Ididfind them improved in a few regards—especially in their treatment ofChristopherColumbusandtheensuingColumbianExchange.Ialsofoundthemworseorunchangedinmanyotherregards—butthatisthesubjectoftherestofthebook.It’ssafetoconcludethatLiesdidn’tinfluencetextbookpublishersverymuch. This did not surprise me, because fifteen years earlier, FrancesFitzGerald’scritiqueoftextbooks,AmericaRevised,wasalsoabestseller,butit,too,madelittleimpactontheindustry.

However,Liesdid reachandmove teachers.Doingso is important,becauseone teacher can reach a hundred students, and another hundred next year.TeacherswereacentralaudienceIhadinmindasIwroteLies.Whathavetheymadeofit?

Sadly,afewteachersrejectedLiesunread,concludingfromitstitlethatIamone more teacher-basher. The book itself never bashes teachers. As a formercollege professorwho in a typical semester appeared before students for ninehoursaweek,IhavegreatrespectforK-12teachers.Manyworkinclassroomsforasmanyas thirty-fivehoursaweek;on topof that theymustassign, read,andcommentonhomework,prepareandgradeexams,anddevelopnextweek’slessonplans.WhenaretheysupposedtofindtimetoresearchwhattheyteachinAmerican history? During their unpaid summers and weekends? Moreover, Irealize that a sizable proportion—I used to estimate 25 to 30 percent, but thenumberisgrowing—ofhighschoolAmericanhistoryteachersareseriousabout

theirsubject.Theystudyit themselvesandgettheirstudentsinvolvedindoinghistory and critiquing their textbooks. In speeches to teachergroups, I used tobegin by acknowledging all the foregoing, trying to persuade them to venturebeyond thebook’s title.9Moreover, there isacertain tensionbetween the titleandthesubtitle,“EverythingYourAmericanHistoryTextbookGotWrong.”Ifteachers merely rely on their textbooks, however, and try to get students to“learn”them,andifthetextbooksareasbadasthenextelevenchapterssuggest,thenteachersarecomplicitinmiseducatingtheirchargesaboutourpast.

In central Illinois, a teacher provided an example of what to do about badtextbooks.Inautumn2003,treatingtheearlyyearsoftherepublic,shetoldhersixthgradersinpassingthatmostpresidentsbeforeLincolnwereslaveowners.Herstudentswereoutraged—notwiththepresidents,butwithher,for lyingtothem. “That’s not true,” they protested, “or it would be in the book!” Theypointed out that the book devoted many pages to Washington, Jefferson,Madison,Jackson,andotherearlypresidents,pagesthatsaidnotonewordabouttheirowningslaves.“MaybeI’mwrong,then,”shereplied,suggestingthattheycheck her facts. Each chose a president and found out about him.When theyregrouped, they were outraged at their textbook for denying them thisinformation. They wrote letters to the putative author and the publisher. Theauthorneverreplied,whichdidnotsurpriseme—asweshallsee,manyauthorsneverwrote“their” textbooks,especially in their latereditions.Someareevendeceased.Thestudentsdidgetareplyfromaspokespersonatthepublisher.“Wearealwaysglad toget feedbackonourproduct,” itwent,orboilerplate to thateffect. Then it suggested, “If you will look at pages 501-506, you will findsubstantial treatment of the Civil Rights Movement.” The students looked ateachotherblankly:howdidthisrelatetotheircomplaint?

Such a critique is a win-win action for students. Either they improve thetextbookforthenextgenerationofstudents,ortheylearnthatavacuumresidesattheintellectualcenterofthetextbookestablishment.Eitherway,theybecomecriticalreadersfortherestoftheacademicyear.

Thestoryofthesesixthgradersshowsthatweunderestimatechildrenatourperil.Teacherswhohavegottenstudentsasyoungasfourthgradetochallengetextbooksanddooriginalresearchhavefoundthattheyexceededexpectations.Afifth-grade teacher in farsouthwesternVirginiawroteme thatat thestartoftheyearhisstudentssaytheyhatehistory.“Withintwoweeks,allormostlovehistory.”Hegetstheminvolvedwith:

primarysourcedocumentssuchasnewspaperaccountsandactualphotosoffreedmenbeinglynched.Thisistoughonthekidssometimesbuttheyhandle itwell.Theygetanattitudeaboutevilandvow tokeep it fromhappening. They no longer think that video gameswith people gettingblownuparefunny.Theyevenstart tocheckoutbooksonhistoryandreadthemandgetawayfromthesanitizedvanillayogurtinthetextbooksandshootforafive-alarmchilitypeofhistory.Theylovehistorythathas“thegoodstuff” in it.And then theyarepromotedandgoback to thetextbook!Whichcreatesaproblem.Theyraisehellwiththenextteacher!Theybecomepoliticallyactivewithinthemiddleschool.Theylookliketheywillbecomegoodcitizens.

Surely good citizens arewhatwewant—butwhat dowemean by a “goodcitizen”?Educators first requiredAmericanhistoryasahighschool subjectaspartofanationalistflag-wavingcampaignaround1900.Itsnationalisticgenesishasalwaysinterferedwithitsbasicmission:topreparestudentstodotheirjobasAmericans.

Again,whatexactlyisourjobasAmericans?SurelyitistobringintobeingtheAmericaofthefuture.Whatshouldcharacterizethatnation?Howshoulditbalance civil liberties and surveillance against potential terrorists? Should itallow gaymarriage?What should its energy policies be, as theworld’s finitesupplyofoilbeginstoimpactuponus?Toparticipateinthesediscussionsandinfluencethesedebates,goodcitizensneedtobeabletoevaluatetheclaimsthatourleadersandwould-beleadersmake.Theymustreadcritically,winnowfactfrom fraud, and seek tounderstandcausesand results in thepast.These skillsmuststandatthecenterofanycompetenthistorycourse.

Thesearenot skills thatAmericanhistory textbooks foster—even the recentones.Nor do courses based on them.Why then do teachers put upwith suchbooks?Theanswer: theymake theirbusy liveseasier.The teachers’editionofHoltAmericanNation, to take one example, beginswith twenty-two pages ofadsmakingthispoint.Onepagetoutsits“ManagementSystem.”Itcontraststwophotographs.Oneshowsa teacherstruggling tocarrya textbook,severalotherbooks,someoverheadprojections,abinderoflecturenotes,andmiscellaneouspapers, the other a teacher smiling as she slips a single CD into her purse.“Everything you need is on one disk!” trumpets the ad, including “editablelesson plans,” “classroom presentations” containing lecture notes suitable forprojection, and an “easy-to-use test generator.”No longer do teachers need to

maketheirownlessonplansorconstructtheirowntests,andiftheyrunoutofthings to say in theclassroom, thediskalsocontainspreviewsof the teachingresources and movies that Holt offers as ancillary materials. Many of thesesupplements, including a series of CNN videos, are more valuable educationtools than the textbook itself. The problem is that the purpose of all theancillaries is toget teachers toadoptHolt’s textbook.Then,sincethetextbookruns to 1,240 pages—and all toomany teachers assign them all—students areunlikelytohavetimetodoanythingwithanyoftheseadditionalmaterials.

Sometimeshelpcomesfromthetopdown.Manyschoolsystemshavegrowndispleasedwiththelowstudentmoraleinthesetextbook-drivenhistorycourses.Asamatterofschool-boardpolicy,at least twosystemsrequireanyteacherinsocialstudiesorhistorytoreadmybook.Homeschoolershavealsofoundtheirway toLiesMy Teacher ToldMe.WroteDavid Stanton, editor of a resourcecatalog for homeschoolers, “I read it cover to cover (including the footnotes),foundithardtoputdown,andwassadwhenitended.”

Studentshavealsotakenmattersintotheirownhands.Afourteen-year-oldinMountVernon,SouthDakota,goingintotheninthgrade,hadalreadyreadLiesMy Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America. “These are EXCELLENTbooks!” she wrote. “After reading them, I spread them around the school todifferentteachers.Allwereshockedand,duetothis,arechangingtheirteachingmethods.”JohnJennings,ahighschoolstudentsomewhereincyberspace,wrotethatheandagroupofhisfriends“havereadyourbookLiesMyTeacherToldMe and ithasopenedoureyes to the truehistorybehindourcountry,positiveandnegative.”Hewentontoaddthatheis“signeduptotakeAmericanHistorynextsemester...andweareusingoneofthetwelvetextbooksyoureviewed,soIcan’twaittoattempttostartdiscussionsinclassconcerningissuesdiscussedinyourbookanduseyourbookasareference.”ANorthCarolinadadwrote,“MydaughterusesLiesMyTeacherToldMeasaguerrilla text inhergradeelevenAdvanced Placement U.S. History, and loves it—although the teacher isn’talwaysaspleased.”Myfavoritee-mailofallcameinfromaladsomewhereatAOL.com: “DearMr.Loewen, I really like your book,LiesMyTeacherToldMe.I’vebeenusingittohecklemyhistoryteacherfromthebackoftheroom.”Myfriendsalllikeit,too,hewenton.“IfIcouldgetagrouppriceonitfromthepublisher,Icouldsellitinthecorridorsofmyhighschool.”Igothimthegroupprice, and since then, several teachers—perhaps including his—have told methatmybook,inthehandsofprecociouspupils,madetheirlivesmiserableuntil

theygottheirowncopy,whichjarredthemoutoftheirtextbookrut.Sothereisalsohopefromthebottomup.

Best of all has been the response in the “aftermarket”—adults who haveturned to Lies because they sensed something remiss about their boring highschoolhistorycourses.Manyfinditabooktoshare.“Ireadittwiceandthenitmadetheroundoffriendswhowerestubbornaboutreturningit,butIfinallygotit back and now I’m reading it again,” wrote a security guard in California.“Aftercompletingeachsuccessivechapter,IalwaysfeltthatIhadtocommentto a friend about what I just learned,” wrote a graduate-student-to-be ineducation.“IhavebeensharingyourinformationwitheveryteacherIcangettostandstillforfiveminutes,”wroteateacher’saideinMontana.“Thisisabookthat you buy two of,”wrote a professor inNewHampshire, “one to read andkeep,andonetolendorgiveaway.”AreaderinShermanOaks,California,said,“Itismorethanjustinteresting:itislife-enriching.Iwillgivecopiesasgifts...for years to come.” Some readers get them cheap: they join the QualityPaperbackBookClubtoobtainfourcopiesofLiesforadollareach,givethemtofourfriends,quittheclub,thenjoinagaintogetfourmore.10

IhopeyoufindthisneweditionofLiesasusefulasthefirstingettingpeopletoquestionwhattheythinktheyknowaboutAmericanhistory.Ifyoudo,shareitwith others. No doubt the publisher would like to sell everyone you know acopy,but I’mhappiestwhenLies getsmultiple readers. I’malsohappy to getreaders’ reactions—positive or negative11—to my work. You can reach methroughmywebsite,uvm.edu/~jloewen/,orjloewen@uvm.edu.

INTRODUCTION

SOMETHINGHASGONEVERYWRONG

Itwouldbebetternot to knowsomany things than to knowsomanythingsthatarenotso.

—JOSHBILLINGS1

Americanhistoryislonger,larger,morevarious,morebeautiful,andmoreterriblethananythinganyonehaseversaidaboutit.

—JAMESBALDWIN2

Concealmentofthehistoricaltruthisacrimeagainstthepeople.

—GEN.PETROG.GRIGORENKO,SAMIZDATLETTERTOAHISTORYJOURNAL,c.1975,USSR3

Thosewhodon’trememberthepastarecondemnedtorepeattheeleventhgrade.

—JAMESW.LOEWEN

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS hate history. When they list their favoritesubjects, history invariably comes in last. Students consider history “themostirrelevant”oftwenty-onesubjectscommonlytaughtinhighschool.Bor-r-ringisthe adjective they apply to it.When students can, they avoid it, even thoughmost students get higher grades in history than inmath, science, or English.4

Even when they are forced to take classes in history, they repress what theylearn,soeveryyearor twoanotherstudydecrieswhatourseventeen-year-oldsdon’tknow.5

Evenmalechildrenof affluentwhite families think thathistoryas taught inhighschool is“tooneatandrosy.”6AfricanAmerican,NativeAmerican,andLatino students view history with a special dislike. They also learn historyespeciallypoorly.Studentsofcolordoonlyslightlyworsethanwhitestudentsinmathematics.Ifyou’llpardonmygrammar,nonwhitestudentsdomoreworseinEnglish and most worse in history.7 Something intriguing is going on here:surelyhistoryisnotmoredifficultforminoritiesthantrigonometryorFaulkner.Students don’t even know they are alienated, only that they “don’t like socialstudies”or“aren’tanygoodathistory.”Incollege,moststudentsofcolorgivehistorydepartmentsawideberth.

Many history teachers perceive the lowmorale in their classrooms. If theyhave a lot of time, light domestic responsibilities, sufficient resources, and aflexible principal, some teachers respond by abandoning the overstuffedtextbooksandreinventingtheirAmericanhistorycourses.Alltoomanyteachersgrowdisheartenedandsettleforless.Atleastdimlyawarethattheirstudentsarenot requiting their own love of history, these teacherswithdraw some of theirenergy from their courses. Gradually they end up going through themotions,stayingaheadoftheirstudentsinthetextbooks,coveringonlymaterialthatwillappearonthenexttest.

College teachers inmostdisciplinesarehappywhen theirstudentshavehadsignificant exposure to the subject before college. Not teachers in history.Historyprofessorsincollegeroutinelyputdownhighschoolhistorycourses.Acolleagueofminecallshis surveyofAmericanhistory“Iconoclasm I and II,”becauseheseeshis jobasdisabusinghischargesofwhat they learned inhighschooltomakeroomformoreaccurateinformation.Innootherfielddoesthishappen. Mathematics professors, for instance, know that non-Euclideangeometry is rarely taught inhighschool,but theydon’tassume thatEuclideangeometry was mistaught. Professors of English literature don’t presume thatRomeoandJulietwasmisunderstoodinhighschool.Indeed,historyistheonlyfieldinwhichthemorecoursesstudentstake,thestupidertheybecome.

Perhaps I do not need to convince you that American history is important.Morethananyothertopic,itisaboutus.Whetheronedeemsourpresentsociety

wondrous or awful or both, history reveals how we arrived at this point.Understandingourpastiscentraltoourabilitytounderstandourselvesandtheworldaroundus.Weneedtoknowourhistory,andaccordingtosociologistC.WrightMills,weknowwedo.8

Outsideofschool,Americansshowgreatinterestinhistory.Historicalnovels,whether by Gore Vidal (Lincoln, Burr, et al.) or Dana Fuller Ross (Idaho!,Utah!, Nebraska!, Oregon!, Missouri!, and on! and on!) often becomebestsellers.TheNationalMuseumofAmericanHistory isoneof the threebigdraws of the Smithsonian Institution. The seriesThe Civil War attracted newaudiences to public television.Movies based on historical incidents or themesareacontinuingsourceoffascination,fromBirthofaNationthroughGoneWiththeWind toDanceswithWolves, JFK, and Saving Private Ryan. Not historyitselfbuttraditionalAmericanhistorycoursesturnstudentsoff.

Our situation is this: American history is full of fantastic and importantstories.Thesestorieshavethepowertospellbindaudiences,evenaudiencesofdifficultseventhgraders.ThesesamestoriesshowwhatAmericahasbeenaboutandaredirectlyrelevanttoourpresentsociety.Americanaudiences,evenyoungones,needandwant toknowabout theirnationalpast.Yet theysleep throughtheclassesthatpresentit.

Whathasgonewrong?

WebegintogetahandleonthisquestionbynotingthattextbooksdominateAmericanhistorycoursesmorethantheydoanyothersubject.WhenIfirstcameacross that findingin theeducational research literature, Iwasdumbfounded.Iwouldhaveguessedalmostanythingelse—planegeometry, for instance.Afterall, it would be hard for students to interview elderly residents of theircommunityaboutplanegeometry,ortolearnaboutitfromlibrarybooksoroldnewspaperfilesorthethousandsofphotographsanddocumentsattheLibraryofCongress website. All these resources—and more—are relevant to Americanhistory.Yetitisinhistoryclassrooms,notgeometry,wherestudentsspendmoretime reading from their textbooks, answering the fifty-fiveboringquestions attheendofeachchapter,goingoverthoseanswersaloud,andsoon.9

Betweentheglossycovers,Americanhistorytextbooksarefullofinformation—overlyfull.Thesebooksarehuge.Thespecimensinmyoriginalcollectionofadozenofthemostpopulartextbooksaveragedfourandahalfpoundsinweightand888pagesinlength.Tomyastonishment,duringthelasttwelveyearsthey

grew even larger. In 2006 I surveyed six new books. (Owing to publisherconsolidation, there no longer are twelve.) Three are new editions of “legacytextbooks,”descendedfrombooksoriginallypublishedhalfacenturyago;threeare“newnew”books.10Thesesixnewbooksaverage1,150pagesandalmostsixpounds! Inever imagined theywouldgetbigger. Ihad thought—hoped?—that the profusion of resources on theWebwouldmake it obvious that thesebehemoths are obsolete. The Web did not exist when the earlier batch oftextbookscameintobeing.Inthosedays,forhistorytextbookstobehugemadesome sense: students in Bogue Chitto, Mississippi, say, or Beaver Dam,Wisconsin,hadfewresourcesinAmericanhistoryotherthantheirtextbooks.Nolonger:todayeveryschoolthathasaphonelineisconnectedtotheWeb.Therestudents can browse hundreds of thousands of primary sources includingnewspaperarticles,thecensus,historicphotographs,andoriginaldocuments,aswell as secondary interpretations from scholars, citizens, other students, andrascals and liars. No longer is there any need to supply students with ninemonths’readingbetweenthecoversofonebook,writtenorcollectedbyasinglesetofauthors.

Thenewbooksaresohugethattheymayendangertheirreaders.Eachofthe1,104pages inTheAmericanJourney iswider and taller than anypage in thetwelvealreadyenormoushighschooltextbooksinmyoriginalsample.Surelyat5.6pounds,Journeyistheheaviestbookeverassignedtomiddle-schoolchildreninthehistoryofAmericaneducation.(Atmorethan$84,itmayalsobethemostexpensive.) A new nonprofit organization, Backpack Safety America, hasformed,spurredbychiropractorsandotherhealthcareprofessionals.Itsmissionis“toreducetheweightoftextbooksandbackpacks.”Inthemeantime,pendingthataccomplishment,chiropractorsarevisitingschools teachingproperpostureandliftingtechniques.11

Publishers, too, realize that the books look formidably large, so they try todisguisetheirtotalpagecountbycreativepagination.Journey,forexample,has1,104 pages but manages to come in under a thousand by using separatenumberingforthirty-twopagesatthefrontofthebookandseventy-twopagesattheend.Studentsaren’tfooled.Theyknowthesearebyfartheheaviestvolumestolughome,thelargesttoholdinthelap,andthehardesttogetexcitedabout.

Editorsalsorealizehowdauntingthesebooksappeartothepoorchildrenwhomust read them, so they provide elaborate introductions and enticements,

beginningwiththetableofcontents.ForTheAmericans, forexample,a1,358-page textbookfromMcDougalLittellweighing inatalmost sevenpounds, thetableofcontentsrunstwenty-twopages.Itisprofuselyillustratedandhaslittlecolored banners with titles like “Geography Spotlight,” “Daily Life,” and“Historical Spotlight.” Right after it comes a three-page layout, “Themes inHistory” and “Themes in Geography.” Then come hints on how to read thecomplex,disjointed thirty- to forty-pagechapters. “Eachchapterbeginswithatwo-page chapter opener,” it says. “Study the chapter opener to help you getreadytoread.”

“Oh,no,”groanstudents.“Nothinggoodwillcomeofthis.”TheyknowthatnoonehastotellthemhowtogetreadytoreadaHarryPotterbookoranyotherbookthatisreadable.Somethingdifferentisgoingonhere.

Unfortunately,havingastillbiggerbookonlyspursconscientiousteacherstospendevenmoretimemakingsurestudentsreaditanddealwithitshundredsofminute questions and tasks. This makes history courses even more boring.Publishers then try to make their booksmore interesting by inserting variousspecialaidstogivethemeyeappeal.Butthesegimmickshavejusttheoppositeeffect. Many are completely useless, except to the marketing department.ConsiderthelittlecoloredbannersinthetableofcontentsofTheAmericans.Nostudent would ever need to have a list of the “Geography Spotlights” in thisbook.Onespotlighthappenstobe“ThePanamaCanal,”butthestudentseekinginformationonthecanalwouldfinditbylookingintheindexintheback,notbysurmisingthatitmightbeaGeographySpotlight,thenfindingthatlistwithinthetwenty-twopagesofcontentsinthefront,andthenscanningittoseeifPanamaCanalappears.Theonlypossibleuseforthesebanneredlistsisforthesalesreptopointtowhentryingtogetaschooldistricttoadoptthebook.

Thebooksarehugesothatnopublisherwillloseanadoptionbecauseabookhas left out a detail of concern to a particular geographical area or group.Textbook authors seem compelled to include a paragraph about every U.S.president,evenWilliamHenryHarrisonandMillardFillmore.Thentherearethereviewpagesat theendofeachchapter.TheAmericans, to takeoneexample,highlights840“MainIdeasWithinItsMainText.”Inaddition,thetextcontains310 “Skill Builders,” 890 “Terms and Names,” 466 “Critical Thinking”questions,andstillotherprojectswithinitschapters.Andthat’snotcountingthehundreds of terms and questions in the two-page reviews that follow eachchapter.Atyear’send,nostudentcanremember840mainideas,nottomention

890termsandcountlessotherfactoids.Sostudentsandteachersfallbackononemainidea:tomemorizethetermsforthetestonthatchapter,thenforgetthemtoclear the synapses for the next chapter. No wonder so many high schoolgraduatescannotrememberinwhichcenturytheCivilWarwasfought!12

Studentsareright:thebooksareboring.13Thestories thathistory textbookstell are predictable; every problem has already been solved or is about to besolved. Textbooks exclude conflict or real suspense. They leave out anythingthatmight reflectbadlyuponournationalcharacter.When they try fordrama,they achieve onlymelodrama, because readers know that everythingwill turnout fine in the end. “Despite setbacks, the United States overcame thesechallenges,” in the words of one textbook.Most authors of history textbooksdon’teven try formelodrama. Instead, theywrite ina tone that ifheardaloudmightbedescribedas“mumblinglecturer.”Nowonderstudentsloseinterest.

Authorsalmostneveruse thepresent to illuminate thepast.Theymightaskstudents to consider gender roles in contemporary society as a means ofprompting students to thinkaboutwhatwomendidanddidnot achieve in thesuffrage movement or the more recent women’s movement. They might askstudents to prepare household budgets for the families of a janitor and astockbroker as a means of prompting thinking about labor unions and socialclassesinthepastandpresent.Theymight,buttheydon’t.Thepresentisnotasourceofinformationforwritersofhistorytextbooks.

Conversely, textbooks seldom use the past to illuminate the present. Theyportray the past as a simplemindedmorality play. “Be a good citizen” is themessagethattextbooksextractfromthepast.“Youhaveaproudheritage.Beallthat you can be. After all, look at what theUnited States has accomplished.”While there is nothing wrong with optimism, it can become something of aburdenforstudentsofcolor,childrenofworking-classparents,girlswhonoticethe dearth of female historical figures, ormembers of any group that has notachieved socioeconomic success. The optimistic approach prevents anyunderstandingof failureother thanblaming thevictim.Nowonderchildrenofcolor are alienated. After a thousand pages, bland optimism gets pretty off-puttingforeveryone.

Textbooks in American history stand in sharp contrast to other teachingmaterials.Whyarehistorytextbookssobad?Nationalismisoneoftheculprits.Textbooksareoftenmuddledbytheconflictingdesirestopromoteinquiryand

to indoctrinateblindpatriotism. “Take a look inyourhistorybook, andyou’llseewhywe shouldbeproud”goes an anthemoften sungbyhigh schoolgleeclubs.Butweneednotevenlookinside.14The titles themselves tell thestory:TheGreatRepublic,TheAmericanPageant,LandofPromise,Triumph of theAmerican Nation.15 Such titles differ from the titles of all other textbooksstudentsreadinhighschoolorcollege.Chemistrybooks,forexample,arecalledChemistryorPrinciplesofChemistry,notTriumphoftheMolecule.Andyoucantellhistory textbooks just from theircovers,gracedas theyarewithAmericanflags,baldeagles,theWashingtonMonument.

Noneof the facts is remembered, because they are presented simply as onedamn thing after another.While textbook authors tend to includemost of thetreesandalltoomanytwigs,theyneglecttogivereadersevenaglimpseofwhattheymightfindmemorable:theforests.Textbooksstiflemeaningbysuppressingcausation.Studentsexithistory textbookswithouthavingdeveloped theabilitytothinkcoherentlyaboutsociallife.

Eventhoughthebooksbulgewithdetail,eventhoughthecoursesaresobusythey rarely reach 1960, our teachers and our textbooks still leave outmost ofwhatweneedtoknowabouttheAmericanpast.Anddespitetheiremphasisonfacts,someof thefactoids theypresentareflatlywrongorunverifiable.Errorsoften go uncorrected, partly because the history profession does not bother toreviewhighschooltextbooks.Insum,startlingerrorsofomissionanddistortionmarAmericanhistories.Historycanbe imaginedasapyramid.At itsbasearethemillionsofprimarysources—theplantationrecords,citydirectories,censusdata, speeches, songs, photographs, newspaper articles, diaries, and letters thatdocument times past. Based on these primary materials, historians writesecondary works—books and articles on subjects ranging from deafness onMartha’sVineyardtoGrant’stacticsatVicksburg.Historiansproducehundredsof theseworkseveryyear,manyof themsplendid. In theory,a fewhistorians,working individually or in teams, then synthesize the secondary literature intotertiaryworks—textbookscoveringallphasesofU.S.history.

In practice, however, it doesn’t happen thatway. Instead, history textbooksareclonesofeachother.Thefirstthingeditorsdowhenrecruitingnewauthorsis to send themahalf-dozenexamplesof thecompetition.Oftena textbook iswrittennotbytheauthorswhosenamesgraceitscover,butbyminionsdeepinthebowelsof thepublisher’soffices.Whenhistoriansdowrite textbooks, they

risksnickersfromtheircolleagues—tingedwithenvy,butsnickersnonetheless:“Whyareyoudevotingtimetopedagogyratherthanoriginalresearch?”

Theresultisnothappyfortextbookscholarship.Manyhistorytextbookslistup-to-the-minute secondary sources in their bibliographies, yet the narrativesremaintotallytraditional—unaffectedbyrecentresearch.16

Whatwouldwe think of a course in poetry inwhich students never read apoem?Theeditor’svoice inanEnglish literature textbookmightbeasdullasthe voice in a history textbook, but at least in the English textbook the voicestills when the book presents original works of literature. The omniscientnarrator’svoiceofhistorytextbooksinsulatesstudentsfromtherawmaterialsofhistory. Rarely do authors quote speeches, songs, diaries, or letters. Studentsneed not be protected from this material. They can just as well read oneparagraph from William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech as readAmericanAdventures’twoparagraphsaboutit.

Textbooksalsokeepstudentsinthedarkaboutthenatureofhistory.Historyisfuriousdebateinformedbyevidenceandreason.Textbooksencouragestudentstobelievethathistoryisfactstobelearned.“Wehavenotavoidedcontroversialissues,”announcesonesetoftextbookauthors;“instead,wehavetriedtoofferreasoned judgments” on them—thus removing the controversy! Becausetextbooks employ such a godlike tone, it never occurs to most students toquestion them. “In retrospect I ask myself, why didn’t I think to ask, forexample,whoweretheoriginalinhabitantsoftheAmericas,whatwastheirlifelike,andhowdiditchangewhenColumbusarrived,”wroteastudentofminein1991. “However, back then everything was presented as if it were the fullpicture,”shecontinued,“soIneverthoughttodoubtthatitwas.”

Asaresultofallthis,mosthighschoolseniorsarehamstrungintheireffortstoanalyzecontroversialissuesinoursociety.(IknowbecauseIencounterthesestudentsthenextyearascollegefreshmen.)We’vegottodobetter.Five-sixthsofallAmericansnever takeacourse inAmericanhistorybeyondhighschool.Whatourcitizens“learn”inhighschoolformsmuchofwhattheyknowaboutourpast.

This book includes eleven chapters of amazing stories—some wonderful,some ghastly—inAmerican history, including a new chapter on our two Iraqwarsandthecontinuing“waronterrorism.”Arrangedinroughlychronologicalorder, these chapters do not relatemere details but events and processeswith

importantconsequences.Yetmosttextbooksleaveoutordistorttheseeventsandprocesses.Iknow,becausefortwentyyearsIhavebeenluggingaroundeighteentextbooks,takingthemseriouslyasworksofhistoryandideology,studyingwhattheysayanddon’tsay,andtryingtofigureoutwhy.Ichose theseeighteenasrepresenting the range of textbooks available for American history courses.17Thesebooks,which are listed (with full citations) in theAppendix, havebeenmy window into the world of what high school students carry home, read,memorize, and forget. In addition, I have spent many hours observing highschool history classes in Mississippi, Vermont, and the Washington, D.C.,metropolitanarea,andmorehourstalkingwithhighschoolhistoryteachers.

Chapter 12 analyzes the process of textbook creation and adoption in anattempttoexplainwhatcausestextbookstobeasbadastheyare.Imustconfessan interest here: I once co-wrote a history textbook.Mississippi: Conflict andChangewasthefirstrevisioniststatehistorytextbookinAmerica.Althoughthebook won the Lillian Smith Award for “best nonfiction about the South” in1975,Mississippirejecteditforuseinpublicschools.Inturn,threelocalschoolsystems,mycoauthor,andIsuedthestatetextbookboard.InApril1980Loewenetal.v.Turnipseedetal.resultedinasweepingvictoryonthebasisoftheFirstand Fourteenth Amendments. The experience taught me firsthand more thanmostwritersorpublisherswouldeverwanttoknowaboutthetextbookadoptionprocess. Ialso learned thatnotall theblamecanbe laidat thedoorstepof theadoptionagencies.

Chapter13looksattheeffectsofusingstandardAmericanhistorytextbooks.Itshowsthatthebooksactuallymakestudentsstupid.Finally,anafterwordcitesdistortionsandomissionsundiscussedinearlierchaptersandrecommendswaysthatteacherscanteachandstudentscanlearnAmericanhistorymorehonestly.Itis offered as an inoculation program of sorts against the future lies we areotherwisesuretoencounter.

Asasociologist, Iamremindedconstantlyof thepowerof thepast.Althougheachofuscomes into theworlddenovo,wearenot reallynewcreatures.Wearriveintoasocialslot,bornnotonlytoafamilybutalsoareligion,community,and, of course, a nation and a culture. Sociologists understand the power ofsocialstructureandculturetoshapenotonlyourpaththroughtheworldbutalsoour understanding of that path and that world. Yet we often have to expend

muchenergytryingtogetstudentstoseetheinfluenceontheirlivesofthesocialstructure and culture they inherit. Not understanding their past renders manyAmericansincapableofthinkingeffectivelyaboutourpresentandfuture.Ifourjourney together through this book will make the realities of our past moreapparent,thenthis“mostirrelevant”subject—Americanhistory—mightbecomemorerelevanttoyou.Atleast,that’smyhope.

1.

HANDICAPPEDBYHISTORY

THEPROCESSOFHERO-MAKING

WhatpassesforidentityinAmericaisaseriesofmythsaboutone’sheroicancestors.

—JAMESBALDWIN1

One is astonished in the study of history at therecurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten,distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember thatDanielWebster got drunk but only remember that hewas a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forgetthat George Washington was a slave owner . . . andsimply remember the things we regard as creditableand inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with thisphilosophyisthathistorylosesitsvalueasanincentiveandexample; it paintsperfectmenandnoblenations,butitdoesnottellthetruth.

—W.E.B.DUBOIS2

Byidolizingthosewhomwehonor,wedoadisservicebothtothemandtoourselves....Wefailtorecognizethatwecouldgoanddolikewise.

—CHARLESV.WILLIE3

THIS CHAPTER is about heroification, a degenerative process (much likecalcification) that makes people over into heroes. Through this process, oureducationalmediaturnflesh-and-bloodindividualsintopious,perfectcreatureswithoutconflicts,pain,credibility,orhumaninterest.

ManyAmericanhistorytextbooksarestuddedwithbiographicalvignettesofthe very famous (Land of Promise devotes a box to each president) and thefamous (The Challenge of Freedom provides “Did You Know?” boxes aboutElizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to graduate frommedical school in theUnited States, and LorraineHansberry, author ofARaisin in the Sun, amongmany others). In themselves, vignettes are not a bad idea. They instruct byhuman example. They show diverse ways that people canmake a difference.They allow textbooks to give space to characters such as Blackwell andHansberry,whorelievewhatwouldotherwisebeamonolithicparadeofwhitemalepolitical leaders.Biographical vignettes alsoprovoke reflection as to ourpurposeinteachinghistory:IsChesterA.Arthurmoredeservingofspacethan,say, Frank Lloyd Wright? Who influences us more today—Wright, whoinvented the carport and transformed domestic architectural spaces, orArthur,who,um,signedthefirstCivilServiceAct?Whoserisetoprominenceprovidesmoredrama—Blackwell’sorGeorgeH.W.Bush’s(thelatterbornwithasilverSenate seat in his mouth4)? The choices are debatable, but surely textbooksshould includesomepeoplebasednotonlyonwhat theyachievedbutalsoonthedistancetheytraversedtoachieveit.

We could go on to third- and fourth-guess the list of heroes in textbookpantheons.Myconcernhere,however, isnotwhogetschosen,butratherwhathappens to theheroeswhen theyare introduced intoourhistory textbooksandour classrooms. Two twentieth-century Americans provide case studies ofheroification:WoodrowWilson and Helen Keller.Wilson was unarguably animportantpresident,andhereceivesextensivetextbookcoverage.Keller,ontheotherhand,wasa“littleperson”whopushedthroughnolegislation,changedthecourseof no scientific discipline, declarednowar.Onlyoneof all thehistorytextbooksIsurveyed includesherphotograph.Mostbooksdon’tevenmentionher.ButteacherslovetotalkaboutKellerandoftenshowaudiovisualmaterialsorrecommendbiographies thatpresenther lifeasexemplary.All thisattention

ensuresthatstudentsretainsomethingaboutbothofthesehistoricalfigures,buttheymaybenobetteroffforit.HeroificationsodistortsthelivesofKellerandWilson(andmanyothers)thatwecannotthinkstraightaboutthem.

TeachershaveheldupHelenKeller,theblindanddeafgirlwhoovercameherphysical handicaps, as an inspiration to generations of schoolchildren. Everyfifth grader knows the scene inwhichAnne Sullivan spellswater into youngHelen’s hand at the pump. At least a dozenmovies and filmstrips have beenmadeonKeller’slife.Eachyieldsitsversionofthesamecliché.AMcGraw-Hilleducationalfilmconcludes:“ThegiftofHelenKellerandAnneSullivantotheworldistoconstantlyremindusofthewonderoftheworldaroundusandhowmuchweowethosewhotaughtuswhatitmeans,forthereisnopersonthatisunworthyorincapableofbeinghelped,andthegreatestserviceanypersoncanmakeusistohelpanotherreachtruepotential.”5

To draw such a blandmaxim from the life of HelenKeller, historians andfilmmakers havedisregardedher actual biography and left out the lessons shespecificallyaskedustolearnfromit.Keller,whostruggledsovaliantlytolearntospeak,hasbeenmademutebyhistory.Theresultisthatwereallydon’tknowmuchabouther.

Over the past twenty years, I have asked hundreds of college studentswhoHelenKellerwasandwhatshedid.Allknowthatshewasablindanddeafgirl.Mostrememberthatshewasbefriendedbyateacher,AnneSullivan,andlearnedto read andwrite and even to speak. Some can recall ratherminute details ofKeller’searly life: that she lived inAlabama, that shewasunrulyandwithoutmanners before Sullivan came along, and so forth. A few know that Kellergraduatedfromcollege.Butaboutwhathappenednext,aboutthewholeofheradultlife,theyareignorant.AfewstudentsventurethatKellerbecamea“publicfigure”ora“humanitarian,”perhapsonbehalfoftheblindordeaf.“Shewrote,didn’tshe?”or“shespoke”—conjectureswithoutcontent.Keller,whowasbornin1880,graduatedfromRadcliffein1904anddiedin1968.Toignorethesixty-four years of her adult life or to encapsulate them with the single wordhumanitarianistoliebyomission.

ThetruthisthatHelenKellerwasaradicalsocialist.ShejoinedtheSocialistPartyofMassachusettsin1909.Shehadbecomeasocialradicalevenbeforeshegraduated fromRadcliffe, and not, she emphasized, because of any teachingsavailable there.After theRussianRevolution, she sang the praises of the new

communistnation:“IntheEastanewstarisrisen!Withpainandanguishtheoldorder has given birth to the new, and behold in theEast aman-child is born!Onward,comrades,alltogether!OnwardtothecampfiresofRussia!Onwardtothecomingdawn!”6Kellerhungaredflagoverthedeskinherstudy.GraduallyshemovedtotheleftoftheSocialistPartyandbecameaWobbly,amemberoftheIndustrialWorkersoftheWorld(IWW),thesyndicalistunionpersecutedbyWoodrowWilson.

Alwaysavoice for thevoiceless,HelenKellerchampionedwomen’ssuffrage.Herpositionattheheadofthis1912demonstrationshowshercelebritystatusaswell as her commitment to the cause. The shields are all fromwestern states,wherewomenwerealreadyvoting.

Keller’scommitmenttosocialismstemmedfromherexperienceasadisabledpersonandfromhersympathyforotherswithhandicaps.Shebeganbyworkingtosimplifythealphabetfortheblind,butsooncametorealizethattodealsolely

withblindnesswas to treat symptom,not cause.Through research she learnedthatblindnesswasnotdistributed randomly throughout thepopulationbutwasconcentrated in the lower class. Men who were poor might be blinded inindustrial accidents or by inadequatemedical care; poor womenwho becameprostitutes faced the additional danger of syphilitic blindness. Thus Kellerlearned how the social class system controls people’s opportunities in life,sometimesdeterminingevenwhethertheycansee.Keller’sresearchwasnotjustbook learning:“Ihavevisitedsweatshops, factories,crowdedslums. If Icouldnotseeit,Icouldsmellit.”7

AtthetimeKellerbecameasocialist,shewasoneofthemostfamouswomenontheplanet.Shesoonbecamethemostnotorious.Herconversiontosocialismcaused a new storm of publicity—this time outraged. Newspapers that hadextolledhercourageandintelligencenowemphasizedherhandicap.Columnistschargedthatshehadnoindependentsensoryinputandwasinthralltothosewhofedher information.Typicalwas the editor of theBrooklynEagle, whowrotethat Keller’s “mistakes spring out of the manifest limitations of herdevelopment.”

Kellerrecalledhavingmetthiseditor:“AtthattimethecomplimentshepaidmeweresogenerousthatIblushtorememberthem.ButnowthatIhavecomeout for socialism he remindsme and the public that I am blind and deaf andespecially liable to error. I must have shrunk in intelligence during the yearssinceImethim.”Shewenton,“Oh,ridiculousBrooklynEagle!Sociallyblindanddeaf,itdefendsanintolerablesystem,asystemthatisthecauseofmuchofthephysicalblindnessanddeafnesswhichwearetryingtoprevent.”8

Keller,whodevotedmuchofherlaterlifetoraisingfundsfortheAmericanFoundation for theBlind, neverwavered in her belief that our society neededradical change. Having herself fought so hard to speak, she helped found theAmericanCivilLibertiesUnion to fight for thefreespeechofothers.Shesent$100to theNAACPwitha letterofsupport thatappeared in itsmagazineTheCrisis—a radical act for a white person from Alabama in the 1920s. ShesupportedEugeneV.Debs,theSocialistcandidate,ineachofhiscampaignsforthepresidency.Shecomposedessaysonthewomen’smovement,onpolitics,oneconomics.Neartheendofherlife,shewrotetoElizabethGurleyFlynn,leaderoftheAmericanCommunistParty,whowasthenlanguishinginjail,avictimoftheMcCarthy era: “Loving birthday greetings, dear Elizabeth Flynn!May the

senseofservingmankindbringstrengthandpeaceintoyourbraveheart!”9

OnemaynotagreewithHelenKeller’spositions.HerpraiseoftheUSSRnowseemsnaïve,embarrassing, tosomeeventreasonous.Butshewasa radical—afact few Americans know, because our schooling and our mass media left itout.10

What we did not learn about Woodrow Wilson is even more remarkable.When I ask my college students to tell me what they recall about PresidentWilson, they respond with enthusiasm. They say thatWilson led our countryreluctantly intoWorldWar I and after thewar led the struggle nationally andinternationally to establish theLeagueofNations.TheyassociateWilsonwithprogressive causes like women’s suffrage. A handful of students recall theWilsonadministration’sPalmerraidsagainstleft-wingunions.ButmystudentsseldomknoworspeakabouttwoantidemocraticpoliciesthatWilsoncarriedout:hisracialsegregationofthefederalgovernmentandhismilitaryinterventionsinforeigncountries.

Among theprogressive-era reformswithwhichstudentsoftencreditWoodrow

Wilson is women’s suffrage. Although women did receive the right to voteduringWilson’sadministration,thepresidentwasatfirstunsympathetic.Hehadsuffragistsarrested;hiswifedetestedthem.Publicpressure,arousedbyhungerstrikes and other actions of the movement, convincedWilson that to opposewomen’s suffragewaspoliticallyunwise.Textbooks typically fail to show theinterrelationship between the hero and the people. By giving the credit to thehero,authorstelllessthanhalfofthestory.

UnderWilson,theUnitedStatesintervenedinLatinAmericamoreoftenthanatanyother timeinourhistory.Welandedtroops inMexicoin1914,Haiti in1915, theDominicanRepublic in1916,Mexicoagain in1916 (andninemoretimes before the end ofWilson’s presidency), Cuba in 1917, and Panama in1918. Throughout his administration Wilson maintained forces in Nicaragua,usingthemtodetermineNicaragua’spresidentandtoforcepassageofa treatypreferentialtotheUnitedStates.

In 1917WoodrowWilson took on amajor powerwhen he started sendingsecretmonetaryaidtothe“White”sideoftheRussiancivilwar.Inthesummerof 1918 he authorized a naval blockade of the Soviet Union and sentexpeditionary forces to Murmansk, Archangel, and Vladivostok to helpoverthrowtheRussianRevolution.WiththeblessingofBritainandFrance,andin a joint command with Japanese soldiers, American forces penetratedwestward from Vladivostok to Lake Baikal, supporting Czech and WhiteRussianforcesthathaddeclaredananticommunistgovernmentheadquarteredatOmsk.AfterbrieflymaintainingfrontlinesasfarwestastheVolga,theWhiteRussian forces disintegrated by the end of 1919, and our troops finally leftVladivostokonApril1,1920.11

Few Americans who were not alive at the time know anything about our“unknownwarwithRussia,”toquotethetitleofRobertMaddox’sbookonthisfiasco.NotoneofthetwelveAmericanhistorytextbooksinmyoriginalsampleeven mentioned it. Two of the six new books do; Boorstin and Kelley, forexample, write: “The United States, hoping to keep stores of munitions fromfalling into German hands when Bolshevik Russia quit fighting, contributedsome5,000troopstoanAlliedinvasionofnorthernRussiaatArchangel.Wilsonlikewisesentnearly10,000troopstoSiberiaaspartofanAlliedexpedition.”Itispossible,althoughsurelydifficult,foranAmericanstudenttoinferfromthatpassagethatWilsonwasinterveninginRussia’scivilwar.

Russiantextbooks,ontheotherhand,givetheepisodeconsiderablecoverage.AccordingtoMaddox:“Theimmediateeffectoftheinterventionwastoprolongabloodycivilwar, therebycosting thousandsofadditional livesandwreakingenormous destruction on an already battered society. And there were longer-range implications. Bolshevik leaders had clear proof . . . that the WesternpowersmeanttodestroytheSovietgovernmentifgiventhechance.”12

This aggression fueled the suspicions thatmotivated the Soviets during theColdWar,anduntilitsbreakuptheSovietUnioncontinuedtoclaimdamagesfortheinvasion.

Wilson’s invasions of Latin America are better known than his Russianadventure. Textbooks do cover some of them, and it is fascinating to watchtextbookauthorsattempttojustifytheseepisodes.Anyaccurateportrayaloftheinvasions could not possibly showWilson or theUnited States in a favorablelight. With hindsight we know that Wilson’s interventions in Cuba, theDominicanRepublic,Haiti,andNicaraguasetthestageforthedictatorsBatista,Trujillo, the Duvaliers, and the Somozas, whose legacies still reverberate.13Even in the 1910s,most of the invasionswere unpopular in this country andprovokeda torrentofcriticismabroad.By themid-1920s,Wilson’ssuccessorsreversedhispolicies inLatinAmerica.Theauthorsofhistory textbooksknowthis,forachapterortwoafterWilsontheylaudour“GoodNeighborPolicy,”therenunciation of force in Latin America by Presidents Coolidge and Hoover,whichwasextendedbyFranklinD.Roosevelt.

Textbooks might (but don’t) call Wilson’s Latin American actions a “BadNeighborPolicy”bycomparison. Instead, facedwithunpleasantries, textbooks—oldandnew—wriggletogettheherooffthehook,asinthisexamplefromtheoldChallengeofFreedom:“PresidentWilsonwantedtheUnitedStatestobuildfriendships with the countries of Latin America. However, he found thisdifficult. . . .”Several textbooksblamethe invasionson thecountries invaded:“Wilson recoiled froman aggressive foreignpolicy,” states thenewAmericanPageant.“PoliticalturmoilinHaitisoonforcedWilsontoeatsomeofhisanti-imperialist words. . . . Wilson reluctantly dispatched marines to protectAmerican lives and property.” This passage is sheer invention. Unlike hissecretaryofthenavy,wholatercomplainedthatwhatWilson“forced[me]todoinHaitiwasabitterpillforme,”nodocumentaryevidencesuggeststhatWilsonsufferedanysuchqualmsaboutdispatchingtroopstotheCaribbean.14

Every textbookI surveyedmentionsWilson’s1914 invasionofMexico,buttheypositthattheinterventionswerenotWilson’sfault.“Criesforinterventionburst from the lips ofAmerican jingoes,” according toPageant in 2006. “YetPresidentWilsonstoodfirmagainstdemandstostepin.”SoonWilsondidordertroopstoMexico,ofcourse,evenbeforeCongressgavehimauthoritytodoso.WalterKarphasshownthatthisviewofareluctantWilsonagaincontradictsthefacts—the invasionwasWilson’s idea from the start, and itupsetCongressaswell as the American people.15Wilson’s intervention was so outrageous thatleaders of both sides of Mexico’s ongoing civil war demanded that the U.S.forcesleave;thepressureofpublicopinionintheUnitedStatesandaroundtheworldfinallyinfluencedWilsontorecallthetroops.

TextbookauthorscommonlyuseanotherdevicewhendescribingourMexicanadventures:theyidentifyWilsonasorderingourforcestowithdraw,butnobodyisspecifiedashavingorderedthemin!Impartinginformationinapassivevoicehelpstoinsulatehistoricalfiguresfromtheirownunheroicorunethicaldeeds.

Somebooksgobeyondomittingtheactorandleaveouttheactitself.Halfofthe textbooks do not even mention Wilson’s takeover of Haiti. After U.S.marinesinvadedthecountryin1915,theyforcedtheHaitianlegislaturetoselectour preferred candidate as president. When Haiti refused to declare war onGermanyaftertheUnitedStatesdid,wedissolvedtheHaitianlegislature.Thenthe United States supervised a pseudo-referendum to approve a new Haitianconstitution, less democratic than the constitution it replaced; the referendumpassedbyahilarious98,225to768.AsPieroGleijesushasnoted,“ItisnotthatWilsonfailedinhisearnestefforts tobringdemocracyto theselittlecountries.He never tried. He intervened to impose hegemony, not democracy.”16 TheUnited States also attackedHaiti’s proud tradition of individual ownership ofsmalltractsofland,whichdatedbacktotheHaitianRevolution,infavoroftheestablishmentoflargeplantations.Americantroopsforcedpeasantsinshacklestoworkonroadconstructioncrews.In1919HaitiancitizensroseupandresistedU.S. occupation troops in a guerrilla war that cost more than three thousandlives,most of themHaitian. Studentswho readPathways to thePresent learnthisaboutWilson’sinterventioninHaiti:“InHaiti,theUnitedStatessteppedinto restore stability after a series of revolutions left the country weak andunstable.Wilson . . . sent inAmerican troops in 1915.United StatesmarinesoccupiedHaitiuntil1934.”Theseblandsentencesveilwhatwedid,aboutwhichGeorgeBarnett,aU.S.marinegeneral,complainedtohiscommander inHaiti:

“Practicallyindiscriminatekillingofnativeshasgoneonforsometime.”Barnetttermed this violent episode “themost startling thing of its kind that has evertakenplaceintheMarineCorps.”17

During the first two decades of this century, the United States effectivelymadecoloniesofNicaragua,Cuba, theDominicanRepublic,Haiti,andseveralothercountries.Nor,aswehaveseen,didWilsonlimithisinterventionstoourhemisphere.His reaction to theRussianRevolutionsolidified thealignmentoftheUnitedStateswithEurope’scolonialpowers.Hiswasthefirstadministrationtobeobsessedwiththespecterofcommunism,abroadandathome.Wilsonwasbluntaboutit.InBillings,Montana,stumpingtheWest toseeksupportfor theLeagueofNations,hewarned,“ThereareapostlesofLenininourownmidst.Ican not imagine what it means to be an apostle of Lenin. It means to be anapostle of the night, of chaos, of disorder.”18 Even after the White Russianalternative collapsed, Wilson refused to extend diplomatic recognition to theSovietUnion.HeparticipatedinbarringRussiafromthepeacenegotiationsafterWorldWarIandhelpedoustBélaKun,thecommunistleaderwhohadrisentopower in Hungary. Wilson’s sentiment for self-determination and democracyneverhad a chance against his threebedrock “ism”s: colonialism, racism, andanticommunism. A young Ho Chi Minh appealed to Woodrow Wilson atVersaillesforself-determinationforVietnam,butHohadallthreestrikesagainsthim.Wilson refused to listen, and France retained control of Indochina.19 ItseemsthatWilsonregardedself-determinationasallrightfor,say,Belgium,butnotforthelikesofLatinAmericaorSoutheastAsia.

Athome,Wilson’sracialpoliciesdisgracedtheofficeheheld.HisRepublicanpredecessorshadroutinelyappointedblackstoimportantoffices,includingthoseofportcollector forNewOrleansand theDistrictofColumbiaand registerofthetreasury.PresidentssometimesappointedAfricanAmericansaspostmasters,particularlyinsoutherntownswithlargeblackpopulations.AfricanAmericanstook part in the Republican Party’s national conventions and enjoyed someaccess to the White House. Woodrow Wilson, for whom many AfricanAmericans voted in 1912, changed all that. A Southerner, Wilson had beenpresidentofPrinceton, theonlymajornorthernuniversity that flatly refused toadmitblacks.Hewasanoutspokenwhitesupremacist—hiswifewasevenworse—andtold“darky”storiesincabinetmeetings.Hisadministrationsubmittedanextensive legislative program intended to curtail the civil rights of AfricanAmericans,butCongresswouldnotpassit.Unfazed,Wilsonusedhispoweras

chief executive to segregate the federal government. He appointed Southernwhites to offices traditionally reserved for blacks.His administration used theexcuse of anticommunism to surveil and undermine black newspapers,organizations, and union leaders. He segregated the navy, which had notpreviouslybeensegregated,relegatingAfricanAmericanstokitchenandboilerwork.Wilsonpersonallyvetoeda clauseon racial equality in theCovenantofthe League of Nations. The one occasion on whichWilsonmet with AfricanAmericanleadersintheWhiteHouseendedinafiascoasthepresidentvirtuallythrewthevisitorsoutofhisoffice.Wilson’slegacywasextensive:heeffectivelyclosedtheDemocraticPartytoAfricanAmericansforanothertwodecades,andpartsofthefederalgovernmentremainedsegregatedintothe

1950s and beyond.20 In 1916 the Colored Advisory Committee of theRepublican National Committee issued a statement on Wilson that, thoughpartisan, was accurate: “No sooner had the Democratic Administration comeintopowerthanMr.WilsonandhisadvisorsentereduponapolicytoeliminateallcoloredcitizensfromrepresentationintheFederalGovernment.”21

OfallthehistorytextbooksIreviewed,eightneverevenmentionthis“blackmark” onWilson’s presidency. Only four accurately describeWilson’s racialpolicies.LandofPromise,backin1983,didthebestjob:

WoodrowWilson’s administration was openly hostile to black people.Wilson was an outspoken white supremacist who believed that blackpeople were inferior. During his campaign for the presidency,Wilsonpromised to press for civil rights. But once in office he forgot hispromises. Instead, Wilson ordered that white and black workers infederal government jobs be segregated fromone another. Thiswas thefirsttimesuchsegregationhadexistedsinceReconstruction!WhenblackfederalemployeesinSoutherncitiesprotestedtheorder,Wilsonhadtheprotesters fired. In November, 1914, a black delegation asked thePresidenttoreversehispolicies.Wilsonwasrudeandhostileandrefusedtheirdemands.

Mostof the textbooks thatdo treatWilson’s racismgive it only a sentenceortwo.SometakepainstoseparateWilsonfromthepractice:“WilsonallowedhisCabinet officers to extend the Jim Crow practice of separating the races infederaloffices” is theentire treatment inPathways to thePresent.OmittingorabsolvingWilson’s racism goes beyond concealing a character blemish. It is

overtly racist. No black person could ever considerWoodrowWilson a hero.Textbooksthatpresenthimasaheroarewrittenfromawhiteperspective.Thecover-updeniesall students thechance to learnsomething importantabout theinterrelationshipbetweentheleaderandtheled.WhiteAmericansengagedinanewburstofracialviolenceduringandimmediatelyafterWilson’spresidency.The tone set by the administrationwas one cause.Anotherwas the release ofAmerica’sfirstepicmotionpicture.22

The filmmaker D. W. Griffith quoted Wilson’s two-volume history of theUnited States, now notorious for its racist view of Reconstruction, in hisinfamousmasterpieceTheClansman,apaeantotheKuKluxKlanforitsroleinputting down “black-dominated” Republican state governments duringReconstruction. Griffith based the movie on a book by Wilson’s formerclassmate,ThomasDixon,whoseobsessionwithracewas“unrivaleduntilMeinKampf,”accordingtohistorianWynWade.AtaprivateWhiteHouseshowing,Wilson saw themovie, now retitledBirth of aNation, and returnedGriffith’scompliment:“Itislikewritinghistorywithlightning,andmyonlyregretisthatit is all so true.” Griffith would go on to use this quotation in successfullydefendinghisfilmagainstNAACPchargesthatitwasraciallyinflammatory.23

ThislandmarkofAmericancinemawasnotonlythebesttechnicalproductionof its time but also probably the most racist major movie of all time. Dixonintended “to revolutionize northern sentiment by a presentation of history thatwould transform everyman inmy audience into a good Democrat! . . . Andmakenomistakeaboutit—wearedoingjustthat.”24Dixondidnotoverstatebymuch.SpurredbyBirthofaNation,WilliamSimmonsofGeorgiareestablishedtheKuKluxKlan.TheracismseepingdownfromtheWhiteHouseencouragedthisKlan,distinguishingitfromitsReconstructionpredecessor,whichPresidentGranthad succeeded invirtuallyeliminating inone state (SouthCarolina) anddiscouraging nationally for a time. The newKKK quickly became a nationalphenomenon.ItgrewtodominatetheDemocraticPartyinmanySouthernstates,aswell as in Indiana,Oklahoma, andOregon.Klan spectacles in the1920s intowns from Montpelier, Vermont, to West Frankfort, Illinois, to Medford,Oregon, were the largest public gatherings in their history, before or since.DuringWilson’ssecondterm,awaveofantiblackraceriotssweptthecountry.WhiteslynchedblacksasfarnorthasDuluth.25

Americans need to learn from the Wilson era, that there is a connection

between racist presidential leadership and like-minded public response. Toaccomplish such education, however, textbookswould have tomake plain therelationshipbetweencauseandeffect,betweenheroandfollowers.Instead,theyreflexively ascribe noble intentions to the hero and invoke “the people” toexcusequestionableactionsandpolicies.AccordingtoTriumphoftheAmericanNation:“AsPresident,WilsonseemedtoagreewithmostwhiteAmericansthatsegregationwasinthebestinterestsofblackaswellaswhiteAmericans.”

Wilsonwas not only antiblack; hewas also far and away ourmost nativistpresident, repeatedly questioning the loyalty of those he called “hyphenatedAmericans.” “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him,” saidWilson,“carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republicwhenever he gets ready.”26 TheAmerican people responded toWilson’s leadwithawaveofrepressionofwhiteethnicgroups;again,mosttextbooksblamethepeople,notWilson.TheAmericanTradition admits that “PresidentWilsonsetup”theCreelCommitteeonPublicInformation,whichsaturatedtheUnitedStateswithpropagandalinkingGermanstobarbarism.ButTraditionhastenstoshieldWilson from the ensuing domestic fallout: “Although PresidentWilsonhad been careful in hiswarmessage to state thatmostAmericans ofGermandescentwere‘trueandloyalcitizens,’theanti-Germanpropagandaoftencausedthemsuffering.”

Wilsondisplayedlittleregardfortherightsofanyonewhoseopinionsdifferedfrom his own. But textbooks take pains to insulate him from wrongdoing.“Congress,” notWilson, is creditedwith having passed the EspionageAct ofJune1917andtheSeditionActofthefollowingyear,probablythemostseriousattacks on the civil liberties of Americans since the short-lived Alien andSeditionActsof1798.Infact,WilsontriedtostrengthentheEspionageActwithaprovisiongivingbroadcensorshippowersdirectlytothepresident.Moreover,withWilson’sapproval,hispostmastergeneralusedhisnewcensorshippowerstosuppressallmailthatwassocialist,anti-British,pro-Irish,orthatinanyotherwaymight,inhisview,havethreatenedthewareffort.RobertGoldsteinservedten years in prison for producing The Spirit of ’76, a film about theRevolutionary War that depicted the British, who were now our allies,unfavorably. 27 Textbook authors suggest that wartime pressures excuseWilson’ssuppressionofcivilliberties,butin1920,whenWorldWarIwaslongover,WilsonvetoedabillthatwouldhaveabolishedtheEspionageandSeditionacts.28 Textbook authors blame the anticommunist and anti-labor unionwitch

hunts ofWilson’s second term on his illness and on an attorney general runamok.Noevidencesupports thisview.Indeed,AttorneyGeneralPalmeraskedWilsoninhislastdaysaspresidenttopardonEugeneV.Debs,whowasservingtimeforaspeechattributingWorldWarItoeconomicinterestsanddenouncingtheEspionageActasundemocratic.29Thepresidentreplied,“Never!”andDebslanguishedinprisonuntilWarrenHardingpardonedhim.30TheAmericanWayadopts perhaps the most innovative approach to absolving Wilson ofwrongdoing:Waysimplymovesthe“redscare”tothe1920s,afterWilsonhadleftoffice!

To opposeAmerica’s participation inWorldWar I, or even to be pessimisticabout it,was dangerous.TheCreelCommittee asked allAmericans to “reportthemanwho. . .criesforpeace,orbelittlesourefforts towin thewar.”Sendtheirnames to theJusticeDepartment inWashington, itexhorted.AfterWorldWarI,theWilsonadministration’sattacksoncivillibertiesincreased,nowwithanticommunismastheexcuse.NeitherbeforenorsincethesecampaignshastheUnitedStatescomeclosertobeingapolicestate.

Because heroification prevents textbooks from showing Wilson’sshortcomings, textbooks are hard-pressed to explain the results of the 1920election. James Cox, the Democratic candidate who was Wilson’s would-besuccessor,was crushed by the nonentityWarrenG.Harding,who never evencampaigned. In the biggest landslide in the history of American presidentialpolitics, Harding got almost 64 percent of the major-party votes. The peoplewere “tired,” textbooks suggest, and just wanted a “return to normalcy.” ThepossibilitythattheelectorateknewwhatitwasdoinginrejectingWilsonneveroccurstoourauthors.31ItoccurredtoHelenKeller,however.ShecalledWilson“thegreatestindividualdisappointmenttheworldhaseverknown!”

It isn’t only high school history courses that heroify Wilson. Those fewtextbooksthatdodiscussWilson’sracismandothershortcomings,suchasLandof Promise, have to battle uphill, for they struggle against the archetypalWoodrowWilsoncommemoratedinsomanyhistorymuseums,publictelevisiondocumentaries,andhistoricalnovels.

Fortwenty-fiveyearsnow,MichaelFrischhasbeenconductinganexperimentinsocialarchetypesattheStateUniversityofNewYorkatBuffalo.Heaskshisfirst-yearcollegestudentsfor“thefirsttennamesthatyouthinkof”inAmericanhistorybeforetheCivilWar.WhenFrischfoundthathisstudentslistedthesamepoliticalandmilitaryfiguresyearafteryear,replicatingtheprivilegedpositionsafforded them in high school textbooks, he added the proviso, “excludingpresidents, generals, statesmen, etc.”Frisch still gets a stable list, but one lesspredictableonthebasisofhistorytextbooks.Mostyears,BetsyRosshasledthelist.(PaulRevereusuallycomesinsecond.)

What is interesting about this choice is thatBetsyRossnever did anything.Frisch notes that she played “no rolewhatsoever in the actual creation of anyactual first flag.” Ross came to prominence around 1876, when some of herdescendants, seeking to create a tourist attraction in Philadelphia, largely

invented the myth of the first flag. With justice, high school textbooksuniversally ignore Betsy Ross; not one high school textbook lists her in itsindex.32 So how and why does her story get transmitted? Frisch offers ahilariousexplanation:IfGeorgeWashingtonistheFatherofOurCountry,thenBetsyRossisourBlessedVirginMary!Frischdescribesthepageantsreenacted(or didwe only imagine them?) in our elementary school years: “Washington[thegod]callsonthehumbleseamstressBetsyRossinhertinyhomeandasksherifshewillmakethenation’sflag,tohisdesign.AndBetsypromptlybringsforth—fromherlap!—thenationitself,andthepromiseoffreedomandnaturalrightsforallmankind.”33

I think Frisch is onto something, but maybe he is merely on something.Whetherornotonebuyshisexplanation,BetsyRoss’srankingamongstudentssurelyprovesthepowerofthesocialarchetype.InthecaseofWoodrowWilson,textbooks actually participate in creating the social archetype. Wilson isportrayed as “good,” “idealist,” “for self-determination, not colonialintervention,” “foiled by an isolationist Senate,” and “ahead of his time.”Wename institutions after him, from theWoodrowWilson Center at the RonaldReaganBuildinginWashington,D.C.,toWoodrowWilsonJuniorHighSchoolinDecatur,Illinois,whereImisspentmyadolescence.IfafifthfaceweretobechiseledintoMountRushmore,manyAmericanswouldproposethatitshouldbeWilson’s.34 Against such archetypal goodness, even the unusually forthrighttreatment of Wilson’s racism in Land of Promise cannot but fail to stick instudents’minds.

Curatorsofhistorymuseumsknowthattheirvisitorsbringarchetypesinwiththem. Some curators consciously design exhibits to confront these archetypeswhen theyare inaccurate.Textbookauthors, teachers,andmoviemakerswouldbetter fulfill their educational mission if they also taught against inaccuratearchetypes. SurelyWoodrowWilson does not need their flattering omissions,afterall.Hisprogressivelegislativeaccomplishmentsinjusthisfirsttwoyears,including tariff reform, an income tax, the Federal Reserve Act, and theWorkingmen’sCompensationAct, are almost unparalleled.Wilson’s speechesonbehalfofself-determinationstirredtheworld,evenifhisactionsdidnotliveuptohiswords.

This statue of George Washington, now in the Smithsonian Institution,exemplifiesthemannerinwhichtextbookswouldportrayeveryAmericanhero:tenfeettall,blemish-free,withthebodyofaGreekgod.

Whydotextbookspromotewartlessstereotypes?Theauthors’omissionsanderrors can hardly be accidental. The producers of the filmstrips, movies, andothereducationalmaterialsonHelenKellersurelyknowshewasasocialist;noone can read Keller’s writings without becoming aware of her political andsocialphilosophy.Atleastonetextbookauthor,ThomasBailey,seniorauthorofTheAmericanPageant,clearlyknewofthe1918U.S.invasionofRussia,forhewrote in adifferentvenue in1973, “American troops shot it outwithRussianarmed forces onRussian soil in two theatres from1918 to 1920.”35Probablyseveral other authors knew of it, too.Wilson’s racism is also well known toprofessionalhistorians.Whydon’ttheyletthepublicinonthesematters?

Heroification itself supplies a first answer. Socialism is repugnant to mostAmericans. So are racism and colonialism. Michael Kammen suggests thatauthorsselectivelyomitblemishestomakecertainhistoricalfiguressympathetic

toasmanypeopleaspossible.36ThetextbookcriticNormaGablertestifiedthattextbooks should“presentournation’spatriots in away thatwouldhonor andrespect them”; in her eyes, admitting Keller’s socialism andWilson’s racismwouldhardlydothat.37Intheearly1920stheAmericanLegionsaidthatauthorsoftextbooks“areatfaultinplacingbeforeimmaturepupilstheblunders,foiblesand frailties of prominent heroes and patriots of our Nation.”38 The Legionwouldhardlybeabletofaulttoday’shistorytextbooksonthiscount.

Perhapswecangofurther.IbeganwithHelenKellerbecauseomittingthelastsixty-fouryearsofherlifeexemplifiesthesortofculture-servingdistortionthatwill be discussed later in this book. We teach Keller as an ideal, not a realperson, to inspire our young people to emulate her. Keller becomes amythicfigure, the “womanwho overcame”—but forwhat? There is no content! Justlookwhatsheaccomplished,we’reexhorted—yetwehaven’taclueastowhatthatreallywas.

Keller did notwant to be frozen in childhood. She herself stressed that themeaning of her life lay in what she did once she overcame her disability.Certainlyshewasnot the firstdeaf-blindchildon recordas learning to speak;thathonorgoesperhapstoRagnhildKäta,aNorwegiangirlwhoseachievementinspiredKeller.Norwasshethefirstdeaf-blindAmericanto learntoreadandwrite; that was Laura Bridgman, who taught the manual alphabet to AnneSullivan so Sullivan could teach it to Keller. In 1929, when she was nearingfifty,Kellerwroteasecondvolumeofautobiography,Midstream,thatdescribedhersocialphilosophyinsomedetail.Shewroteaboutvisitingmilltowns,miningtowns,andpacking townswhereworkerswereonstrike.She intendedthatwelearn of these experiences and of the conclusions to which they led her.ConsistentwithourAmerican ideologyof individualism, the truncatedversionofHelenKeller’sstorysanitizesahero,leavingonlythevirtuesofself-helpandhardwork.Kellerherself,whilescarcelyopposinghardwork,explicitlyrejectedthisideology.

Ihadoncebelievedthatwewereallmastersofourfate—thatwecouldmouldourlivesintoanyformwepleased....Ihadovercomedeafnessandblindnesssufficientlytobehappy,andIsupposedthatanyonecouldcomeoutvictoriousifhethrewhimselfvaliantlyintolife’sstruggle.Butas Iwentmoreandmoreabout thecountry I learned that IhadspokenwithassuranceonasubjectIknewlittleabout.IforgotthatIowedmy

successpartlytotheadvantagesofmybirthandenvironment....Now,however, I learned that thepower to rise in theworld isnotwithin thereachofeveryone.39

Textbooks don’t want to touch this idea. “There are three great taboos intextbook publishing,” an editor at one of the biggest houses told me, “sex,religion,andsocialclass.”WhileIhadbeenabletoguessthefirsttwo,thethirdfloored me. Sociologists know the importance of social class, after all.ReviewingAmericanhistorytextbooksconvincedmethatthiseditorwasright,however. The notion that opportunity might be unequal in America, that noteveryonehas“thepowertoriseintheworld,”isanathematotextbookauthors,andtomanyteachersaswell.EducatorswouldmuchratherpresentKellerasablandsourceofencouragementand inspiration toouryoung—ifshecando it,youcandoit!Sotheyleaveoutheradultlifeandmakeherentireexistenceoverinto a vague “up by the bootstraps” operation. In the process, theymake thispassionatefighterforthepoorintosomethingsheneverwasinlife:boring.

Woodrow Wilson gets similarly whitewashed. Although some historytextbooks disclose more than others about the seamy underside of Wilson’spresidency, all eighteen books reviewed share a common tone: respectful,patriotic,evenadulatory. Ironically,Wilsonwaswidelydespised in the1920s.OnlyafterWorldWarIIdidhecometobeviewedkindlybypolicymakersandhistorians. Our postwar bipartisan foreign policy, one of far-reachinginterventionssheathedinhumanitarianexplanations,was“shapeddecisivelybythe ideology and the international program developed by the WilsonAdministration,” according to Gordon Levin Jr.40 Textbook authors are thusmotivatedtounderplayorexcuseWilson’sforeigninterventions,manyofwhichwerecounterproductiveblunders, aswell asotherunsatisfactoryaspectsofhisadministration.

A host of other reasons—pressure from the “ruling class,” pressure fromtextbookadoptioncommittees,thewishtoavoidambiguities,adesiretoshieldchildrenfromharmorconflict,theperceivedneedtocontrolchildrenandavoidclassroom disharmony, pressure to provide answers—may help explain whytextbooksomittroublesomefacts.Acertainetiquettecoercesusallintospeakingin respectful tones about the past, especially when we’re passing on OurHeritage to our young. Could it be that we don’t want to think badly ofWoodrowWilson?Weseem to feel that aperson likeHelenKeller canbean

inspiration only so long as she remains uncontroversial, one-dimensional.Wedon’twant complicated icons. “People donot like to think. If one thinks, onemustreachconclusions,”HelenKellerpointedout.“Conclusionsarenotalwayspleasant.”41 Most of us automatically shy away from conflict, andunderstandablyso.Weparticularlyseektoavoidconflictintheclassroom.Onereasonishabit:wearesoaccustomedtoblandnessthatthetextbookorteacherwho brings real intellectual controversy into the classroom can strike us as aviolationofpoliterhetoric,ofclassroomnorms.Wearesupposedtospeakwellof the deceased, after all. Probably we are supposed to maintain the sameattitudeofawe,reverence,andrespectwhenwereadaboutournationalheroesas when we visit our National Cathedral and view the final resting places ofHelenKeller andWoodrowWilson, as close physically in death as theyweredistantideologicallyinlife.

Whatever the causes, the results of heroification are potentially crippling tostudents.HelenKeller is not the only person this approach treats like a child.DenyingstudentsthehumannessofKeller,Wilson,andotherskeepsstudentsinintellectualimmaturity.ItperpetuateswhatmightbecalledaDisneyversionofhistory:TheHall ofPresidents atDisneyland similarlypresents our leaders asheroic statesmen, not imperfect humanbeings.42Our children end upwithoutrealisticrolemodelstoinspirethem.Studentsalsodevelopnounderstandingofcausality in history. Our nation’s thirteen separate forays into Nicaragua, forinstance,aresurelyworthknowingaboutasweattempttounderstandwhythatcountry embraced a communist government in the 1980s. Textbooks shouldshow history as contingent, affected by the power of ideas and individuals.Instead,theypresenthistoryasa“donedeal.”

Do textbooks,educationalvideos,andAmericanhistorycoursesachieve theresultstheyseekwithregardtoourheroes?Surelytextbookauthorswantustothink well of the historical figures they treat with such sympathy. And, on asuperficial level at least,we do.Almost no recent high school graduates haveanything “bad” to say about either Keller or Wilson. But are these twoconsideredheroes?Ihaveaskedhundredsof(mostlywhite)collegestudentsonthefirstdayofclass to tellmewhotheirheroesinAmericanhistoryare.Asarule, theydonotpickHelenKeller,WoodrowWilson,ChristopherColumbus,Miles Standish or anyone else in Plymouth, John Smith or anyone else inVirginia,AbrahamLincoln, or indeed anyone else inAmerican historywhomthe textbooks implore them to choose.43Ourpost-Watergate studentsviewall

such“establishment”heroescynically.They’rebor-r-ring.

Some students choose “none”—that is, they say they have no heroes inAmerican history. Other students display the characteristically AmericansympathyfortheunderdogbychoosingAfricanAmericans:MartinLutherKingJr.,MalcolmX,perhapsRosaParks,HarrietTubman,orFrederickDouglass.Ortheychoosemenandwomen fromother countries:Gandhi,MotherTeresa,orNelsonMandela.

In one sense this is a healthy development. Surely we want students to beskeptical.Probablywewant them tochallengebeing toldwhom tobelieve in.But replying “none” is too glib, too nihilistic, formy taste. It is, however, anunderstandable response to heroification.Forwhen textbook authors leaveoutthewarts,theproblems,theunfortunatecharactertraits,andthemistakenideas,theyreduceheroesfromdramaticmenandwomentomelodramaticstickfigures.Theirinnerstrugglesdisappearandtheybecomegoody-goody,notmerelygood.

Studentspoke funat thegoody-goodiestof themallby tellingHelenKellerjokes.Insodoing,schoolchildrenarenotpokingcruelfunatadisabledperson,theyaredeflatingapretentioussymbolthatistoogoodtobereal.Nonetheless,our loss of Helen Keller as anything but a source of jokes is distressing.Knowingtherealityofherquiteamazing lifemightempowernotonlydeaforblind students, but any schoolgirl, and perhaps boys as well. For like otherpeoples around theworld, weAmericans need heroes. Statements such as “IfMartin Luther King were alive, he’d . . .” suggest one function of historicalfiguresinourcontemporarysociety.Mostofustendtothinkwellofourselveswhenwehaveactedasweimagineourheroesmighthavedone.Whoourheroesare and whether they are presented in a way that makes them lifelike, henceusable as rolemodels, could have a significant bearing on our conduct in theworld.

Wenowturntoourfirsthero,ChristopherColumbus.“Careshouldbetakentovindicate great names from pernicious erudition,” wrote Washington Irving,defending heroification.44 Irving’s three-volume biography of Columbus,publishedin1828,still influenceswhathighschoolteachersandtextbookssayabout the Great Navigator. Therefore, it will come as no surprise thatheroification has stolen from us the important facets of his life, leaving onlymelodramaticminutiae.

2.

1493

THETRUEIMPORTANCEOFCHRISTOPHERCOLUMBUS

Columbus is above all the figure with whom theModernAge—theagebywhichwemaydelineatethesepast 500 years—properlybegins, and inhis characterasinhisexploitswearegivenanextraordinaryinsightintothepatternsthatshapedtheageatitsstartandstillforthemostpartshapeittoday.

—KIRKPATRICKSALE1

As a subject for research, the possibility of AfricandiscoveryofAmericahasneverbeenatemptingoneforAmerican historians. In a sense, we choose our ownhistory, or more accurately, we select those vistas ofhistory for our examinations which promise us thegreatestsatisfaction,andwehavehadlittleappetitetoexplore the possibility that our founding father was ablackman.

—SAMUELD.MARBLE2

Historyisthepolemicsofthevictor.

—WILLIAMF.BUCKLEYJR.

WhatwecommittedintheIndiesstandsoutamongthemost unpardonable offenses ever committed againstGod andmankind and this trade [inAmerican Indianslaves]asoneofthemostunjust,evil,andcruelamongthem.

—BARTOLOMÉDELASCASAS3

In fourteen hundred and ninety-three, Columbus stoleallhecouldsee.

—TRADITIONALVERSE,UPDATED

IN FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-TWO, Christopher Columbussailedinfromtheblue.AmericanhistorybookspresentColumbusprettymuchwithout precedent, and they portray him as America’s first great hero. In socanonizing him, they reflect our national culture. Indeed, now that Presidents’Dayhas combinedWashington’s andLincoln’sbirthdays,Columbus is oneofonlytwopeopletheUnitedStateshonorsbynameinanationalholiday.Theonedatethateveryschoolchildremembersis1492,andsureenough,everytextbookI surveyed includes it.Butmost of them leave out virtually everything that isimportant to know about Columbus and the European exploration of theAmericas.Meanwhile,theymakeupallkindsofdetailstotellabetterstoryandtohumanizeColumbussoreaderswillidentifywithhim.

Columbus,likeChrist,wassopivotalthathistoriansusehimtodividethepastinto epochs, making the Americas before 1492 “pre-Columbian.” AmericanhistorytextbooksrecognizeColumbus’simportancebygrantinghimanaverageofathousandwords—threepagesincludingapictureandamap—alotofspace,considering all the material these books must cover. Their heroic collectiveaccountgoessomethinglikethis:

BorninGenoa,Italy,ofhumbleparents,ChristopherColumbusgrewupto become an experienced seafarer. He sailed the Atlantic as far as

Iceland andWestAfrica.His adventures convinced him that theworldmustberound.ThereforethefabledrichesoftheEast—spices,silk,andgold—could be had by sailing west, superseding the overland routethroughtheMiddleEast,whichtheTurkshadclosedofftocommerce.

Togetfundingforhisenterprise,ColumbusbeseechedmonarchaftermonarchinwesternEurope.AfteratfirstbeingdismissedbyFerdinandand Isabella of Spain, Columbus finally got his chance when QueenIsabelladecidedtounderwriteamodestexpedition.

Columbusoutfittedthreepitifullysmallships,theNiña,thePinta,andtheSantaMaria,andsetforthfromSpain.Thejourneywasdifficult.Theshipssailedwest into theunknownAtlantic formore than twomonths.ThecrewalmostmutiniedandthreatenedtothrowColumbusoverboard.FinallytheyreachedtheWestIndiesonOctober12,1492.

AlthoughColumbusmade threemore voyages toAmerica, he neverreally knew he had discovered a New World. He died in obscurity,unappreciated and penniless. Yet without his daring American historywould have been very different, for in a sense Columbus made it allpossible.

Unfortunately,almosteverythinginthistraditionalaccountiseitherwrongorunverifiable.The authors of history textbooks have taken us on a trip of theirown,awayfromthefactsofhistory,intotherealmofmyth.Theyandwehavebeen duped by an outrageous concoction of lies, half-truths, truths, andomissionsthatisinlargeparttraceabletothefirsthalfofthenineteenthcentury.

Thetextbooks’firstmistake is tounderplaypreviousexplorers.Peoplefromother continents had reached the Americas many times before 1492. Even ifColumbus had never sailed, other Europeans would have soon reached theAmericas.Indeed,EuropeansmayalreadyhavebeenfishingoffNewfoundlandin the 1480s.4 In a sense Columbus’s voyage was not the first but the last“discovery”oftheAmericas.Itwasepoch-makingbecauseofthewayinwhichEuroperesponded.Columbus’simportanceisthereforeprimarilyattributabletochangingconditionsinEurope,nottohishavingreacheda“new”continent.

American history textbooks seem to understand the need to cover socialchanges inEurope in theyears leadingup to1492.Theypointout thathistorypassedtheVikingsbyanddevoteseveralpagestothereasonsEuropewasready

thistime“totakeadvantageofthediscovery”ofAmerica,asonetextbookputsit. Unfortunately, none of the textbooks provides substantive analysis of themajorchangesthatpromptedthenewresponse.

MostofthebooksIexaminedbegintheColumbusstorywithMarcoPoloandtheCrusades.HereistheircompositeaccountofwhatwashappeninginEurope:

“LifeinEuropewasslowpaced.”“Curiosityabouttherestoftheworldwasata lowpoint.”Then,“manychanges tookplace inEuropeduringthe 500 years before Columbus’s discovery of theAmericas in 1492.”“People’s horizons gradually widened, and they became more curiousabouttheworldbeyondtheirownlocalities.”“Europewasstirringwithnew ideas. Many Europeans were filled with burning curiosity. Theywere living in a period called the Renaissance.” “The Renaissanceencouraged people to regard themselves as individuals.” “What startedEuropeansthinkingnewthoughtsanddreamingnewdreams?Aseriesofwars called the Crusades were partly responsible.” “The Crusadersacquired a taste for the exotic delights ofAsia.” “The desire formoretrade quickly spread.” “The old trade routes to Asia had always beenverydifficult.”

The accounts resemble each other closely. Sometimes different textbookseven use the same phrases.Overall, the level of scholarship is discouraginglylow,perhapsbecause theirauthorsaremoreathome inAmericanhistory thanEuropeanhistory.Theydon’tseemtoknowthattheRenaissancewassyncretic.Thatis,ItalianscombinedideasfromIndia(viatheTurks),Greece(preservedbyMuslim scholars), Arabs, and other cultures to form something new. Authorsalso provide no real causal explanations for the age of European conquest.Instead, theyargueforEurope’sgreatness in transparentlypsychological terms—“people grew more curious.” Such arguments make sociologists smile: weknow that nobodymeasured the curiosity level in Spain in 1492 or can withauthoritycompareittothecuriositylevelin,say,NorwayorIcelandin1005.

Several textbooks claim that Europewas becoming richer and that the newwealth led tomore trade.Actually, as the historianAngusCalder has pointedout,“Europewassmallerandpoorerinthefifteenthcenturythanithadbeeninthethirteenth,”owinginparttothebubonicplague.5

Some teachers still teachwhat their predecessors taughtme fifty years ago:thatEuropeneededspicestodisguisethetasteofbadmeat,butthebadTurkscut

off the spice trade. Three books in my original sample—The AmericanTradition,LandofPromise,andTheAmericanWay—repeatedthisfalsehood.InthewordsofLandofPromise, “Then, after 1453,whenConstantinople fell totheTurks,tradewiththeEastallbutstopped.”ButA.H.Lybyerdisprovedthisstatementin1915!TurkeyhadnothingtodowiththedevelopmentofnewroutestotheIndies.Onthecontrary,theTurkshadeveryreasontokeeptheoldEasternMediterraneanrouteopen,sincetheymademoneyfromit.6

In1957JacquesBarzunandHenryGraffpublishedabookthathasbecomeastandard treatise for graduate students of history, TheModern Researcher, inwhich they pointed out how since 1915, textbooks have perpetuated thisparticular error. Probably several of the half-dozen authors of the offendingtextbooks encountered TheModern Researcher in graduate school. Somehowtheinformationdidnotstick.ThismaybebecauseblamingTurksfitswiththeWest’s archetypal conviction that followers of Islam are likely to behaveirrationally or nastily. In proposing that Congress declare Columbus Day anationalholiday in1963,Rep.RolandLibonatiput it thisway: “HisChristianfaith gave to him a religious incentive to thwart the piratical activities of theTurkishmarauders preying upon the trading ships of theChristianworld.”Ofcourse, recentdevelopments,mostespecially the terroristattacksofSeptember11,2001,reinforcethisarchetypeofathreateningIslam.Collegestudentstodayare therefore astonished to learn that Turks and Moors allowed Jews andChristians freedomofworship at a timewhenEuropeanChristians torturedorexpelledJewsandMuslims.NotasingletextbooktellsthatthePortuguesefleetin1507blockedtheRedSeaandPersianGulftostoptradealongtheoldroute,becausePortugalcontrolledthenewroute,aroundAfrica.7

Most textbooks note the increase in international trade and commerce, andsomerelatetheriseofnation-statesundermonarchies.Otherwise,theydoapoorjobofdescribingthechangesinEuropethatledtotheAgeofExploration.SometextbookseveninvoketheProtestantReformation,althoughitdidn’tbeginuntiltwenty-fiveyearsafter1492.

What is going on here? We must pay attention to what the textbooks aretelling us and what they are not telling us. The changes in Europe not onlyprompted Columbus’s voyages and the probable contemporaneous trips toAmericabyPortuguese,Basque,andBristolfishermen,buttheyalsopavedtheway for Europe’s domination of the world for the next five hundred years.

Exceptfortheinventionofagriculture,thiswasprobablythemostconsequentialdevelopment in human history. Our history books ought to discuss seriouslywhat happened and why, instead of supplying vague, nearly circularpronouncementssuchasthisfromTheAmericanTradition:“Interestinpracticalmatters and the world outside Europe led to advances in shipbuilding andnavigation.”

Perhaps foremost among the significant factors the textbooks leave out areadvances in military technology. Around 1400, European rulers began tocommission ever bigger guns and learned to mount them on ships. Europe’sincessantwarsgaverisetothisarmsrace,whichalsousheredinrefinementsinarchery, drill, and siege warfare. Eventually China, the Ottoman Empire, andothernationsinAsiaandAfricawouldfallpreytoEuropeanarms.In1493,theAmericasbegantosuccumb.8

We live with this arms race still. But the West’s advantage in militarytechnologyover therestof theworld, jealouslymaintainedfromthe1400son,remainsverymuchcontested.JustasthethirteenBritishcoloniestriedtooutlawthesaleofgunstoNativeAmericans,9theUnitedStatesnowtriestooutlawthesaleofnucleartechnologytoThirdWorldcountries.AkeypointofGeorgeW.Bush’sforeignpolicyhasbeentodenynuclearweaponsandother“weaponsofmassdestruction”toIraq,Iran,andNorthKoreaandkeepthemoutofthehandsof terrorists like al-Qaeda. Since money is to be made in the arms trade,however, and since all nations need military allies, the arms trade with non-Westernnationspersists.TheWesternadvantageinmilitarytechnologyisstillaburning issue.Nonetheless, not a single textbookmentions armsas a causeofEuropeanworlddomination.

IntheyearsbeforeColumbus’svoyages,Europealsoexpandedtheuseofnewforms of social technology—bureaucracy, double-entry bookkeeping, andmechanicalprinting.Bureaucracy,which todayhasnegativeconnotations,wasactuallyapracticalinnovationthatallowedrulersandmerchantstomanagefar-flung enterprises efficiently. So did double-entry bookkeeping, based on thedecimal system, which Europeans first picked up from Arab traders. Theprinting press and increased literacy allowed news of Columbus’s findings totravel across Europe much farther and faster than news of the Vikings’expeditions.

Athirdimportantdevelopmentwasideologicaloreventheological:amassing

wealth and dominating other people came to be positively valued as the keymeansofwinningesteemonearthandsalvationinthehereafter.AsColumbusputit,“Goldismostexcellent;goldconstitutestreasure;andhewhohasitdoesallhewantsintheworld,andcanevenliftsoulsuptoParadise.”10In1005theVikings intendedonly tosettleVineland, theirnameforNewEnglandand themaritimeprovincesofCanada.By1493Columbusplanned toplunderHaiti.11The sources are perfectly clear about Columbus’s motivation: in 1495, forinstance,MicheledeCuneowroteaboutaccompanyingColumbusonhis1494expeditionintotheinteriorofHaiti:“Afterwehadrestedforseveraldaysinoursettlement,itseemedtotheLordAdmiralthatitwastimetoputintoexecutionhis desire to search for gold,whichwas themain reasonhehad startedon sogreatavoyagefullofsomanydangers.”12ColumbuswasnogreedierthantheSpanish, or later the English and French. But most textbooks downplay thepursuit ofwealth as amotive for coming to theAmericaswhen they describeColumbusandlaterexplorersandcolonists.EventhePilgrimsleftEuropepartlytomakemoney,butyouwouldneverknowitfromourtextbooks.Theirauthorsapparently believe that to haveAmerica explored and colonized for economicgainissomehowundignified.

A fourth factor affecting Europe’s readiness to embrace a “new” continentwas the particular nature of European Christianity. Europeans believed in atransportable, proselytizing religion that rationalized conquest. (Followers ofIslam share this characteristic.) Typically, after “discovering” an island andencounteringatribeofAmericanIndiansnewtothem,theSpaniardswouldreadaloud (in Spanish) what came to be called “the Requirement.” Here is oneversion:

IimploreyoutorecognizetheChurchasaladyandinthenameofthePopetaketheKingaslordofthislandandobeyhismandates.Ifyoudonot do it, I tell you that with the help of God I will enter powerfullyagainstyouall.IwillmakewareverywhereandeverywaythatIcan.Iwill subject you to the yoke and obedience to the Church and to hismajesty.Iwilltakeyourwomenandchildrenandmakethemslaves....Thedeathsand injuries thatyouwill receivefromhereonwillbeyourown fault and not that of his majesty nor of the gentlemen thataccompanyme.13

Having thus satisfied their consciences by offering the Native Americans a

chancetoconverttoChristianity,theSpaniardsthenfeltfreetodowhatevertheywantedwiththepeopletheyhadjust“discovered.”

A fifth development that caused Europe’s reaction to Columbus’s reportsaboutHaititodifferradicallyfromreactionstoearlierexpeditionswasEurope’srecentsuccessintakingoverandexploitingvariousislandsocieties.OnMalta,Sardinia, the Canary Islands, and, later, in Ireland, Europeans learned thatconquestofthissortwasaroutetowealth.Asdescribedbelow,textbooksnowdotellaboutasixthfactor:thediseasesEuropeansbroughtwiththemthataidedtheirconquest.Newandmoredeadlyformsofsmallpox,influenza,andbubonicplaguehadariseninEuropesincetheVikingshadsailed.14

Why don’t textbooks mention arms as a facilitator of exploration anddomination?Whydo theyomitmostof the foregoing factors? If crude factorssuchasmilitarypowerorreligiouslysanctionedgreedareperceivedasreflectingbadlyonus,whoexactly is“us”?Whoare the textbookswrittenfor(andby)?Plainly,descendantsoftheEuropeans.

High school students don’t usually think about the rise of Europe toworlddomination. It is rarely presented as a question. It seems natural, a given, notsomethingthatneedstobeexplained.Deepdown,ourcultureencouragesustoimagine that we are richer and more powerful because we’re smarter. (It’sinterestingtospeculateastowho,exactly,isthis“we.”)Ofcourse,therearenostudies showing Americans to be more intelligent than, say, Iraqis. Quite thecontrary:JaredDiamondbeginshisrecentbestsellerGuns,Germs,andSteelbyintroducingafriendofhis,aNewGuineatribesman,whoDiamondthinksisatleast as smart as Diamond, even though his culture must be considered“primitive.”Still,sincetextbooksdon’tidentifyorencourageustothinkabouttherealcauses,“we’resmarter”festersasapossibility.Alsoleftfesteringisthenotion that “it’s natural” for one group to dominate another.15 While historybrimswithexamplesofnationaldomination,italsoisfullofcounterexamples.ThewayAmericanhistorytextbookstreatColumbusreinforcesthetendencynotto think about the process of domination.The traditional picture ofColumbuslandingontheAmericanshoreshowshimdominatingimmediately,andthis isbased on fact: Columbus claimed everything he saw right off the boat.Whentextbookscelebratethisprocess,theyimplythattakingthelandanddominatingthe natives were inevitable, if not natural. This is unfortunate, becauseColumbus’s voyages constitute a splendid teachable moment. As official

missionsofanation-state,theyexemplifythenewEurope.Merchantsandrulerscollaboratedtofinanceandauthorizethem.Thesecondexpeditionwasheavilyarmed. Columbus carefully documented the voyages, including directions,currents,shoals,anddescriptionsoftheresidentsasripeforsubjugation.Thanksto theprintingpress,detailednewsofHaitiandlaterconquestsspreadswiftly.ColumbushadpersonalexperienceoftheAtlanticislandsrecentlytakenoverbyPortugal and Spain, as well as with the slave trade in West Africa. Mostimportant, his purpose from the beginning was not mere exploration or eventrade,butconquestandexploitation,forwhichheusedreligionasarationale.16If textbooks included these facts, they might induce students to thinkintelligentlyaboutwhytheWestdominatestheworldtoday.

The textbooks concede that Columbus did not start from scratch. Everytextbook account of the European exploration of the Americas begins withPrince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, between 1415 and 1460. Henry isportrayed as discovering Madeira and the Azores and sending out ships tocircumnavigateAfricaforthefirsttime.ThetextbookauthorsseemunawarethatancientPhoeniciansandEgyptianssailedatleastasfarasIrelandandEngland,reachedMadeira and theAzores, tradedwith the aboriginal inhabitants of theCanaryIslands,andsailedallthewayaroundAfricabefore600BC.Instead,thetextbookscreditBartolomeuDiaswithbeingthefirsttoroundtheCapeofGoodHopeatthesoutherntipofAfricain1488.OmittingtheaccomplishmentsofthePhoenicians is ironic, because it was PrinceHenry’s knowledge of their featsthatinspiredhimtoreplicatethem.17Butthisinformationclasheswithanothersocial archetype: our culture views modern technology as a Europeandevelopment.SothePhoenicians’featsdonotconformtothetextbooks’overallstory line about howwhite Europeans taught the rest of theworld how to dothings. None of the textbooks credits the Muslims with preserving Greekwisdom,enhancingitwithideasfromChina,India,andAfrica,andthenpassingon the resulting knowledge to Europe via Spain and Italy. Instead, they showHenryinventingnavigationandimplythatbeforeEuropetherewasnothing,atleast nothingmodern.Several books tell how“thePortuguese designed a newkindofsailingship—thecaravel,”inthewordsofBoorstinandKelley.

In fact, Henry’s work was based mostly on ideas that were known to theancient Egyptians and Phoenicians and had been developed further inArabia,North Africa, and China. Even the word the Portuguese applied to their newships,caravel,derivedfromtheEgyptiancaravos.18Culturesdonotevolveina

vacuum; diffusion of ideas is perhaps the most important cause of culturaldevelopment. Contact with other cultures often triggers a cultural flowering.Anthropologistscallthissyncretism:combiningideasfromtwoormoreculturesto form something new. Children in elementary school learn that Persian andMediterraneancivilizationsfloweredinantiquityowingtotheirlocationontraderoutes.HerewithHenryat thedawnofEuropeanworlddomination, textbookshave a golden opportunity to apply this same idea of cultural diffusion toEurope.Theysquanderit.NotonlydidHenryhavetodevelopnewinstruments,accordingtoTheAmericanWay,but“peopledidn’tknowhowtobuildseagoingships, either.”19 Students are left without a clue as to how aborigines everreached Australia, Polynesians reached Madagascar, or prehistoric peoplesreached the Canaries. By “people” Way means, of course, Europeans—atextbookexampleofEurocentrism.

ThesebooksareexpressionsofwhattheanthropologistStephenJettcalls“thedoctrine of the discovery of America by Columbus.”20 Table 1 provides achronological list of expeditions that may have reached the Americas beforeColumbus,withcommentsonthequalityoftheevidenceforeachasof2006.21While the list is long, it is still probably incomplete.Amap found in Turkeydated1513andsaid tobebasedonmaterial fromthe libraryofAlexander theGreat includes coastline details of South America and Antarctica. AncientRomanandCarthaginiancoinskeep turningupallover theAmericas,causingsomearchaeologiststoconcludethatRomanseafarersvisitedtheAmericasmorethan once.22 Native Americans also crossed the Atlantic: anthropologistsconjecture thatNativeAmericans voyaged eastmillennia ago fromCanada toScandinaviaorScotland.TwoAmericanIndiansshipwreckedinHollandaround60BCbecamemajorcuriositiesinEurope.23

Theevidence for eachof these journeysoffers fascinatingglimpses into thesocieties and cultures that existed on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asiabefore1492.Theyalsorevealcontroversiesamongthosewhostudythedistantpast. If textbooks allowed for controversy, they could show students whichclaims rest on strong evidence, which on softer ground. As they challengedstudentstomaketheirowndecisionsastowhatprobablyhappened,theywouldalsobeintroducingstudentstothevariousmethodsandformsofevidence—oralhistory,writtenrecords,culturalsimilarities,linguisticchanges,humangenetics,pottery, archaeologicaldating,plantmigrations—that researchersuse toderive

knowledgeabout thedistantpast.Unfortunately, textbooks seem locked intoarhetoricofcertainty.JamesWestDavidsonandMarkH.Lytle,coauthorsofthetextbookTheUnitedStates—AHistoryof theRepublic,havealsowrittenAftertheFact,abookforcollegehistorymajorsinwhichtheyemphasizethathistoryis not a set of facts but a series of arguments, issues, and controversies.24Davidson and Lytle’s high school textbook, however, like its competitors,presentshistoryasanswers,notquestions.

TABLE1.EXPLORERSOFAMERICA

New evidence that emerges, as archaeologists, historians, and biologistscompareAmericanculturesandlifeformswithculturesandlifeformsinAfrica,Europe,andAsia,mayconfirmordisprovethesearrivals.Keepingupwithsuchevidenceisalotofwork.Totellaboutearlierexplorers,textbookauthorswouldhave to familiarize themselves with sources such as those cited in the threeprecedingnotes.It’seasierjusttoretelltheoldfamiliarColumbusstory.

MostofthetextbooksIstudiedatleastmentiontheexpeditionsoftheNorse.These daring sailors reachedAmerica in a series of voyages across theNorthAtlantic, establishing communities on the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, andGreenland. TheNorse colony onGreenland lasted five hundred years (982-c.1500), as long as the European settlement of the Americas until now. FromGreenland a series of expeditions, some planned, some accidental, reachedvarious parts of North America, including Baffin Land, Labrador,Newfoundland,andpossiblyNewEngland.

MosttextbooksthatmentiontheVikingexpeditionsminimizethem.LandofPromise writes, “They merely touched the shore briefly, and sailed away.”

Perhaps theauthorsofPromise did not know that, around1005,Thorfinn andGudridKarlsefni ledapartyof65or165or265homesteaders (theoldNorsesagas vary), with livestock and supplies, to settle Vineland. They lasted twoyears;Gudridgavebirthtoason.ThenconflictwithNativeAmericanscausedthem togiveup.This tripwasno isolated incident:Norsewere still exportingwood from Labrador to Greenland 350 years later. Some archaeologists andhistorians believe that theNorse got as far down the coast asNorthCarolina.The Norse discoveries remained known in western Europe for centuries andwereneverforgotteninScandinavia.ColumbussurelylearnedofGreenlandandprobablyalsoofNorthAmerica ifhevisited Iceland in1477asheclaimed tohavedone.25

ItmaybefairtosaythattheVikings’voyageshadlittlelastingeffectonthefateof theworld.Should textbooks therefore leave themout?Is impacton thepresentthesolereasonforincludinganeventorfact?Itcannotbe,ofcourse,orourhistorybookswouldshrinktotwenty-pagepamphlets.WeincludetheNorsevoyages,notfortheirostensiblegeopoliticalsignificance,butbecauseincludingthemgivesamorecompletepictureof thepast.Moreover, if textbookswouldonly intelligently compare the Norse voyages to Columbus’s second voyage,they would help students understand the changes that took place in Europebetween1000 and1493.Aswe shall see,Columbus’s secondvoyagewas tentimeslargerthantheNorseattemptsatsettlement.ThenewEuropeanabilitytomobilize was in part responsible for Columbus’s voyages taking on theirawesomesignificance.

Although seafarers from Africa and Asia may also have made it to theAmericas, they nevermake it into history textbooks. The best known are thevoyages of the Phoenicians, probably launched fromMorocco orWestAfricabut ultimately deriving fromEgypt, that are said to have reached theAtlanticcoast ofMexico in about 750 B.C. Organic material associated with colossalheadsofbasaltthatstandalongtheeasterncoastofMexicohasbeendatedtoatleast 750 B.C. The stone heads may be realistic portraits of West Africans,perhaps part of the Phoenician group, according to anthropologist Ivan VanSertima, who has done much to bring these images into popularconsciousness.26 The first non-native person to describe these heads, JoseMelgar,concludedin1862,“[T]herehaddoubtlessbeenblacksinthisregion.”Perhaps around the same time, natives elsewhere in Mexico created smallceramicandstonesculpturesofwhatseemtobeCaucasoidandNegroidfaces.

AsAlexandervonWuthenau,whocollectedmanysuchterra-cottastatues,putit,“It is contradictory to elementary logic and to all artistic experience that anIndiancoulddepictinamasterlywaytheheadofaNegroorofawhitepersonwithout missing a single racial characteristic, unless he had seen such aperson.”27 Some scholars have dismissed the Caucasoid images as “stylized”Indianheadsandquestiontheirantiquity,sincemostwerepurchased,ratherthanfoundby archaeologistswho could date them from their surroundings.Mayanspecialists claim that the “Negroid faces” may represent jaguars or humanbabies.Somepointoutthatnativesfoundnearthesitestodayhavebroadnosesandthicklips,butofcourse,ifAfricanshadcometothearea,inantiquityoraspartoftheslavetradeafter1492,thatwouldhardlybesurprising.28VanSertimaand others have adduced additional bits of evidence, including similarities inlooms and other cultural elements, and information inArab historical sourcesabout extensive ocean navigation by Africans and Phoenicians in the eighthcenturyBC.29

What is the importance today of these possible African and PhoenicianpredecessorsofColumbus?Like theVikings, theyprovidea fascinating story,onethatcanholdhighschoolstudentsontheedgeoftheirseats.Wemightalsorealizeanotherkindof importancebycontemplating theparticularmeaningofColumbusDay.ItalianAmericansinfersomethingpositiveabouttheir“nationalcharacter”fromtheexploitsoftheirethnicancestors.TheAmericansociologistGeorge Homans once quipped, explaining why he had written on his ownancestors in East Anglia, rather than on some larger group elsewhere: “Theymaybehumans,butnotHomans!”Similarly,ScandinaviansandScandinavianAmericanshavealwaysbelievedtheNorsesagasabouttheVikings,evenwhenmost historians did not, and finally confirmed them by conductingarchaeologicalresearchinNewfoundland.

IfColumbus is especially relevant towesternEuropeans and theVikings toScandinavians,whatisthemeaningtoAfricanAmericansofthepre-ColumbianvoyagersfromAfrica?AftervisitingthevonWuthenaumuseuminMexicoCity,the Afro-Carib scholar Tiho Narva wrote, “With his unique collectionsurroundingme,Ihadaneeriefeelingthatveilsobscuringthepasthadbeentornasunder. . . . Somehow,upon leaving themuseum I suddenly felt that I couldwalk taller for the restofmydays.”30VanSertima’s bookhas been reprintedmore than twenty times, and he is lionized by black undergraduates acrossAmerica. Rapmusic groups chant “but we already had been there” in verses

aboutColumbus.31Obviously,AfricanAmericanswant toseepositive imagesof“themselves”inAmericanhistory.Sodoweall.

RockheadsninefeettallfacetheoceaninsoutheasternMexico.Archaeologistscall them Olmec heads after their name for the Indians who carved them.According to an archaeologist who helped uncover them, the faces are“amazinglyNegroid.”Today some archaeologists believe that themouth linesresemble jaguarlike expressions Mayan children still make. Others think thestatues are of “fat babies”or Indiankingsor resemble sculptures inSoutheastAsia.

As with the Norse, including the Phoenicians and Africans gives a morecomplete and complex picture of the past, showing that navigation andexploration did not begin with Europe in the 1400s. Like the Norse, thePhoenicians and Africans illustrate human possibility, in this case blackpossibility, or,more accurately, the prowess of amultiracial society.32UnliketheNorse,theAfricansandPhoeniciansseemtohavemadeapermanentimpacton the Americas. The huge stone statues in Mexico imply as much. It tookenormouseffort toquarry thesebasaltblocks,eachweighing ten to forty tons,move themfromquarries seventy-fivemilesaway,andsculpt them intoheadssixtotenfeettall.Wherevertheywerefrom,thehumanmodelsfortheseheadswere important people, people to be worshiped or obeyed or at leastremembered. 33 However, most archaeologists think they were Mayan, so

includingtheAfro-Phoeniciansmustbedoneasamerepossibility—anongoingcontroversy.

Of all the textbooks I surveyed, only two even mention the possibility ofAfricanorPhoenician exploration.TheAmericanAdventure simply poses twoquestions: “What similarities are there between the great monuments of theMaya and those of ancientEgypt?” and “Mightwindblown sailors fromAsia,Europe,Africa,ortheSouthPacifichavemingledwiththeearlierinhabitantsofthe New World?” The textbook supplies no relevant information and evenclaims“Youshouldbeabletodealwiththesequestionswithoutdoingresearch.”Nonsense. Most classrooms will simply ignore the questions.34 The UnitedStates—AHistoryof theRepublicmentionspre-Columbianexpeditionsonly toassure us that we need not concern ourselves with them: “None of theseEuropeans, Africans, or Asians left lasting traces of their presence in theAmericas, nor did they develop any lasting relationships with the firstAmericans.”

American history textbooks promote the belief that most importantdevelopments in world history are traceable to Europe. To grant too muchhuman potential to pre-Columbian Africans might jar European Americansensibilities.AsSamuelMarbleputit,“ThepossibilityofAfricandiscoveryofAmerica has never been a tempting one forAmerican historians.”35 Teachersandcurricula thatpresentAfricanhistoryandAfricanAmericans in apositivelightareoftencondemnedforbeingAfrocentric.WhitehistoriansinsistthatthecasefortheAfro-Phoenicianshasnotbeenproven;wemustnotdistorthistorytoimproveblackchildren’sself-image,theysay.Theyarerightthatthecasehasn’tbeenproven,buttextbooksshouldincludetheAfro-Phoeniciansasapossibility,acontroversy.

Standard history textbooks and courses discriminate against students whohavebeeneducatedbyrapsongsorbyVanSertima.Imagineaneleventh-gradeclassroominAmericanhistoryinearlyfall.ThetextisLifeandLiberty;studentsarereadingChapter2,“ExplorationandColonization.”WhathappenswhenanAfricanAmericangirlshootsupherhandtochallengethestatement“Notuntil1497to1499didthePortugueseexplorerVascodaGamasailaroundAfrica”?FromrapsongsthegirlhaslearnedthatPhoeniciansbeatdaGamabymorethantwothousandyears.Doestheteachertaketimetoresearchthequestionandfindthat the student is right, the textbookwrong?More likely, s/he puts down the

student’sknowledge:“Rapsongsaren’tappropriateinahistoryclass!”Ors/hehumorsthechild:“Yes,butthatwaslongagoanddidn’tleadtoanything.VascodaGama’sdiscovery is the importantone.”Theseresponsesallowtheclass tomove“forward”tothenexttopic.Theyalsocontainsometruth:thePhoeniciancircumnavigation didn’t lead to any new trade routes or national alliances,because the Phoenicianswere already tradingwith India through theRed SeaandthePersianGulf.Textbooksdon’tnameVascodaGamabecausesomethingcame from his “discovery,” however. They name him because he was white.Two pages later,Life and Liberty tells us that Hernando de Soto “discovered[the] Mississippi River.” Of course, it had been discovered and namedMississippi by ancestors of theAmerican Indianswhowere soon to chase deSotodownit.TextbooksportraydeSotoinarmor,notshowingthatbythetimehereachedtheriver,hismenandwomenhadlostalmostalltheirclothinginafire set by Natives in Alabama and were wearing replacements woven fromreeds.DeSoto’s “discovery”hadno larger significanceand led tono tradeorwhite settlement.36 His was merely the first white face to gaze upon theMississippi. That’s why most American history textbooks include him. FromErik the Red to Peary at the North Pole to the first man on the moon, wecelebratemostdiscoverersbecausetheywerefirstandbecausetheywerewhite,notbecauseofevents that flowedordidnot flowfromtheiraccomplishments.MyhypotheticalteachersubtlychangedthegroundrulesfordaGama,buttheychangedrightbackfordeSoto.Inthiswaystudentslearnthatblackfeatsarenotconsideredimportantwhilewhiteonesare.37

Comparing two other possible pre-Columbian expeditions, from the westcoastsofAfricaandIreland,providesaninterestingvantagepointfromwhichtoconsider this debate.WhenColumbus reachedHaiti, he found theArawaks inpossessionofsomespearpointsmadeof“guanine.”TheArawakssaidtheygotthemfromblacktraderswhohadcomefromthesouthandeast.Guanineprovedtobeanalloyofgold,silver,andcopper,identicaltothegoldalloypreferredbyWestAfricans,who also called it “guanine.” Islamic historians have recordedstoriesofvoyageswestfromMaliinWestAfricaaround1311,duringthereignofMansaBakariII.Fromtimetotimeinthefourteenthandfifteenthcenturies,shipwreckedAfricanvessels—remnants,perhaps,oftransatlantictrade—washedup on Cape Verde. From contacts inWest Africa, the Portuguese heard thatAfricantraderswerevisitingBrazilinthemid-1400s;thisknowledgemayhaveinfluencedPortugaltoinsistonmovingthepope’s“lineofdemarcation”farther

westintheTreatyofTordesillas(1494).38TracesofdiseasescommoninAfricahave been detected in pre-Columbian corpses in Brazil. Columbus’s sonFerdinand,whoaccompaniedtheadmiralonhisthirdvoyage,reportsthatpeopletheymetorheardaboutineasternHonduras“arealmostblackincolor,uglyinaspect,”probablyAfricans.The firstEuropeans to reachPanama—Balboaandcompany—reportedseeingblackslavesinanIndiantown.TheIndianssaidtheyhad captured them from a nearby black community. Oral history from Afro-Mexicans contains tales of pre-Columbian crossings fromWestAfrica. In all,then, data from diverse sources suggest the possibility of pre-ColumbianvoyagesfromWestAfricatoAmerica.39

Incontrast,theevidenceforanIrishtriptoAmericacomesfromonlyonesideof the Atlantic. Irish legends written in the ninth or tenth century tell of “anabbotandseventeenmonkswhojourneyedtothe‘promisedlandofthesaints’during a seven-year sojourn in a leather boat” centuries earlier. The storiesinclude details that are literally fabulous: each Easter the priest and his crewsupposedly conductedMass on the back of awhale. They visited a “pillar ofcrystal”(perhapsaniceberg)andan“islandoffire.”Wecannotsimplydismisstheselegends,however.WhentheNorsefirstreachedIceland,Irishmonkswerelivingontheisland,whosevolcanoescouldhaveprovidedthe“islandoffire.”40

How do American history textbooks treat these two sets of legendaryvoyagers? Five of the twelve textbooks in my original sample admitted thepossibilityofanIrishexpedition.ChallengeofFreedomgavethefullestaccount:

Somepeoplebelieve that . . . Irishmissionariesmayhavesailed to theAmericas hundreds of years before the first voyages of Columbus.According to Irish legends, Irish monks sailed the Atlantic Ocean inorder to bringChristianity to the people theymet.One Irish legend inparticular tells about a land southwest of the Azores. This land wassupposedly discovered by St. Brendan, an Irish missionary, about 500AD.

Notonetextbook—oldornew—mentionstheWestAfricans,however.

WhileleavingoutColumbus’spredecessors,Americanhistorybookscontinuetomakemistakeswhentheygettothelast“discoverer.”Theypresentcut-and-dried answers, mostly glorifying Columbus, always avoiding uncertainty orcontroversy.Oftentheirerrorsseemtobecopiedfromothertextbooks.Letme

repeatthecollectiveColumbusstorytheytell,thistimeitalicizingeverythinginitthatwehavesolidreasontobelieveistrue.

Born in Genoa, of humble parents,Christopher Columbus grew up tobecomean experienced seafarer, venturing as far as IcelandandWestAfrica.Hisadventuresconvincedhimthattheworldmustberoundandthat the fabled riches of the East—spices and gold—could be had bysailingwest,supersedingtheoverlandroutes,whichtheTurkshadclosedoff to commerce. To get funding for his enterprise, he beseechedmonarchaftermonarchinWesternEurope.Afteratfirstbeingdismissedby Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Columbus finally got his chancewhen Isabella decided to underwrite a modest expedition. Columbusoutfitted three pitifully small ships, theNiña, the Pinta, and the SantaMaria,andsetforthfromSpain.Afteranarduousjourneyofmore thantwo months, during which his mutinous crew almost threw himoverboard,Columbus discovered theWest Indies onOctober 12, 1492.Unfortunately, although he made three more voyages to America, henever knew he had discovered a New World. Columbus died inobscurity,unappreciatedandpenniless.YetwithouthisdaringAmericanhistory would have been very different, for in a sense he made it allpossible.

Asyoucansee,textbooksgetthedateright,andthenamesoftheships.Mostof the rest that they tell us is untrustworthy.Many aspects ofColumbus’s liferemainamystery.HeclaimedtobefromGenoa,Italy,andthereisevidencethathewas.Thereisalsoevidencethathewasn’t:Columbusdidn’tseemtobeableto write in Italian, even when writing to people in Genoa. Some historiansbelieve he was Jewish, a converso or convert to Christianity, probably fromSpain.(SpainwaspressuringitsJewstoconvertorleavethecountry.)Hemayhave been a Genoese Jew. Still other historians claim he was from Corsica,Portugal,orelsewhere.41

WhataboutColumbus’sclassbackground?Onetextbooktellsushewaspoor,“thesonofapoorGenoeseweaver,”whileanotherassuresushewasrich,“thesonofaprosperouswool-weaver.”Eachbook is certain,butpeoplewhohavespentyearsstudyingColumbussaywecannotbesure.

We do not even know for certain where Columbus thought he was going.Evidence suggests hewas seeking Japan, India, and Indonesia; other evidence

indicates he was trying to reach “new” lands to the west. Historians haveasserted each viewpoint for centuries.Because “Indiawas known for its greatwealth,” Las Casas points out, it was in Columbus’s interest “to induce themonarchs,alwaysdoubtfulabouthisenterprise,tobelievehimwhenhesaidhewas setting out in search of a western route to India.”42 After reviewing theevidence, Columbus’s recent biographer Kirkpatrick Sale concluded “we willlikely never know for sure.” Sale noted that such a conclusion is “not verysatisfactory for those who demand certainty in their historical tales.”43Predictably,allourtextbooksareofthistype:all“know”hewasseekingJapanandtheEastIndies.Thusauthorskeeptheirreadersfromrealizingthathistoriansdonotknowall theanswers,hencehistoryisnotjustaprocessofmemorizingthem.

The extent to which textbooks sometimes disagree, particularly when eachseemssocertainofwhatitdeclares,canbeprettyscary.WhatwastheweatherlikeduringColumbus’s1492trip?AccordingtoLandofPromise,hisshipswere“storm-battered”; butAmericanAdventures says they enjoyed “peaceful seas.”Howlongwasthevoyage?“Aftermorethantwomonthsatsea,”accordingtoTheChallenge of Freedom, the crews saw land; butThe American Adventuresays the voyage lasted “nearly amonth.”Whatwere theAmericas likewhenColumbusarrived?“Thicklypeopled” inonebook,quotingColumbus;“thinlyspread,”accordingtoanother.

To make a better myth, American culture has perpetuated the idea thatColumbuswas boldly forging aheadwhile everyone else, even his own crew,imaginedtheworldwasflat.The1991editionofTheAmericanPageant is theonly textbook that still repeated thishoax. “The superstitious sailors . . . grewincreasingly mutinous,” according to Pageant, because they were “fearful ofsailing over the edge of theworld.” In truth, few people on both sides of theAtlantic believed in 1492 that theworldwas flat.MostEuropeans andNativeAmericansknewtheworldtoberound.Itlooksround.Itcastsacircularshadowon themoon.Sailors see its roundnesswhenshipsdisappearover thehorizon,hullfirst,thensails.

WashingtonIrvingwinscreditforpopularizingtheflat-earthfablein1828.InhisbestsellingbiographyofColumbus, IrvingdescribedColumbus’s supposeddefense of his round-earth theory before the flat-earth savants at SalamancaUniversity. Irving himself surely knew the story to be fiction.44 He probably

thoughtitaddedanicedramaticflourishandwoulddonoharm.Butitdoes.Itinvitesustobelievethatthe“primitives”oftheworld,admittedlyincludingpre-ColumbianEuropeans,hadonlyacrudeunderstandingof theplanet they livedon, until aided by a forward-thinkingEuropean. It also turnsColumbus into amanofsciencewhocorrectedourfaultygeography.

Most textbooks include a portrait of Columbus. These head-and-shoulderpictureshavenovaluewhatsoeverashistoricaldocuments,becausenotoneofthecountless imageswehaveof themanwaspaintedinhis lifetime.Tomakethepointthattheseimagesareinauthentic,theLibraryofCongresssellsthisT-shirtfeaturingsixdifferentColumbusfaces.

Intensedebunkingof theflat-earthlegend,especiallyin1992, theColumbusquincentenary, has made an impact. By 1994, evenPageant had removed itsflat-earth language. Now the “superstitious sailors . . . grew increasinglymutinous” merely because they were “fearful of sailing into the oceanicunknown.”Unfortunately, teacherswho themselves learned the flat-earth story

will never infer from that modestly revised sentence that it was wrong.45BoorstinandKelleyconfrontthelegendmoredirectlythanothertextbooksbutagainwithwholly ineffectualwords: “InColumbus’s timeall educatedpeopleandmostsailorsbelievedthattheearthwasasphere.”Tobesure,thesentencequietly notes that not everyone believed in flat-earth geography. But it stillimplies that the round-earth idea was unusual. Not only students but alsoteachersreadtextbookslikeBoorstinandKelleywithoutchallengingtheirbeliefthatColumbusprovedtheworldround.Thusmanyteachersstillimplicitlyrelaytotheirstudentstheflat-earthlegend.

AmericancultureperpetuatestheimageofColumbusboldlyforgingaheadwhileeveryoneelseimaginedtheworldwasflat.AcharacterinthemovieStarTrekV,forinstance,repeatstheWashingtonIrvinglie:“Thepeopleofyourworldoncebelieved the earth to be flat;Columbus proved itwas round.”EveryOctober,MadisonAvenuemakes use of the flat-earth theme. This ad seeks clients for

daring and courageous stockbrokers! With images like these in our culture,historytextbooksneedtodisabusestudentsoftheflat-earthmyth.

EventhedeathofColumbushasbeenchangedtomakeabetterstory.HavingColumbus come to a tragic end—sick, poor, and ignorant of his greataccomplishment—adds melodramatic interest. “Columbus’s discoveries werenot immediately appreciated by the Spanish government,” according to TheAmerican Adventure. “He died in neglect in 1506.” “He finally reaped onlymisfortuneanddisgrace,”concludeBoorstinandKelley.Theyaddthathe“diedstill believing that he had sailed to the coast of Asia.” In fact, Spain“immediately appreciated” Columbus’s “discoveries,” which is why theyimmediatelyoutfittedhimforamuchlargersecondvoyage.In1499Columbus“reaped” a major gold strike on Haiti. He and his successors then forcedhundreds of thousands ofNatives tomine the gold for them.Money from theAmericascontinuedtoflowintoColumbusinSpain,perhapsnotwhathefelthedeserved,butenoughtokeepallwolvesfarfromhisdoor.Columbusdiedwell-offandlefthisheirswell-endowed,evenwith thetitle,“Admiralof theOceanSea,” now carried by his eighteenth-generation descendant. Moreover,Columbus’s own journal shows clearly that he knew he had reached a “new”continent.46

Someofthedetailsthetextbookauthorspileonareharmless,Isuppose,suchas the fabrications about Isabella’s sending a messenger galloping afterColumbus and pawning her jewels to pay for the expedition.47 All of theenhancements humanize Columbus, however, and magnify his greatness, toinducereaderstoidentifywithhim.HereisapassagefromLandofPromise:

It is October, 1492. Three small, storm-battered ships are lost at sea,sailingintoanunknownocean.Afrightenedcrewhasbeenthreateningtothrowtheirstubborncaptainoverboard,turntheshipsaround,andmakeforthesafetyoffamiliarshores.

Thenamiracle:The sailors see somegreenbranches floatingon thewater. Land birds fly overhead. From high in the ship’s rigging thelookout cries, “Land, land ahead!” Fears turn to joy. Soon the gratefulcaptainwadesashoreandgivesthankstoGod.

AsColumbuscruisedthecoastofVenezuelaonhisthirdvoyage,hepassedtheOrinocoRiver. “I have come to believe that this is amighty continent,whichwashithertounknown,”hewrote.“Iamgreatlysupportedinthisviewbyreasonofthisgreatriverandbythisseawhichisfresh.”Columbusknewthatnomereisland could sustain such a large flow of water.When he returned home, headdedacontinenttotheislandsinhiscoatofarms.Itspresenceatthebottomofthe lower left quadrant visually rebukes the authors of American historytextbooks.

Now,really.Niña,Pinta,andSantaMariawerenot“storm-battered.”Tomakeabettermyth,thetextbookauthorswantthevoyagetoseemharderthanitwas,sothey invent badweather. Columbus’s own journal reveals that the three shipsenjoyed lovely sailing.Seaswere so calm that for days at a time sailorswereable to converse from one ship to another. Indeed, the only time theyexperienced evenmoderately high seas was on the last day, when they knewtheywerenearland.

Tomakeabettermyth,tomakethetripseemlongerthanitwas,mostofthetextbooks overlook Columbus’s stopover in the Canary Islands. The voyageacrosstheunknownAtlantictookonemonth,nottwo.

Tomakeabettermyth,thetextbooksdescribeColumbus’sshipsastinyandinefficient,whenactually“thesethreevesselswerefullysuitedtohispurpose,”asnavalauthorPietroBarozzihaspointedout.48

Tomake a bettermyth, several textbooks exaggerate the crew’s complaintsinto a near-mutiny. The primary sources differ. Some claim the sailorsthreatenedtogobackhomeiftheydidn’treachlandsoon.OthersourcesclaimthatColumbuslostheartandthatthecaptainsoftheothertwoshipspersuadedhimtokeepon.Stillothersourcessuggestthatthethreeleadersmetandagreedto continue on for a few more days and then reassess the situation. Afterstudying thematter,Columbus’sbiographerSamuelEliotMorisonreduced thecomplaints tomere griping: “Theywere all getting on each other’s nerves, ashappensevennowadays.”49Somuchforthecrew’sthreattothrowColumbusoverboard.

Suchexaggerationisnotentirelyharmless.Anotherarchetypelurksbelowthesurface: that thosewhodirect socialenterprisesaremore intelligent than thosenearer thebottom.BillBigelow,ahighschoolhistory teacher,haspointedoutthat “the sailors are stupid, superstitious, cowardly, and sometimes scheming.Columbus, on the other hand, is brave, wise, and godly.” These portrayalsamount to an “anti-working class pro-boss polemic.”50 Indeed, even in 2006,Pageantstillcharacterizesthesailorsas“amotleycrew,”eventhoughtheynowgraspthattheworldisround.

FalseentriesinthelogofSantaMariaareinterpretedtoformanotherpieceofthemyth. “Columbuswas a true leader,” saysAHistory of theUnited States.“He altered the records of distances they had covered so the crewwould notthink they had gone too far from home.” Salvador de Madariaga haspersuasivelyarguedthattobelievethis,wewouldhavetothinktheothersonthevoyagewere fools. Columbus had “no specialmethod, available only to him,wherebydistances sailedcouldbemoreaccurately reckoned thanby theotherpilotsandmasters.”Indeed,ColumbuswaslessexperiencedasanavigatorthanthePinzonbrothers,whocaptainedNiñaandPinta.51Duringthereturnvoyage,Columbus confided in his journal the real reason for the false log entries: hewantedtokeeptheroutetotheIndiessecret.52

Tomakeabettermyth,ourtextbooksfindspaceformanyotherhumanizingparticulars.Theyhavethelookoutcry“Tierra!”or“Land!”MostofthemtellusthatColumbus’sfirstactaftergoingashorewas“thankingGodforleadingthem

safelyacrossthesea”—eventhoughthesurvivingsummaryofColumbus’sownjournalstatesonlythat“beforethemall,hetookpossessionoftheisland,asinfacthedid,fortheKingandQueen,hisSovereigns.”53Manyofthetextbookstell of Columbus’s three later voyages to theAmericas, butmost do not findspacetotellushowColumbustreatedthelandsandthepeoplehe“discovered.”

Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized racerelations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth, andlaborfromindigenouspeopleintheWesternHemisphere, leadingtotheirnearextermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racialunderclass.

Columbus’s initial impression of the Arawaks, who inhabited most of theislandsintheCaribbean,wasquitefavorable.HewroteinhisjournalonOctober13,1492:“Atdaybreakgreatmultitudesofmencametotheshore,allyoungandoffineshapes,andveryhandsome.Theirhairwasnotcurlybutlooseandcoarselikehorse-hair.AllhaveforeheadsmuchbroaderthananypeopleIhadhithertoseen.Theireyesarelargeandverybeautiful.Theyarenotblack,butthecolorofthe inhabitantsof theCanaries.” (This reference to theCanarieswasominous,forSpainwasthenintheprocessofexterminatingtheaboriginalpeopleofthoseislands.) Columbus went on to describe the Arawaks’ canoes, “some largeenoughtocontain40or45men.”Finally,hegotdowntobusiness:“Iwasveryattentivetothem,andstrovetolearniftheyhadanygold.Seeingsomeofthemwithlittlebitsofmetalhangingattheirnoses,Igatheredfromthembysignsthatbygoingsouthwardorsteeringroundtheislandinthatdirection,therewouldbefound a king who possessed great cups full of gold.” At dawn the next day,Columbussailed to theother sideof the island,probablyoneof theBahamas,and saw two or three villages. He ended his description of them with thesemenacingwords:“IcouldconquerthewholeofthemwithfiftymenandgovernthemasIpleased.”54

Onhisfirstvoyage,Columbuskidnappedsometentotwenty-fiveAmericanIndians and took thembackwith him toSpain.55Only seven or eight arrivedalive, but alongwith the parrots, gold trinkets, and other exotica, they causedquiteastirinSeville.FerdinandandIsabellaprovidedColumbuswithseventeenships, twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men, cannons, crossbows, guns,cavalry,andattackdogsforasecondvoyage.

One way to visualize what happened next is with the help of the famous

science fiction story War of the Worlds. H. G. Wells intended his tale ofearthlings’ encounterwith technologically advanced aliens as an allegory.HisfrightenedBritish commoners (New Jerseyites inOrsonWelles’s famed radioadaptation) were analogous to the “primitive” peoples of the Canaries orAmerica, and his terrifying aliens represented the technologically advancedEuropeans.Asweidentifywiththehelplessearthlings,WellswantedusalsotosympathizewiththenativesonHaitiin1493,oronAustraliain1788,orintheupperAmazonjungletoday.56

WhenColumbusandhismenreturnedtoHaitiin1493,theydemandedfood,gold, spun cotton—whatever the Natives had that they wanted, including sexwith their women. To ensure cooperation, Columbus used punishment byexample.WhenanIndiancommittedevenaminoroffense,theSpanishcutoffhis ears or nose.Disfigured, the personwas sent back to his village as livingevidenceofthebrutalitytheSpaniardswerecapableof.

Afterawhile,theNativeshadhadenough.Atfirsttheirresistancewasmostlypassive. They refused to plant food for the Spanish to take. They abandonedtowns near the Spanish settlements. Finally, the Arawaks fought back. TheirsticksandstoneswerenomoreeffectiveagainstthearmedandclothedSpanish,however, than theearthlings’riflesagainst thealiens’deathrays inWaroftheWorlds.

TheattemptsatresistancegaveColumbusanexcusetomakewar.OnMarch24,1495,hesetouttoconquertheArawaks.BartolomédeLasCasasdescribedtheforceColumbusassembledtoputdowntherebellion.

SincetheAdmiralperceivedthatdailythepeopleofthelandweretakinguparms,ridiculousweaponsinreality...hehastenedtoproceedtothecountry and disperse and subdue, by force of arms, the people of theentireisland...Forthishechose200footsoldiersand20cavalry,withmanycrossbowsandsmallcannon,lances,andswords,andastillmoreterribleweaponagainsttheIndians,inadditiontothehorses:thiswas20hunting dogs,whowere turned loose and immediately tore the Indiansapart.57

Naturally, the Spanish won. According to Kirkpatrick Sale, who quotesFerdinand Columbus’s biography of his father: “The soldiers mowed downdozenswithpoint-blankvolleys, loosedthedogstoripopenlimbsandbellies,chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike, and

‘with God’s aid soon gained a complete victory, killing many Indians andcapturingotherswhowerealsokilled.’”58

Havingasyetfoundnofieldsofgold,ColumbushadtoreturnsomekindofdividendtoSpain.In1495theSpanishonHaitiinitiatedagreatslaveraid.Theyrounded up fifteen hundred Arawaks, then selected the five hundred bestspecimens (ofwhom two hundredwould die en route to Spain).Another fivehundredwerechosenasslavesfortheSpaniardsstayingontheisland.Therestwere released.ASpanish eyewitness described the event: “Among themweremanywomenwhohadinfantsat thebreast.They,inorderthebettertoescapeus,since theywereafraidwewould turn tocatch themagain, left their infantsanywhereonthegroundandstartedtofleelikedesperatepeople;andsomefledsofarthattheywereremovedfromoursettlementofIsabelasevenoreightdaysbeyondmountainsandacrosshugerivers;whereforefromnowonscarcelyanywillbehad.”59Columbuswasexcited.“InthenameoftheHolyTrinity,wecansendfromherealltheslavesandbrazil-woodwhichcouldbesold,”hewrotetoFerdinandandIsabellain1496.“InCastile,Portugal,Aragon...andtheCanaryIslandstheyneedmanyslaves,andIdonotthinktheygetenoughfromGuinea.”He viewed the Indian death rate optimistically: “Although they die now, theywillnotalwaysdie.TheNegroesandCanaryIslandersdiedatfirst.”60

In the words of Hans Koning, “There now began a reign of terror inHispaniola.” Spaniards huntedAmerican Indians for sport andmurdered themfor dog food. Columbus, upset because he could not locate the gold he wascertainwasontheisland,setupatributesystem.FerdinandColumbusdescribedhowitworked:

[The Indians] all promised to pay tribute to the Catholic Sovereignseverythreemonths,asfollows:IntheCibao,wherethegoldmineswere,everypersonof14yearsofageorupwardwastopayalargehawk’sbellofgolddust;allotherswereeachtopay25poundsofcotton.WheneveranIndiandeliveredhistribute,hewastoreceiveabrassorcoppertokenwhich he must wear about his neck as proof that he had made hispayment.AnyIndianfoundwithoutsuchatokenwastobepunished.61

With a fresh token, aNativewas safe for threemonths,much ofwhich timewouldbedevotedtocollectingmoregold.Columbus’ssonneglectedtomentionhow the Spanish punished thosewhose tokens had expired: they cut off theirhands.62

Allof thesegruesomefactsareavailable inprimary-sourcematerial—lettersbyColumbusandbyothermembersofhisexpeditions—andintheworkofLasCasas,thefirstgreathistorianoftheAmericas,whoreliedonprimarymaterialsandhelpedpreservethem.Ihavequotedafewprimarysourcesinthischapter.Mosttextbooksmakenouseofprimarysources.AfewincorporatebriefextractsthathavebeencarefullyselectedoreditedtorevealnothingunseemlyabouttheGreatNavigator.AmericanJourney, for example, quotes thepassage I includeabove, about theArawaks being “handsome,” but stops at that point.NothingabouthowColumbuscouldconquerthem“withfiftymenandgovernthemasIpleased.”63

The tribute system eventually broke down because what it demanded wasimpossible.Toreplaceit,Columbusinstalledtheencomiendasystem,inwhichhe granted or “commended” entire Indian villages to individual colonists orgroups of colonists. Since it was not called slavery, this forced-labor systemescaped the moral censure that slavery received. Following Columbus’sexample,Spainmade theencomienda systemofficial policy onHaiti in 1502;otherconquistadorssubsequentlyintroducedittoMexico,Peru,andFlorida.64

Thetributeandencomiendasystemscausedincredibledepopulation.OnHaitithe colonists made the Arawaksmine gold for them, raise Spanish food, andeven carry them everywhere they went. They couldn’t stand it. Pedro deCordoba wrote in a letter to King Ferdinand in 1517, “As a result of thesufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosensuicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass suicide. The women,exhaustedby labor, have shunned conception and childbirth. . . .Many,whenpregnant,havetakensomethingtoabortandhaveaborted.Othersafterdeliveryhavekilledtheirchildrenwiththeirownhands,soasnottoleavetheminsuchoppressiveslavery.”65

Beyondactsofindividualcruelty,theSpanishdisruptedtheNativeecosystemandculture.ForcingIndianstoworkinminesratherthanintheirgardensledtowidespreadmalnutrition. The intrusion of rabbits and livestock caused furtherecologicaldisaster.DiseasesnewtotheAmericansplayedahugerole,includingswineflu,probablycarriedbypigsthatColumbusbroughttoHaitionhissecondvoyagein1493.66SomeoftheArawakstriedfleeingtoCuba,buttheSpanishsoonfollowedthemthere.EstimatesofHaiti’spre-Columbianpopulationrangeashighaseightmillionpeople.WhenChristopherColumbusreturnedtoSpain,

he left his brother Bartholomew in charge of the island. Bartholomew took acensusofIndianadultsin1496andcameupwith1.1million.TheSpanishdidnotcountchildrenunderfourteenandcouldnotcountArawakswhohadescapedin themountains.Kirkpatrick Sale estimates that amore accurate totalwouldprobably be in the neighborhood of three million. “By 1516,” according toBenjamin Keen, “thanks to the sinister Indian slave trade and labor policiesinitiated by Columbus, only some 12,000 remained.” Las Casas tells us thatfewer than two hundred full-blooded Haitian Indians were alive in 1542. By1555,theywereallgone.67

Thus nasty details like cutting off hands have somewhat greater historicalimportance than nice touches like“Tierra!” Columbus not only sent the firstslavesacrosstheAtlantic,heprobablysentmoreslaves—aboutfivethousand—than any other individual. To her credit, Queen Isabella opposed outrightenslavement and returned someAmerican Indians to theCaribbean.But othernations rushed to emulate Columbus. In 1501 the Portuguese began to de-populateLabrador,transportingthenowextinctBeothukIndianstoEuropeandCapeVerdeasslaves.AftertheEnglishestablishedbeachheadsontheAtlanticcoast of North America, they encouraged coastal tribes to capture and sellmembersofmoredistanttribes.Charleston,SouthCarolina,becameamajorportof exporting American Indian slaves. The Pilgrims and Puritans sold thesurvivors of the Pequot War into slavery in Bermuda in 1637. The Frenchshipped virtually the entire Natchez nation in chains to the West Indies in1731.68

AmericanHistory reproducesColumbus Landing in the Bahamas, the first ofeighthuge“historical”paintingsintherotundaoftheU.S.Capitol(above).The1847paintingbyJohnVanderlynillustratestheheroictreatmentofColumbusinmosttextbooks.AnalternativerepresentationofColumbus’senterprisemightbeTheodoredeBry’swoodcut,createdaround1588(opposite).DeBrybasedthisengraving on accounts of Indians who impaled themselves, drank poison,jumped off cliffs, hanged themselves, and killed their children. The artistsqueezed all of these fatal deeds into one picture! De Bry’s images becameimportanthistoricaldocumentsintheirownright.AccompaniedbyLasCasas’swritings, they circulated throughout sixteenth-centuryEurope and gave rise tothe“BlackLegend”ofSpanishcruelty,whichotherEuropeancountriesusedtodenounce Spain’s colonialism, mostly out of envy. No textbook includes anyvisualrepresentationoftheactivitiesofColumbusandhismenthatisotherthanglorious.

Aparticularly repellentaspectof theslave tradewassexual.Assoonas the1493 expeditiongot to theCaribbean, before it even reachedHaiti,Columbuswasrewardinghislieutenantswithnativewomentorape.69OnHaiti,sexslaveswereonemoreperquisitethattheSpaniardsenjoyed.Columbuswroteafriendin

1500,“Ahundredcastellanoesareaseasilyobtainedforawomanasforafarm,andit isverygeneralandthereareplentyofdealerswhogoabout lookingforgirls;thosefromninetotenarenowindemand.”70

The slave trade and the new diseases destroyed whole American Indiannations. Enslaved Indians died. To replace the dying Haitians, the Spanishimported tens of thousandsmore Indians from the Bahamas, which “are nowdeserted,”inthewordsoftheSpanishhistorianPeterMartyr,reportingin

1516.71Packedinbelowdeck,withhatchwaysclosedtopreventtheirescape,somanyslavesdiedonthetripthat“ashipwithoutacompass,chart,orguide,butonlyfollowingthetrailofdeadIndianswhohadbeenthrownfromtheshipscould find its way from the Bahamas to Hispaniola,”72 lamented Las Casas.PuertoRicoandCubawerenext.

Because the Indiansdied, Indian slavery then led to themassive slave tradetheotherwayacross theAtlantic, fromAfrica.This tradealsobeganonHaiti,initiatedbyColumbus’ssonin1505.Predictably,Haitithenbecamethesiteofthe first large-scale slave revolt, when blacks and American Indians banded

togetherin1519.TheuprisinglastedmorethanadecadeandwasfinallybroughttoanendbytheSpanishinthe1530s.73

Oneofthenewtextbooks,TheAmericans,revealstheconflictonHaiti.ThisbookalsoquotesLasCasas to showhowHaitiwasonly thebeginning: “Thistacticbegunhere[willsoon]spreadthroughouttheseIndiesandwillendwhenthere are nomore land or people to subjugate and destroy in this part of theworld.” One of my original twelve, The American Adventure, associatedColumbuswithslavery.Oneoldbookandonenewoneletitgowiththephrase“Columbusproved to be a far better admiral than governor” or its equivalent.Theotherbooks,oldandnew,mostlyadorehim.

ClearlymosttextbooksarenotaboutteachingthehistoryofColumbus.TheirenterpriseseemstobeBuildingCharacter.TheythereforetreatColumbusasanoriginmyth:Hewas good and so arewe.74 In 1989 PresidentGeorgeH.W.BushinvokedColumbusasarolemodelforthenation:“ChristopherColumbusnotonlyopenedthedoortoaNewWorld,butalsosetanexampleforusallbyshowingwhatmonumentalfeatscanbeaccomplishedthroughperseveranceandfaith.”75ThecolumnistJeffreyHartwentevenfurther:“TodenigrateColumbusis to denigrate what is worthy in human history and in us all.”76 TextbookauthorswhoarepushingColumbustobuildcharacterobviouslyhavenointerestin tellingwhat he didwith theAmericas once he reached them—even thoughthat’shalfofthestory,andperhapsthemoreimportanthalf.

AsKirkpatrickSale poetically sumsup,Columbus’s “secondvoyagemarksthe first extended encounter of European and Indian societies, the clash ofcultures thatwas to echo down through five centuries.”77 The authors ofTheAmericanshavereadSale,fortheywrite,“[Haiti]signaledthestartofaculturalclashthatwouldcontinueforthenextfivecenturies.”ThesearenotmeredetailsaboutHaitibetween1493and1500thattheothertextbooksomitorglossover.TheyarefactscrucialtounderstandingAmericanandEuropeanhistory.CaptainJohn Smith, for example, usedColumbus as a rolemodel in proposing a get-tough policy for the Virginia Indians in 1624: “The manner how to suppressthem is so often related and approved, I omit it here: And you have twentyexamplesofhowtheSpaniardsgottheWestIndies,andforcedthetreacherousandrebelliousinfidelstodoallmannerofdrudgeryworkandslaveryforthem,themselves living like soldiersupon the fruits of their labors.”78ThemethodsunleashedbyColumbusare,infact,thelargerpartofhislegacy.Afterall,they

worked.The islandwassowellpacified thatSpanishconvicts,givenasecondchanceonHaiti,could“goanywhere,takeanywomanorgirl,takeanything,andhave the Indians carry him on their backs as if theyweremules.”79 In 1499,when Columbus finally found gold on Haiti in significant amounts, SpainbecametheenvyofEurope.After1500,Portugal,France,Holland,andEnglandjoined in conquering the Americas. These nations were at least as brutal asSpain.TheEnglish,forexample,unliketheSpanish,didnotcolonizebymakinguse of Native labor but simply forced the Indians out of the way. ManyAmericanIndiansfledEnglishcoloniestoSpanishterritories(Florida,Mexico)insearchofmorehumanetreatment.

Columbus’s voyages caused almost as much change in Europe as in theAmericas. Crops, animals, ideas, and diseases began to cross the oceansregularly.Perhapsthemostfar-reachingimpactofColumbus’sfindingswasonEuropean Christianity. In 1492 all of Europe was in the grip of the CatholicChurch. As theEncyclopedia Larousse puts it, before America, “Europe wasvirtually incapable of self-criticism.”80 After America, Europe’s religiousuniformitywasruptured.Forhowwerethesenewpeoplestobeexplained?Theywere not mentioned in the Bible. American Indians simply did not fit withinorthodoxChristianity’sexplanationofthemoraluniverse.Moreover,unliketheMuslims,whomightbewrittenoffas“damnedinfidels,”AmericanIndianshadnotrejectedChristianity,theyhadjustneverencounteredit.Weretheydoomedtohell?EventheanimalsofAmericaposedareligiouschallenge.AccordingtotheBible,atthedawnofcreationallanimalslivedintheGardenofEden.Later,twoofeachspeciesenteredNoah’sarkandendeduponMt.Ararat.SinceEdenandMt.AraratwerebothintheMiddleEast,wherecouldthesenewAmericanspecies have come from? Such questions shook orthodox Catholicism andcontributedtotheProtestantReformation,whichbeganin1517.81

Politically, nations like the Arawaks—without monarchs, without muchhierarchy—stunnedEuropeans.In1516ThomasMore’sUtopia,probablybasedon an account of the Incan empire in Peru, challenged European socialorganizationby suggesting a radicallydifferent and superior alternative.Othersocial philosophers seized upon American Indians as living examples ofEurope’sprimordialpast,whichiswhatJohnLockemeantbythephrase“Inthebeginning, all the world was America.” Depending upon their politicalpersuasion, someEuropeansglorifiedAmerican Indiannations as examplesofsimpler,better societies fromwhichEuropeancivilizationhaddevolved,while

others maligned them as primitive and underdeveloped. In either case, fromMontaigne,Montesquieu, and Rousseau down toMarx and Engels, Europeanphilosophers’ concepts of the good society were transformed by ideas fromAmerica.82

America fascinated the masses as well as the elite. In The Tempest,Shakespearenotedthisuniversalcuriosity:“Theywillnotgiveadoittorelievealambebeggar,theywilllayouttentoseeadeadIndian.”83Europe’sfascinationwiththeAmericaswasdirectlyresponsible,infact,forariseinEuropeanself-consciousness.FromthebeginningAmericawasperceivedasan“opposite” toEurope in ways that even Africa never had been. In a sense, there was no“Europe”before1492.Peoplewere simplyTuscan,French, and the like.NowEuropeans began to see similarities among themselves, at least as contrastedwithNativeAmericans.Forthatmatter,therewereno“white”peopleinEuropebefore 1492. With the transatlantic slave trade, first Indian, then African,Europeans increasinglysaw“white”asa raceand raceasan importanthumancharacteristic.84

Columbus’sownwritingsreflectthisincreasingracism.WhenColumbuswassellingQueenIsabellaonthewondersof theAmericas, theIndianswere“wellbuilt” and “of quick intelligence.” “They have very good customs,” hewrote,“andthekingmaintainsaverymarvelousstate,ofastylesoorderlythatitisapleasuretoseeit,andtheyhavegoodmemoriesandtheywishtoseeeverythingandaskwhatitisandforwhatitisused.”Later,whenColumbuswasjustifyinghiswarsandhisenslavementoftheNatives,theybecame“cruel”and“stupid,”“apeoplewarlikeandnumerous,whosecustomsandreligionareverydifferentfromours.”

It isalwaysuseful to thinkbadlyaboutpeopleonehasexploitedorplans toexploit.Modifyingone’sopinionstobringthemintolinewithone’sactionsorplanned actions is the most common outcome of the process known as“cognitivedissonance,”accordingtosocialpsychologistLeonFestinger.Noonelikestothinkofhimselforherselfasabadperson.Totreatbadlyanotherpersonwhomweconsiderareasonablehumanbeingcreatesatensionbetweenactandattitude that demands resolution.We cannot erasewhatwe have done, and toalter our future behaviormaynot be in our interest.To changeour attitude iseasier.85

Columbusgivesusthefirstrecordedexampleofcognitivedissonanceinthe

Americas,foralthoughtheNativesmayhavechangedfromhospitabletoangry,theycouldhardlyhaveevolvedfromintelligenttostupidsoquickly.ThechangehadtobeinColumbus.

TheAmericas affectedmore than themind.African andEurasian stomachswere also affected.Almost half of allmajor crops now grown throughout theworld originally came from the Americas. According to Alfred Crosby Jr.,addingcorn toAfricandietscaused thepopulation togrow,whichhelped fuelthe African slave trade to the Americas. Adding potatoes to European dietscaused the population to explode in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,which in turn helped fuel the European emigration to the Americas andAustralia. Crops from America also played a key role in the ascendancy ofEngland,Germany,and,finally,Russia;theriseofthesenorthernnationsshiftedthepowerbaseofEuropeawayfromtheMediterranean.86

Shortly after ships from Columbus’s second voyage returned to Europe,syphilisbegantoplagueSpainandItaly.Thereislikelyacausalconnection.Onthe other hand, more than two hundred drugs derive from plants whosepharmacologicaluseswerediscoveredbyAmericanIndians.87

Economically, exploiting the Americas transformed Europe, enriching firstSpain, then, through tradeandpiracy,othernations.Columbus’sgold findsonHaitiwere soon dwarfed by discoveries of gold and silver inMexico and theAndes.Europeanreligiousandpolitical leadersquicklyamassedsomuchgoldthattheyappliedgoldleaftotheceilingsoftheirchurchesandpalaces,erectedgoldenstatuesinthecorners,andstrungvinesofgoldengrapesbetweenthem.Marx and Engels held that this wealth “gave to commerce, to navigation, toindustryanimpulseneverbeforeknown.”Somewriterscredititwiththeriseofcapitalism and eventually the industrial revolution. Capitalism was probablyalreadyunderway,butat theleast,Americanrichesplayedamajorroleinthetransformation. Gold and silver from America replaced land as the basis forwealth and status, increasing the power of the newmerchant class thatwouldsoondominatetheworld.88WhereMuslimnationshadoncerivaledEurope,thenewwealthunderminedIslamicpower.Americangoldandsilver fueleda400percentinflationthaterodedtheeconomiesofmostnon-Europeancountriesandhelped Europe to develop a global market system. Africa suffered: the trans-Saharan trade collapsed, because the Americas suppliedmore gold and silverthan theGoldCoast evercould.African tradersnowhadonlyonecommodity

that Europe wanted: slaves. In anthropologist Jack Weatherford’s words,“AfricansthusbecamevictimsofthediscoveryofAmericaassurelyasdidtheAmericanIndians.”89

Thesevastchangesweregiven the term“theColumbianexchange” in1972byAlfredW.CrosbyJr., inhisbookofthattitle.Inthe1990sthetermcaughton,owingtothequincentenary.NotonetextbookinmyoriginalsampletoldofthesegeopoliticalimplicationsofColumbus’sencounterwiththeAmericas,butgradually the concept seeped into American history textbooks. Today mostbookscreditAmericanIndianswithhavingdevelopedimportantcrops.Authorsalso recognize that Europeans (and Africans) brought diseases as well aslivestock to the Americas. The two-way flow of ideas, however, still goesunnoticed,especiallyfromwesttoeast.

Instead, Eurocentrism blinds textbook authors to contributions to Europe,whetherfromArabastronomers,Africannavigators,orAmericanIndiansocialstructure.Byoperatingwithinthislimitedviewpoint,ourhistorytextbooksneverinvite us to think about what happened to reduce mainland Indian societies,whosewealthandcitiesawed theSpanish, to the impoverishedpeasantry theyaretoday.TheyalsorobusofthechancetoappreciatehowimportantAmericanIndian ideashavebeen in the formationof themodernworld.Thus, theykeepstudents from understanding what caused the world to develop as it has—includingwhyEurope(anditsextensions:theUnitedStates,Canada,etc.)won.

Some people have attacked the portrait of Columbus presented here as toonegative. But I am not proposing that we should begin courses of AmericanhistorybycryingthatColumbuswasbadandsoarewe.Textbooksshouldshowthatneithermoralitynorimmoralitycansimplybeconferreduponusbyhistory.MerelybeingpartoftheUnitedStates,withoutregardtoourownactsandideas,does notmake usmoral or immoral beings.History ismore complicated thanthat.

Againwemustpausetoconsider:Whoare“we”?ColumbusisnotaheroinMexico,even thoughMexico ismuchmoreSpanish inculture than theUnitedStatesandmightbeexpectedtotakeprideinthisheroofSpanishhistory.Whynot? Because Mexico is also much more Indian than the United States, andMexicans perceive Columbus as white and European. “No sensible Indianperson,” wrote George P. Horse Capture, “can celebrate the arrival ofColumbus.” 90 Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not

Americanhistory.

Columbus’sconquestofHaiticanbeseenasanamazingfeatofcourageandimaginationbythefirstofmanybraveempirebuilders.Itcanalsobeunderstoodas a bloody atrocity that left a legacy of genocide and slavery that endures insomedegreetothisday.BothviewsofColumbusarevalid;indeed,Columbus’simportanceinhistoryowespreciselytohisbeingbothaheroicnavigatorandagreatplunderer.IfColumbuswereonlytheformer,hewouldmerelyrivalLeifEriksson.Columbus’sactionsexemplifybothmeaningsof thewordexploit—aremarkable deed and also a taking advantage of. Theworshipful biographicalvignettesofColumbusprovidedbymostofourtextbooksservetoindoctrinatestudents into a mindless endorsement of colonialism that is strikinglyinappropriate in today’spostcolonialera.In thewordsof thehistorianMichaelWallace,theColumbusmyth“allowsustoacceptthecontemporarydivisionofthe world into developed and underdeveloped spheres as natural and given,rather than a historical product issuing from a process that began withColumbus’sfirstvoyage.”91

WeunderstandColumbusandallEuropeanexplorersandsettlersmoreclearlyifwetreat1492asameetingofthreecultures(Africawassooninvolved),ratherthanadiscoverybyone, and severalof thenewbooksdo this.The termNewWorld is itself part of the problem, for people had lived in the Americas forthousands of years. The Americas were new only to Europeans.Discover isanother part of the problem, for how can one person discover what anotheralreadyknowsandowns?Textbookauthorsarestrugglingwiththisissue,tryingto move beyond colonized history and Eurocentric language. Boorstin andKelleybegintheirfirstchapterwiththesentence,“ThediscoveryofAmerica”—by which they mean Columbus’s—“was the world’s greatest surprise.” Fivepageslater,theauthorstrytotakebacktheword:“ItwasonlyforthepeopleofEuropethatAmericahadtobe‘discovered.’MillionsofNativeAmericanswerealreadyhere!”Takingbackwordsisineffectual,however.BoorstinandKelley’swholeapproachistoportraywhitesdiscoveringnonwhitesratherthanamutualmulticultural encounter. Indeed, they are so Eurocentric that they don’t evennoticetheyleftout“thepeopleofAfricaandAsia”fromtheirsentenceofpeoplewhohadyetto“discover”America.

Thepoint isn’t idle.Words are important—they can influence, and in somecases rationalize, policy. In 1823 Chief Justice John Marshall of the U.S.SupremeCourtdecreedthatCherokeeshadcertainrightstotheirlandinGeorgia

bydintof their“occupancy”but thatwhiteshadsuperior rightsowing to their“discovery.”HowAmericanIndiansmanagedtooccupyGeorgiawithouthavingpreviouslydiscovereditMarshallneglectedtoexplain.92

The process of exploration has itself typically been multiracial andmulticultural.AfricanpilotshelpedPrinceHenry’sshipcaptainslearntheirwaydown the coast ofAfrica.93 OnChristmasDay 1492, Columbus needed help.Santa Maria ran aground off Haiti. Columbus sent for help to the nearestArawak town,and“all thepeopleof the town” responded,“withverybigandmany canoes.” “They cleared the decks in a very short time,” Columbuscontinued, and the chief “caused all our goods to be placed together near thepalace,until somehouses thathegaveuswhere allmightbeput andguardedhadbeenemptied.”94OnhisfinalvoyageColumbusshipwreckedonJamaica,andtheArawakstherekepthimandhiscrewofmorethanahundredaliveforawholeyearuntilSpaniardsfromHaitirescuedthem.

So it has continued. William Erasmus, a Canadian Indian, pointed out,“Explorersyoucallgreatmenwerehelpless.Theywerelikelostchildren,anditwas our people who took care of them.”95 Native Americans cured Cartier’smen of scurvy nearMontreal in 1535. They repaired FrancisDrake’sGoldenHind inCalifornia so he could complete his round-the-world voyage in 1579.Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific Northwest wasmade possible bytribe after tribe of American Indians, with help from two Shoshone guides,Sacagawea and Toby, who served as interpreters. When Admiral Pearydiscovered the North Pole, the first person there was probably neither theEuropean American Peary nor the African American Matthew Henson, hisassistant, but their four Inuit guides, men and women on whom the entireexpeditionrelied.96Ourhistories fail tomentionsuchassistance.TheyportrayproudWesternconquerorsbestridingtheworldliketheColossusatRhodes.

So long as our textbooks hide from us the roles that people of color haveplayed in exploration, from at least 6000 BC to the twentieth century, theyencourageus to looktoEuropeand itsextensionsas theseatofallknowledgeandintelligence.Solongastheysay“discover,”theyimplythatwhitesaretheonly people who really matter. So long as they simply celebrate Columbus,rather than teach both sides of his exploit, they encourage us to identifywithwhiteWesternexploitationratherthanstudyit.

Thepassageintheleft-handcolumnoftheopposingpageisoneofthemany

legends that hang about Columbus like barnacles—“myths, all withoutsubstance.”97 The passage in the right-hand column is part of acontemporaneous account of an Arawak cacique (leader) who had fled fromHaititoCuba.

Thereaderwillhavealreadyguessedthatthepassageontheleftcomesfroman American history textbook, in this case American Adventures. Since theincidentprobablyneverhappened, including it ina textbookishard todefend.One way to understand its inclusion is by examining what it does in thenarrative.The incident ismelodramatic. Itcreatesamildairofsuspense,eventhoughwecanbe sure,of course, that everythingwill turnout all right in theend. Surely the passage encourages identificationwithColumbus’s enterprise,makes Columbus the underdog—riding a mule, shabby of cloak—and thusplacesusonhisside.

AmanridingamulemovedslowlydownadustyroadinSpain.Hewore an old and shabby cloak over his shoulders. Though his faceseemedyoung,hisredhairwasalreadyturningwhite.Itwasearlyintheyear1492andChristopherColumbuswasleavingSpain.

TwicetheSpanishkingandqueenhadrefusedhisrequestforships.Hehadwastedfiveyearsofhislifetryingtogettheirapproval.NowhewasgoingtoFrance.PerhapstheFrenchkingwouldgivehimtheshipsheneeded.

Columbus heard a clattering sound.He turned and looked up theroad.A horse and rider came racing toward him. The rider handedhimamessage,andColumbusturnedhismulearound.Themessagewas from the Spanish king and queen, ordering him to return.Columbuswouldgethisships.

LearningthatSpaniardswerecoming,oneday[thecacique]gatheredall his people together to remind them of the persecutions that theSpanishhadinflictedonthepeopleofHispaniola:

“Doyouknowwhytheypersecuteus?”

Theyreplied:“Theydoitbecausetheyarecruelandbad.”

“Iwilltellyouwhytheydoit,”thecaciquestated,“anditisthis—

becausetheyhavealordwhomtheyloveverymuch,andIwillshowhimtoyou.”

He held up a small basketmade frompalms full of gold, and hesaid,“Hereistheirlord,whomtheyserveandadore....Tohavethislord,theymakeussuffer,forhimtheypersecuteus,forhimtheyhavekilledour parents, brothers, all our people. . . .Let us not hide thislordfromtheChristiansinanyplace,forevenifweshouldhideitinourintestines,theywouldgetitoutofus;thereforeletusthrowitinthisriver,underthewater,andtheywillnotknowwhereitis.”

Whereupontheythrewthegoldintotheriver.98

ThepassageontherightwasrecordedbyLasCasas,whoapparentlylearnedit fromArawaks on Cuba. Unlike themule story, the cacique’s story teachesimportant facts: that the Spanish sought gold, that they killed Indians, thatIndians fled and resisted. (Indeed, after futile attempts at armed resistance onCuba, this cacique fled “into the brambles.” Weeks later, when the Spanishcapturedhim,theyburnedhimalive.)Nonetheless,nohistorytextbookincludesthecacique’sstoryoranythinglikeit.DoingsomightenableustoidentifywiththeNatives’side.ByavoidingthenamesandstoriesofindividualArawaksandomitting theirpointsofview,authors“otherize” the Indians.Readersneednotconcern themselveswith the Indians’ghastly fate, forAmerican Indiansneverappearasrecognizablehumanbeings.Textbooksthemselves,itseems,practicecognitivedissonance.

Excluding the passage on the right, including the passage on the left,excluding the probably true, including the improbable, amounts to colonialisthistory.ThisistheColumbusstorythathasdominatedAmericanhistorybooks.Allaround theglobe,however, thenations thatwere“discovered,”conquered,“civilized,” and colonized by European powers are now independent, at leastpolitically. Europeans and European Americans no longer dictate to them asmaster tonativeand thereforeneed tostop thinkingof themselvesassuperior,morallyand technologically.AnewandmoreaccuratehistoryofColumbus—provided to students by just one of these textbooks (The Americans)—couldassistthistransformation.

Ofcourse, thisnewhistorymustnotjudgeColumbusbystandardsfromour

own time. In 1493 the world had not decided, for instance, that slavery waswrong.SomeAmericanIndiannationsenslavedotherIndians.Africansenslavedother Africans. Europeans enslaved other Europeans. To attack Columbus fordoingwhateveryoneelsedidwouldbeunreasonable.

However,someSpaniardsofthetime—BartolomédeLasCasas,forexample—opposed the slavery, land-grabbing, and forced labor that ColumbusintroducedonHaiti.LasCasasbeganasanadventurerandbecameaplantationowner.Thenhe switched sides, freedhisNatives,becameapriest, and foughtdesperately for humane treatment of the Indians. When Columbus and otherEuropeans argued thatAmerican Indianswere inferior, LasCasas pointed outthat Indians were sentient and rational human beings, just like anyone else.WhenotherhistorianstriedtooverlookordefendtheIndianslavetrade,begunby Columbus, Las Casas denounced it as “among the most unpardonableoffensesevercommittedagainstGodandmankind.”HehelpedpromptSpaintoenact laws against American Indian slavery.99 Although these laws came toolatetohelptheArawaksandwereoftendisregarded,theydidhelpsomeIndianssurvive.Centuriesafterhisdeath,LasCasaswasstillinfluencinghistory:SimonBolívarusedLasCasas’swritings to justify the revolutionsbetween1810and1830thatliberatedLatinAmericafromSpanishdomination.

Whenhistory textbooks leaveout theArawaks, theyoffendNativeAmericans.When they omit the possibility of African and Phoenician precursors toColumbus,theyoffendAfricanAmericans.WhentheyglamorizeexplorerssuchasdeSotojustbecausetheywerewhite,ourhistoriesoffendallpeopleofcolor.WhentheyleaveoutLasCasas,theyomitaninterestingidealistwithwhomweallmight identify.When theyglorifyColumbus,our textbooksprodus towardidentifying with the oppressor. When textbook authors omit the causes andprocess ofEuropeanworld domination, they offer us a historywhose purposemust be to keep us unaware of the important questions. Perhapsworst of all,when textbooks paint simplistic portraits of a pious, heroic Columbus, theyprovidefeel-goodhistorythatboreseveryone.

3.

THETRUTHABOUTTHEFIRSTTHANKSGIVING

Considering that virtually none of the standard faresurrounding Thanksgiving contains an ounce ofauthenticity, historical accuracy, or cross-culturalperception, why is it so apparently ingrained? Is itnecessarytotheAmericanpsychetoperpetuallyexploitanddebaseitsvictimsinordertojustifyitshistory?

—MICHAELDORRIS1

European explorers and invaders discovered aninhabitedland.Haditbeenpristinewildernessthen,itwould possibly be so still, for neither the technologynor the social organizationofEurope in the16thand17thcenturieshadthecapacitytomaintain,ofitsownresources, outpost colonies thousands of miles fromhome.

—FRANCISJENNINGS2

The Europeans were able to conquer America notbecause of their military genius, or their religiousmotivation, or their ambition, or their greed. Theyconquered it by waging unpremeditated biologicalwarfare.

—HOWARDSIMPSON3

It is painful to advert to these things. But ourforefathers, though wise, pious, and sincere, werenevertheless, in respect to Christian charity, under acloud; and, in history, truth should be held sacred, atwhatever cost . . . especially against the narrow andfutilepatriotism,which,insteadofpressingforwardinpursuit of truth, takes pride in walking backwards tocovertheslightestnakednessofourforefathers.

—COL.THOMASASPINWALL4

OVERTHELASTFEWYEARS, I have asked hundreds of college students,“WhenwasthecountrywenowknowastheUnitedStatesfirstsettled?”Thisisagenerouswayofphrasingthequestion;surely“wenowknowas”impliesthatthe original settlement antedated the founding of the United States. I initiallybelieved—certainly I had hoped—that students would suggest 30,000 BC orsomeotherpre-Columbiandate.

Theydidnot.Theirconsensusanswerwas“1620.”

Obviously,mystudents’headshavebeenfilledwithAmerica’soriginmyth,the story of the first Thanksgiving. Textbooks are among the retailers of thisprimallegend.

Partof theproblem is thewordsettle. “Settlers”werewhite,a studentoncepointed out to me. “Indians” didn’t settle. Students are not the only peoplemisledbysettle.ThefilmthatintroducesvisitorstoPlimothPlantationtellshow“theywentabouttheworkofcivilizingahostilewilderness.”OneThanksgivingweekend I listened as a guide at the Statue of Liberty talked about Europeanimmigrants “populating a wild East Coast.” As we shall see, however, ifAmerican Indians hadn’t already settledNewEngland,Europeanswould havehadamuchtougherjobofit.

Starting the story of America’s settlement with the Pilgrims leaves out notonlyAmericanIndiansbutalsotheSpanish.Thefirstnon-Nativesettlersin“thecountrywenowknowas theUnitedStates”wereAfrican slaves left inSouth

Carolinain1526bySpaniardswhoabandonedasettlementattempt.In1565theSpanish massacred the French Protestants who had settled briefly at St.Augustine,Florida,andestablishedtheirownfortthere.Between1565and1568SpaniardsexploredtheCarolinas,buildingseveralfortsthatwerethenburnedbytheIndians.SomelaterSpanishsettlerswereourfirstpilgrims,seekingregionsnewtothemtosecurereligiousliberty:thesewereSpanishJews,whosettledinNew Mexico in the late 1500s.5 Few Americans know that one-third of theUnitedStates,fromSanFranciscotoArkansastoNatcheztoFlorida,hasbeenSpanishlongerthanithasbeen“American,”andthatHispanicAmericanslivedherebeforethefirstancestoroftheDaughtersoftheAmericanRevolutioneverleftEngland.Moreover,SpanishcultureleftanindeliblemarkontheAmericanWest.TheSpanishintroducedhorses,cattle,sheep,pigs,andthebasicelementsofcowboyculture,includingitsvocabulary:mustang,bronco,rodeo,lariat,andsoon.6HorsesthatescapedfromtheSpanishandpropagatedtriggeredtherapidfloweringofanewcultureamongthePlainsIndians.“Howrefreshingitwouldbe,”wroteJamesAxtell,“tofindatextbookthatbeganontheWestCoastbeforetreatingthetraditionaleasterncolonies.”

Whydon’t they?Perhapsbecausemost textbookauthorsareWASPs(WhiteAnglo-SaxonProtestants).Theforty-sixauthorsoftheeighteentextsIsurveyedranged from Bauer and Berkin to Williams and Wood, but only two wereSpanish-surnamed:LindaAnnDeLeon,anauthorofChallengeofFreedom,andJ.KlordeAlva,anauthorofTheAmericans.Surelyitisnocoincidencethatthebooks by these last two offer by far the fullest accounts of early Spanishsettlements in “what is now the United States,” including mention of themissionstheSpanishsetupfromtheCarolinastotheGulfofMexicoandfromSanDiegotoSanFrancisco.7Withinourlifetimes,theschool-agepopulationofthe United States is destined to become majority minority, with Hispanic,African,Asian, andNativeAmericans totallingmore than 51 percent.At thatpoint,probablyaftermuchhand-wringingandtooth-gnashing,thehistorybookswillgivemoreattention toourHispanicpast—which theyalwaysshouldhavedone.Meanwhile,theSpanishareseenasintruders,whiletheBritishareseenassettlers.8

Beginningthestoryin1620alsoomitstheDutch,whowerelivinginwhatisnow Albany by 1614. Indeed, should English be required for proper settling,1620isnoteventhedateofthefirstpermanentEnglishsettlement,forin1607,theLondonCompanysentsettlerstoJamestown,Virginia.

Nomatter. Themythic origin of “the country we now know as the UnitedStates” is at Plymouth Rock, and the year is 1620. Here is a representativeaccountfromTheAmericanTradition:

After some exploring, the Pilgrims chose the land around PlymouthHarborfortheirsettlement.Unfortunately,theyhadarrivedinDecemberandwerenotpreparedfortheNewEnglandwinter.However,theywereaidedbyfriendlyIndians,whogavethemfoodandshowedthemhowtogrow corn. When warm weather came, the colonists planted, fished,hunted, and prepared themselves for the next winter. After harvestingtheir first crop, they and their Indian friends celebrated the firstThanksgiving.9

MystudentsalsorememberthatthePilgrimshadbeenpersecutedinEnglandfor their religious beliefs, so they hadmoved to Holland. They sailed on theMayflowertoAmericaandwrotetheMayflowerCompact,theforerunnertoourConstitution, according to my students. Times were rough, until they metSquanto,whotaughtthemhowtoputasmallfishasfertilizerineachlittlecornhill,ensuringabountifulharvest.ButwhenIaskmystudentsabouttheplague,they juststarebackatme.“Whatplague?TheBlackPlague?”No, Isigh, thatwasthreecenturiesearlier.

The Black Plague does provide a useful introduction, however. WilliamLanger has written that the Black (or bubonic) Plague “was undoubtedly theworst disaster that has ever befallen mankind.”10 In the years 1348 through1350,itkilledperhaps30percentof thepopulationofEurope.Catastrophicasthat was, the disease itself comprised only part of the horror. According toLanger, “Almost everyone, in that medieval time, interpreted the plague as apunishment by God for human sins.” Thinking the day of judgment wasimminent, farmers did not plant crops.Many people gave themselves over toalcohol.Civilandeconomicdisruptionmayhavecausedasmuchdeathas thedisease itself.The entire cultureofEuropewas affected: fear, death, andguiltbecameprimeartisticmotifs.Milderplagues—typhus,syphilis,andinfluenza,aswell as bubonic—continued to ravageEuropeuntil the endof the seventeenthcentury.11

The warmer parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa have historically been thebreedinggroundformosthumanillnesses.Humansevolvedintropicalregions;

tropicaldiseasesevolvedalongsidethem.Peoplemovedtocoolerclimatesonlywith the aid of cultural inventions—clothing, shelter, and fire—that helpedmaintainwarmtemperaturesaroundtheirbodies.Microbesthatliveoutsidetheirhuman hosts during part of their life cycle had trouble coping with northernEurope andAsia.12When people migrated to the Americas across the newlydrainedBeringStrait, if thearchaeologicalconsensusiscorrect, thechangesinclimateandphysicalcircumstancethreatenedeventhosehardyparasitesthathadsurvived the earlier slow migration northward from Africa. These firstimmigrantsenteredtheAmericasthroughafrigiddecontaminationchamber.Thefirst settlers in the Western Hemisphere thus probably arrived in a healthierconditionthanmostpeopleonearthhaveenjoyedbeforeorsince.Manyofthediseasesthathadlongshadowedthemsimplycouldnotsurvivethejourney.13

Neither did someanimals.People in theWesternHemispherehadno cows,pigs, horses, sheep, goats, or chickens before the arrival of Europeans andAfricans after 1492.Many diseases—from anthrax to tuberculosis, cholera tostreptococcus, ringworm tovariouspoxes—arepassedbackand forthbetweenhumansandlivestock.SinceearlyinhabitantsoftheWesternHemispherehadnolivestock,theycaughtnodiseasesfromthem.14

EuropeandAsiawerealsomadeunhealthybyasubtlerfactor:socialdensity.Organismsthatcausediseaseneedaconstantsupplyofnewhostsfortheirownsurvival. This requirement is nowhere clearer than in the case of smallpox,which cannot survive outside a living human body.But in its enthusiasm, theorganismoftenkillsitshost.Thusthepestilencecreatesitsownpredicament:itrequires new victims at regular intervals. The various influenza viruses mustlikewisemoveon,foriftheirvictimssurvive,theyenjoyaperiodofimmunitylastingat least a fewweeks, and sometimesa lifetime.15 Small-scale societieslike the Paiute Indians of Nevada, living in isolated nuclear and extendedfamilies,couldanddidsufferpost-Columbiansmallpoxepidemics, transmittedtothembymoreurbanneighbors,but theycouldnotsustainsuchanorganismover time.16 Even residents of villages did not experience sufficient socialdensity. Villagers might encounter three hundred people each day, but thesewouldusuallybethesamethreehundredpeople.Comingintorepeatedcontactwiththesamefewothersdoesnothavethesameconsequencesasmeetingnewpeople,eitherforhumancultureorforculturingmicrobes.

Some areas in the Americas did have high social density.17 Incan roads

connected towns from northern Ecuador to Chile.18 Fifteen hundred to twothousand years ago the population of Cahokia, Illinois, numbered about fortythousand.Trade linked theGreatLakes toFlorida, theRockies towhat isnowNewEngland.19Wearethereforenotdealingwithisolatedbandsof“primitive”peoples.Nonetheless,mostoftheWesternHemispherelackedthesocialdensityfound in much of Europe, Africa, and Asia. And nowhere in the WesternHemisphere were there sinkholes of sickness like London or Cairo, with rawsewagerunninginthestreets.

The scarcity of disease in the Americas was also partly attributable to thebasic hygiene practiced by the region’s inhabitants. Residents of northernEuropeandEnglandrarelybathed,believingitunhealthy,andrarelyremovedalloftheirclothingatonetime,believingitimmodest.ThePilgrimssmelledbadtotheIndians.Squanto“tried,withoutsuccess,toteachthemtobathe,”accordingtoFeenieZiner,hisbiographer.20

For all these reasons, the inhabitants of North and South America (likeAustralian aborigines and thepeoplesof the far-flungPacific islands)were “aremarkably healthy race”21 before Columbus. Ironically, their very healthprovedtheirundoing,fortheyhadbuiltupnoresistance,geneticallyorthroughchildhooddiseases,tothemicrobesthatEuropeansandAfricanswouldbringtothem.

In 1617, just before the Pilgrims landed, a pandemic swept southern NewEngland. For decades, English and French fishermen had fished off theMassachusettscoast.Afterfillingtheirhullswithcod,theywouldgoashoretolayinfirewoodandfreshwaterandperhapscaptureafewAmericanIndianstosell into slavery in Europe. It is likely that these fishermen transmitted someillnesstothepeopletheymet.22TheplaguethatensuedmadetheBlackDeathpalebycomparison.Somehistoriansthinkthediseasewasthebubonicplague;otherssuggestthatitwasviralhepatitis,smallpox,chickenpox,orinfluenza.

Within three years the plague wiped out between 90 to 96 percent of theinhabitantsofcoastalNewEngland.Nativesocieties laydevastated.Only“thetwentieth person is scarce left alive,” wrote Robert Cushman, an Englisheyewitness,recordingadeathrateunknowninallprevioushumanexperience.23Unabletocopewithsomanycorpses,thesurvivorsabandonedtheirvillagesandfled,oftentoaneighboringtribe.Becausetheycarriedtheinfestationwiththem,

American Indians died who had never encountered a white person. HowardSimpson describes the horrific scenes that the Pilgrims saw: “Villages lay inruinsbecause therewasnoone to tend them.Thegroundwasstrewnwith theskullsandthebonesofthousandsofIndianswhohaddiedandnonewaslefttoburythem.”24

The biggest single change in the treatment of Native Americans is theinclusionof this illustration inmost of thenew textbooks.The first editionofLiesMyTeacherToldMedecriedtheabsenceofanytreatmentof therepeatedepidemicsthatravagedNativepopulations.Nobookincludedthisillustrationoranyotherrepresentationofdisease.

TheseAztecdrawingsdepicting smallpox, coupledwith thewordsofWilliamBradford,conveysomethingofthehorroroftheepidemicaroundPlymouth:“Asorerdiseasecannotbefall [theIndians], theyfear itmorethantheplague.Forusually they that have this disease have them in abundance, and for want of

beddingandlinenandotherhelps theyfall intoa lamentableconditionas theylie on their hard mats, the pox breaking and mattering and running one intoanother,theirskincleavingbyreasonthereoftothematstheylieon.Whentheyturnthem,awholesidewillflayoffatonceasitwere,andtheywillbeallofagoreblood,mostfearfultobehold.Andthenbeingverysore,whatwithcoldandother distempers, they die like rotten sheep.” Quoted in Simpson, InvisibleArmies,8.

Duringthenextfifteenyears,additionalepidemics,mostofwhichweknowtohave been smallpox, struck repeatedly. European Americans also contractedsmallpox and the other maladies, to be sure, but they usually recovered,including, in a later century, the “heavily pockmarked George Washington.”NativeAmericansusuallydied.Theimpactoftheepidemicsonthetwocultureswas profound. The English Separatists, already seeing their lives as part of adivinelyinspiredmoralityplay,founditeasytoinferthatGodwasontheirside.JohnWinthrop, governor of theMassachusetts BayColony, called the plague“miraculous.” In1634hewrote toa friend inEngland:“But for thenatives intheseparts,Godhathsopursuedthem,asfor300milesspacethegreatestpartofthemaresweptawaybythesmallpoxwhichstillcontinuesamongthem.SoasGodhaththerebyclearedourtitletothisplace,thosewhoremainintheseparts,beinginallnot50,haveputthemselvesunderourprotection....”25God, theOriginalRealEstateAgent!

ManyNatives likewise inferred that their god had abandoned them.RobertCushmanreportedthat“thosethatareleft,havetheircouragemuchabated,andtheir countenance is dejected, and they seem as a people affrighted.” After asmallpoxepidemictheCherokee“despairedsomuchthattheylostconfidenceintheirgodsandthepriestsdestroyedthesacredobjectsofthetribe.”26Afterall,neitherAmericanIndiansnorPilgrimshadaccesstothegermtheoryofdisease.Nativehealerscouldsupplynocure;theirmedicinesandherbsofferednorelief.Their religion provided no explanation. That of the whites did. Like theEuropeans threecenturiesbefore them,manyAmerican Indians surrendered toalcohol,convertedtoChristianity,orsimplykilledthemselves.27

Theseepidemicsprobablyconstitutedthemostimportantgeopoliticaleventoftheearlyseventeenthcentury.TheirnetresultwasthattheEnglish,fortheirfirstfifty years in New England, would face no real Indian challenge. Indeed, theplague helped prompt the legendarilywarm reception Plymouth enjoyed from

theWampanoags.Massasoit,theWampanoagleader,waseagertoallywiththePilgrims because the plague had so weakened his villages that he feared theNarragansetts to the west.28 When a land conflict did develop between newsettlersandoldatSaugusin1631,“Godendedthecontroversybysendingthesmall pox amongst the Indians,” in thewords of thePuritanminister IncreaseMather.“Wholetownsofthemweresweptaway,insomeofthemnotsomuchasoneSoulescapingtheDestruction.”29BythetimetheNativepopulationsofNew England had replenished themselves to some degree, it was too late toexpeltheintruders.

Today, as we compare European technology with that of the “primitive”American Indians, wemay conclude that European conquest of America wasinevitable, but it did not appear so at the time. Historian Karen Kuppermanspeculates:

The technology and culture of Indians on America’s east coast weregenuine rivals to thoseof theEnglish,and theeventualoutcomeof therivalry was not at first clear. . . . One can only speculate what theoutcome of the rivalry would have been if the impact of Europeandiseases on the American population had not been so devastating. Ifcolonists had not been able to occupy lands already cleared by Indianfarmers who had vanished, colonization would have proceeded muchmore slowly. If Indian culture hadnot beendevastated by the physicalandpsychological assaults it had suffered, colonizationmight not haveproceededatall.30

Afterall,NativeAmericanshaddrivenoffSamueldeChamplainwhenhehadtried to settle in Massachusetts in 1606. The following year, Abenakis hadhelped expel the first Plymouth Company settlement from Maine.31 AlfredCrosby has speculated that the Norse might have succeeded in colonizingNewfoundlandandLabradorif theyhadnothadthebadlucktoemigratefromGreenland and Iceland, distant from European disease centers.32 But this is“whatif”history.TheNewEnglandplagueswereno“if.”Theycontinuedwest,racinginadvanceofthelineofculturecontact.

EverywhereinAmerica,thefirstEuropeanexplorersencounteredmanymoreIndians thandid theirsuccessors.AcenturyandahalfafterHernandodeSototraveled the southeastern United States, French explorers there found thepopulation less than a quarter of what it had been when de Soto had passed

through, with attendant catastrophic effects on Native culture and socialorganization.33Likewise,ontheirfamous1804-06expedition,LewisandClarkencountered farmoreNatives inOregon than lived there amere twenty yearslater.34

HenryDobynshasputtogetheraheartbreakinglistofninety-threeepidemicsamongNativeAmericans between 1520 and 1918.He has recorded forty-oneeruptionsofsmallpox,fourofbubonicplague,seventeenofmeaslesandtenofinfluenza (both often deadly among Native Americans), and twenty-five oftuberculosis, diphtheria, typhus, cholera, and other diseases. Many of theseoutbreaks reached trulypandemicproportions,beginning inFloridaorMexicoandstoppingonlywhen they reached thePacificandArcticoceans.35DiseaseplayedthesamecrucialroleinMexicoandPeruasitdidinMassachusetts.Howdid the Spanish manage to conquer what is now Mexico City? “When theChristianswereexhaustedfromwar,GodsawfittosendtheIndianssmallpox,and therewas a great pestilence in the city.”When the Spanishmarched intoTenochtitlan,thereweresomanybodiesthattheyhadtowalkonthem.MostoftheSpaniardswere immune to the disease, and that fact itself helped to crushAztecmorale.36

The pestilence continues today. Miners and loggers recently introducedEuropean diseases to the Yanomamos of northern Brazil and southernVenezuela, killing a fourth of their total population in 1991 alone. CharlesDarwin,writingin1839,putitalmostpoetically:“WherevertheEuropeanhadtrod,deathseemstopursuetheaboriginal.”37

Europeanswereneverableto“settle”China,India,Indonesia,Japan,ormuchofAfrica,becausetoomanypeoplealreadylivedthere.Thecrucialroleplayedby the plagues in the Americas can be inferred from two simple populationestimates: William McNeill reckons the population of the Americas at onehundredmillion in1492,whileWilliamLanger suggests thatEuropehadonlyabout seventy million people when Columbus set forth.38 The Europeans’advantages in military and social technology might have enabled them todominate theAmericas, as they eventually dominatedChina, India, Indonesia,andAfrica,butnotto“settle”thehemisphere.Forthat,theplaguewasrequired.Thus, apart from the European (and African) invasion itself, the pestilence issurelythemostimportanteventinthehistoryofAmerica.

Thefirstepidemicswreakedhavoc,notonlywithAmericanIndiansocieties,but also with estimates of pre-Columbian Native American population. Theresulthasbeencontinuingcontroversyamonghistoriansandanthropologists.In1840 George Catlin estimated aboriginal numbers in the United States andCanadaatthetimeofwhitecontacttobeperhapsfourteenmillion.Hebelievedonlytwomillionstillsurvived.By1880,owingtowarfareanddeculturationaswell as illness, Native numbers had dropped to 250,000, a decline of 98percent.39 In 1921 James Mooney asserted that only one million NativeAmericans had lived in what is now the United States in 1492. Mooney’sestimatewas accepted until the 1960s and 1970s, even though the argumentssupporting it, based largely on inference rather than evidence, were notconvincing.ColinMcEvedyprovidedanexampleoftheargument:

Thehighrollers,ofcourse,claimthatnativenumbershadbeenreducedtotheselowlevels[betweenonemillionandtwomillion]byepidemicsof smallpox,measles, andother diseases introduced fromEurope—andindeed they couldhavebeen.But there is no recordof anycontinental[European]populationbeingcutbackbythesortofpercentagesneededtogetfromtwentymilliontotwooronemillion.EventheBlackDeathreducedthepopulationofEuropebyonlyathird.40

Note that McEvedy has ignored both the data and also the reasoning aboutillness summarized above, relying on what amounts to common sense todisproveboth.Indeed,hecontended,“Nogoodcancomeofaffrontingcommonsense.” But pre-Pilgrim American epidemiology is not a field of everydayknowledgeinwhich“commonsense”canbeallowedtosubstituteforyearsofrelevant research. By “common sense” what McEvedy really meant wastradition, and this tradition is Eurocentric. Our archetypes of the “virgincontinent”anditscorollary,the“primitivetribe,”subtlyinfluencedestimatesofNativepopulation:scholarswhoviewedNativeAmericanculturesasprimitivereduced their estimates of precontact populations tomatch the stereotype.ThetinyMooneyestimatethus“madesense”—resonatedwiththearchetype.Nevermind that the land was, in reality, not a virgin wilderness but recentlywidowed.41

Theverydeath rates that somehistoriansandgeographersnow findhard tobelieve,thePilgrimsknewtobetrue.Forexample,WilliamBradforddescribedhowtheDutch,rivalsofPlymouth,traveledtoanIndianvillageinConnecticut

to trade.“But theirenterprise failed, for itpleasedGod toafflict these Indianswithsuchadeadlysickness,thatoutof1,000,over950ofthemdied,andmanyofthemlayrottingabovegroundforwantofburial....”42Thisispreciselythe95percentmortality thatMcEvedy rejected.On theopposite coast, theNativepopulationofCalifornia sank from threehundred thousand in1769 (bywhichtimeithadalreadybeencutinhalfbyvariousSpanish-bornediseases)tothirtythousandacenturylater,owingmainlytothegoldrush,whichbrought“disease,starvation,homicide,andadecliningbirthrate.”43

For a century after Catlin, historians and anthropologists “overlooked” theevidenceofferedbythePilgrimsandotherearlychroniclers.BeginningwithP.M.Ashburnin1947,however,researchhasestablishedmoreaccurateestimatesbased on careful continent-wide compilations of small-scale studies of firstcontact and on evidence of early plagues. Most current estimates of theprecontactpopulationoftheUnitedStatesandCanadarangefromtentotwentymillion.44

Noneofmyoriginal twelve textbooks,mostofwhichwerepublished in the1980s, lets its readers in on the furious debate of the 1960s and early 1970s,tellinghowandwhyestimateschanged.Instead, theysimplystatednumbers—very different numbers. “As many as ten million,” American Adventuresproposed.“Therewereonlyabout1,000,000NorthAmerican Indians,”opinedTheAmericanTradition. “Scatteredacross theNorthAmericancontinentwereabout500differentgroups,manyofthemnomadic.”LikeotherAmericanswhohavenotstudiedtheliterature,theauthorsofthesetextbookswerestillunderthethrallofthe“virginland”and“primitivetribe”archetypes;theirmostcommonAmericanIndianpopulationestimatewasthediscreditedfigureofonemillion,which five textbooks supplied. Only two provided estimates of ten to twelvemillion,intherangesupportedbycontemporaryscholarship.Twohedgedtheirbets by suggesting one to twelve million, which might reasonably promptclassroomdiscussionofwhyestimatesaresovague.Threeomitted thesubjectaltogether.Thenewbooksareevenworse:noneofthemevenraisesthesubjectofpopulationestimates.

The problem is not so much the estimates as the attitude. Presenting acontroversy seems somehow radical. It invites students to come to their ownconclusions. Textbook authors don’t let that happen. They see their job aspresenting “facts” for children to “learn,” not encouraging them to think for

themselves. Such an approach keeps students ignorant of the reasoning,arguments,andweighingofevidencethatgointosocialscience.

Abouttheplagues,mytwelveoriginaltextbookstoldevenless.OnlythreeofthemevenmentionedIndiandiseaseasafactoratPlymouthoranywhereinNewEngland.45Today,mostnewtextbooksdoinclude“OldWorld”diseasesaspartof the Columbian Exchange. It’s about time! After all, in colonial times,everyoneknewabouttheplague.EvenbeforetheMayflowersailed,KingJamesof England gave thanks to “Almighty God in his great goodness and bountytowards us” for sending “this wonderful plague among the salvages [sic].”46Two hundred years later the oldestAmerican history inmy collection—J.W.Barber’sInterestingEventsintheHistoryoftheUnitedStates,publishedin1829—stillrecalledtheplague:

A few years before the arrival of the Plymouth settlers, a verymortalsickness raged with great violence among the Indians inhabiting theeastern parts of New England. “Whole towns were depopulated. Thelivingwerenotabletoburythedead;andtheirbodieswerefoundlyingaboveground,manyyears after.TheMassachusetts Indians are said tohavebeenreducedfrom30,000to300fightingmen.In1633,thesmallpoxsweptoffgreatnumbers.”47

Unfortunately,thePilgrims’arrivalinMassachusettsposesanotherhistoricalcontroversy that textbook authors take pains to duck. The textbooks say thePilgrims intended to go toVirginia,where there existed anEnglish settlementalready.However,“thefirstlandtheysightedwasCapeCod,wellnorthoftheirtarget,”explainsTheAmericanJourney.“BecauseitwasNovemberandwinterwas fastapproaching, thecolonistsdecided todropanchor inCapeCodBay.”Winter’sonsetcannothavebeenthereason,however,fortheweatherwouldbemuchmilder inVirginia thanMassachusetts.Moreover, thePilgrims spent sixfullweeks—untilDecember26—scoutingaroundCapeCodlookingforthebestspot.Howdid the Pilgrimswind up inMassachusetts in the first place,whentheysetoutforVirginia?“Violentstormsblewtheirshipoffcourse,”accordingtosometextbooks;othersblamean“errorinnavigation.”Bothexplanationsmaybe wrong. Some historians believe the Dutch bribed the captain of theMayflowertosailnorthsothePilgrimswouldnotsettlenearNewAmsterdam.OthersholdthatthePilgrimswenttoCapeCodonpurpose.48

Bear inmind that the Pilgrims numbered only about 35 of the 102 settlers

aboardtheMayflower; the restwereordinaryfolkseeking their fortunes in thenew Virginia colony. Historian George Willison has argued that the Pilgrimleaders, wanting to be far from Anglican control, never planned to settle inVirginia. They had debated the relative merits of Guiana, in South America,versus the Massachusetts coast, and, according to Willison, they intended ahijacking.

Certainly the Pilgrims already knew quite a bit about what Massachusettscould offer them, from the fine fishing along Cape Cod to that “wonderfulplague,”whichofferedanunusualopportunityforEnglishsettlement.Accordingto some historians, Squanto, a Wampanoag from the village of Patuxet,Massachusetts, had provided Ferdinando Gorges, a leader of the PlymouthCompanyinEngland,withadetaileddescriptionofthearea.Gorgesmayevenhave sent Squanto andCapt. ThomasDermer as advancemen towait for thePilgrims, although Dermer sailed away when the Pilgrims were delayed inEngland. In any event, the Pilgrimswere familiarwith the area’s topography.Recently publishedmaps that Samuel de Champlain had drawn when he hadtouredtheareain1605supplementedtheinformationthathadbeenpassedonbysixteenth-century explorers. John Smith had studied the region and named it“NewEngland”in1614,andheevenofferedtoguidethePilgrimleaders.Theyrejectedhisservicesastooexpensiveandcarriedhisguidebookalonginstead.49

Theseconsiderationspromptmetobelieve that thePilgrimleadersprobablyendedupinMassachusettsonpurpose.Butevidenceforanyconclusionissoft.Some historians believeGorges took credit for landing inMassachusetts afterthe fact. Indeed, theMayflowermayhavehadnospecificdestination.Readersmight be fascinated if textbook authors presented two ormore of the variouspossibilities,but,asusual,exposingstudents tohistoricalcontroversy is taboo.Eachtextbookpicksjustonereasonandpresentsitasfact.

OnlyoneofallthetextbooksIsurveyedadherestothehijackingpossibility.“TheNewEnglandlandingcameasarudesurpriseforthebedraggledandtired[non-Pilgrim]majorityonboardtheMayflower,”saysLandofPromise.“[They]hadjoinedtheexpeditionseekingeconomicopportunityintheVirginiatobaccoplantations.”Obviously, thesepassengerswerenothappyathavingbeentakenelsewhere, especially to a shore with no prior English settlement to join.“Rumors of mutiny spread quickly.” Promise then ties this unrest to theMayflower Compact, giving its readers a fresh interpretation of why thecolonists adopted the agreement and why it was so democratic: “To avoid

rebellion, the Pilgrim leaders made a remarkable concession to the othercolonists.They issuedacall foreverymaleonboard, regardlessof religionoreconomicstatus,tojoininthecreationofa‘civilbodypolitic.’”Thecompactachieveditspurpose:themajorityacquiesced.

AmongthePilgrims’sourcesofinformationaboutNewEnglandwereprobablythemaps ofSamuel deChamplain, including this chart ofPatuxet (Plymouth)whenitwasstillanIndianvillage,beforetheplagueof1617.

Actually, thehijackinghypothesisdoesnotshowthePilgrims insuchabadlight. The compact provided a graceful solution to an awkward problem.Althoughhijackingandfalserepresentationdoubtlesswerefeloniesthenasnow,thecolonydid survivewitha lowerdeath rate thanVirginia, sonopermanentharmwasdone.ThewholestoryplacesthePilgrimsinasomewhatdishonorablelight,however,whichmayexplainwhyonlyonetextbookselectsit.

The “navigation error” story lacks plausibility: the one parameter of oceantravel that sailors could and didmeasure accurately in that erawas latitude—distance north or south from the equator.The “storms” excuse is perhaps stilllessplausible,forifastormblewthemoffcourse,whentheweatherclearedtheycouldhaveturnedsouthwardagain,sailingouttoseatobypassanyshoals.Theyhad plenty of food and beer, after all.50 But storms and pilot error leave thePilgrimspureofheart,whichmayexplainwhymosttextbookschooseoneofthetwo.

Regardless ofmotive, theMayflowerCompact provided a democratic basisforthePlymouthcolony.SincetheframersofourConstitutioninfactpaidthecompact littleheed,however, it hardlydeserves the attention textbookauthorslavishonit.ButtextbookauthorsclearlywanttopackagethePilgrimsasapiousandmoralbandwholaidtheantecedentsofourdemocratictraditions.Nowhereis this motive more embarrassingly obvious than in John Garraty’sAmericanHistory. “So far as any record shows, thiswas the first time inhumanhistorythatagroupofpeopleconsciouslycreatedagovernmentwherenonehadexistedbefore.” Here Garraty paraphrases a Forefathers’ Day speech, delivered inPlymouthin1802,inwhichJohnAdamscelebrated“theonlyinstanceinhumanhistory of that positive, original social compact.” George Willison has drylynoted that Adams was “blinking several salient facts—above all, thecircumstances that prompted the compact,whichwas plainly an instrument ofminorityrule.”51Ofcourse,Garraty’sparaphrasealsoexposeshisignoranceoftheRepublicof Iceland, the IroquoisConfederacy,andcountlessotherpolitiesantedating 1620. Such an account simply invites students to becomeethnocentric.

In their pious treatment of the Pilgrims, history textbooks introduce thearchetype of American exceptionalism—the notion that the United States isdifferentfrom—andbetterthan—allothernationsontheplanet.HowisAmericaexceptional? Well, we’re exceptionally good, for one thing. As WoodrowWilsonputit,“Americaistheonlyidealisticnationintheworld.”52Andwe’reexceptionallystrongandhardy, too:aswefacethefuture, in thewordsofTheAmericanPageant,“theworld’soldestrepublichadanextraordinarytraditionofresilience and resourcefulness to drawon.” (Nevermind that tinySanMarinomayhaveformedasarepublicinAD301,Icelandbecamearepublicin930,andSwitzerland around 1300.) These stellar qualities are evident from the“beginning,”hereatPlymouthRock,according toour textbooks.ThePilgrims

“were equipped,” Boorstin and Kelley inform us, “with just the rightcombinationof hopes and fears, optimismandpessimism, self-confidence andhumility to be successful settlers. And this was one of the most fortunatecoincidences in our history.” Such a happy portrait of the Pilgrims can bepaintedonlybyomittingthefactsabouttheplague,thepossiblehijacking,andtheirIndianrelations.

To highlight that happy picture, textbooks underplay Jamestown and thesixteenth-century Spanish settlements in favor of Plymouth Rock as thearchetypal birthplace of theUnitedStates.Virginia, according toT.H.Breen,“ill-servedlaterhistoriansinsearchofthemythicoriginsofAmericanculture.”53HistorianscouldhardlytoutVirginiaasmoralinintent,for, inthewordsofthe first history of Virginia written by a Virginian: “The chief Design of allPartiesconcern’dwas to fetchaway theTreasure fromthence,aimingmoreatsudden Gain, than to form any regular Colony.” 54 The Virginians’ relationswith American Indians were particularly unsavory: in contrast to Squanto, avolunteer,theEnglishinVirginiatookIndianprisonersandforcedthemtoteachcolonists how to farm.55 In 1623 the English indulged in the first use ofchemicalwarfare in thecolonieswhennegotiatinga treatywith tribesnear thePotomacRiver,headedbyChiskiack.TheEnglishofferedatoast“symbolizingeternalfriendship,”whereuponthechief,hisfamily,advisors,andtwohundredfollowers dropped dead of poison.56 Besides, the earlyVirginians engaged inbickering,sloth,evencannibalism.Theyspenttheirearlydaysdiggingrandomholes in theground,haplessly lookingforgold insteadofplantingcrops.Soonthey were starving and digging up putrid Native corpses to eat or rentingthemselves out to American Indian families as servants—hardly the heroicfoundersthatagreatnationrequires.57

Textbooks indeed cover the Virginia colony, and they at least mention theSpanish settlements, but they still devote 50 percent more space toMassachusetts.Asaresult,andowingalsotoThanksgiving,ofcourse,studentsaremuchmorelikelytorememberthePilgrimsasourfounders.58Theyarethenembarrassed when I remind them of Virginia and the Spanish, for whenprompted, studentsdo recall havingheardofboth.Butneitherour culturenorourtextbooksgiveVirginiathesamearchetypalstatusasMassachusetts.ThatiswhyalmostallmystudentsknowthenameofthePilgrims’ship,whilealmostnostudents remember thenamesof the threeships thatbrought theEnglish to

Jamestown.(For thenext timeyou’reonJeopardy! theywereSusanConstant,Discovery,andGodspeed.)

Despite having ended up many miles from other European enclaves, thePilgrimshardly “started from scratch” in a “wilderness.”Throughout southernNewEngland,NativeAmericanshadrepeatedlyburnedtheunderbrush,creatingaparklikeenvironment.AfterlandingatProvincetown,thePilgrimsassembledaboat for exploring and began looking around for their new home.They chosePlymouthbecauseofitsbeautifulclearedfields,recentlyplantedincorn,anditsusefulharborand“brookoffreshwater.”Itwasalovelysiteforatown.Indeed,until the plague, it had been a town, for “NewPlimoth”was none other thanSquanto’s village of Patuxet. The invaders followed a pattern: throughout thehemisphereEuropeanspitchedcamprightinthemiddleofNativepopulations—Cuzco, Mexico City, Natchez, Chicago. Throughout New England, colonistsappropriated American Indian cornfields for their initial settlements, avoidingthebackbreakinglaborofclearingthelandofforestandrock.59(Thisexplainswhy, to this day, the names of so many towns throughout the region—Marshfield, Springfield,Deerfield—end in field.) “Errand into thewilderness”mayhavemadealivelysermontitlein1650,apopularbooktitlein1950,andanarchetypaltextbookphrasein2000,butitwasneveraccurate.Thenewsettlersencounterednowilderness:“Inthisbaywhereinwelive,”onecolonistnotedin1622,“informertimehathlivedabouttwothousandIndians.”60

Moreover,notalltheNativeinhabitantshadperished,andthesurvivorsnowfacilitatedEnglishsettlement.ThePilgrimsbeganreceivingIndianassistanceontheir second full day in Massachusetts. A colonist’s journal tells of sailorsdiscoveringtwoAmericanIndianhouses:

Havingtheirgunsandhearingnobody,theyenteredthehousesandfoundthepeopleweregone.Thesailorstooksomethingsbutdidn’tdarestay....Wehadmeanttohaveleftsomebeadsandotherthingsinthehousesas a sign of peace and to showwemeant to tradewith them. But wedidn’tdo itbecausewe left in suchhaste.Butas soonaswecanmeetwiththeIndians,wewillpaythemwellforwhatwetook.

Itwasn’t only houses that thePilgrims robbed.Our eyewitness resumes hisstory:

Wemarched to the placewe calledCornhill, wherewe had found thecorn before. At another place we had seen before, we dug and found

somemorecorn,twoorthreebasketsfull,andabagofbeans....Inallwe had about ten bushels,whichwill be enough for seed. ItwaswithGod’shelpthatwefoundthiscorn,forhowelsecouldwehavedoneit,withoutmeetingsomeIndianswhomighttroubleus.

From the start, the Pilgrims thanked God, not the American Indians, forassistancethatthelatterhad(inadvertently)provided—settingapatternforlaterthanksgivings.Ourjournalistcontinues:

Thenextmorning,wefoundaplacelikeagrave.Wedecidedtodigitup.We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow. . . .We also foundbowls,trays,dishes,andthingslikethat.Wetookseveraloftheprettiestthingstocarryawaywithus,andcoveredthebodyupagain.61

Aplace“likeagrave”!

Although Karen Kupperman says the Pilgrims continued to rob graves foryears,62morehelpcamefromaliveIndian,Squanto.Heremystudentsreturntofamiliar turf, for they have all learned the Squanto legend. Land of Promiseprovidesatypicalaccount:

Squanto had learned their language, he explained, from Englishfishermen who ventured into the New England waters each summer.Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, squash, and pumpkins.WouldthesmallbandofsettlershavesurvivedwithoutSquanto’shelp?Wecannotsay.Butby the fallof1621,colonistsand Indianscould sitdowntoseveraldaysoffeastandthanksgivingtoGod(latercelebratedasthefirstThanksgiving).

WhatdomostbooksleaveoutaboutSquanto?First,howhelearnedEnglish.AccordingtoFerdinandoGorges,around1605anEnglishcaptainstoleSquanto,whowasthenstillaboy,alongwithfourPenobscotsandtookthemtoEngland.There Squanto spent nine years, three in the employ of Gorges. At length,GorgeshelpedSquantoarrangepassagebacktoMassachusetts.Somehistoriansdoubt that Squantowas among the five Indians stolen in 1605.63 All sourcesagree, however, that in 1614 anEnglish slave raider seized Squanto and two-dozen fellow Indians and sold them into slavery in Málaga, Spain. Whathappened next makes Ulysses look like a homebody. Squanto escaped fromslavery,escapedfromSpain,andmadehiswaybacktoEngland.AftertryingtogethomeviaNewfoundland,in1619hetalkedThomasDermerintotakinghim

alongonhisnexttriptoCapeCod.

IthappensthatSquanto’sfabulousodysseyprovidesa“hook”intotheplaguestory, a hook that our textbooks choose not to use. For now Squanto set footagainonMassachusettssoilandwalkedtohishomevillageofPatuxet,onlytomakethehorrifyingdiscoverythat“hewasthesolememberofhisvillagestillalive. All the others had perished in the epidemic two years before.” 64 NowonderSquantothrewinhislotwiththePilgrims.

Now that is a story worth telling! Compare the pallid account in Land ofPromise:“HehadlearnedtheirlanguagefromEnglishfishermen.”65

Astranslator,ambassador,andtechnicaladvisor,SquantowasessentialtothesurvivalofPlymouthinitsfirsttwoyears.LikeotherEuropeansinAmerica,thePilgrims had no ideawhat to eat or how to raise or find food untilAmericanIndians showed them.William Bradford called Squanto “a special instrumentsentofGodfortheirgoodbeyondtheirexpectation.Hedirectedthemhowtosettheircorn,where to take fish,and toprocureothercommodities,andwasalsotheirpilottobringthemtounknownplacesfortheirprofit.”SquantowasnotthePilgrims’ only aide: in the summer of 1621 Massasoit sent another Indian,Hobomok, to live among the Pilgrims for several years as guide andambassador.66

“Theirprofit”wastheprimaryreasonmostMayflowercolonistsmadethetrip.As Robert Moore has pointed out, “Textbooks neglect to analyze the profitmotive underlyingmuch of our history.” 67 Profit, too, came fromAmericanIndians,bywayofthefurtrade,withoutwhichPlymouthwouldneverhavepaidforitself.HobomokhelpedPlymouthsetupfur-tradingpostsatthemouthofthePenobscot andKennebec rivers inMaine; in Aptucxet,Massachusetts; and inWindsor,Connecticut.68 Europeans had neither the skill nor the desire to “goboldlywherenonedaredgobefore.”TheywenttotheIndians.69

Squanto’s travels acquainted him with more of the world than any Pilgrimencountered.HehadcrossedtheAtlanticperhapssixtimes,twiceasanEnglishcaptive,andhadlivedinMaine,Newfoundland,Spain,andEngland,aswellasMassachusetts.

All this brings us to Thanksgiving. Throughout the nation every fall,elementary-school children reenact a little morality play, The FirstThanksgiving,asournationaloriginmyth,completewithPilgrimhatsmadeoutofconstructionpaperandIndianbraveswithfeathersintheirhair.ThanksgivingistheoccasiononwhichwegivethankstoGodasanationfortheblessingsthatHe [sic] hath bestowed upon us.More than any other celebration,more eventhan such overtly patriotic holidays as IndependenceDay andMemorialDay,Thanksgiving celebrates our ethnocentrism.We have seen, for example, howKing James and the early Pilgrim leaders gave thanks for the plague, whichproved to them that God was on their side. The archetypes associated withThanksgiving—God on our side, civilization wrested from wilderness, orderfromdisorder,throughhardworkandgoodPilgrimcharactertraits—continuetoradiate from our history textbooks.Many decades ago, in an analysis of howAmericanhistorywastaughtinthe1920s,BessiePiercepointedoutthepoliticalusestowhichThanksgivingisput:“Fortheseunexcelledblessings,thepupilisurgedtofollowinthefootstepsofhisforbears,toofferunquestioningobediencetothelawoftheland,andtocarryontheworkbegun.”70

Thanksgivingdinnerisaritual,withallthecharacteristicsthatMirceaEliadeassignstotheritualobservancesoforiginmyths:

1.Itconstitutesthehistoryoftheactsofthefounders,theSupernaturals.2.Itisconsideredtobetrue.3.Ittellshowaninstitutioncameintoexistence.

4. In performing the ritual associated with the myth, one “experiencesknowledgeoftheorigin”andclaimsone’spatriarchy.

5.Thusone“lives”themyth,asareligion.71

My Random House dictionary lists as its main heading for the Plymouthcolonists not Pilgrims but Pilgrim Fathers. Until recently, the Library ofCongress similarlycataloged itsholdings forPlymouthunderPilgrimFathers,andofcourse fatherswascapitalized,meaning“fathersofourcountry,”notofPilgrim children. Thanksgiving has thus moved from history into the field ofreligion,“civilreligion,”asRobertBellahhascalledit.ToBellah,civilreligionsholdsocietytogether.PlymouthRockachievediconographicstatusaround1880,when some enterprising residents of the town rejoined its two pieces on thewaterfrontandbuiltaGreektempletaroundit.Thetempletbecameashrine,theMayflowerCompactbecameasacredtext,andourtextbooksbegantoplaythesame function as the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, teaching us themeaningbehindthecivilriteofThanksgiving.72

The religious character ofPilgrimhistory shines forth in an introductionbyValerianPagettoWilliamBradford’sfamouschronicleOfPlimothPlantation:

TheeyesofEuropewereuponthislittleEnglishhandfulofunconsciousheroes and saints, taking courage from them step by step. For theirchildren’s children the same ideals of Freedom burned so clear andstrong that . . . the little episode we have just been contemplating,resulted in thebirthof theUnitedStatesofAmerica,and,aboveall,oftheestablishmentofthehumanitarianidealsittypifies,andforwhichthePilgrimsofferedtheirsacrificeuponthealtaroftheSonshipofMan.73

Inthis invocation, thePilgrimssupplynotonlytheoriginoftheUnitedStates,butalsotheinspirationfordemocracyinEuropeandperhapsforallgoodnessintheworldtoday!Isuspectthattheoriginalcolonists,SeparatistsandAnglicansalike,wouldhavebeenamused.

The civil ritual we practicemarginalizesNativeAmericans. Our archetypalimageofthefirstThanksgivingportraysthegroaningboardsinthewoods,withthe Pilgrims in their starched Sunday best next to their almost naked Indianguests.Asaholidaygreetingcardputsit,“IisfortheIndiansweinvitedtoshareour food.” The silliness of all this reaches its zenith in the handouts thatschoolchildrenhavecarriedhomefordecades,completewithcaptionssuchas,

“Theyservedpumpkinsandturkeysandcornandsquash.TheIndianshadneverseen such a feast!” When Native American novelist Michael Dorris’s sonbrought home this “information” fromhisNewHampshire elementary school,Dorrispointedoutthat“thePilgrimshadliterallyneverseen‘suchafeast,’sinceall foodsmentioned are exclusively indigenous to theAmericas and had beenprovidedby[orwiththeaidof]thelocaltribe.”74

Thisnotionthat“we”advancedpeoplesprovidedfortheNatives,exactlytheconverseofthetruth,isnotbenign.Itreemergestimeandagaininourhistorytocomplicateracerelations.Forexample,wearetoldthatwhiteplantationownersfurnishedfoodandmedicalcarefortheirslaves,yeteveryshredoffood,shelter,and clothing on the plantationswas raised, built,woven, or paid for by blacklabor. Today Americans believe as part of our political understanding of theworld that we are themost generous nation on earth in terms of foreign aid,overlooking the fact that the net dollar flow from almost every ThirdWorldnationrunstowardtheUnitedStates.

ThetruehistoryofThanksgivingrevealsembarrassingfacts.ThePilgrimsdidnot introduce the tradition; Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvestcelebrations for centuries.AlthoughGeorgeWashingtondid set asidedays fornational thanksgiving,ourmoderncelebrationsdatebackonly to1863.DuringtheCivilWar,whentheUnionneededallthepatriotismthatsuchanobservancemight muster, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday.ThePilgrims had nothing to dowith it; not until the 1890s did they even getincludedinthetradition.Forthatmatter,theywerenotcommonlyknownas“thePilgrims”untilthe1870s.75

The ideological meaning American history has ascribed to Thanksgivingcompounds the embarrassment. The Thanksgiving legend makes Americansethnocentric. After all, if our culture has God on its side, why should weconsiderotherculturesseriously?Thisethnocentrismintensifiedinthemiddleofthe last century. InRace andManifestDestiny,ReginaldHorsman has shownhowtheideaof“Godonourside”wasusedtolegitimizetheopenexpressionofAnglo-Saxonsuperiorityvis-à-visMexicans,NativeAmericans,peoplesof thePacific, Jews, and even Catholics.76 Today, when textbooks promote thisethnocentrismwith their Pilgrim stories, they leave students less able to learnfromanddealwithpeoplefromothercultures.

Onoccasion,wepayamoredirectcost:censorship.In1970,forexample,the

Massachusetts Department of Commerce asked the Wampanoags to select aspeaker to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landing. Frank James“wasselected,butfirsthehadtoshowacopyofhisspeechtothewhitepeopleinchargeoftheceremony.Whentheysawwhathehadwritten,theywouldnotallowhimtoreadit.”77Jameshadwritten:

Today is a time of celebrating for you . . . but it is not a time ofcelebrating for me. It is with heavy heart that I look back upon whathappenedtomyPeople....ThePilgrimshadhardlyexploredtheshoresof Cape Cod four days before they had robbed the graves of myancestors, and stolen their corn, wheat, and beans. . . .Massasoit, thegreatleaderoftheWampanoag,knewthesefacts;yetheandhisPeoplewelcomedandbefriendedthesettlers . . . littleknowingthat . . .before50yearsweretopass,theWampanoags...andotherIndianslivingnearthesettlerswouldbekilledbytheirgunsordeadfromdiseasesthatwecaughtfromthem... .Althoughourwayoflifeisalmostgoneandourlanguage is almost extinct,we theWampanoags stillwalk the lands ofMassachusetts....Whathashappenedcannotbechanged,buttodayweworktowardabetterAmerica,amoreIndianAmericawherepeopleandnatureonceagainareimportant.78

What theMassachusetts Department of Commerce censored was not someincendiaryfalsehoodbuthistoricaltruth.NothingJameswouldhavesaid,hadhebeen allowed to speak, was false, excepting the word wheat. Most of ourtextbooks alsoomit the facts about grave robbing, Indian enslavement, and soon,eventhoughtheywerecommonknowledgeincolonialNewEngland.ThusourpopularhistoryofthePilgrimshasnotbeenaprocessofgainingperspectivebut of deliberate forgetting. Instead of these important facts, textbooks supplythefeel-goodminutiaeofSquanto’shelpfulness,hisname,thefishinthecorn-hills, sometimes even the menu and the number of American Indians whoattendedtheprototypicalfirstThanksgiving.

I have focused here on untoward detail only because our histories havesuppressed everything awkward for so long. The Pilgrims’ courage in settingforth in the late fall to make their way on a continent new to them remainsunsurpassed.IntheirfirstyearthePilgrims,liketheAmericanIndians,sufferedfromdiseases, including scurvy and pneumonia; half of themdied. Itwas notimmoral of the Pilgrims to have taken over Patuxet. They did not cause the

plague and were as baffled as to its origin as the stricken Indian villagers.MassasoitwashappythatthePilgrimswereusingthebay,forthePatuxet,beingdead,hadnomoreneedforthesite.Pilgrim-Indianrelationsstartedreasonablypositively.ThenewcomersdideventuallypaytheWampanoagsforthecorntheyhad dug up and taken. Plymouth, unlike many other colonies, usually paidIndiansforthelandittook.InsomeinstancesEuropeanssettledinIndiantownsbecauseNativeshadinvitedthem,asprotectionagainstanothertribeoranearbycompeting European power. 79 In sum, U.S. history is no more violent andoppressive than the history of England, Russia, Indonesia, or Burundi—butneitherisitexceptionallylessviolent.

The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest andinclusivehistory. If textbookauthors feel compelled togivemoral instruction,the way origin myths have always done, they could accomplish this aim byallowing students to learn both the “good” and the “bad” sides of the Pilgrimtale.Conflictwouldthenbecomepartofthestory,andstudentsmightdiscoverthat the knowledge they gain has implications for their lives today. Correctlytaught,theissuesoftheeraofthefirstThanksgivingcouldhelpAmericansgrowmore thoughtful and more tolerant, rather than more ethnocentric. Ironically,Plymouth, Massachusetts, the place where the myth began, now provides amodel.NativeAmericansandnon-NativealliesdidnottakethesuppressionofFrankJames’sspeechin1970lyingdown.ThatyearandeveryNovembersince,theyhaveorganizeda counter-parade—“theNationalDayofMourning”—thatdirectlynegatesthetraditionalThanksgivingcelebration.Afteryearsofconflict,Plymouth agreed to allow both parades and also paid for two new historicalmarkerstellingtheWampanoag’ssideofthestory.

TextbooksneedtolearnfromPlymouth.Originmythsdonotcomecheaply.ToglorifythePilgrimsisdangerous.Thegenialomissionsandtheinventeddetailswithwhich our textbooks retail thePilgrim archetype are close cousins of theovert censorship practiced by theMassachusetts Department of Commerce indenyingFrankJamestherighttospeak.Surely,inhistory,“truthshouldbeheldsacred,atwhatevercost.”

4.

REDEYES

To understand the making of Anglo-America isimpossiblewithout closeand sustainedattention to itsindigenouspredecessors,allies,andnemeses.

—JAMESAXTELL1

The invaders also anticipated, correctly, that otherEuropeans would question the morality of theirenterprise.Theytherefore[prepared]. . .quantitiesofpropaganda to overpower their own countrymen’sscruples. The propaganda gradually took standardformasanideologywithconventionalassumptionsandsemantics.Welivewithitstill.

—FRANCISJENNINGS2

Memorysays,“Ididthat.”Pridereplies,“Icouldnothavedonethat.”Eventually,memoryyields.

—FRIEDRICHNIETZSCHE3

ThereisnotoneIndianinthewholeofthiscountrywhodoes not cringe in anguish and frustration because ofthesetextbooks.ThereisnotoneIndianchildwhohasnotcomehomeinshameandtears.

—RUPERTCOSTO4

Oldmythsneverdie—theyjustbecomeembeddedinthetextbooks.

—THOMASBAILEY5

HISTORICALLY, AMERICAN INDIANS have been the most lied-aboutsubsetofourpopulation.That’swhyMichaelDorrissaidthat,inlearningaboutNativeAmericans,“Onedoesnotstartfrompointzero,butfromminusten.”6High school students start below zero because of their textbooks, whichunapologetically present Native Americans through white eyes. Today’stextbooks shoulddobetter, especially sincewhat historians call Indianhistory(thoughreallyitisinterracial)hasfloweredsincethe1970s,andtheinformationonwhichnewtextbooksmightbebasedcurrentlyrestsonlibraryshelves.

Textbooks’treatmentofNativepeopleshasimprovedinrecentyears.In1961thebestsellingRiseoftheAmericanNationcontainedtenillustrationsfeaturingNativepeople,aloneorwithwhites(of268illustrations);mostofthesepicturesfocusedon the themesofprimitive lifeandsavagewarfare.Twenty-fiveyearslater,theretitledTriumphoftheAmericanNationcontainedfifteenillustrationsof American Indians; more important, no longer were Native Americansdepicted as one-dimensional primitives. Rather, they were people whoparticipatedinstrugglestopreservetheiridentitiesandtheirland.IncludedwereMetacomet(KingPhilip),CrispusAttucks(firstcasualtyoftheRevolution,whowas also part black in ancestry), Sequoyah (who invented the Cherokeealphabet),andNavajocode-talkersinWorldWarII.In2003,thesuccessor,HoltAmericanNation,hadforty-threeillustrationsofAmericanIndians.Someothertextbooks published after 2000 continue this trend of givingmore attention toNativeAmericans.TheAmericansstandsoutforitshonestcoverageofsomeofthe events this chapter will treat, and American Journey, the middle-schooltextbook,isclosebehind.

Nevertheless, the authors of American history textbooks still “need a crash

course in cultural relativism and ethnic sensitivity,” as James Axtell put it in1987.EvenTheAmericans,thebestofthesebooks,devotesitsfirsttwopagestoa reproduction of Benjamin West’s 1771 painting, Penn’s Treaty with theIndians. Painted almost a century after the event, West followed the usualconventionofdepicting fullyclothedEuropeans—evenwithhats, scarves, andcoats—presentingtradegoodstonearlynakedAmericans.Inreality,ofcourse,notwogroupsofpeoplehaveeverbeendressedsodifferentlyatonespotontheearth’ssurfaceonthesameday.Theartistdidn’treallytrytoportrayreality.Hemeanttoshow“primitive”(AmericanIndian)and“civilized”(European).

A nearly naked American Indian shakes William Penn’s hand, sculpted in

sandstoneintheUnitedStatesCapitol.HavingbeeninPhiladelphiainAugust,Ican report that if this negotiation occurred then, Pennwas near death throughheat exhaustion. Having also been in Philadelphia after Thanksgiving, I canreport that if this negotiation took place inwinter, theNativeswere sufferingfromfrostbite.

Axtell also criticizes textbooks for still using such terms as half-breed,massacre,andwar-whooping.7Reservingmildertermssuchasfrontierinitiativeandsettlers forwhites isequallybiased. IfwecastoffourAmerican-nessandimagine we come from, say, Botswana, this typical sentence (from TheAmericanJourney)appearsquitejarring:“In1637warbrokeoutinConnecticutbetween settlers and the Pequot people.” Surely the Pequots, having lived invillages in Connecticut probably for thousands of years, are “settlers.” TheEnglishwerenewcomers,havingbeenthereforatmostthreeyears; traderssetup camp inWindsor in 1634. Replacing settlers bywhites makes for a moreaccuratebut“unsettling”sentence.Invadersismoreaccuratestill,andstillmoreunsettling.

Even worse are the authors’ overall interpretations, which continue to beshackled by the “conventional assumptions and semantics” that have“explained” Indian-white relations forcenturies,according toAxtell.Textbookauthorsstillwritehistorytocomfortdescendantsofthe“settlers.”

OurjourneyintoamoreaccuratehistoryofAmericanIndianpeoplesandtheirrelations with European and African invaders cannot be a happy excursion.NativeAmericansarenotandmustnotbepropsinasortofthemeparkofthepast,wherewegotohaveagoodtimeandseeexoticcultures.“Whatwehavedone to the peoples who were living in North America” is, according toanthropologistSolTax,“ourOriginalSin.”8IfwelookIndianhistorysquarelyintheeye,wearegoingtogetredeyes.Thisisourpast,however,andwemustacknowledgeit.Itistimefortextbookstosendwhitechildrenhome,ifnotwithredeyes,atleastwiththought-provokingquestions.

Mostof today’s textbooksat least try tobeaccurateaboutAmerican Indiancultures.ThirteenoftheeighteentextbooksIsurveyedbeginbydevotingmorethan five pages to precontact Native societies.9 From the start, however,American Indian societies pose a problem for textbooks.10 Their authors areconsumers, not practitioners, of archaeology, ethnobotany, linguistics, physicalanthropology, folklore studies, cultural anthropology, ethnohistory, and other

relateddisciplines.Scholars in these fields can tell usmuch, albeit tentatively,aboutwhat happened in theAmericas beforeEuropeans andAfricans arrived.Unfortunately, theauthorsofhistory textbooks treatarchaeologyetal.asdeaddisciplinestobeminedforanswers.Thesefieldsstudydeadpeople,tobesure,buttheyarealivewithcontroversy.EveryyearheadlinesappearaboutcharcoalpossiblyfortythousandyearsoldfoundincookingfiresinBrazil,newdatesforanarchaeologicaldiginPennsylvania,ormorespeculativeclaimsthatsomenewhuman remain, artifact, or idea hails from China, Europe, or Africa. In 2007came evidence that a comet may have exploded in the earth’s atmospherethirteenthousandyearsago,settingmuchofNorthAmericaonfire.Possiblytheresulting firestorm killed off the larger mammals, like horses andmastodons,anddecimatedthehumanpopulation.11

“Possibly,” however, does not fit with textbook style, which is to presentdefinitive answers. Only The American Adventure admits uncertainty: “Thispagemaybeoutofdateby the time it is read.”Adventure goeson topresentcompetingclaimsthathumanshavebeenintheAmericasfor twelvethousand,twenty-onethousand,andfortythousandyears.Asaresult,althoughAdventureisoneoftheoldestofallthetextbooksIsurveyed,itspre-Columbianpageshavenotgoneoutofdate.12Mostothertextbooksretaintheirusualauthoritativetone.RegardingthedateofthefirsthumansettlementoftheAmericas,estimatesvaryfrom twelve thousand years before the present tomore than seventy thousandBP.13Somescientistsbelievethattheoriginalsettlerscameinsuccessivewavesover thousandsofyears;genetic similaritiesconvinceothers thatmostNativesdescendedfromasinglesmallband.14Mosttextbookauthorssimplychooseonedateandpresentitasundisputedfact.Somenewerbooksadd“probably,”asin:people“probablyfollowedtheanimalherds,”fromHoltAmericanNation.Butthen,liketheothers,theysupplyonedateforstudentstomemorize.

Authorsneed togofurther.WalkingacrossBeringia (the isthmusacross theBeringStrait)isonlyahypothesis.Theyoughttogiveothertheories,includingboats,ahearing.Theywouldnothavetodoalltheworkthemselves,either,butcould set students looseon theWeband in the library, arming themand theirteachers with ideas about what to look for and how to assess reputed newfindings.Theschoolyearmight thenbeginwithadebateamongstudentswhohave chosen different dates and routes—each marshaling evidence fromglottochronology (dating linguistic changes), genetics, archaeology, and otherdisciplines tobolster their conclusion.Studentswouldbe excited.Theywould

realize, at the start, that history still remains to be done—that it is not just aninertbodyoffactstobememorized.

Wecan see the absenceof intellectual excitement from thebeginning.Howdid people get here? Every book says something like this, fromBoorstin andKelley:

Somuchoftheearth’swaterhadfrozenintoicethatitloweredtheleveloftheseaintheBeringStrait.Thenastheytrackedwildgametheycouldwalk across the 56miles from Siberia to Alaska.Without knowing it,theyhaddiscoveredtwolargecontinentsthatwerecompletelyemptyofpeople but were full of wild game. . . . In the thousands of yearsafterwards many other groups followed. These small bands spread allacrossNorthandSouthAmerica.

Actually,whilemostscholarsstillaccepta“Beringia”crossing,archaeologicalevidence is slim, and more and more archaeologists believe boat crossings,accidental or purposeful, may have been themethod. After all, people got toAustraliaatleastfortythousandyearsago,andnomatterhowmuchicepileduponlandduringtheIceAge,youcouldneverwalktoAustralia,acrossthedeepoceandivideknownasWallace’sLine.Ofcourse,archaeologistshaveunearthednoevidenceofboatsanywhereintheworlddatingbackmorethantenthousandyears.Butthen,noartifactssurvivefromsolongagootherthanstonetools,andnohumanswereeversoprimitiveastofashionstoneboats.Absenceofevidenceisnotevidenceofabsence.15

TextbookwriterslikeBeringia,Ibelieve,becauseitfitstheiroverallstorylineof unrelenting progress. The people themselves are pictured as primitivesavages,vaguelyNeanderthalian.Thisarchetype—notverybright,enmeshedinwarswithnatureandotherhumans—probablyunderliesauthors’certainty thatthey must have walked. Unlike us, the original Americans didn’t have to beintelligent—they just had to walk.16 And they certainly weren’t bright, for“without knowing it, they had discovered two large continents.” This is astartlingassertion.Somehowourauthors,writingatleasteleventhousandyearsafterthefact,knowwhatthesefirstsettlersthought—or,rather,knowthattheydidnotthinktheyhadreachednewcontinents.JohnGarraty’sAmericanHistorymakes the same claim: “They did not know that they were exploring a newcontinent.” Now, continent means “a large land mass, surrounded by water.”HowcouldhumansconfrontthevastnessofCanada—itselflargerthanAustralia

—andnotknowtheywereexploringalargelandmass?Thesefirstsettlersmusthavebeenstunninglystupid.17

ThedepictionofmentaldullnesspersistsasGarraty tellsof“thewanderers”who“movedslowlysouthwardandtotheeast....Manythousandyearspassedbefore theyhad spreadover allofNorthandSouthAmerica.”Actually,manyarchaeologistsbelieve thatpeople reachedmostpartsof theAmericaswithinathousandyears,fartoorapidlytoalloweasyarchaeologicaldeterminationofthedirectionandtimingoftheirmigration.ArchaeologicalfindsdonotgrowolderaswemovenorthwestthroughtheYukonandacrossAlaska.18Moreover,evenif the firstAmericans did arrive on foot, theywere just as surely explorers asColumbus.

Garratydroneson,continuingtoimplythatthefirstsettlerswereratherdim:“None of the groups made much progress in developing simple machines orsubstitutingmechanicalorevenanimalpowerfortheirownmusclepower.”ButthiswasnottheAmericans’“fault.”No“animalpower”wasavailable.Forthatmatter, inEuropeandAsiabefore1769,most“simplemachines”dependedonhorses,oxen,waterbuffalo,mules,orcattle—beastsunknownintheAmericas.InGuns,Germs, and Steel, JaredDiamond suggests that the availability of atleastsomeoftheseanimalsfordomesticationwasacriticalfactorindevelopingnotonlymachinesbutalsothedivisionoflaborwecall“civilization.”19

All of the textbooks are locked into the old savage-to-barbaric-to-civilizedschool of anthropology dating back to L. H. Morgan and Karl Marx around1875.Their authorsmaywellhaveencountered such thinking inanthropologycourseswhen theywereundergraduates; it isno longer taught today,however.Garratyexemplifiestheevolutionarystereotype:“Thosewhoplantedseedsandcultivated the land instead of merely hunting and gathering food were moresecure and comfortable.” Apparently he has not encountered the “affluentprimitive” theory, which persuaded anthropologists some forty years ago thatgatherer-hunterslivedquitecomfortably.AmericanHistorythenmakesanevensillier mistake: “These agricultural people were mostly peaceful, though theycould fight fiercely to protect their fields. The hunters and wanderers, on theotherhand,werequitewarlikebecausetheirneedtomoveaboutbrought themfrequently into conflict with other groups.” Here Garraty conflates civil andcivilization . Decades ago, most anthropologists challenged this outmodedcontinuum, determining that hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful,

comparedtoagriculturalists,andthatmodernsocietiesweremorewarlikestill.Wehaveonly to remember thehistoryof the twentieth century to see atoncethatviolencecanincreasewithcivilization.

Most textbooks do confer civilization on someNatives—the Aztecs, Incas,and Mayans—based on the premise, embraced by the Spanish conquistadorsthemselves, that wealth equals civilization. In the words of The AmericanAdventure:“Unlike thenoncivilizedpeoplesof theCaribbean, theAztecwererich and prosperous.” Boorstin and Kelley cannot easily concede even thatmuch.AfterdevotingapagetotheadvancedcivilizationsoftheMayans,Incas,andAztecs,BoorstinandKelleyproceedtoputthemdown:“UnlikethepeoplesofEurope,theyhadnotbuiltshipstocrosstheoceans.Theyhadnotreachedouttotheworld.Intheir isolationtheyfoundithardtolearnnewways.WhentheSpanishcame,itseemedthattheIncas,theMayasandtheAztecshadceasedtoprogress.Theywereripeforconquest.”

Amongotherthings,thatparagraphissimplybadhistory.Infact,therateofchangewas accelerating in theWesternHemisphere before theSpanish came.The Incas had taken less than the previous century to assemble their hugeempire.TheAztecshadcometodominatecentralMexicobyallianceandforcestillmorerecently.

ToBoorstin andKelley, theNatives to thenorth inwhat isnow theUnitedStates lagged even further behind the “unprogressive” Aztecs, Mayans, andIncas.Ofcourse, ifBoorstinandKelleyhad lookedaroundtheworld in1392,they would have seen no such decisive differences between American andEuropean cultures.This is a secular formof predestination: historians observethatpeopleswereconqueredandcomeupwith reasonswhy thatwas right. Insociology we call this “blaming the victim.” The authors of The AmericanPageanttakethesameapproach:

UnliketheEuropeans,whowouldsoonarrivewiththepresumptionthathumanshaddominionover the earth andwith the technologies to altertheveryfaceoftheland,theNativeAmericanshadneitherthedesirenorthemeans tomanipulate nature aggressively. . . . Theywere so thinlyspreadacrossthecontinentthatvastareaswerevirtuallyuntouchedbyahuman presence. In the fateful year 1492, probably no more than 4million Native Americans padded through the whispering, primevalforestsandpaddledacrossthesparklingvirginwatersofNorthAmerica.

TheywereblissfullyunawarethatthehistoricisolationoftheAmericaswasabouttoendforever.

Thispassageexemplifies theunfortunate resultswhenpublishers try tokeepalegacytextinprintforever.TheseclichésaboutNativeAmericanswereknowntobefalsein1956,whenBaileywrotethefirsteditionofthisseeminglyagelesstext. Chapter 3 shows what is wrong with this wilderness scenario. For onething, the numbers are all wrong. In the central valley ofMexico alone livedabout twenty-five million people. In the rest of North America lived perhapstwenty million more. Furthermore, the image of the moccasined Indian“padding”throughthevirginforestwon’tdo;amajorityofNativeAmericansinwhat is now the United States farmed. Pageant originated more than half acentury ago and is now in its thirteenth printing. In 1956, it may have beenwritten by its “author,” Thomas Bailey. Who wrote the current edition isanyone’sguess.

Inthelate1990s,someone—certainlynotBailey,longdeceased,andprobablynot either of the other two listed authors—realized that the book needed tomention theColumbianExchangeand thepost-1492epidemics thatdecimatedAmericanIndians.Asa result,a laterpage tellsof thesestaggeringpopulationdeclines,withoutacknowledgingthecontradictionbetweenthatpassageandthisone.ThomasBailey’sownbookthusproveshimright:“Oldmythsneverdie—theyjustbecomeembeddedinthetextbooks.”BoorstinandKelleyareevenlesscompetent;theystillomittheColumbianExchangeentirely.

Eventhebesttextbookscannotresistcontrasting“primitive”AmericanswithmodernEuropeans.Partof theproblem is that thebooksare really comparingrural America to urban Europe—Massachusetts to London. ComparingTenochtitlan(nowMexicoCity)toruralScotlandmightproduceaverydifferentimpression, for when Cortés arrived, Tenochtitlan was a city of one hundredthousand to three hundred thousand, whose central market was so busy andnoisy“that it couldbeheardmore than fourmilesaway,”according toBernalDíaz, who accompanied Cortés.20 It would be even better if authors couldforsaketheentireprimitive-to-civilizedcontinuumaltogether.Afterall,fromtheperspectiveoftheaverageinhabitant,lifemayhavebeenjustas“advanced”andfarmorepleasantinMassachusettsorScotlandasinAztecMexicoorLondon.

For a long timeNativeAmericans havebeen rebuking textbook authors forreservingtheadjectivecivilized forEuropeancultures.In1927anorganization

ofNative leaderscalled theGrandCouncilFireofAmericanIndianscriticizedtextbooksas“unjust to the lifeofourpeople.”Theywenton toask,“What iscivilization?Itsmarksareanoblereligionandphilosophy,originalarts,stirringmusic, rich story and legend.Wehad these.Thenwewerenot savages, but acivilizedrace.”21

EvenanappreciativetreatmentofNativeculturesreinforcesethnocentrismsolong as it does not challenge the primitive-to-civilized continuum. Thiscontinuum inevitably conflates the meaning of civilized in everydayconversation—“refined or enlightened”—with “having a complex division oflabor,” the only definition that anthropologists defend.Whenwe consider thecontinuumcarefully,itimmediatelybecomesproblematic.WastheThirdReichcivilized,forinstance?Mostanthropologistswouldansweryes.Inwhatwaysdoweprefer the civilizedThirdReich to themoreprimitiveArawak society thatColumbusencountered?Ifwerefuse to label theThirdReichcivilized,arewenot using the term to mean “polite, refined”? If so, we must consider theArawaks civilized, and we must also consider Columbus and his Spaniardsprimitive,ifnotsavage.Ironically,societiescharacterizedbyacomplexdivisionof labor are oftenmarked by inequality and support large specialized armies.Precisely these “civilized” societies are likely to resort to savage violence intheirattemptstoconquer“primitive”societies.22

Thoughtlessuseofthetermscivilizedandcivilizationblocksanyrealinquiryintotheworldvieworthesocialstructureofthe“uncivilized”personorsociety.In 1990 President George H.W. Bush condemned Iraq’s invasion of Kuwaitwith thewords, “The entire civilizedworld is against Iraq”—an irony, in thatIraq’sTigrisandEuphratesvalleysaretheearliestknownseatofcivilization.

The threenew“fromscratch” textbooks inmysampleofnewhistoriesdoasomewhat better job than the legacy texts. They recognize diversity amongNativesocieties.TheytellabouttheLeagueofFiveNationsamongtheIroquoisin the Northeast, potlatches among the Northwestern coastal Indians, cliffdwellings in the Southwest, and caste divisions among the Natchez in theSoutheast.Intheprocessofpresentingtenortwentydifferentculturesinsixoreightpages,however,textbookscanhardlyreachahighlevelofsophistication.So they seize upon the unusual. No matter that the Choctaws were morenumerousandplayedamuchlargerroleinAmericanhistorythantheNatchez—they were also more ordinary. Students will not find among the Native

Americansportrayedintheirhistorytextbooksmany“regularfolks”withwhomtheymightidentify.

After contact with Europeans and Africans, American Indian societieschanged rapidly. Native Americans took into their cultures not only guns,blankets, and kettles, but also new foods, ways of building houses, and ideasfromChristianity.MostAmerican history textbooks emphasize the changes inonly one group, the Plains Indians. The rapid efflorescence of this colorfulcultureafter theSpaniards introducedthehorse to theAmericanWestsuppliesan exhilarating example of syncretism—blending elements of two differentcultures to create something new.23 The transformation in thePlains cultures,however, was only the tip of the cultural-change iceberg. An even moreprofound metamorphosis occurred as Europeans linked Native peoples to thedeveloping world economy. This process continues to affect formerlyindependent cultures to this day. In the early 1970s, for example, Lapps inNorway replaced their sled dogs with snowmobiles, only to find themselvesvulnerabletoAraboilembargoes.24Inthe1990smanyNativeAmericangroupsgained not onlywealth but also new respect from their non-Native neighborswhentheirnewcasinosandhotelsconnectedthemtotheworldeconomy.Thisconnectingseemsinevitable,henceperhapsisneithertobepraisednordecried—but it should not be ignored, because it is crucial to understanding howEuropeanstookoverAmerica.

InAtlanticNorthAmerica,membersofIndiannationspossessedavarietyofsophisticated skills, from the ability to weave watertight baskets to anunderstandingofhowcertainplantscanbeusedtoreducepain.Atfirst,NativeAmericanstradedcorn,beaver,fish,sassafras,andothergoodswiththeFrench,Dutch,andEnglish,inreturnforaxes,blankets,cloth,beads,andkettles.Soon,however,EuropeanspersuadedNativestospecializeinthefurandslavetrades.NativeAmericanswerebetterhuntersandtrappersthanEuropeans,andwiththegunstheEuropeanssoldthem,theybecamebetterstill.OtherNativeskillsbegantoatrophy.Whyspendhoursmakingawatertightbasketwheninone-tenththetimeyoucouldtrapenoughbeaverstotradeforakettle?Evenagriculture,whichtheNativeAmericanshadshowntotheEuropeans,declined,becauseitbecameeasiertotradeforfoodthantogrowit.Everyoneactedinrationalself-interestinjoining such a system—that is, Native Americans were not mere victims—becauseeveryone’sstandardoflivingimproved,atleastintheory.

Someof the rapidchanges ineastern Indian societies exemplify syncretism.When the Iroquois combined European guns and Native American tactics tosmashtheHurons, theycontrolledtheirowncultureandchosewhichelementsof European culture to incorporate,which tomodify,which to ignore.NativeAmericanslearnedhowtorepairguns,castbullets,buildstrongerforts,andfightto annihilate.25 NativeAmericans also becamewell known as linguists, oftenspeakingtwoEuropeanlanguages(French,English,Dutch,Russian,orSpanish)andat least twoAmericanIndian languages.EnglishcolonistssometimesusedNatives as interpreterswhendealingwith theSpanishorFrench,not justwithotherNativeAmericannations.

Thesedevelopmentswerenotallmattersofhappyeconomicsandvoluntarysyncretic cultural transformation, however. Natives were operating under amilitary and cultural threat, and they knew it. They quickly deduced thatEuropeangunsweremoreefficientthantheirbowsandarrows.Europeanssoonrealized that tradegoods couldbeused towin andmaintainpolitical allianceswithAmericanIndiannations.Todealwith thenewthreatandbecausewhites“demanded institutions reflective of their own with which to relate,” manyNative groups strengthened their tribal governments.26 Chiefs acquired powerthey had never had before. These governments often ruled unprecedentedlybroad areas, because the heightened warfare and the plagues had wiped outsmaller tribes or caused them tomergewith larger ones for protection. Largenationsbecameethnicmeltingpots,takinginwhitesandblacksaswellasotherIndians. New confederations and nations developed, such as the Creeks,Seminoles, andLumbees.27 The tribes also becamemoremale-dominated, inimitationofEuropeansorbecauseof theexpanded importanceofwarskills intheircultures.28

Tribes thatwere closest to theEuropeans got guns first, guns that could betrainedoninteriorpeopleswhohadnotyetacquiredany.Suddenlysomenationshadagreatmilitaryadvantageoverothers.TheresultwasanescalationofIndianwarfare. Native nations had engaged in conflict before Europeans came, ofcourse.Tribesrarelyfoughttothefinish,however.Sometribesdidnotwanttotakeoverthelandsbelongingtoothernations,partlybecauseeachhaditsownsacredsites.Foranationtoexterminateitsneighborswasdifficultanyway,sinceallenjoyedroughlythesamelevelofmilitarytechnology.Nowallthischanged.European powers deliberately increased the level of warfare by playing oneNativenationoffanother.TheSpanish,forexample,usedadivide-and-conquer

strategytodefeattheAztecsinMexico.InScotlandandIreland,theEnglishhadplayedtribesagainstoneanothertoextendBritishrule.NowtheydidthesameinNorthAmerica.29

LikeAfricanslaves,Indianslavesescapedwhentheycould.ThisnoticecomesfromtheBostonWeeklyNews-LetterforOctober4,1739.

FormanytribesthemotivefortheincreasedcombatwastheenslavementofotherNatives to sell to the Europeans formore guns and kettles.As northerntribes specialized in fur, certain southern tribes specialized in people. SomeNativeAmericanshadenslavedeachotherlongbeforeEuropeansarrived.NowEuropeans vastly expanded Indian slavery.30 I had expected to find in ourtextbookstheclichéthatNativeAmericansdidnotmakegoodslaves,butonlytwobooks,Triumphof theAmericanNation andTheAmericanTradition, sayeventhat.AmericanHistoryburiesasentence,“AfewIndianswereenslaved,”initsdiscussionoftheAfricanslavetrade.Otherwise,thetextbooksaresilentonthesubjectoftheNativeAmericanslavetradeinwhatisnowtheUnitedStates—except for one surprising standout. The American Pageant contains aparagraph that tells how the Carolina colonists enlisted the coastal SavannahIndians to bring them slaves from the interior,making “manacled Indians . . .amongtheyoungcolony’smajorexports.”Pageantgoeson to tellhowIndiancaptiveswoundupenslavedintheWestIndiesandNewEngland.31

Europeans’ enslavement of Native Americans has a long history. Ponce deLeonwenttoFloridanotreallytoseekthemythicalfountainofyouth;hismain

businesswastoseekgoldandcaptureslavesforHispaniola.32InNewEngland,IndianslaveryleddirectlytoAfricanslavery:thefirstblacksimportedthere,in1638, were brought from theWest Indies in exchange for Native AmericansfromConnecticut.33OntheeveoftheNewYorkCityslaverebellionof1712,inwhichNativeandAfricanslavesunited,aboutoneresidentinfourwasenslavedandoneslaveinfourwasAmericanIndian.A1730censusofSouthKingston,RhodeIsland,showed935whites,333Africanslaves,and223NativeAmericanslaves.34

As Pageant (alone) implies, the center of Native American slavery, likeAfricanAmericanslavery,wasSouthCarolina.Itspopulationin1708included3,960freewhites,4,100Africanslaves,1,400Indianslaves,and120indenturedservants, presumably white. These numbers do not reflect the magnitude ofNativeslavery,however,becausetheyomittheexporttrade.FromCarolina,asfrom New England, colonists sent enslaved American Indians (who mightescape) to theWest Indies (where they could never escape), in exchange forenslavedAfricans.CharlestonshippedmorethantenthousandNativesinchainsto theWest Indies inoneyear.35 Fartherwest, somanyPawnee IndiansweresoldtowhitesthatPawneebecamethenameappliedintheplainstoallslaves,whether theywere of Indian orAfrican origin.36 On theWest Coast, PiersonReading, a manager of John Sutter’s huge grant of Indian land in centralCalifornia,extolledtheeasylifeheledin1844:“TheIndiansofCaliforniamakeas obedient and humble slaves as the Negro in the south.” In the Southwest,whitesenslavedNavajosandApachesrightuptothemiddleoftheCivilWar.37

Intensifiedwarfareand theslave trade renderedstablesettlementsno longersafe, helping to de-agriculturizeNativeAmericans. To avoid being targets forcapture, American Indians abandoned their cornfields and their villages andbegantoliveinsmallersettlementsfromwhichtheycouldmoreeasilyescapetothewoods.Ultimately, they had to tradewith Europeans even for food.38 AsEuropeanslearnedfromNativeswhattogrowandhowtogrowit,theybecameless dependent upon Indians and Indian technology, while American Indiansbecame more dependent upon Europeans and European technology.39 Thus,whatworkedfortheNativeAmericansintheshortrunworkedagainsttheminthelong.Inthelongrun,itwasIndianswhowereenslaved,Indianswhodied,Indian technology thatwas lost, Indiancultures that fellapart.By the time thepitifulremnantoftheMassachusettribeconvertedtoChristianityandjoinedthe

Puritans’“prayingIndiantowns,”theydidsoinresponsetoaninvadingculturethattoldthemtheirreligionwaswrongandChristianitywasright.Thisprocessexemplifies what anthropologists call cultural imperialism. Even the proudPlains Indians, whose syncretic culture combined horses and guns from theSpanish with Native art, religion, and hunting styles, showed the effects ofcultural imperialism:theSiouxwordforwhiteman,wasichu,means“onewhohaseverythinggood.”40

The textbook Life and Liberty is distinguished by its graphic presentation ofchange in Native societies. It confronts students with this provocative pair ofillustrations and asks, “Which shows Indian life beforeEuropeans arrived andwhichshowsIndianlifeafter?Whatevidencetellsyouthedate?”ThusLifeandLiberty helps students understand that Europeans did not “civilize” or “settle”“roaming”Indians,buthadtheoppositeimpact.

To be anthropologically literate about culture contact, students should befamiliar with the terms syncretism and cultural imperialism, or at least theconceptstheydenote.NoneofthetextbooksIstudiedmentionseitherterm,andmostofthemtelllittleabouttheprocessofculturalchange,againexceptforthePlains Indianhorse culture,which, as a consequence, comes across as unique.Even thebestof thenew textbooksare shortonanalysis.Theydon’t treat thecrucial importance of incorporation into the global economy, which helps to

explainwhysometimesEuropeanstradedandcoexistedwithNativesandothertimesmerely attacked them. Nor do they tell how contact worked to de-skillNativeAmericans.

Just as American societies changed when they encountered whites, soEuropean societies changed when they encountered Natives. Textbookscompletely miss this side of the mutual accommodation and acculturationprocess.41 Instead, their view of white-Indian relations is dominated by thearchetypeofthefrontierline.Textbookspresenttheprocessasamovinglineofwhite (and black) settlement—American Indians on one side, whites (andblacks)ontheother.PocahontasandSquantoaside,theNativesandEuropeansdon’tmeetmuch in textbook history, except aswhites remove Indians fartherwest.Inreality,whitesandNativeAmericansinwhatisnowtheUnitedStatesworked together, sometimes lived together, and quarreledwith each other for325 years, from the first permanent Spanish settlement in 1565 to the end ofSiouxandApacheautonomyaround1890.

The term frontier hardlydoes justice to this process, for it implies a lineorboundary. Contact, not separation, was the rule. Frontier also locates theobserver somewhere in the urbanEast, fromwhich the frontier is “out there.”Textbookauthorsseemnottohaveencounteredthetrickquestion,“Whichcamefirst, civilization or the wilderness?” The answer is civilization, for only the“civilized”mindcoulddefinetheworldofNativefarmers,fishers,andgatherersand hunters, coexisting with forests, crops, and animals, as a “wilderness.”CallingtheareabeyondsecureEuropeancontrolfrontierorwildernessmakesitsubtlyalien.Suchaviewpoint is intrinsicallyEurocentricandmarginalizes theactionsofnonurbanpeople,bothNativeandnon-Native.42

The band of interaction was amazingly multicultural. In 1635 “sixteendifferent languages could be heard among the settlers in New Amsterdam,”languagesfromNorthAmerica,Africa,andEurope.43In1794,whenthezoneofcontact had reached the eastern Midwest, a single northern Ohio town, “theGlaize,”wasmadeupofhundredsofShawnee,Miami,andDelawareIndians;British and French traders and artisans; several Nanticokes, Cherokees, andIroquois;afewAfricanAmericanandwhiteAmericancaptives;andwhiteswhohad married into or been adopted by Indian families. The Glaize was trulymulticultural in its holidays, observing Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, thebirthday of the British queen, and American Indian celebrations.44 In 1835,

whenthecontactareawasneartheWestCoast,JohnSutter,withpermissionofthe Mexican authorities, recruited Native Americans to raise his wheat crop;operateadistillery,ahatfactory,andablanketcompany;andbuildafort(nowSacramento). Procuring uniforms from Russian traders and officers fromEurope, Sutter organized a two-hundred-man Indian army, clothed in tsaristuniformsandcommandedinGerman!45

Our history textbooks still obliterate the interracial, multicultural nature offrontierlife.BoorstinandKelleytellus,“AfocusofcommunitylifewasthefortbuiltbyJohnSutter,”buttheynevermentionthatthe“community”waslargelyAmerican Indians. American History devotes almost a page to Sutter’s Fortwithouteverhinting thatNativeAmericanswereanythingother thanenemies:“Gradually he built a fortified town,whichhe calledSutter’sFort. The entireplacewassurroundedbyathickwall18feethigh(about6meters)toppedwithcannon forprotection against unfriendly Indians.”No readerwould infer fromthataccountthatfriendlyIndiansbuiltthefort.

HistorianGaryNashtellsusthatinterculturationtookplacefromthestartinVirginia, “facilitatedby the fact that some Indians livedamong theEnglishasdaylaborers,whileanumberofsettlersfledtoIndianvillagesratherthanenduretherigorsoflifeamongtheautocraticEnglish.”46Indeed,manywhiteandblacknewcomers chose to live anAmerican Indian lifestyle. In hisLetters from anAmericanFarmer,MichelGuillaumeJeandeCrévecoeurwrote,“TheremustbeintheIndians’socialbondsomethingsingularlycaptivating,andfarsuperiortobeboastedofamongus;forthousandsofEuropeansareIndians,andwehavenoexamples of even one of those Aborigines having from choice becomeEuropeans.” 47 Crévecoeur overstated his case: as we know from Squanto’sexample, some Natives chose to live among whites from the beginning. Themigrationwasmostlytheotherway,however.AsBenjaminFranklinputit,“NoEuropean who has tasted Savage Life can afterwards bear to live in oursocieties.”48

Europeanswerealways trying tostop theoutflow.HernandodeSotohad topostguardstokeephismenandwomenfromdefectingtoNativesocieties.ThePilgrimssofearedIndianizationthattheymadeitacrimeformentowearlonghair. “People who did run away to the Indians might expect very extremepunishments,evenuptothedeathpenalty,”KarenKuppermantellsus,ifcaughtbywhites.49Nonetheless,rightuptotheendofindependentNativenationhood

in 1890,whites continued to defect, andwhiteswho lived an Indian lifestyle,suchasDanielBoone,becameculturalheroesinwhitesociety.

Communist Eastern Europe erected an Iron Curtain to stop its outflow butcouldneverexplainwhy, ifcommunist societieswere themostprogressiveonearth, they had to prevent people from defecting. American colonialembarrassment similarly went straight to the heart of their ideology, also anideologyofprogress.Textbooks inEasternEuropeand theUnitedStateshavehandledtheprobleminthesameway:byomittingthefacts.NotoneAmericanhistory textbook mentions the attraction of Native societies to EuropeanAmericansandAfricanAmericans.

African Americans frequently fled to American Indian societies to escapebondage.What did whites find so alluring? According to Benjamin Franklin,“AlltheirgovernmentisbyCounseloftheSages.ThereisnoForce;therearenoPrisons, no officers to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment.” Probablyforemost, the lack of hierarchy in the Native societies in the eastern UnitedStates attracted the admiration of European observers.50 Frontiersmen weretaken with the extent to which Native Americans enjoyed freedom asindividuals.Womenwerealsoaccordedmorestatusandpower inmostNativesocietiesthaninwhitesocietiesofthetime,whichwhitewomennotedwithenvyincaptivitynarratives.Althoughleadershipwassubstantiallyhereditaryinsomenations, most American Indian societies north of Mexico were much moredemocratic than Spain, France, or even England in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries. “There is not aMan in theMinistryof theFiveNations,who has gain’d his Office, otherwise than by Merit,” waxed Lt. Gov.CadwalladerColdenofNewYorkin1727.“TheirAuthorityisonlytheEsteemofthePeople,andceasestheMomentthatEsteemislost.”ColdenappliedtotheIroquois terms redolent of “the natural rights of mankind”: “Here we see thenaturalOriginofallPowerandAuthorityamongafreePeople.”51

Indeed, Native American ideas are partly responsible for our democraticinstitutions.WehaveseenhowNative ideasof liberty, fraternity,andequalityfound their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as ThomasMore,Locke,Montaigne,Montesquieu,andRousseau.TheseEuropeanthinkerstheninfluencedAmericanssuchasFranklin,Jefferson,andMadison.52Inrecentyears historians have debated whether American Indian ideas may also haveinfluencedourdemocracymoredirectly.Through150yearsofcolonialcontact,

the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how togovernalargedomaindemocratically.ThetermsusedbyLt.Gov.ColdenfindanechoinourDeclarationofIndependencefiftyyearslater.

AfterCol.HenryBouquetdefeatedtheOhioIndiansatBushyRunin1763,hedemanded the release of all white captives. Most of them, especially thechildren,hadtobe“boundhandandfoot”andforciblyreturnedtowhitesociety.Meanwhile, the Native prisoners “went back to their defeated relations withgreat signs of joy,” in the words of the anthropologist Frederick Turner (inBeyond Geography, 245). Turner rightly calls these scenes “infamous andembarrassing.”

In the 1740s the Iroquois wearied of dealing with several often bickering

English colonies and suggested that the colonies form a union similar to theleague. In 1754 Benjamin Franklin, who had spent much time among theIroquoisobservingtheirdeliberations,pleadedwithcolonialleaderstoconsiderhisAlbanyPlanofUnion:“Itwouldbeastrangethingifsixnationsofignorantsavagesshouldbecapableofformingaschemeforsuchaunionandbeabletoexecuteit insuchamannerasthatithassubsistedagesandappearsinsoluble;and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen Englishcolonies.”53

The colonies rejected the plan. But it was a forerunner of the Articles ofConfederation and the Constitution. Both the Continental Congress and theConstitutional Convention referred openly to Iroquois ideas and imagery. In1775Congress formulated a speech to the Iroquois, signed by JohnHancock,that quoted Iroquois advice from 1744. “The SixNations are awise people,”Congresswrote,“letusharkentotheircouncilandteachourchildrentofollowit.”54

Asa symbolof thenewUnitedStates,Americans chose the eagle clutchingabundleofarrows.TheyknewthatboththeeagleandthearrowsweresymbolsoftheIroquoisLeague.Althoughonearrowiseasilybroken,noonecanbreaksix(orthirteen)atonce.

John Mohawk has argued that American Indians are directly or indirectlyresponsible for the public-meeting tradition, free speech, democracy, and “allthose things which got attached to the Bill of Rights.” Without the Nativeexample, “do you really believe that all those ideas would have found birthamongapeoplewhohadspentamillenniumbutcheringotherpeoplebecauseofintoleranceofquestionsof religion?”55Mohawkmayhaveoverstated thecasefor Native democracy, since heredity played a major role in officeholding inmanyAmericanIndiansocieties.Hiscaseisstrengthened,however,bythefactthatwhereverEuropeanswentintheAmericas,theyprojectedmonarchs(“KingPhilip”) or other undemocratic leaders ontoNative societies. To some degree,this projectingwas done out of European self-interest, so they could claim tohavepurchasedtriballandasaresultofdealingwithonepersonorfaction.Thepractice alsobetrayedhabitualEuropean thought:Europeanscouldnotbelievethatnationsdidnothavesuchrulers,sincethatwastheonlyformofgovernmenttheyknew.

For a hundred years after our Revolution, Americans credited NativeAmericans as a source of their democratic institutions. Revolutionary-eracartoonists used images ofAmerican Indians to represent the colonies againstBritain.Virginia’spatriotriflecompaniesworeIndianclothesandmoccasinsastheyfoughttheredcoats.Whencoloniststookactiontoopposeunjustauthority,as in theBostonTeaPartyor theantirentprotestsagainstDutchplantations inthe Hudson River valley during the 1840s, they chose to dress as AmericanIndians,nottoblameIndiansforthedemonstrationsbuttoappropriateasymbolidentifiedwithliberty.56

Ofcourse,DutchtraditionsinfluencedPlymouthaswellasNewYork.SodidEnglish common law and theMagnaCarta.Americandemocracy seems to beanother example of syncretism, combining ideas from Europe and NativeAmerica.ThedegreeofNativeinfluenceishardtospecify,sincethatinfluencecame through several sources.Textbooksmight present it as a soft hypothesisrather than hard fact. But they should not leave it out. In all the textbooks Isurveyed, discussion of any intellectual influence of Native Americans onEuropeanAmericanswas limited toa singlecaption inonebook,DiscoveringAmerican History, beneath a wampum belt paired with Benjamin Franklin’sfamouscartoonofadivided,hencedyingsnake.“Franklin’sAlbanyPlanmighthavebeen inspiredby the IroquoisLeague” is thecaption.“Thewampumbeltexpresses the unity of tribes achieved through the League. Compare it with

Franklin’scartoon.”Theotherbooksaresilent.

But, then, textbooks leave out most contributions of Native Americans toAmericanculture.Our regional cuisines—thedishes thatmakeAmerican fooddistinctive—often combine Indian with European and African elements.Examples range fromNewEnglandporkandbeans toNewOrleansgumbo toTexas chili.57Mutual acculturation betweenNative andAfricanAmericans—owed to shared experience in slavery as well as escapes by blacks to Nativecommunities—accounts for soul food being part Indian, from corn bread andgritstogreensandhushpuppies.58Nativeplacenamesdotourlandscape,fromOkefenokeetoAlaska.Nativefarmingmethodswerenot“primitive.”Farmersinsome tribesdrew twoor three timesasmuchnourishment from thesoilaswedo.59Placenames, too,showintellectual interchange.WhiteshadtobeaskingIndians, “Where am I?” “What is this place called?” “What is that animal?”“Whatisthenameofthatmountain?”

Although textbooks “appreciate” Native cultures, the possibility of realinterculturation,especiallyinmattersoftheintellect,isforeigntothem.Thisisashame, forauthors thereby ignoremuchofwhathasmadeAmericadistinctivefrom Europe. In a travel narrative, Peter Kalm wrote in 1750, “The French,English,Germans,Dutch,andotherEuropeans,whohavelivedforseveralyearsin distant provinces, near and among the Indians, grow so like them in theirbehavior and thought that they can only be distinguished by the difference oftheir color.”60 In the famous essay, “The Frontier in American History,”FrederickJacksonTurnertoldhowthefrontiermasterstheEuropean,“stripsoffthegarmentsofcivilization,”andrequireshimtobeanIndianinthoughtaswellasdress.“Before longhehasgone toplantingIndiancornandplowingwithasharpstick.”Graduallyhebuildssomethingnew,“buttheoutcomeisnottheoldEurope.”Itissyncretic;itisAmerican.61

Acknowledginghowaboriginalweareculturally—howtheUnitedStatesandEurope, too, have been influenced by Native American as well as Europeanideas—wouldrequiresignificanttextbookrewriting.IfwerecognizedAmericanIndiansasimportantintellectualantecedentsofourpoliticalstructure,wewouldhavetoacknowledgethatacculturationhasbeenatwo-waystreet,andwemighthave to reassess theassumptionofprimitive Indianculture that legitimizes theentireconquest.62In1970theIndianHistorianPressproducedacritiqueofourhistories,TextbooksandtheAmericanIndian.Oneofthepress’syardsticksfor

evaluating bookswas the question, “Does the textbook describe the religions,philosophies, and contributions to thought of the American Indian?” 63Unfortunately,theanswermuststillbeno.

Inthenineteenthcentury,AmericansknewofNativeAmericancontributionstomedicine.SixtypercentofallmedicinespatentedinthecenturyweredistributedbearingIndianimages,includingKickapooIndianCoughCure,KickapooIndianSagwa, and Kickapoo Indian Oil. In this century, America has repressed theimageofIndianashealer.

Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole. TheAmerican Way describes Native American religion in these words: “TheseNativeAmericans[intheSoutheast]believedthatnaturewasfilledwithspirits.Each formof life, such as plants and animals, had a spirit.Earth and air heldspirits too.Peoplewereneveralone.Theyshared their liveswith thespiritsofnature.”Way is trying to show respect for Native American religion, but itdoesn’twork.Statedflatlylikethis,thebeliefsseemlikemake-believe,notthe

sophisticated theology of a higher civilization. Let us try a similarly succinctsummary of the beliefs ofmanyChristians today: “TheseAmericans believedthatonegreatmalegodruledtheworld.Sometimestheydividedhimintothreeparts,whichtheycalledfather,son,andholyghost.Theyatecrackersandwineorgrape juice,believing that theywereeating theson’sbodyanddrinkinghisblood. If they believed strongly enough, theywould live on forever after theydied.”

TextbooksneverdescribeChristianity thisway.It’soffensive.Believerswouldimmediatelyarguethatsuchadepictionfailstoconveythesymbolicmeaningorthespiritualsatisfactionofcommunion.

Textbooks could present American Indian religions from a perspective thattakes them seriously as attractive and persuasive belief systems.64 TheanthropologistFrederickTurnerhaspointedout thatwhenwhitesremarkuponthe fact that Indians perceive a spirit in every animal or rock, they aresimultaneouslyadmittingtheirownlossofadeepspiritualrelationshipwiththeearth. Native Americans are “part of the total living universe,” wrote Turner;“spiritualhealthistobehadonlybyacceptingthisconditionandbyattemptingtoliveinaccordancewithit.”TurnercontendsthatthislifeviewishealthierthanEuropean alternatives: “Ours is a shockingly dead view of creation. Weourselves are the only things in the universe to which we grant an authenticvitality,andbecauseof thiswearenotfullyalive.”65Thus,TurnershowsthattakingNativeAmerican religions seriouslymight require reexaminationof theJudeo-Christiantradition.Notextbookwouldsuggestsuchacontroversialidea.

Similarly, textbooksgivereadersnoclueastowhat thezoneofcontactwaslike from theNative side.They emphasizeNativeAmericans such asSquantoand Pocahontas, who sided with the invaders. And they invert the terms,picturing white aggressors as “settlers” and often showing Native settlers asaggressors. “The United States Department of Interior had tried to give eachtribebothlandandmoney,”saysTheAmericanWay,describingtheU.S.policyof forcing tribes to cedemost of their land and retreat to reservations.Whiteswere baffled by Native ingratitude at being “offered” this land,Way claims:“WhiteAmericanscouldnotunderstandtheIndians.Tothem,owninglandwasadreamcometrue.”Inreality,whitesofthetimewerehardlybaffled.EvenGen.PhilipSheridan—whoisnotoriousforhavingsaid,“TheonlygoodIndian isa

dead Indian”—understood. “We took away their country and their means ofsupport,and itwasfor thisandagainst this theymadewar,”hewrote.“Couldanyoneexpectless?”66Thetextbookshaveturnedhistoryupsidedown.

Let us try a right-side-up view. “After King Philip’s War, there wascontinuousconflictattheedgeofNewEngland.InVermontthesettlersworriedaboutsavagesscalpingthem.”Thisdescriptionisaccurate,providedthereaderunderstandsthatthesettlerswereNativeAmerican,thescalperswhite.Eventhebest of our American history books fail to show the climate of white actionswithinwhichNativeAmericansontheborderofwhitecontrolhadtolive.Itwassobad,andNativeshadsolittlerecourse, that theCatawbasinNorthCarolina“fled in every direction” in 1786 when a solitary white man rode into theirvillageunannounced.AndtheCatawbaswereafriendlytribe!67

Fromtheoppositecoast,here isastorythatmighthelpmakesuchdispersalunderstandable:“AnoldwhitesettlertoldhissonwhowaswritingaboutlifeontheOregonfrontieraboutanincidentherecalledfromthecowboysandIndiansdays.SomecowboyscameuponIndianfamilieswithouttheirmenpresent.Thecowboys gave pursuit, planning to rape the squaws, as was the custom. Onewoman,however,pushedsandintohervaginatothwartherpursuers.”68Theactof resistance iswhatmade the incidentmemorable.Otherwise, itwas entirelyordinary. Such ordinariness is what our textbooks leave out. They do notchallengeourarchetypalLauraIngallsWilderpictureofpeacefulwhitesettlerssufferingoccasionalattacksbybrutalIndians.Iftheydid,thefactthatsomanytribes resorted to war, even after 1815 when resistance was clearly doomed,wouldbecomeunderstandable.

IndianMassacreatWilkes-Barreshowsamotifcommoninnineteenth-centurylithographs:Indiansinvadingthesanctityofthewhitesettlers’homes.Actually,whiteswereinvadingIndianlandsandoftenIndianhomes,butpicturessuchasthis,notthereality,remainthearchetype.

Our history is full ofwarswithNativeAmerican nations. “For almost twohundredyears,”notesDavidHorowitz,“almostcontinuouswarfareragedontheAmericancontinent,itsconflictmorethreateningthananythenationwastofaceagain.” American Indian warfare absorbed 80 percent of the entire federalbudget duringGeorgeWashington’s administration and dogged his successorsfor a century as a major issue and expense. Yet most of my original twelvetextbooksbarelymentionedthetopic.TheAmericanPageantstilloffersatableof “Total Costs and Number of Battle Deaths of Major U.S. Wars” thatcompletely omits Indian wars. Pageant includes the Spanish-American War,accordingitatollof385battledeaths,butleavesouttheOhioWarof1790-95,which cost 630 dead andmissingU.S. troops in a single battle, the Battle ofWabashRiver.69

Atleasttoday’stextbooksnolongerblametheNativesforalltheviolence,as

didmosttextbookswrittenbeforethecivilrightsmovement.Historiansusedtosay,“Civilizedwaristhekindwefightagainstthem,whereassavagewaristheatrocious kind that they fight against us.”70 Not one of the eighteen historybooksIexaminedportraysNativesassavages.Theauthorsofthenewerbooksare careful to admit brutality on both sides. Some mention the massacres ofdefenselessNativeAmericansatSandCreekandWoundedKnee.Likemuchofour“knowledge”aboutNativeAmericans, the“savage”stereotypederivednotonly from old textbooks but also from our popular culture—particularly fromWesternmoviesandnovels,suchasthepopular“WagonsWest”seriesbyDanaFuller Ross. These paperbacks, which have sold hundreds of thousands ofcopies, claim boldly, “The general outlines of history have been faithfullyfollowed.” Titled with state names, the novels’ covers warn that “maraudingIndianbandsarespreadingmurderandmayhemamongterror-strickensettlers.”71 In theHollywoodWest, wagon trainswere invariably encircled by savageIndianhordes.NativeAmericansroderoundandroundthe“settlers,”whileJohnWayne picked them off from behind wagon wheels and boxes. Hollywoodborrowed the haplessly circling Indians from Buffalo Bill Cody’sWildWestShow,wheretheyhadtorideinacircle,presentingabroadsidetarget,becausetheywereinacircustent!

IntherealWest,among250,000whitesandblackswhojourneyedacrossthePlainsbetween1840and1860,only362pioneers(and426NativeAmericans)died in all the recordedbattles between the twogroups.Muchmore common,American Indians gave the new settlers directions, showed themwater holes,sold them food and horses, bought cloth and guns, and served as guides andinterpreters.72 These activities are rarely depicted in movies, novels, or ourtextbooks.Inhalingthemisinformationofthepopularculture,studentshavenoideathatNativesconsideredEuropeanwarfarefarmoresavagethantheirown.

MostnewtextbooksdotellaboutNewEngland’sfirstIndianwar,thePequotWar of 1636-37, which provides a case study of the intensified warfareEuropeans brought to America. Allied with the Narragansetts, traditionalenemiesofthePequots,thecolonistsattackedatdawn.SurroundingthePequotvillage, whose inhabitants were mostly women, children, and old men, theEnglish set it on fire and shot those who tried to escape the flames.WilliamBradforddescribedthescene:“Itwasafearfulsighttoseethemthusfryinginthefireandthestreamsofbloodquenchingthesame,andhorriblewasthestinkandscentthereof;butthevictoryseemedasweetsacrifice,andtheygavepraise

thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them.”73 The slaughtershockedtheNarragansetts,whohadwantedmerelytosubjugatethePequots,notexterminate them. TheNarragansetts reproached the English for their style ofwarfare,crying,“Itisnaught,itisnaught,becauseitistoofurious,andslaystoomanymen.”Inturn,Capt.JohnUnderhillscoffed,sayingthattheNarragansettstyleoffightingwas“moreforpastime,thantoconquerandsubdueenemies.”Underhill’sanalysisof the roleofwarfare inNarragansett societywascorrect,andmightaccuratelybeapplied toother tribesaswell.Through thecenturies,whites frequently accused theirNative allies of not fighting hard enough.ThePuritanstriedtoerasethePequotsevenfrommemory,passingalawmakingitacrime to say the word Pequot. Bradford concluded proudly, “The rest arescattered, and the Indians in all quarters are so terrified that they are afraid togive themsanctuary.”74Noneof thesequotations enteredourolder textbooks,whichdevotedjustoneandaquartersentencestothiswaronaverage.WhilenonewbookquotesBradford—theydon’toftenquoteanyone!—theydo tellhowtheEnglishcolonistsdestroyed thePequots.Perhapsasa result, futurecollegestudents,unlikemine,willnolongercomeupwithsavagewhenaskedforfiveadjectivesthatapplytoIndians.

Today’stextbooksalsogiveconsiderableattentiontoperhapsthemostviolentIndianwarofall,KingPhilip’sWar.Thiswarbeganin1675,whenwhiteNewEnglandersexecutedthreeWampanoagIndiansandtheWampanoagsattacked.Onereasonfortheendofpeacewasthatthefurtrade,whichhadlinkedNativesandEuropeanseconomically,waswindingdowninMassachusetts.75PathwaystothePresentpresentsstudentswiththeNativesideofthisconflictbyquotingaNativeleader,Miantonomo:“Ourfathershadplentyofdeerandskins,ourplainswerefullofdeer,asalsoourwoods,andof turkeys,andourcovesfulloffishandfowl.ButtheseEnglishhavinggottenourland,theywithscythescutdownthegrass,andwithaxesfell the trees; theircowsandhorseseat thegrass,andtheirhogsspoilourclambanks,andweshallbestarved.”TheAmericansalsoquotesMiantonomo,andseveralotherrecentbooksdoadecent jobexplainingKingPhilip’sWar,whichisimportant,becausethiswasnominorwar.“Ofsome90Puritan towns,52hadbeenattackedand12destroyed,”according toNash.“At the end of the war several thousand English and perhaps twice as manyIndians lay dead.”76 King Philip’sWar cost more American lives in combat,Anglo and Native, in absolute terms than the French and Indian War, theRevolution,theWarof1812,theMexicanWar,ortheSpanish-AmericanWar.

Inproportiontopopulation,casualtiesweregreaterthaninanyotherAmericanwar.77

WarwithAmericanIndiansstartedinNewMexico,in1598,whenresidentsofAcomapueblokilledthirteenSpanishconquistadorswhoweretryingtotakeover their town.78 It spread to the Southeast where, “because of fierce andimplacable Indian resistance, the Spanish were unable to colonize Florida foroverahundredyears.”79Except fora fewminorskirmishes, itceased in1890withthemassacreatWoundedKnee.Ourhistoriescanhardlydescribeeachwar,because there were so many. But precisely because there were so many, tominimizeIndianwarsmisrepresentsourhistory.

Most textbook maps, like that above, show “French Territory,” “BritishTerritory,” “Spanish Territory,” and sometimes “Disputed Territory,” with nomentionofIndiansatall.Inmapsthat includeIndiannations,suchasthemapopposite from D. W. Meinig, The Shaping of America (New Haven: YaleUniversityPress,1986),1:209, the functionof Indiansasbuffersbetween thecolonialpowersisgraphicallyevident.

WemustalsoadmittheIndian-nessofsomeofourotherwars.From1600to1754 Europe was often at war, including three world wars—the War of theLeagueofAugsburg(1689-97),knownin theUnitedStatesasKingWilliam’s

War; the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-13), known here as QueenAnne’sWar;andtheWaroftheAustrianSuccession(1744-48),knownhereasKing George’sWar. In North America themajor European powers, England,France, and Spain, buffered from each other by Indian land, fought mainlythrough their Indian allies. Native Americans inadvertently provided a gift ofrelativepeacetothecoloniesbyabsorbingtheshockofcombatthemselves.

Another world war, the Seven Years War (1754-63), in the United StatescalledtheFrenchandIndianWar,wasalsofoughtinNorthAmericamostlybyNative Americans on both sides. Native Americans not only fought in theAmerican Revolution but were its first cause, for the Proclamation of 1763,whichplacatedNativeAmericannationsbyforbiddingthecoloniesfrommakinglandgrantsbeyondtheAppalachiancontinentaldivide,enragedmanycolonists.They saw themselves aspaying to support aBritish army that onlyobstructedthem from seizing Indian lands on the western frontier. After hostilities withBritainbrokeout,however,thefledglingUnitedColoniesin1775wereinitiallymore concerned about relationswith Indian nations thanwithEurope, so theysentBenjaminFranklinfirsttotheIroquois,thentoFrance.80NativeAmericansalso played a large role in the War of 1812 and participated as well in theMexicanWarand theCivilWar.81 IneachwarNatives foughtmostlyagainstotherNatives.Ineach, thelargernumberalignedagainst thecolonies, later theUnited States, correctly perceiving that, for geopolitical reasons, opponents oftheUnitedStates offered thembetter chances of being accordedhuman rightsandretainingtheirland.

EvenindescribingtheFrenchandIndianWar,sometextbooksleaveouttheIndians! One of the worst defeats American Indians ever inflicted on whiteforceswastheroutofGeneralBraddockin1755inPennsylvania.Braddockhad1,460men, including eight Indian scouts and a detachment ofVirginiamilitiaunder George Washington. Six hundred to 1,000 Native Americans and 290French soldiers opposed them, but you would never guess any Indians werethere fromTheAmericanTradition: “OnJuly9, as theywereapproaching thefort, the French launched an ambush. Braddock’s force was surrounded anddefeated. The red-coated British soldiers, unaccustomed to fighting in thewilderness [sic], suffered over 900 casualties. Braddock, mortally wounded,murmured as he died, “We shall know better how to deal with them anothertime.”Tradition thus renders Braddock’s last words meaningless, for “them”refersnottotheFrenchbuttoNativeAmericans.

Above is one of many old lithographs that show American Indians attackingBraddock.SometextbookstodaymaketheIndiansinvisible.

Below is the image from The Americans in 2007 titled “The British generalEdwardBraddockmetdefeat anddeathnearFortDuquesne in1755.”NoonecouldinferthatNativeshadanythingtodowithhisdefeatfromthisimage.

In ourRevolution,most of the IroquoisConfederacy sidedwith theBritishandattackedwhiteAmericansinNewYorkandnorthernPennsylvania.In1778the United States suffered a major defeat when several hundred Tories andSenecasrouted400militiaandregularsatFortyFort,Pennsylvania,killing340.After theRevolution, althoughBritaingaveup, itsNativeAmerican allies didnot.OurinsistenceontreatingtheIndiansasifwehaddefeatedthemledtotheOhioWarof1790-95andlatertotheWarof1812.

The never-ending source of dispute was land. To explain this constantconflict,halfofthetextbooksIexamined,includingseveralcurrentones,relyonthe cliché thatNativeAmericans held some premodern understanding of landownership.Whenstudents learn fromAmericanJourney, forexample, that theDutch “bought Manhattan from the Manhates people for a small amount ofbeads and other goods,” presumably they are supposed to smile indulgently.What a bargain! What foolish Indians, not to recognize the potential of theisland! Not one book points out that the Dutch paid the wrong tribe forManhattan. Doubtless the Canarsees, native to Brooklyn, were quite pleasedwiththedealwhich,justfortherecord,probablydidn’tinvolvebeadsatall,butmore than $2,400 worth of metal kettles, steel knives and axes, guns, andblankets,intoday’sdollars.TheWeckquaesgeeks,wholivedonManhattanandreallyownedit,weren’tsohappy.Foryearsafterwardtheywarredsporadicallywith theDutch. Perhaps themost famous street inAmerica,Wall Street, wasnamed for the wall the Dutch built to protect New Amsterdam from the

Weckquaesgeeks, evidence that the Dutch hardly imagined they had boughtManhattanfromitsrealowners.Butourhistorybooksleaveoutthispartofthestory.Theauthorsofonebook,AmericanPageant,mayactuallyknowthattheDutchpaidthewrongtribe.Thewaytheyphraseit,however—theDutchbought“ManhattanIslandfromtheIndians(whodidnotactually‘own’it)forvirtuallyworthlesstrinkets”—againmerelyinvitesreaderstoinferthatNativeAmericansdidnotbelieveinlandownershipandcouldnotbargainintelligently.82

Europeans were forever paying the wrong tribe or paying a small factionwithinamuch largernation.Often theydidn’t really care; theymerely soughtjustification for theft.Such fraudulent transactionsmight evenhaveworked intheir favor, for they frequently set one tribe or faction against another. Thebiggest single purchase from the wrong tribe took place in 1803. All thetextbooks tell how Jefferson “doubled the size of theUnitedStates by buyingLouisianafromFrance.”NotonepointsoutthatitwasnotFrance’slandtosell—itwasIndianland.TheFrenchneverconsultedwiththeNativeownersbeforeselling;mostNativeAmericansneverevenknewofthesale.Indeed,Francedidnot really sell Louisiana for $15million. France merely sold its claim to theterritory. The United States was still paying Native American tribes forLouisianathroughoutthenineteenthcentury.Wewerealsofightingthemforit:theArmyAlmanac listsmore than fifty Indianwars in theLouisianaPurchasefrom 1819 to 1890. To treat France as the seller, as all our textbooks do, isEurocentric.EquallyEurocentricarethemapstextbooksusetoshowtheLewisandClark expedition.Even the newestmaps still blandly label huge expanses“SpanishTerritory,”“BritishTerritory,”and“FrenchTerritory,”makingNativeAmericansinvisibleandimplyingthattheUnitedStatesboughtvacantlandfromthe French.Although theMandans hosted the expedition during thewinter of1804-05 and the Clatsops did so the next winter, even these tribes drop out.ApparentlyLewisandClarkdiditallontheirown.

Some recent textbooks still chide Natives for not understanding that whentheysoldtheirland,theytransferrednotonlytheagriculturalrights,butalsotherightstotheproperty’sgame,fish,andsheerenjoyment.“ToNativeAmericans,nooneownedtheland—itwasthereforeveryonetouse,”inthewordsofTheAmericans. Nonsense! American Indians and Europeans had about the sameviewsof landownership,althoughNativesdidnot think that individualscouldbuy or sell, only whole villages. Authors seem unaware that most land salesbeforethetwentiethcentury,includingsalesamongwhites,transferredprimarily

the rights to farm,mine, and otherwise develop the land, not the right to barpassage across it. Undeveloped private land was considered public andaccessible toall,within limitsofgoodconduct.83Moreover, tribal negotiatorstypicallymadesurethatdeedsandtreatiesspecificallyreservedhunting,fishing,gathering,andtravelingrightstoNativeAmericans.84

Most textbooks do state that conflict over land was the root cause of ourIndianwars.PathwaystothePresent,forexample,beginsitsdiscussionoftheWarof1812bytellinghowTecumsehmetwithGov.WilliamHenryHarrisonof Indiana Territory to complain about whites encroaching upon Indian land.Otherrecent textbookslikewiseemphasizeconflictwiththeIndians,whowereseen as backed by theBritish, as the key cause of this dispute.All along theboundary,fromVermont to theGeorgiaPiedmont,whiteAmericanswanted topushtheboundaryofwhitesettlementeverfartherintoIndiancountry.Thisisasignificant change for the better; earlier textbooks simply repeated the pretextofferedbytheMadisonadministration—Britain’srefusaltoshowproperrespectto American ships and seamen—even though it made no sense. After all,Britain’smaritimelawscausednowaruntilthefrontierstatessentWarHawks— senators and representatives who promised military action to expand theboundariesoftheUnitedStates—toCongressin1810.Whitesalongthefrontierwantedthewar,andalongthefrontiermostofthewarwasfought,beginninginNovember 1811whenHarrison replied to Tecumseh’s complaint by attackingthe Shawnees and allied tribes at theBattle ofTippecanoe. TheUnited StatesfoughtfiveofthesevenmajorlandbattlesoftheWarof1812primarilyagainstNativeAmericans.85

Allbut two textbooksmiss thekey resultof thewar.Someauthorsactuallycitethe“StarSpangledBanner”asthemainoutcome!Othersclaimthatthewarleft “a feeling of pride as a nation” or “helped Americans to win Europeanrespect.”TheAmericanAdventureexcels,pointingout,“TheAmericanIndiansweretheonlyreallosersinthewar.”TriumphoftheAmericanNationexpressesthe same sentiments, but euphemistically: “After 1815 the American peoplebegan the exciting task of occupying the western lands.” All the other booksmissthekeyoutcome:inreturnforourleavingCanadaalone,GreatBritaingaveupitsallianceswithAmericanIndiannationsinwhatwouldbecometheUnitedStates.Withoutwarmateriel andotheraid fromEuropeanallies, future Indianwarsweretransformedfrommajorinternationalconflictstodomesticmopping-upoperations.Thisresultwascentral to thecourseofIndian-U.S.relationsfor

the remainder of the century. Thus Indian wars after 1815, while they costthousandsoflivesonbothsides,wouldneveragainamounttoaseriousthreattothe United States.86 Although Native Americans won many battles insubsequentwars,therewasnevertheslightestdoubtoverwhowouldwinintheend.

Another result of theWar of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. AshistorianBruceJohansenputit,“Acenturyoflearning[fromNativeAmericans]wascomingtoaclose.Acenturyandmoreofforgetting—ofcallinghistoryintoservice to rationalize conquest—was beginning.”87 After 1815 AmericanIndianscouldnolongerplaywhatsociologistscalltheroleofconflictpartner—an importantotherwhomustbe taken intoaccount—soAmericans forgot thatNatives had ever been significant in our history. Even terminology changed:until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to NativeAmericans;after1815itmeantEuropeanAmericans.88

Ironically, several textbooks that omit King Philip’s War and the NativeAmerican role in theWarof1812 focus insteadonsuchminorPlainswarsasGeronimo’s Apache War of 1885-86, which involved maybe forty Apachefighters.89ThePlainswars fit the post-1815 story line of the textbooks, sincetheypittedwhite settlersagainst semi-nomadic Indians.ThePlains IndiansaretheNativeAmericanstextbookslovetomourn:authorscanlamenttheirpassingwhileconsideringitinevitable,henceuntroubling.

The textbooks also fail to show how the continuous Indian wars havereverberated through our culture. Carleton Beals has written that “ouracquiescenceinIndiandispossessionhasmoldedtheAmericancharacter.”90AssoonasNativeswerenolongerconflictpartners,theirimagedeterioratedintheminds of many whites. Kupperman has shown how this process unfolded inVirginiaaftertheIndiandefeatinthe1640s:“ItwastheultimatepowerlessnessoftheIndians,nottheirracialinferiority,whichmadeitpossibletoseethemaspeoplewithoutrights.”91Nativeswhohadbeen“ingenious,”“industrious,”and“quick of apprehension” in 1610 now became “sloathfull and idle, vitious,melancholy,[and]slovenly.”Thisisanotherexampleoftheprocessofcognitivedissonance. Like Christopher Columbus, George Washington changed hisattitudes toward Indians.WashingtonheldpositiveviewsofNativeAmericansearlyinhislife,butafterunleashingattacksuponthemintheRevolutionaryWarand theOhioWar in 1790, hewould come to denounce them as “animals of

prey.”92

ThisprocessofrationalizationbecameunofficialnationalpolicyaftertheWarof1812.In1845WilliamGilmoreSimmswrote,“Ourblindingprejudices . . .havebeenfosteredasnecessarytojustifytherecklessandunsparinghandwithwhich we have smitten [American Indians] in their habitations and expelledthemfromtheircountry.”In1871FrancisA.Walker,CommissionerofIndianAffairs, considered American Indians beneath morality: “When dealing withsavagemen, as with savage beasts, no question of national honor can arise.”Whatever action the United States cared to take “is solely a question ofexpediency.”93 Thus, cognitive dissonance destroyed our national idealism.From 1815 on, instead of spreading democracy, we exported the ideology ofwhite supremacy.Graduallywe soughtAmerican hegemony overMexico, thePhilippines, much of the Caribbean basin, and, indirectly, over other nations.Although European nations professed to be shocked by our actions on thewestern frontier, before long theywere emulating us.Britain exterminated theTasmanian aborigines; Germany pursued total war against the Herrero ofNamibia.Mostwestern nations have yet to face this history. Ironically,AdolfHitler displayed more knowledge of how we treated Native Americans thanAmericanhighschoolerstodaywhorelyontheirtextbooks.Hitleradmiredourconcentration camps for American Indians in the west and according to JohnToland, his biographer, “often praised to his inner circle the efficiency ofAmerica’s extermination—by starvation anduneven combat” as themodel forhisexterminationofJewsandGypsies(Rompeople).94

Weretherealternativestothishistoryofwar?Ofcourse,therewere.Indeed,France, Russia, and Spain all pursued different alternatives in the Americas.SincethealternativestowarremainroadslargelynottakenintheUnitedStates,however,theyaretrickytopicsforhistorians.AsEdwardCarrnoted,“Historyis,byandlarge,arecordofwhatpeopledid,notofwhattheyfailedtodo.”95Ontheotherhand,makingthepresentseeminevitablerobshistoryofallitslifeandmuchofitsmeaning.Historyiscontingentupontheactionsofpeople.“Thedutyof thehistorian,”GordonCraighas remindedus, “is to restore to thepast theoptions it once had.”Craig also pointed out that this is an appropriateway toteachhistoryandtomakeitmemorable.96WhiteAmericanschoseamongrealalternativesandwereoftendividedamongthemselves.Atvariouspointsinourhistory,ouranti-Indianpoliciesmighthavegoneanotherway.Forexample,one

reason the War of 1812 was so unpopular in New England was that NewEnglanderssawitasanakedattemptbyslaveownerstoappropriateIndianland.

Peaceful coexistence of whites and Native Americans presents itself asperhaps the most obvious alternative to war, but was it really possible? Inthinkingabout thisquestion,wemust take carenot to compare a static Indianculture to changing modern culture. We have seen the rapid changes inindependent Native cultures—giving up farming in response to Europeanmilitaryactions,thefloweringofmultilingualism,developmentofmoreformalhierarchies,theentirePlainsIndianculture.Suchchangeswouldnodoubthavecontinued.Thuswearenottalkingaboutbow-and-arrowhunterslivingsidebysidewithcomputerizedurbanites.

WeshouldkeepinmindthatthethousandsofwhiteandblackAmericanswhojoined American Indian societies must have believed that coexistence waspossible.Fromthestart,however,whiteconducthinderedpeacefulcoexistence.A thousand little encroachments eventually made it impossible for AmericanIndianstofarmnearwhites.AroundPlymouth,theIndiansleasedtheirgrazingland but retained their planting grounds. Too late they found that this did notkeep colonists from letting their livestock roam free to ruin the crops.WhenNative Americans protested, they usually found that colonial courts excludedtheir testimony. On the other hand, “the Indian who dared to kill anEnglishman’smarauding animalswas promptly hauled into a hostile court.”97TheprecedentestablishedontheAtlanticcoast—thatAmericanIndianswerenotcitizens of the Europeans’ state and lacked legal rights—prevented peacefulwhite-Indian coexistence throughout the colonies and later the United States.EveninIndianTerritory,supposedlyunderNativecontrol,whetherIndianswerechargedwithoffensesonwhitelandorwhitesonIndianland,trialhadtobeheldinawhitecourtinMissouriorArkansas,milesaway.98

SincemanywhiteshadamaterialinterestindispossessingAmericanIndiansoftheirland,andsinceEuropeanandAfricanpopulationsgreweverlargerwhileplaguescontinuedtoreducetheNativepopulation,plainlytheUnitedStateswasgoing to rule. In this sense war only prolonged the inevitable. Anotheralternativetowarwouldhavebeenanexpresscommitmenttoracialharmony:apredominantly European but nonracist United States that did not differentiateracially between Indians and non-Indians.99 U.S. history provides severalexamples of relatively nonracist enclaves. Sociologists call them triracial

isolatesbecausetheirheritageiswhite,black,andred,asitwere.Forcenturiesthese communities occupied swamps and other undesirable lands, wantingmostlytobeleftalone.TheRevolutionaryWarheroCrispusAttucks,anescapedslaveofWampanoag,European,andAfricanancestry,wasamemberofsuchanenclave. The Lumbee Indians inNorthCarolina comprise the largest of thesegroups.Other triracial isolates include theWampanoags inMassachusetts, theSeminolesinFlorida,andsmallerbandsfromLouisianatoMaine.100

The first English settlement in North America, Roanoke Island in 1585,probably did not die out but was absorbed into the nearby Croatoan Indians,“thereby achieving a harmonious biracial society that always eluded colonialplanters,” in the words of historian J. F. Fausz. Eventually the English andCroatoansmayhavebecomepartoftheLumbees.TheEnglishneverlearnedtheoutcome of the “Lost Colony,” however. Frederick Turner has suggested thattheydidnotwanttothinkaboutthepossibilitythatEnglishsettlershadsurvivedbymergingwithNativeAmericans. Instead,Fausz tellsus, “talesof the ‘LostColony’cametoepitomizethetreacherousnatureofhostileIndiansandservedasthemythopoetic‘bloodyshirt’forjustifyingaggressionsagainstthePowhatanyears later.” Triracial isolates have generally won only contempt from theirwhiteneighbors,which iswhytheyhavechosenrural isolation.Our textbooksisolatethem,too:nonementionsthetermorthepeoples.101

ArelatedpossibilityforNatives,Europeans,andAfricanswasintermarriage.Alliancethroughmarriageisacommonwayfortwosocietiestodealwitheachother, and Indians in theUnitedStates repeatedly suggested such a policy.102Spanish men married Native women in California and New Mexico andconverted them toSpanishways.French fur tradersmarriedNativewomen inCanadaandIllinoisandconverted toNativeways.Not theEnglish.Textbooksmightusefullypassontostudentstheoldcliché—theFrenchpenetratedIndiansocieties, theSpanishacculturated them,andtheEnglishexpelled them—for itoffersalargelyaccuratesummaryofEuropean-Indianrelationships.103InNewEngland and Virginia, English colonists quickly moved to forbid interracialmarriage. 104 Pocahontas stands as the first and almost the last Native to beaccepted into British-American society, which we may therefore call “whitesociety,” through marriage. After her, most interracial couples found greateracceptanceinNativesociety.Theretheirchildrenoftenbecamechiefs,becausetheirbiculturalbackgroundwasanassetinthecomplexworldthetribesnowhad

tonavigate.105InAnglosociety“half-breeds”werenotvaluedbutstigmatized.

AnotheralternativetowarwasthecreationofanAmericanIndianstatewithinthe United States. In 1778, when the Delaware Indians proposed that NativeAmericansbeadmittedtotheunionasaseparatestate,Congressrefusedeventoconsidertheidea.106Inthe1840s,IndianTerritorysoughttherightenjoyedbyother territories to send representatives to Congress, but white Southernersstoppedthem.107TheConfederacywonthebackingofmostNativeAmericansinIndianTerritory,however,bypromisingtoadmittheterritoryasastateiftheSouthwon theCivilWar.After thewarNativeAmericansproposed the samearrangementtotheUnitedStates.AgaintheUnitedStatessaidno,buteventuallyadmittedIndianTerritoryasthewhite-dominatedstateofOklahoma—ironically,thenamemeans[landfor]redpeopleinChoctaw.

Our textbooks pay no attention to any of these possibilities. Instead, theydwell on another road not taken: total one-way acculturation towhite society.The overall story line most American history textbooks tell about AmericanIndiansisthis:WetriedtoEuropeanizethem;theywouldn’torcouldn’tdoit;sowe dispossessed them. While more sympathetic than the account in earliertextbooks,thisaccountfallsintothetrapofrepeatingashistorythepropagandausedbypolicymakersinthenineteenthcenturyasarationaleforremoval—thatNativeAmericansstoodinthewayofprogress.Theonlyrealdifferenceis thetone.BackwhenwhiteAmericanswere doing the dispossessing, justificationswereshrill.TheydenouncedNativeculturesasprimitive,savage,andnomadic.OftenwritersinvokedthehandorblessingsofGod,saidtofavorthosewho“didmore”withtheland.108Nowthatthedispossessingisdone,ourhistoriessince1980 can see more virtue in the conquered cultures. But they still picturedAmericanIndiansastragicallydifferent,unableorunwillingtoacculturate.

When they stress Natives’ alleged unwillingness to acculturate, Americanhistories slip into the story line of the official seal of theMassachusetts BayColony.“ComeOverandHelpUs”iswhitesettlerpropaganda,whichgrewintoanarchetypeofwell-meaningEuropeansandtragicallydifferentIndians.

The trouble is, it wasn’t like that. The problem was not Native failure toacculturate.Inreality,manyEuropeanAmericansdidnotreallywantIndianstoacculturate. Itwasn’t in their interest.At times thiswas obvious, aswhen theMassachusetts legislature in 1789 passed a law prohibiting teaching NativeAmericans how to read and write “under penalty of death.” 109 PresidentThomasJefferson toldadelegationofCherokees in1808,“Letmeentreatyoutherefore,onthelandsnowgiven[sic]youtobegineverymanafarm,lethimencloseit,cultivateit,buildawarmhouseonit,andwhenhediesletitbelongtohis wife and children after him.”110 In reality, the Cherokees already werefarmerswhowerevisitingJeffersonpreciselytoaskthepresidenttoassigntheirlands to them in severalty (as individual farms)and tomake themcitizens.111Jeffersonputthemoff.TheAmericanWayasksstudents,“WhyweretheIndiansmoved further west?” Its teachers’ edition provides the answer: “They weremovedsothesettlerscouldusethelandforgrowingcrops.”Wemightaddthiscatechism: “What were the Indians doing on the land?” “They were growingcrops!”WhenJeffersonspoketotheCherokees,whiteshadbeenburningNativehousesandcornfieldsfor186years,beginninginVirginiain1622.

AcensustakenamongtheCherokeeinGeorgiain1825(reportedinVogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs, 289) showed that theyowned“33gristmills,13 sawmills, 1 powder mill, 69 blacksmith shops, 2 tan yards, 762 looms, 2,486spinningwheels, 172wagons, 2,923 plows, 7,683 horses, 22,531 black cattle,46,732 swine, and 2,566 sheep.” Some Cherokees were wealthy planters,including Joseph Vann, who cultivated three hundred acres, operated a ferry,steamboat,mill,andtavern,andownedthismansion.Itarousedtheenvyofthesheriff and other whites in Murray County, who evicted Vann in 1834 andappropriatedthehouseforthemselves,accordingtoLelaLatchLloyd.

No matter how thoroughly Native Americans acculturated, they could notsucceed in white society. Whites would not let them. “Indians were alwaysregardedasaliens,andwererarelyallowed to livewithinwhitesocietyexcepton its periphery,” according to Nash.112 Native Americans who amassed

property, owned European-style homes, perhaps operated sawmills, merelybecame the first targets of white thugs who coveted their land andimprovements. In time of war the position of assimilated Indians grewparticularly desperate. Consider Pennsylvania. During the French and IndianWartheSusquehannas,livingpeaceablyinwhitetowns,werehatchetedbytheirneighbors, who then collected bounties from authorities who weren’t carefulwhose scalp they were paying for, so long as it was Indian. Through thecenturies and across the country, this pattern recurred. In 1860, for instance,Californiarancherskilled185ofthe800Wiyots,atribealliedwiththewhites,becausetheywereangeredbyothertribes’cattleraids.113

The new textbooks do a splendid job telling how the “Five CivilizedTribes”—Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks, and Seminoles—acculturated successfully, butwere exiled toOklahoma anyway.Nevertheless,authors never let these settled Indians interferewith the traditional story line.Forgetting howwhites forcedNatives to roam, forgetting just who taught thePilgrimstofarminthefirstplace,ourcultureandourtextbooksstillstereotypeNativeAmericansasroamingprimitivehuntingfolk,henceunfortunatevictimsofprogress.AsBoorstinandKelleyputit,“NorthofMexico,mostofthepeoplelived inwandering tribes and led a simple life.NorthAmerican Indiansweremainlyhuntersandgatherersofwildfood.Anexceptionalfew—inArizonaandNewMexico—settledinoneplaceandbecamefarmers.”

Ironically,toNativeeyes,Europeanswerethenomads.AsChiefSeattleputitin1855,“Tous theashesofourancestorsaresacredandtheir restingplace ishallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors andseemingly without regret.” In contrast, Indian “roaming” consisted mainly ofmovingfromsummerhomestowinterhomesandbackagain.114

Onewaytounderstandwhyacculturationcouldn’tworkformostNativesistoimaginethattheUnitedStatesallowedlawlessdiscriminationagainstallpeoplewhoselastnamestartswiththeletterL.Howlongwouldwelast?Thefirstnon-Lpeoplewhowantedourhomesor jobscould forceusout, andwewouldbewithout resources. People around uswould then blame us L people for beingvagrants. That is what happened to Native Americans. In Massachusetts,colonistswereconstantlytemptedtopickquarrelswithIndianfamiliesbecausetheresultwaslikelytobeacquiringtheirland.115InOregon,240yearslater,theprocess continued. Ten thousand whites had moved onto the Nez Percé

reservationby1862,soasenatorfromOregonsuggestedthattheUnitedStatesshouldremovethenation.SenatorWilliamFessendenofMainepointedouttheproblem: “There is no difficulty, I take it, in Oregon in keepingmen off thelands that areownedbywhitemen.Butwhen thepossessorhappens tobe anIndian, the question is changed altogether.”116 Without legal rights,acculturation cannot succeed. Inmuttooyahlatlat, known to whites as ChiefJoseph,saidthiseloquently:“Weaskthatthesamelawshallworkalikeonallmen.IfanIndianbreaksthelaw,punishhimbythelaw.Ifawhitemanbreaksthelaw,punishhimalso.Letmebeafreeman—freetotravel,freetostop,freeto work, free to trade where I choose, free to talk and think and act formyself.”117Itwasnottobe.MostcourtssimplyrefusedtoheartestimonyfromNative Americans against whites. After noting how non-Indians could risethroughtheranksofNativesocieties,anthropologistPeterFarbsummedupthepossibilities inwhite society: “At almost no time in the history of theUnitedStates, though, were the Indians afforded similar opportunities for voluntaryassimilation.”118TheacculturatedNativesimplystoodoutasatarget.

The authors of history textbooks occasionally announce their intentions inwriting. In the teachers’ edition of The American Way, for instance, NancyBauerstates:“ItisthegoalofthisbookthatitsreaderswillunderstandAmerica,be proud of its strengths, be pleased in its determination to improve, andwelcometheopportunitytojoinasactivecitizensinTheAmericanWay.”ThattheauthorcouldnotpossiblypayreasonableattentiontoIndianhistoryfollowslogically.Itisunderstandablethattextbookauthorsmightwritehistoryinsuchawaythatdescendantsofthe“settlers”canfeelgoodaboutthemselvesbyfeelinggoodaboutthepast.Feelinggoodisahumanneed,butitimposesaburdenthathistorycannotbearwithoutbecomingsimpleminded.CastingIndianhistoryasatragedy becauseNativeAmericans could not orwould not acculturate is feel-goodhistoryforwhites.BydownplayingIndianwars, textbookshelpusforgetthatwewrestedthecontinentfromNativeAmericans.Today’scollegestudents,whenasked tocompilea listofU.S.wars,never think to include Indianwars,individually or as awhole. The Indian-whitewars that dominated our historyfrom1622to1815andwereofconsiderableimportanceuntil1890havemostlydisappearedfromournationalmemory.

The answer tominimizing the Indianwars is notmaximizing them.TellingIndianhistoryasaparadeofwhitevillainsmightbefeel-goodhistoryforthosewho want to wallow in the inference that America or whites are bad. What

happened ismore complex than that, however, so the historywe tellmust bemorecomplex.Textbooksarebeginningtorevealsomeofthedivisionsamongwhites that lent considerable vitality to the alternatives towar. Several tell ofRoger Williams of Salem, who in the 1630s challenged Massachusetts torenounceitsroyalpatenttotheland,asserting,“Thenativesarethetrueownersof it,” unless they sold it. (The Puritans renouncedWilliams, and he fled toRhodeIsland.)119MostauthorsnowmentionHelenHuntJackson,whoin1881paid to provide copies of her famous indictment of our Native Americanpolicies,ACentury ofDishonor, to everymember of Congress.120 All recenttextbookstellhowAndrewJacksonandJohnMarshallwagedatitanicstruggleoverGeorgia’sattempttosubjugatetheCherokees.ChiefJusticeMarshallfoundfor theCherokees,whereupon President Jackson ignored the Court, reputedlywiththewords,“JohnMarshallhasmadehisdecision;nowlethimenforceit!”But no textbook brings any suspense to the issue as one of the dominantquestions throughout our first century as a nation. None tells how severalChristian denominations—Quakers, Shakers,Moravians, somePresbyterians—andafactionoftheWhigPartymobilizedpublicopiniononbehalfoffairplayfor the Native Americans.121 By ignoring the Whigs, textbooks make theCherokee removal seem inevitable, another example of unacculturatedaborigineshelplessinthewayofprogress.

NativeAmericanswould have textbooks note that, despite all thewars, theplagues, the pressures against their cultures, American Indians still survive,physically and culturally, and still have government-to-government relationswith the United States. As recently as 1984, a survey of American historytextbooks complained that “contemporary issues important to Native peopleswere entirely excluded.”122 The books I examined did better. The AmericanIndian Movement (AIM) spurred three major Indian takeovers in the early1970s:Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, the Bureau of IndianAffairs inWashington, D.C., and Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Most new textbookscompetentlyexplainthecausesandresultsofallthree.

Anti-Indian racism eased considerably during the twentieth century. Takingadvantageoftheirspecialstatusas“dependentdomesticnations,”asdecreedbyChiefJusticeMarshall longago,manytribesdevelopedgamingestablishmentsandhotelstobuildasolidrelationshipwiththeglobaleconomy.Ironically,thevery fact that the United States is beginning to let Natives acculturatesuccessfully, albeit onAnglo terms, poses a new threat toNative coexistence.

PovertyanddiscriminationlonghelpedtoisolateAmericanIndians.Iftheycannowgetgood jobs, as somecan,buynewvehiclesandsatellite televisions, assomehave,andcommutetothecityforpartoftheirlife,assomedo,itismuchhardertomaintaintheintangiblevaluesthatmakeupthecoreofIndiancultures.123Onlyonetextbook—oneoftheoldestIstudied—raisesthekeyquestionnowfacingNativeAmericans:CandistinctivelyIndianculturessurvive?DiscoveringAmerican History treats this issue in an exemplary way, inviting students toexperiencethedilemmathroughthewordsofNativeAmericanteenagers.Newertextbooks cannot raise this issue because they remain locked into non-Indiansourcesandanon-Indian interpretiveframework.TextbooksstilldefineNativeAmericans inopposition to civilizationand still conceiveof Indiancultures inwhatanthropologistscalltheethnographicpresent—frozenatthetimeofwhitecontact.When textbooks show sympathy for “the tragic struggle ofAmericanIndians to maintain their way of life,” they exemplify this myopia. NativeAmericansneverhad“a”wayoflife;theyhadmany.AmericanIndianswouldnot have maintained those ways unchanged over the last five hundred years,evenwithoutEuropeanandAfricanimmigration.Indianshavelongstruggledtochange theirways of life.That autonomywe took from them.Even todaywedivideNativeAmericanleadershipinto“progressives”whowanttoacculturateand “traditionals”whowant to “remain Indian.” Textbook authors do not putother Americans into this straitjacket. We non-Indians choose what we wantfromthepastorfromothercultures.Wejettisonedourmedicalpracticesofthe1780s while retaining the Constitution. But Native American medicalpractitionerswhoabandontheirtraditionalwaystoembracepasteurizationfromFranceandantibioticsfromEnglandareseenascompromisingtheirIndian-ness.We can alter our modes of transportation or housing while remaining“American.”Indianscannotandstay“Indian”inoureyes.

Perhaps Native Americans can break through the dilemma of acculturationandbecomemodernand Indian.Certainly theirartistshaveaccomplished this.Only since the 1930s have Inuit artists in Canada been carving soapstone, amaterialthatinthepreviouscenturytheirancestorsusedformakingpots.Thissculpture,Dancing toMySpirit, byNalenikTemela, is abeautiful exampleofsyncretism.

Improvedhistoriesmightincreasethechancesforsyncretismonbothsidesofourideologicalfrontier.IfweknewtheextenttowhichAmericanIndianideashave shaped American culture, the United States might recognize NativeAmericansocietiesasculturalassetsfromwhichwecouldcontinuetolearn.Atpresent, none of our textbooks hints at this possibility; even the moreenlightened onesmerely champion better treatment for Indianswhile stoppingshort of suggesting that our society might still benefit from American Indian

ideas.

EvenifnoNativesremainedamongus,however, itwouldstillbe important

for us to understand the alternatives foregone, to remember the wars, and tolearn the unvarnished truths aboutwhite-Indian relations. Indian history is theantidotetothepiousethnocentrismofAmericanexceptionalism,thenotionthatEuropeanAmericans are God’s chosen people. Indian history reveals that theUnitedStates and its predecessorBritish colonies havewrought great harm intheworld.Wemust not forget this—not towallow in ourwrongdoing, but tounderstandandtolearn,thatwemightnotwreakharmagain.Wemusttemperour national pride with critical self-knowledge, suggests historian ChristopherVecsey: “The study of our contact with Indians, the envisioning of our darkAmericanselves,caninstillsuchastrengtheningdoubt.”124Historythroughredeyesoffersourchildrenadeeperunderstanding thancomes fromencounteringthepastasastoryofinevitabletriumphbythegoodguys.

5.

“GONEWITHTHEWIND”

THEINVISIBILITYOFRACISMINAMERICANHISTORYTEXTBOOKS

History,despiteitswrenchingpain,Cannotbeunlived,andiffacedWithcourage,neednotbelivedagain.

—MAYAANGELOU1

The black-white rift stands at the very center ofAmericanhistory.Itisthegreatchallengetowhichallour deepest aspirations to freedom must rise. If weforget that—ifweforget thegreatstainofslavery thatstands at the heart of our country, our history, ourexperiment—we forget who we are, and we make thegreatriftdeeperandwider.

—KENBURNS2

We have got to the place where we cannot use ourexperiencesduringandaftertheCivilWarfortheupliftandenlightenmentofmankind.

—W.E.B.DUBOIS3

More Americans have learned the story of the Southduring the years of theCivilWar and Reconstructionfrom Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind thanfromallofthelearnedvolumesonthisperiod.

—WARRENBECKANDMYLESCLOWERS4

WHENWASTHECOUNTRYwenowknowastheUnitedStatesfirstsettled?If we forget the lesson of the last chapter for the moment—that NativeAmericanssettled—thebestanswermightbe1526.Inthesummerofthatyear,fivehundredSpaniards andonehundredblack slaves founded a townperhapsnearthemouthofthePeeDeeRiverinpresent-daySouthCarolina.Diseaseanddisputes with nearby Indians caused many deaths in the early months of thesettlement. InNovember the slaves rebelled, killed someof theirmasters, andescaped to the Indians.By thenonly150Spaniardssurvived; they retreated toHaiti.Theex-slavesremainedbehindandprobablymergedwithnearbyIndiannations.5

Thisiscocktail-partytrivia,Isuppose.Americanhistorytextbookscannotbefaultedfornotmentioningthatthefirstnon-NativesettlersintheUnitedStateswere black. Educationally, however, the incident has its uses. It shows thatAfricans (is it too early to call them African Americans?) rebelled againstslavery from the first. It points to the important subject of three-way racerelations—Indian-African-European—which most textbooks completely omit.6It teaches that slavery cannot readily survive without secure borders. And,symbolically, it illustrates thatAfricanAmericans,and theattendantsubjectofblack-whiteracerelations,werepartofAmericanhistoryfromthefirstEuropeanattemptstosettle.

Perhaps themost pervasive theme in our history is the domination of blackAmerica by white America. Race is the sharpest and deepest division inAmerican life. Issues of black-white relations propelled the Whig Party tocollapse, prompted the formation of the Republican Party, and caused theDemocratic Party to label itself the “whiteman’s party” for almost a century.One of the first timesCongress ever overrode a presidential vetowas for the1866 Civil Rights Act, passed by Republicans over the wishes of Andrew

Johnson.SenatorsmountedthelongestfilibusterinU.S.history,morethan534hours, to oppose the 1964 Civil Rights bill. Thomas Byrne Edsall has shownhowracepromptedthesweepingpoliticalrealignmentof1964-72,inwhichthewhiteSouthwentfromaDemocraticbastiontoaRepublicanstronghold.7Racestillaffectspolitics;GeorgeW.Bushwonjust11percentoftheblackvotebut57percentofthewhitevotein2004.

Almost no genre of our popular culture goes untouched by race. From the1850s through the 1930s, except perhaps during the Civil War andReconstruction,minstrelshows,whichderivedinaperversewayfromplantationslavery,were the dominant formof popular entertainment inAmerica.DuringmostofthatperiodUncleTom’sCabinwasourlongest-runningplay,mountedin thousands of productions. America’s first epic motion picture, Birth of aNation;firsttalkie,TheJazzSinger;andbiggestblockbusterever,GoneWiththeWind,weresubstantiallyaboutracerelations.Themostpopularradioshowofalltime wasAmos ’n’ Andy, two white men posing as humorously incompetentAfricanAmericans. 8 Themost popular televisionminiseries ever wasRoots,whichchangedourculturebysettingoffanexplosionof interest ingenealogyandethnicbackground.Inmusic,racerelationsprovidetheunderlyingthematicmaterialformanyofourspirituals,bluesnumbers,reggaesongs,andrappieces.

ThestruggleoverracialslaverymaybethepredominantthemeinAmericanhistory. Until the end of the nineteenth century, cotton—planted, cultivated,harvested,andginnedmostlybyslaves—wasbyfarourmostimportantexport.9Ourgracefulantebellumhomes,intheNorthaswellasintheSouth,werebuiltlargelybyslavesorfromprofitsderivedfromtheslaveandcottontrades.Black-whiterelationsbecamethecentralissueintheCivilWar,whichkilledalmostasmanyAmericansasdied inallourotherwarscombined.Black-whiterelationsweretheprincipalfocusofReconstructionaftertheCivilWar;America’sfailuretoallowAfricanAmericansequalrights ledeventually to thestruggleforcivilrightsacenturylater.

Thesubjectalsopopsupwhereweleastsuspectit—attheAlamo,throughoutthe SeminoleWars, even in the expulsion of theMormons fromMissouri.10

Studs Terkel is right: race is our “American obsession.” 11 Since those firstAfricans andSpaniards landed on theCarolina shore in 1526, our society hasrepeatedlybeentornapartandsometimesboundtogetherbythisissueofblack-whiterelations.

Over the years white America has told itself varying stories about theenslavementofblacks.IneachofthelasttwocenturiesAmerica’smostpopularnovel was set in slavery—Uncle Tom’sCabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe andGoneWith theWind byMargaretMitchell. The two books tell very differentstories:Uncle Tom’s Cabin presents slavery as an evil to be opposed, whileGoneWith theWind suggests that slaverywas an ideal social structurewhosepassing is to be lamented. Until the civil rights movement, American historytextbooks in this century prettymuch agreedwithMitchell. In 1959my highschool textbook presented slavery as not such a bad thing. If bondage was aburdenforAfricanAmericans,well,slaveswereaburdenonOleMassaandOleMiss,too.Besides,slaveswerereasonablyhappyandwellfed.Suchargumentsconstitute the “magnolia myth,” according to which slavery was a socialstructureofharmonyandgracethatdidnorealharmtoanyone,whiteorblack.Afamous1950textbookbySamuelEliotMorisonandHenrySteeleCommageractually said, “As for Sambo,whosewrongsmoved the abolitionists towrathand tears, there is some reason to believe that he suffered less than any otherclass in the South from its ‘peculiar institution.’”12Peculiar institutionmeantslavery,ofcourse,andMorisonandCommagerhereprovidedapictureofitthatcamestraightfromGoneWiththeWind.

This is not what textbooks say today. Since the civil rights movement,textbookshavereturnedpartofthewaytowardStowe’sdevastatingindictmentoftheinstitution.ThediscussioninAmericanHistorybeginswithapassagethatdescribes the livingconditionsof slaves inpositive terms: “Theywereusuallygivenadequatefood,clothing,andshelter.”Buttheauthorimmediatelygoesontopointout,“Slaveshadabsolutelynorights.Itwasnotsimplythattheycouldnotvoteorownproperty.Theirownershadcompletecontrolover their lives.”He concludes, “Slavery was almost literally inhuman.” American Adventurestellsus,“Slaveryledtodespair,anddespairsometimesledblackpeopletotaketheir own lives. Or in some cases it led them to revolt against whiteslaveholders.”LifeandLibertytakesaflatterview:“Historiansdonotagreeonhowseverelyslavesweretreated”;thebookgoesontonotethatwhippingwascommoninsomeplaces,unheardofonotherplantations.LifeandLibertyendsits section on slave life, however, by quoting the titles of spirituals—“AllMyTrials,Lord,SoonBeOver”—andbycitingtheinhumanedetailsofslavelaws.Noonecould readanyof these threebooksand thinkwellof slavery. Indeed,mosttextbooksIstudiedportrayslaveryasintolerabletotheslave.13

Today’stextbooksalsoshowhowslaveryincreasinglydominatedourpoliticallifeinthefirsthalfofthenineteenthcentury.Theytellthatthecottonginmadeslaverymoreprofitable.14 They tell how in the 1830sSouthern states and thefederal government pushed the Indians out of vast stretches of Mississippi,Alabama,andGeorgia,andslaveryexpanded.Andtheytellthatinthedecadesbetween 1830 and 1860, slavery’s ideological demands grew shriller, moreovertly racist. No longer was it enough for planters and slave traders toapologize forslaveryasanecessaryevil.Nowtheycame toviewslaveryasa“positive value to the slaves themselves,” in the words of Triumph of theAmericanNation.Thisideologicalextremismwasmatchedbyharshernewlawsandcustoms. “Talkof freeing the slavesbecamemoreandmoredangerous inthe South,” in the words of The United States—A History of the Republic.Merely to receive literature advocating abolition became a felony in someslaveholdingstates.Southernstatespassednewordinances interferingwith therightsofmasterstofreetheirslaves.ThelegalpositionofalreadyfreeAfricanAmericans became ever more precarious, even in the North, as whiteSoutherners prevailed on the federal government to make it harder to restrictslaveryanywhereinthenation.15

Meanwhile, many Northern whites, as well as some who lived below theMason-DixonLine,grew increasinglyunhappy,disgusted that theirnationhadlostitsidealism.16Thedebateoverslaveryloomedeverlarger, touchingeverysubject. In 1848 Thomas Hart Benton, a senator from Missouri, likened theubiquityoftheissuetoabiblicalplague:“Youcouldnotlookuponthetablebuttherewere frogs.You could not sit down at the banquet table but therewerefrogs.You could not go to the bridal couch and lift the sheets but therewerefrogs.Wecanseenothing,touchnothing,havenomeasuresproposed,withouthavingthispestilencethrustbeforeus.”17

SlaverywastheunderlyingreasonthatSouthCarolina,followedbytenotherstates,lefttheUnion.In1860,leadersofthestatewereperfectlyclearaboutwhythey were seceding. On Christmas Eve, they signed a “Declaration of theImmediate CausesWhich Induce and Justify the Secession of South CarolinafromtheFederalUnion.”Their firstgrievancewas“that fourteenof theStateshave deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutionalobligations,” specifically this clause, which they quote: “No person held toservice or labour in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another,shall,inconsequenceofanylaworregulationtherein,bedischargedfromsuch

serviceor labour,butshallbedeliveredup . . .”This isofcourse theFugitiveSlaveClause,underwhoseauthorityCongresshadpassedtheFugitiveSlaveActof 1850, which South Carolina of course approved. This measure requiredofficers of the law and even private citizens in free states to participate incapturing and returning African Americans when whites claimed them to betheir slaves. This made the free states complicit with slavery. They wriggledaround,tryingtoavoidfullcompliance.Pennsylvania,forexample,passedalawrecognizing the supremacy of the federal act but pointing out thatPennsylvaniansstillhadtherighttodeterminepayfortheirofficersofthelaw,and they refused to pay for time spent capturing and returning alleged slaves.SouthCarolinaattackedsuchdisplaysofstates’rights:

Butanincreasinghostilityonthepartof thenon-slaveholdingStates totheinstitutionofslavery,hasledtoadisregardoftheirobligations. . . .The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana,Michigan,Wisconsin and Iowa,have enacted lawswhich either nullifytheActsofCongressorrenderuselessanyattempttoexecutethem.

ThusSouthCarolinaopposedstates’rightswhenclaimedbyfreestates.Thisis understandable. Historically, whatever faction has been out of power inAmerica has pushed for states’ rights. White Southerners dominated theexecutiveandjudicialbranchesofthefederalgovernmentthroughoutthe1850s—andthroughtheDemocraticParty,thelegislativebranchaswell—soofcoursetheyopposedstates’ rights.SlaveownersweredelightedwhenSupremeCourtChiefJusticeTaneydecidedin1857that throughout thenation, irrespectiveofthewishesof stateor territorial governments, blackshadno rights thatwhitesmustrespect.SlaveownerspushedPresidentBuchanantousefederalpowertolegitimizeslaveholding inKansas thenextyear.Onlyafter they lostcontrolofthe executive branch in the 1860 election did slave owners begin to suggestlimitingfederalpower.

SouthCarolina’s leaderswent on to condemnNewYork for denying “eventhe right of transit for a slave” and other Northern states for letting AfricanAmericans vote. Before the Civil War, these matters were states’ rights.Nevertheless,SouthCarolinaclaimedtherighttodeterminewhetherNewYorkcouldprohibitslaverywithinNewYorkorVermontcoulddefinecitizenshipinVermont.Caroliniansalsocontestedtherightsofresidentsofotherstateseventothink differently about their peculiar institution, giving as another reason for

secessionthatNortherners“havedenouncedassinfultheinstitutionofslavery.”In short, slavery permeates the document from start to finish. Of course, theelection of Lincoln provided the trigger, but the abiding purpose of secessionwastoprotect,maintain,andenhanceslavery.NorwasSouthCarolinaunusual;otherstatesusedsimilarlanguagewhentheyseceded.

Despite this clear evidence, before 1970 many textbooks held that almostanything but slavery—differences over tariffs and internal improvements, theconflict between agrarian South and industrial North, and especially “states’rights”—ledtosecession.ThiswasaformofSouthernapologetics.18Neverwasthereanyexcuseforsuchbadscholarship,andintheaftermathofthecivilrightsmovementmost textbook authors came to agreewithAbrahamLincoln in hisSecond Inaugural “that [slavery]was somehow the causeof thewar.”AsTheUnited States—AHistory of theRepublic put it in 1981, “At the center of theconflictwasslavery,theissuethatwouldnotgoaway.”

Tomysurprise,ournewesthistorytextbookshavebacktrackedonthisissue.AmericanJourneystates,forexample:

Southerners justified secession with the theory of states’ rights. Thestates, they argued, had voluntarily chosen to enter the Union. TheydefinedtheConstitutionasacontractamongtheindependentstates.Nowbecausethenationalgovernmenthadviolatedthatcontract—byrefusingto enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and by denying the Southern statesequal rights in the territories—the states were justified in leaving theUnion.

As we have seen, the national government had not refused to enforce theFugitive Slave Act, and states, Northern or Southern, have no “rights in theterritories,”being separate from them, so thisparagraphconfusesmore than itexplains.Severalotherrecenttextbooksareequallyconfusing.PathwaystothePresentprovidesaboxcomparing“TheAimsoftheSouth”to“TheAimsoftheNorth.”ItquotesaHouseResolutionofJuly25,1861,toshowthattheUnitedStateswasfighting“topreservetheUnion,”whichwasaccurateatthatpointinthe war. (Ending slavery was not a war aim until 1863.) But its quote forSouthernwaraims,drawnfromJeffersonDavis’sinauguraladdress,saysonly,“We have vainly endeavored to secure tranquility and obtain respect for therights which we were entitled.” What rights? Why did the South secede?Pathwaysissilent.BoorstinandKelleyneverdiscusswhytheSouthsecededat

all, other than citing the trigger provided by the election ofLincoln.WhynotsimplyquoteSouthCarolina’s“Declaration”?Afterall,SouthCarolinawroteitpreciselyto“justifysecession.”19

Exceptforbackslidingonslavery’sroleunderlyingsecession,mosttextbooksnowhandlethetopicwithdepthandunderstanding.Whydidtheyimprove?Toaskthisistoengagein“historiography”—lookingatthewritingofhistory.Whowrotethistextbook?Ofwhatbackground?Towhataudience?When?Beforethe1960s,publishershadbeeninthralltothewhiteSouth.Inthe1920s,FloridaandotherSouthernstatespassed laws requiring“SecuringaCorrectHistoryof theU.S.,IncludingaTrueandCorrectHistoryoftheConfederacy.”20ManystatesrequiredtextbookstocalltheCivilWar“theWarbetweentheStates,”asifnosinglenationhadexisted that secessionhad rentapart. (Icannot findevidencethatanyonecalledit“theWarbetweentheStates”whileitwasgoingon.)

In the fifteen years between 1955 and 1970, however, the civil rightsmovementdestroyedsegregationasaformalsysteminAmerica.ThemovementdidnotsucceedintransformingAmericanracerelations,butitdidhelpAfricanAmericanswinmorepower.Todaymanyschoolboards,curricularcommittees,and high school history departments include African Americans or whiteAmericanswhohavecastoff the ideologyofwhite supremacy.Thuswhenanaccountiswritteninfluenceswhat iswritten.Contemporarytextbookscannowdevotemorespacetothetopicofslaveryandcanusethatspacetogiveamoreaccurateportrayal.21

Americansseemperpetuallystartledatslavery.Childrenareshockedtolearnthat George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. Interpreters atColonialWilliamsburgsaythatmanyvisitorsaresurprisedtolearnthatslaveryexistedthere—intheheartofplantationVirginia!Veryfewadultstodayrealizethatour societyhasbeen slavemuch longer than it hasbeen free.Even fewerknowthatslaverywasimportantintheNorth,too,untilaftertheRevolutionaryWar.ThefirstcolonytolegalizeslaverywasnotVirginiabutMassachusetts.In1720,ofNewYorkCity’spopulationofseventhousand,sixteenhundredwereAfricanAmericans,mostofthemslaves.WallStreetwasthemarketplacewhereownerscouldhireouttheirslavesbythedayorweek.22

MosttextbooksdownplayslaveryintheNorth,however,soslaveryseemstobeasectionalratherthannationalproblem.Indeed,eventheexpandedcoverageof slaverycomesacrossasanunfortunatebutminorblemish,compared to the

overallstorylineofourtextbooks.JamesOliverHortonhaspointedoutthat“theblackexperiencecannotbefullyilluminatedwithoutbringinganewperspectivetothestudyofAmericanhistory.”23Textbookauthorshavefailedtopresentanynew perspective. Instead, they shoehorn their improved and more accurateportrait of slavery into theold “progress as usual” story line. In this saga, theUnited States is always intrinsically and increasingly democratic, andslaveholding is merely a temporary aberration, not part of the big picture.Ironically,theverysuccessofthecivilrightsmovementallowsauthorstoimplythat the problem of black-white race relations has now been solved, at leastformally.Thisenablestextbookstodiscussslaverywithoutdepartingfromtheircustomarilyoptimistictone.

While textbooks now show the horror of slavery and its impact on blackAmerica, they remain largely silent regarding the impact of slavery on whiteAmerica,NorthorSouth.Textbookshavetroubleacknowledgingthatanythingmight be wrong with white Americans or with the United States as a whole.Perhaps telling realistically what slavery was like for slaves is the easy part.Afterall,slaveryasaninstitutionisdead.Wehaveprogressedbeyondit,sowecanacknowledge itsevils.Even theMuseumof theConfederacy inRichmondmountedanexhibitonslaverythatdidnotromanticizetheinstitution.24Withoutexplainingslavery’srelevancetothepresent,however,itsextensivecoverageislikeextensivecoverageoftheHawley-SmootTariff—justmorefactsforhaplesseleventhgraderstomemorize.

Slavery’stwinlegaciestothepresentarethesocialandeconomicinferiorityitconferred upon blacks and the cultural racism it instilled in whites. Bothcontinue to haunt our society. Therefore, treating slavery’s enduring legacy isnecessarilycontroversial.Unlikeslavery,racismisnotoveryet.

Tofunctionadequatelyinciviclifeinourtroubledtimes,studentsmustlearnwhatcausesracism.Althoughit isacomplicatedhistorical issue,racismintheWesternworldstemsprimarilyfromtworelatedhistoricalprocesses:takinglandfrom and destroying indigenous peoples and enslaving Africans to work thatland. To teach this relationship, textbooks would have to show students thedynamicinterplaybetweenslaveryasasocioeconomicsystemandracismasanideasystem.Sociologistscall thesethesocialstructureand thesuperstructure.SlaveryexistedinmanysocietiesandperiodsbeforeandaftertheAfricanslavetrade.MadepossiblebyEurope’sadvantagesinmilitaryandsocialtechnology,

theslaverystartedbyEuropeansinthefifteenthcenturywasdifferent,becauseitbecametheenslavementofoneracebyanother.Increasingly,whitesviewedtheenslavementofwhitesasillegitimate,whiletheenslavementofAfricansbecameacceptable.Unlikeearlierslaveries,childrenofAfricanAmericanslaveswouldbe slaves forever andcouldneverachieve freedom through intermarriagewiththe owning class. The rationale for this differential treatment was racism. AsMontesquieu,theFrenchsocialphilosopherwhohadsuchaprofoundinfluenceonAmericandemocracy,ironicallyobservedin1748:“Itisimpossibleforustosuppose these creatures to be men, because, allowing them to be men, asuspicion would follow that we ourselves are not Christian.”25 HereMontesquieupresagescognitivedissonancebyshowinghow“we”moldedourideas(aboutblacks)torationalizeouractions.

Historianshavechronicled theriseof racismin theWest.Before the1450s,EuropeansconsideredAfricansexoticbutnotnecessarilyinferior.Asmoreandmorenationsjoinedtheslavetrade,EuropeanscametocharacterizeAfricansasstupid, backward, and uncivilized. Amnesia set in; Europe gradually found itconvenient to forget that Moors from Africa had brought to Spain and Italymuch of the learning that led to the Renaissance. Europeans had known thatTimbuktu, with its renowned university and library, was a center of learning.Now,forgettingTimbuktu,EuropeandEuropeanAmericansperceivedAfricaasthe “dark continent.”26 By the 1850smanywhiteAmericans, including someNortherners,claimed thatblackpeopleweresohopelessly inferior that slaverywasaproperformofeducationforthem;italsoremovedthemphysicallyfromtheallegedbarbarismofthe“darkcontinent.”

Thesuperstructureofracismhaslongoutlivedthesocialstructureofslaverythatgeneratedit.ThefollowingpassagefromMargaretMitchell’sGoneWiththeWind, written in the 1930s, shows racism alive and well in that decade. ThenarratorisinterpretingReconstruction:

Theformerfieldhandsfoundthemselvessuddenlyelevatedtotheseatsof the mighty. There they conducted themselves as creatures of smallintelligencemight naturally be expected to do. Likemonkeys or smallchildren turned loose among treasured objects whose value is beyondtheir comprehension, they ran wild—either from perverse pleasure indestructionorsimplybecauseoftheirignorance.27

White supremacypermeatesMitchell’s romanticbestseller.Yet in1988,when

theAmericanLibraryAssociationaskedlibrarypatronstonamethebestbookinthelibrary,GoneWiththeWindwonanactualmajorityagainstallotherbookseverpublished!28

Theveryessenceofwhatwehaveinheritedfromslaveryistheideathatitisappropriate,even“natural,”forwhitestobeontop,blacksonthebottom.Initscore our culture tells us—tells all of us, including African Americans—thatEurope’sdominationoftheworldcameaboutbecauseEuropeansweresmarter.In their core, many whites and some people of color believe this. Whitesupremacy is not only a residue of slavery, to be sure. Developments inAmericanhistorysinceslaveryendedhavemaintained it.Nineof theeighteentextbooksdo listracism (orracialdiscrimination,raceprejudice,etc.) in theirindexes,butinseveral,thewordneverappearsinthetext.Racismismerelytheindexer’shandleforparagraphsonslavery,segregation,andthelike.Onlyonebook,PathwaystothePresent,definestheterm.29

Worseyet, only three textbooks discusswhatmight have caused racism (orracialprejudice,etc.).Theclosestanyofthetextbookscomestoexplainingtheconnection between slavery and racism is this single sentence from TheAmericanPageant,aftertellinghowslaveowners“increasinglylivedinastateof imagined siege”: “Their fears bolstered an intoxicating theory of biologicalracial superiority. . . .” The American Tradition includes a similar but muchvaguersentence:“Indefenseof their ‘peculiar institution,’ southernersbecamemore and more determined to maintain their own way of life,” but such astatement hardly suffices to show today’s students the origin of racism in oursociety—itdoesn’tevenusetheword.TheAmericanAdventureoffersbyfarthelongest treatment: “[African Americans] looked different from members ofwhiteethnicgroups.Thecoloroftheirskinmadeassimilationdifficult.Forthisreason they remainedoutsiders.”HereAdventure has retreated fromhistory tolay psychology. Unfortunately for its argument, skin color in itself does notexplain racism. Jane Elliot’s famous experiments in Iowa classrooms haveshownthatchildrencanquicklydevelopdiscriminatorybehaviorandprejudicedbeliefs based on eye color. Conversely, the leadership positions that AfricanAmericansfrequentlyreachedamongAmericanIndiannationsfromEcuadortotheArcticshowthatpeopledonotautomaticallydiscriminateagainstothersonthebasisofskincolor.30

Events and processes in American history, from the time of slavery to the

present,arewhatexplainracism.ExceptforthehalfsentencequotedabovefromPageant, however, not one textbook connectshistory and racism.Half-formedanduninformednotionsrushintofilltheanalyticvacuumtextbooksthusleave.Adventure’sthreesentencesimplythatitisnaturaltoexcludepeoplewhoseskincolor is different. White students may conclude that all societies are racist,perhapsbynature, so racism is all right.Black studentsmayconclude that allwhites are racist, perhaps by nature, so to be antiwhite is all right. TheelementarythinkinginAdventure’sthreesentencesisalltooapparent.YetthisisthemostsubstantialtreatmentofthecausesofracismamongallthetextbooksIexamined,oldornew.Sixpagestitled“SegregationandDiscrimination”inWeAmericanstellaboutlynching(butincludenoillustration),segregationlaws,andharshracialetiquette,butsaynothingabouttheircauses.

Insteadofanalyzingracism,textbooksstillsubtlyexemplifyit.Consideralatepassage (page 1,083!) inHolt American Nation extolling the value of DNAtesting:“SinceJeffersonhadnosons,scientistscomparedDNAfrommale-linedescendantsofJefferson’spaternalgrandfatherwithDNAfromdescendantsofEstonHemings,SallyHemings’syoungestson.Theyfoundamatch.Sincethechancesofamatchwerelessthanonepercent,JeffersonverylikelywasEstonHemings’sfather.”Holtfailstonoticethatthelastfivewordsoftheparagraphcontradict the first five. Jefferson did have at least one son, Eston Hemings.Changinghadnosonstoacknowledgednosonswouldfixtheparagraph;surelytheawkwardnesswasoverlookedbecauseJeffersonhadnowhitesons,henceno“real”sons.

Inomitting racismor treating it so poorly, history textbooks shirk a criticalresponsibility.Notallwhitesareorhavebeenracist.Moreover,levelsofracismhave changed over time.31 If textbookswere to explain this, theywould givestudentssomeperspectiveonwhatcausedracisminthepast,whatperpetuatesittoday,andhowitmightbereducedinthefuture.

AlthoughtextbookauthorsnolongersugarcoathowslaveryaffectedAfricanAmericans,theyminimizewhitecomplicityinit.Theypresentslaveryvirtuallyas uncaused, a tragedy, rather than a wrong perpetrated by some people onothers. Some books maintain the fiction that planters did the work on theplantations.“Therewasalwaysmuchworktobedone,”accordingtoTriumphoftheAmericanNation,“foracottongroweralsoraisedmostofthefoodeatenbyhis family and slaves.” Although managing a business worth hundreds ofthousandsofdollarswassurelytime-consuming,thetruthastowhodidmostof

theworkontheplantationissurelycapturedmoreaccuratelybythisquotationfromaMississippiplanter lamentinghissituationafter thewar:“Ineverdidaday’sworkinmylife,anddon’tknowhowtobegin.Youseemeinthesecoarseoldclothes;well,Ineverworecoarseclothesinmylifebeforethewar.”32

The emotion generated by textbook descriptions of slavery is sadness, notanger. For there’s no one to be angry at. Somehow we ended up with fourmillion slaves in America but no owners. This is part of a pattern in ourtextbooks:anythingbadinAmericanhistoryhappenedanonymously.Everyonenamed inourhistorymadeapositivecontribution (except JohnBrown, as thenext chapter shows). Or as Frances FitzGerald put it when she analyzedtextbooksin1979,“Inallhistory,thereisnoknowncaseofanyone’screatingaproblemforanyoneelse.”33

CertainlytheFoundingFathersnevercreatedone.“PopularmoderndepictionsofWashingtonandJefferson,”historianDavidLowenthalpointsout,“areutterlyat variance with their lives as eighteenth-century slave-holding planters.” 34Textbooksplaytheirpartbyminimizingslaveryinthelivesofthefounders.AswithWoodrowWilson,HelenKeller,andChristopherColumbus,authorscannotbeartorevealanythingbadaboutourheroes.In2003anIllinoisteachertoldhersixth graders that most presidents before Lincoln were slave owners. Herstudentswereoutraged—notwiththepresidents,butwithher,forlyingtothem.“That’snottrue,”theyprotested,“oritwouldbeinthebook!”Theypointedoutthat their textbook devoted many pages to Washington, Jefferson, Madison,Jackson, and other early presidents, pages that said not one word about theirowningslaves.Ofcourse,shewasn’twrong,andweshalllearnofhercreativeresponsetoherstudentsinthelastchapterofthisbook.

In real life the Founding Fathers and their wives wrestled with slavery.Textbooks canonizePatrickHenry forhis “Giveme libertyorgivemedeath”speech.Notonetellsusthateightmonthsafterdeliveringthespeechheordered“diligent patrols” to keep Virginia slaves from accepting the British offer offreedom to those who would join their side. Henry wrestled with thecontradiction,exclaiming,“WouldanyonebelieveIamthemasterofslavesofmyownpurchase!”35Almostnoonewouldtoday,becauseonlytwoofall thetextbooks I examined, Land of Promise and The American Adventure, evenmentiontheinconsistency.36Henry’sunderstandingofthediscrepancybetweenhiswordsandhisdeedsnever ledhimtoactdifferently, tohisslaves’sorrow.

ThroughouttheRevolutionaryperiodheaddedslavestohisholdings,andevenat his death, unlike some other Virginia planters, he freed not a one.Nevertheless,TriumphoftheAmericanNationquotesHenrycallingslavery“asrepugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible and destructive ofliberty,” without ever mentioning that he held slaves. American Adventuresdevotes three whole pages to Henry, constructing a fictitious melodrama inwhichhisfatherworries,“Howwouldheeverearna living?”Adventures thentells how Henry failed at storekeeping, “tried to make a living by raisingtobacco,” “started another store,” “had three children as well as a wife tosupport,” “knew he had to make a living in some way,” “so he decided tobecomealawyer.”ThestudentwhoreadsthischapterandlaterlearnsthatHenrygrewwealthyfromtheworkofscoresofslaveshasarighttofeelhoodwinked.Noneofthenewtextbooksdoesanybetter.

Evenmore embarrassing is the case of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.American history textbooks use several tactics to harmonize the contradictionbetweenJefferson’sassertionthateveryonehasanequalrightto“Life,Liberty,andthepursuitofHappiness”andhisenslavementof175humanbeingsat thetimehewrotethosewords.Jefferson’sslaveholdingaffectedalmosteverythinghe did, from his opposition to internal improvements to his foreign policy.37Nonetheless,halfof thebooks inmyearlier samplenevernoted that Jeffersonownedslaves.LifeandLibertyofferedahalf-pageminibiographyofJefferson,revealingthathewas“shy,”“stammered,”and“alwaysworkedhardatwhathedid.”ElsewhereLifeandLibertynotedallmannerofminutiaeabouthim,suchas his refusal towear awig, that hewalked rather than rode in his inauguralparade—butsaidnothingaboutJeffersonandslavery.

AllrecenttextbooksmentionthatJeffersonownedslaves,butthatisalltheydo—mentionit,almostalwaysinasubordinateclause.HereisTheAmericans’entiretreatment:“Despitehiselitebackgroundandownershipofslaves,hewasa strong ally of the small farmer and average citizen.” American Journey issimilarlyconcise:“Hehadproclaimed in theDeclarationof Independence that‘all men were created equal’—but he was a slaveowner.” Pathways to thePresent grants six words to Jefferson’s complicity with the institution. Theyfollow four paragraphs of praise about him, including his opposition to thepractice:“Inhistime,Jefferson’scommitmenttoequalityamongwhitemen,aswellashisoppositiontoslavery,werebraveandradicalideas.Today,Jeffersonremainsapuzzleforhistorians:theauthorofsomeofthemosteloquentwords

everwrittenabouthumanfreedomwashimselftheownerofslaves.”Actually,by1820Jeffersonhadbecomeanardentadvocateoftheexpansionofslaverytothewesternterritories.Andheneverlethisambivalenceaboutslaveryaffecthisprivate life. Jeffersonwas an average ownerwho had his slaveswhipped andsoldintotheDeepSouthasexamples,toinduceotherslavestoobey.By1822Jeffersonowned267slaves.Duringhislonglife,ofhundredsofdifferentslavesheowned,hefreedonlythree,andfivemoreathisdeath—allbloodrelativesofhis.38

AnothertextbooktactictominimizeJefferson’sslaveholdingistoadmititbutemphasizethatothersdidnobetter.“Jeffersonrevealedhimselfasamanofhistimes,” statesLand of Promise.Well, what were those times? CertainlymostwhiteAmericansinthe1770swereracist.Racerelationswereinflux,however,owingtotheRevolutionaryWarandtoitsunderlyingideologyabouttherightsofmankindthatJefferson,amongothers,didsomuchtospread.Fivethousandblacksoldiers foughtalongsidewhites in theContinentalArmy,“withcourageandskill,”according toTriumphof theAmericanNation. In reality,ofcourse,somefought“withcourageandskill,”likesomewhiterecruits,andsomefailedtofiretheirgunsandranoff,likesomewhiterecruits.39Butbecausethesemenfought in integrated units for the most part and received equal pay, theirexistenceinitselfhelpeddecreasewhiteracism.40

Moreover, theAmericanRevolution isoneof thosemoments inourhistorywhenthepowerofideasmadearealdifference.“Incontendingforthebirthrightoffreedom,”saidacaptaininthearmy,“wehavelearnedtofeelforthebondageofothers.”41AbigailAdamswrote her husband in 1774 to ask howwe could“fightourselves forwhatwearedaily robbingandplunderingfromthosewhohaveasgoodaright tofreedomaswehave.”42ThecontradictionbetweenhiswordsandhisslaveowningembarrassedPatrickHenry,whoofferedonlyalameexcuse—“Iamdrawnalongbythegeneralinconvenienceoflivingherewithoutthem”—and admitted, “I will not, I cannot justify it.”43 Other options wereavailable to planters.Some, includingGeorgeWashington, valued consistencymorethanHenryorJeffersonandfreedtheirslavesoutrightorat least in theirwills.Otherslaveowners freed theirmaleslaves to fight in thecolonialarmy,collectingabountyforeachonewhoenlisted.InthefirsttwodecadesaftertheRevolution, the number of free blacks in Virginia soared tenfold, from twothousand in 1780 to twenty thousand in 1800.MostNorthern states did away

withslaveryaltogether.Thus,ThomasJeffersonlaggedbehindmanywhitesofhistimesintheactionshetookwithregardtoslavery.44

Manumission gradually flagged, however, because most of the whiteSoutherners who, like Jefferson, kept their slaves, grew rich. Their neighborsthoughtwellof them,aspeopleoftendoof thosericher than themselves.Toadegreetheideologyoftheupperclassbecametheideologyofthewholesociety,and as the Revolution receded, that ideology increasingly justified slavery.Jefferson spentmuchof his slave-earnedwealthonhismansion atMonticelloand on books that he later donated to the University of Virginia; theseexpendituresbecamepartofhishallowedpatrimony,givinghistoryyetanotherreasontorememberhimkindly.45

Other views are possible, however. In 1829, three years after Jefferson’sdeath,DavidWalker,ablackBostonian,warnedmembersofhisracethattheyshould remember Jefferson as their greatest enemy. “Mr. Jefferson’s remarksrespectingushavesunkdeepintotheheartsofmillionsofwhites,andneverwillberemovedthissideofeternity.”46Forthenexthundredyears,theopenwhitesupremacy of theDemocratic Party, Jefferson’s political legacy to the nation,wouldbearoutthetruthofWalker’swarning.

Textbooksareingoodcompany:theJeffersonMemorial,too,whitewashesitssubject.Thethirdpanelonitsmarblewallsisahodgepodgeofquotationsfromwidely different periods in Jefferson’s life whose effect is to create theimpression that Thomas Jefferson was very nearly an abolitionist. In theiroriginalcontexts,thesamequotationsrevealaJeffersonconflictedaboutslavery—at times its harsh critic, more often its apologist. Perhaps asking a marblememorial to tell the truth is demanding too much. Should history textbookssimilarly be a shrine, however? Should they encourage students to worshipJefferson? Or should they help students understand him, wrestle with theproblems hewrestledwith, grasp his accomplishments, and also acknowledgehisfailures?

The idealistic spark in our Revolution, which caused Patrick Henry suchverbal discomfort, at first made the United States a proponent of democracyaroundtheworld.However,slaveryanditsconcomitantideas,whichlegitimatedhierarchy and dominance, sapped our Revolutionary idealism.Most textbooksneverhintatthisclashofideas,letaloneatitsimpactonourforeignpolicy.

After theRevolution,manyAmericans expected our examplewould inspireotherpeoples.Itdid.Ouryoungnationgotitsfirstchancetohelpinthe1790s,whenHaitirevoltedagainstFrance.Whetherapresidentownedslavesseemstohave determined his policy toward the second independent nation in thehemisphere.GeorgeWashingtondid, sohis administration loanedhundredsofthousandsofdollars to theFrenchplanters inHaiti tohelpthemsuppress theirslaves.JohnAdamsdidnot,andhisadministrationgaveconsiderablesupporttotheHaitians.Jefferson’spresidencymarkedageneral retreatfromthe idealismof the Revolution. Like other slave owners, Jefferson preferred a Napoleoniccolony to a black republic in the Caribbean. In 1801 he reversedU.S. policytowardHaitiandsecretlygaveFrancethego-aheadtoreconquertheisland.Insodoing,theUnitedStatesnotonlybetrayeditsheritage,butalsoactedagainstitsownself-interest.ForifFrancehadindeedbeenabletoretakeHaiti,Napoleonwould havemaintained his dream of an American empire. The United StateswouldhavebeenhemmedinbyFrancetoitswest,Britaintoitsnorth,andSpainto its south.47 But planters in the United States were scared by the HaitianRevolution.Theythoughtitmightinspireslaverevoltshere(whichitdid).WhenHaiti won despite our flip-flop, the United States would not even extend itdiplomaticrecognition,lestitsambassadorinflameourslaves“byexhibitinginhis own person an example of successful revolt,” in the words of a Georgiasenator.48 Nine of the eighteen textbooksmention howHaitian resistance ledFrancetosellusitsclaimtoLouisiana,butnonetellsofourflip-flop.

Racial slavery also affected our policy toward the next countries in theAmericas to revolt, Spain’s colonies. Haiti’s example inspired them to seekindependence,and theHaitiangovernmentgaveSimonBolívardirectaid.Ourstatesmen were ambivalent, eager to help boot a European power out of thehemisphere butworried by the raciallymixed rebels doing the booting. Someplanters wanted our government to replace Spain as the colonial power,especially in Cuba. Jefferson suggested annexing Cuba. Fifty years later,diplomats in the Franklin Pierce administration signed the OstendManifesto,whichproposedthattheUnitedStatesbuyortaketheislandfromSpain.Slaveowners,stillobsessedwithHaitiasarolemodel,thushopedtopreventCuba’sbecoming a second Haiti, with “flames [that might] extend to our ownneighboringshores,”inthewordsoftheManifesto.49Inshort,slaverypromptedthe United States to have imperialist designs on Latin America rather thanvisionsofdemocraticliberationfortheregion.

Slaveryaffectedourforeignpolicyinstillotherways.Thefirstrequirementofaslavesocietyissecureborders.WedonotliketothinkoftheUnitedStatesasapolicestate,anationlikeEastGermanythatpeoplehadtoescapefrom,buttheslaveholdingstateswerejustthat.Indeed,aftertheFugitiveSlaveActof1850,which made it easy for whites to kidnap and sell free blacks into slavery,thousands of free African Americans realized they could not be safe even inNorthern states and fled to Canada, Mexico, and Haiti.50 The Dred Scottdecision in 1857, which declared “A Negro had no rights a white man wasbound to respect,” confirmed their fears. Slaveholders dominated our foreignpolicy until the Civil War. They were always concerned about our Indianborders andmade sure that treatieswithNative nations stipulated that IndianssurrenderallAfricanAmericansandreturnanyrunaways.51

U.S. territorialexpansionbetween1787and1855wasowed in largepart toslavers’ influence. The largest pressure group behind the War of 1812 wasslaveholderswhocoveted IndianandSpanish landandwanted todrive Indiansocieties farther away from the slaveholding states to prevent slave escapes.Even though Spain played no real role in that war, in the aftermath we tookFlorida fromSpainbecause slaveholdersdemandedwedoso. Indeed,AndrewJacksonattackedaSeminolefortinFloridain1816preciselybecauseitharboredhundredsofrunawayslaves,thusinitiatingtheFirstSeminoleWar.52

The Seminoles did not exist as a tribe or nation before the arrival ofEuropeans and Africans. They were a triracial isolate composed of CreekIndians,remnantsofsmallertribes,runawayslaves,andwhiteswhopreferredtolive in Indian society.ThewordSeminole is itself a corruptionof theSpanishcimarron(corruptedtomaroonsonJamaica),awordthatcametomeanrunawayslaves.53TheSeminoles’refusal tosurrender theirAfricanAmericanmembersledtotheFirstandSecondSeminoleWars(1816-18,1835-42).Whitesattackednot because theywanted theEverglades,which had no economic value to theUnitedStates in the nineteenth century, but to eliminate a refuge for runawayslaves.TheSecondSeminoleWarwasthelongestandcostliestwartheUnitedStates ever fought against Indians.54 The college textbookAmerica: Past andPresenttellswhywefoughtit,puttingthewarinthecontextofslaverevolts:

Themostsustainedandsuccessfuleffortofslavestowintheirfreedomby force of arms took place in Florida between 1835 and 1842 whenhundreds of black fugitives fought in the Second Seminole War

alongsidetheIndianswhohadgiventhemahaven.TheSeminoleswereresistingremovaltoOklahoma,butfortheblackswhotookpart,thewarwasastrugglefortheirownfreedom,andthetreatythatendeditallowedmost of them to accompany their Indian allies to the trans-MississippiWest.

Five of the six new textbooks domention thiswar, but onlyPathways to thePresentvergesontellingthatex-slavesweretherealreasonforit.

Slavery was also perhaps the key factor in the TexasWar (1835-36). Thefreedom for which Davy Crockett, James Bowie, and the rest fought at theAlamowasthefreedomtoownslaves.AssoonasAnglossetuptheRepublicofTexas, its legislature ordered all free black people out of theRepublic.55 Ournext major war, the Mexican War (1846-48), was again driven chiefly bySouthern planterswanting to push the borders of the nearest free land fartherfromtheslavestates.

Probably the clearest index of how slavery affected U.S. foreign policy isprovided by the Civil War, for between 1861 and 1865 we had two foreignpolicies, theUnion’s and the Confederacy’s. TheUnion recognizedHaiti andshared considerable ideological compatibility with postrevolutionary Mexico.The Confederacy threatened to invade Mexico and then welcomed LouisNapoleon’stakeoverofitasaFrenchcolony,becausethatremovedMexicoasastandard-bearer of freedom and a refuge for runaway slaves.56 ConfederatediplomatsalsohadtheireyesonCuba,hadtheywontheCivilWar.

Forourfirstseventyyearsasanation,then,slaverymadeourforeignpolicymore sympathetic with imperialism than with self-determination. Textbookscannotshowtheinfluenceofslaveryonourforeignpolicyiftheyareunwillingtotalkaboutideaslikeracismthatmightmakewhiteslookbad.Whentextbookauthors turn their attention to domestic policy, racism remains similarlyinvisible.Thus,althoughtextbooksdevoteagreatdealofattentiontoStephenA.Douglas,themostimportantleaderoftheDemocraticPartyatmid-century,theysuppresshisracism.RecallthatDouglashadbulldozedwhatcametobecalledtheKansas-NebraskaActthroughCongressin1854.Douglashimself,asenatorfromIllinoisandseekerof thepresidency,wasneither fornoragainst slavery.He mainly wanted the United States to organize territorial governments inKansas and Nebraska, until then Indian land, because he was connected withinterests that wanted to run a railroad through the territory.57 He needed

Southern votes. During most of the 1840s and 1850s, Southern planterscontrolled the Supreme Court, the presidency, and at least one house ofCongress. Emboldened by their power while worried about their decreasingshareof thenation’swhitepopulation,slaveownersagreedtosupport thenewterritoriesonlyifDouglasincludedinthebillaclauseopeningthemtoslavery.Douglas capitulated and incorporatedwhat he called “popular sovereignty” inthebill.ThismeantKansascouldgoslaveifitchoseto,eventhoughitlaynorthof the Missouri Compromise line, set up in 1820 to separate slavery fromfreedom.So,forthatmatter,couldNebraska.TheresultwascivilwarinKansas.

While textbooks do not treat Stephen Douglas as a major hero likeChristopherColumbusorWoodrowWilson,theydodiscusshimwithsympathy.In 1858Douglas ran for reelection againstAbrahamLincoln in a contest thatpresagedtheideologiesthatwoulddominatethetwomajorpartiesforthenextthree decades.58 Accordingly, textbooks give the debates an extraordinaryamountofspace:anaverageofsevenparagraphsandtwopictures.59Authorsofmyearliersampleof textbooksusedthisspaceasif theywerewritingforGQ.AmericanHistorygavethedebatessixteenparagraphs;herearetwoofthem:

Evenwithout his tall “stovepipe” hat, the six-feet, six-inch [the authorhasaddedtwoinches]LincolntoweredovertheLittleGiant.Heworeaformalblacksuit,usuallyrumpledandalwaystooshortforhislongarmsand legs. Douglas was what we would call a flashy dresser. He woreshirtswith ruffles, fancy embroidered vests, a broad felt hat.He had arapid-firewayofspeakingthatcontrastedwithLincoln’sslow,deliberatestyle....

Lincoln’svoicewashighpitched,Douglas’sdeep.Bothhad tohavepowerful lungs to make themselves heard over street noises and thebustleofthecrowds.Theyhadnopublicaddresssystemstohelpthem.

So we learn that Douglas was a flashy dresser and spoke powerfully—butwhere are his ideas? What did he say? All twelve textbooks in my originalsample provided just three sentence fragments fromDouglas himself. Here iseverywordofhis theyprovided:“foreverdividedintofreeandslavestates,asour fathers made it,” “thinks the Negro is his brother,” and “for a day or anhour.” Just twenty-four words in twelve books!While celebrating the “LittleGiant”forhis“powerfulspeech”or“splendidoratory,”ninetextbookssilencedhimcompletely.

Twoof thesixnew textbookssupplyat leasta longersentence fragmentbyDouglas:“Slaverycannotexistadayoranhouranywhere,unlessitissupportedby local police regulations”—Douglas’s so-called Freeport doctrine. HoltAmericanNation provides a longer quotation.WhilePathways to the Presentdoesn’t quote a word, it does summarize: “Douglas supported popularsovereigntyonissuesincludingslavery.”Thusfourrecenttextbooksdotellthatthe debates had something to do with slavery. They need to go further.Douglas’spositionwasnotsovague.Thedebateswere largelyabout raceandthe positionAfricanAmericans should eventually hold in our society. That iswhyPaulAnglechosethetitleCreatedEqual?forhiscentennialeditionofthedebates.60OnJuly9,1858,inChicago,Douglasmadehispositionclear,ashedidrepeatedlythroughoutthatsummer:

Inmyopinionthisgovernmentofoursisfoundedonthewhitebasis.Itwas made by the white man, for the benefit of the white man, to beadministeredbywhitemen....

IamopposedtotakinganystepthatrecognizestheNegromanortheIndianastheequalofthewhiteman.Iamopposedtogivinghimavoicein the administration of the government. Iwould extend to theNegro,and the Indian, and to all dependent races every right, every privilege,andevery immunityconsistentwith thesafetyandwelfareof thewhiteraces;butequalitytheynevershouldhave,eitherpoliticalorsocial,orinanyotherrespectwhatever.

Myfriends,youseethattheissuesaredistinctlydrawn.61

Textbook readers cannot see that the issues are distinctly drawn, however,becauseeventhenewesttextbooksgivenohintofDouglas’sracism.Onlyonebookamongalleighteen,AmericanHistory,quotesDouglason race:“Lincoln‘thinks theNegro ishisbrother,’ theLittleGiantsneered.”Thesesixwords inone book, now out of print, among eighteen textbooks, hardly do justice toDouglasonrace.

Why do textbooks censor Douglas? Since they devote paragraphs to hiswardrobe, it cannot be for lack of space. To be sure, textbook authors rarelyquote anyone. But more particularly, the heroification process seems to beoperatingagain.Douglas’swordsonracemightmakeusthinkbadlyofhim.Solet’sleavethemout.

ComparedtoDouglas,Lincolnwasanidealisticequalitarian,butinsouthernIllinois,arguingwithDouglas,he,too,expressedwhitesupremacistideas.Thus,at thedebate inCharlestonhe said, “I amnot, nor everhavebeen in favorofbringing about the social and political equality of the white and black races[applause]—thatIamnotnoreverhavebeeninfavorofmakingvotersorjurorsof Negroes.” Most textbook authors protect us from a racist Lincoln. By sodoing, they diminish students’ capacity to recognize racism as a force inAmericanlife.ForifLincolncouldberacist,thensomighttherestofusbe.AndifLincolncouldtranscendracism,ashedidonoccasion,thensomighttherestofus.

During theCivilWar,NorthernDemocratscountered theRepublicanchargethat they favored rebellion by professing to be the “whiteman’s party.”Theyprotested thegovernment’s emancipationof slaves in theDistrictofColumbiaanditsdiplomaticrecognitionofHaiti.TheyclaimedRepublicanshad“nothingexcept‘niggeronthebrain.’”TheywereenragedwhentheU.S.armyacceptedAfrican American recruits. And they made race a paramount factor in theircampaigns.

In those days before television, parties held coordinated rallies.On the lastSaturdaybeforetheelection,Democraticsenatorsmightaddresscrowdsineachmajorcity;localofficeholderswouldholdforthinsmallertowns.Eachoftheseralliesfeaturedmusic.Hundredsofthousandsofsongbookswereprintedsothepartyfaithfulmightsingthesamesongscoasttocoast.Afavoritein1864wassungtothetuneof“YankeeDoodleDandy”:

THENEWNATIONALANTHEM

“NIGGERDOODLEDANDY”

YankeeDoodleisnomore,Sunkhisnameandstation;

NiggerDoodletakeshisplace,Andfavorsamalgamation.

CHORUS:NiggerDoodle’sallthego,Ebonyshinsandbandy,

“Loyal”peopleallmustbowToNiggerDoodledandy.

Thewhitebreedisunderpar

Itlacksthericha-romy,Giveussomethingblackastar,Giveus“OldDahomey.”

CHORUS:NiggerDoodle’sallthego,&c.Blubberlipsarekillingsweet,Andkinkyheadsaresplendid;Andoh,itmakessuchbullyfeetTohavetheheelsextended.

CHORUS:NiggerDoodle’sallthego,&c.

Ihavesharedtheselyricswithhundredsofcollegestudentsandscoresofhighschoolhistoryteachers.Togetaudiences to takethewordsseriously,Iusuallytry to lead them in a sing-along.Often even all-white groups refuse.They areshockedbywhattheyread.Nothingintheirhighschoolhistorytextbookshintedthatnationalpoliticswaseverlikethis.

Partlybecausemanypartymembersandleadersdidnotidentifywiththewareffort,when theUnitedStateswon,Democratsemergedas theminorityparty.RepublicanscontrolledReconstruction.Likeslavery,Reconstructionisasubjectonwhichtextbookshaveimprovedsincethecivilrightsmovement.Theearliestaccounts,writtenevenbeforeReconstructionended,portrayedRepublicanstategovernmentsstrugglingtogovernfairlybutconfrontedwithimmenseproblems,not the least being violent resistance from racist ex-Confederates. Textbookswritten between about 1890 and the 1960s, however, painted an unappealingportrait of oppressiveRepublican rule in thepostwarperiod, apicture thatwemightcalltheConfederatemythofReconstruction.Foryearsblackfamilieskeptthe truth about Reconstruction alive. The aging slaves whose stories wererecordedbyWPAwriters in the1930s remainedproudofblacks’ rolesduringReconstruction.SomestillrememberedthenamesofAfricanAmericanselectedtoofficesixtyyearsearlier.“Iknowfolksthinkthebookstellthetruth,”saidaneighty-eight-year-oldformerslave,“buttheyshoredon’t.”62AsthosewhoknewReconstruction from personal experience died off, however, even in the blackcommunitythetextbookviewtookover.

MymostmemorableencounterwiththeConfederatemythofReconstructioncameduringadiscussionwithseventeenfirst-yearstudentsatTougalooCollege,apredominantlyblack school inMississippi, one afternoon in January1970. IwasabouttolaunchintoaunitonReconstruction,andIneededtofindoutwhat

thestudentsalreadyknew.“WhatwasReconstruction?”Iasked.“Whatimagescometoyourmindaboutthatera?”Theclassconsensus:ReconstructionwasthetimewhenAfricanAmericans took over the governing of theSouthern states,includingMississippi.Buttheyweretoosoonoutofslavery,sotheymessedupand reigned corruptly, and whites had to take back control of the stategovernments.

Isatstunned.Somanymajormisconceptionsglaredfromthatstatementthatitwashardtoknowwheretobeginarebuttal.AfricanAmericansnevertookoverthe Southern states.All governorswerewhite, and almost all legislatures hadwhitemajorities throughout Reconstruction.AfricanAmericans did not “messup”;indeed,MississippienjoyedlesscorruptgovernmentduringReconstructionthaninthedecadesimmediatelyafterward.“Whites”didnottakebackcontrolofthe state governments; rather, some white Democrats used force and fraud towrestcontrolfrombiracialRepublicancoalitions.

ForyoungAfricanAmericanstobelievesuchahurtfulmythabouttheirpastseemedtragic.Itinvitedthemtodoubttheirowncapability,sincetheirracehad“messed up” in its one appearance onAmerican history’s center stage. It alsoinvitedthemtoconcludethatitisonlyrightthatwhitesbealwaysincontrol.Yetmy students had merely learned what their textbooks had taught them. Likealmost all Americans who finished high school before the 1970s, they hadencountered theConfederatemythofReconstruction in theirAmericanhistoryclasses.I,too,learneditfrommycollegehistorytextbook.JohnF.KennedyandhisghostwriterretolditintheirportraitofL.Q.C.LamarinProfilesinCourage,whichwonthePulitzerPrize.

Compared to the 1960s, today’s textbooks have vastly improved theirtreatmentsofReconstruction.AllbutfouroftheeighteentextbooksIsurveyedpaintaverydifferentpictureofReconstructionfromGoneWiththeWind.63Nolonger do histories claim that federal troops controlled Southern society for adecadeormore.Nowtheypointoutthatmilitaryruleendedby1868inallbutthreestates.NolongerdotheysaythatallowingAfricanAmericanmentovotesetlooseanorgyoflootingandcorruption.The1961editionofTriumphoftheAmerican Nation condemned Republican rule in the South: “Many of the‘carpetbag’ governments were inefficient, wasteful, and corrupt.” In starkcontrast,the1986editionexplainsthat“Thesouthernreconstructionlegislaturesstartedmany needed and long overdue public improvements . . . strengthenedpubliceducation...spreadthetaxburdenmoreequitably...[and]introduced

overdue reforms in local government and the judicial system.” Among thenewest textbooks, only Boorstin and Kelley still calls CongressionalReconstructiona“vindictiveactthatturnedthestatesintoconqueredprovinces.”

Liketheir treatmentofslavery,most textbooks’newviewofReconstructionrepresentsaseachange,pastdue,muchcloser towhat theoriginalsourcesforthe period reveal, and much less dominated by white supremacy. Theimprovements have continued since the first editionofLies appeared in 1995.Textbooks of the 1980s and early 1990s inadvertently still took a whitesupremacist viewpoint. Their rhetoric made African Americans rather thanwhites the “problem”andassumed that themajor issueofReconstructionwashow to integrate African Americans into the system, economically andpolitically. “Slavery was over,” said The AmericanWay. “But the South wasruinedand theBlackshad tobebrought intoaworking society.”Blackswerealreadyworking,ofcourse.Onewonderswhattheauthorthinkstheyhadbeendoing in slavery!64 Similarly, according toTriumph of the AmericanNation,Reconstruction“meantsolvingtheproblemofbringingblackAmericansintothemainstream of national life.” Triumph supplied an instructive example of themyth of lazy, helpless black folk: “When white planters abandoned theirplantationson islandsoff thecoastofSouthCarolina,blackpeople therewereleft helpless and destitute.” In reality, these black people enlisted in Unionarmies,operated theplantations themselves,andmaderaids into the interior tofreeslavesonmainlandplantations.

This illustration of armed whites raiding a black neighborhood in Memphis,Tennessee, in the 1866 riot, exemplifieswhite-black violence during and afterReconstruction.FortyAfricanAmericansdiedinthisriot;whitesburneddowneveryblackschoolandchurchinthecity.

Today’stextbooksshowAfricanAmericansstrivingtobetterthemselves.Butauthors still soft-pedal thekeyproblemduringReconstruction,whiteviolence.The figures are astounding. The victors of the Civil War executed but oneConfederateofficeholder,HenryWirz,notoriouscommandantofAndersonvilleprison,whilethelosersmurderedhundredsofofficeholdersandotherUnionists,whiteandblack.65InHindsCounty,Mississippi,alone,whiteskilledanaverageofoneAfricanAmericanaday,manyofthemservicemen,duringConfederateReconstruction—the period from 1865 to 1867when ex-Confederates ran thegovernments ofmost Southern states. In Louisiana in the summer and fall of1868, white Democrats killed 1,081 persons, mostly African Americans andwhite Republicans.66 In one judicial district in North Carolina, a Republicanjudgecounted700beatingsand12murders.67Moreover,violencewasonlythemost visible component of a broader pattern of white resistance to blackprogress.

Althoughthenarrativesintextbookshaveimproved,someofthepictureshavenot. Seven of the eighteen textbooks feature this cartoon, “The Solid South”represented as a delicate white woman. She is weighed down by Grant andarmaments stuffed into a carpetbag, propped up by bluecoated soldiers ofoccupation.Twonewtextbooksdoaskstudentstointerpretthecartoon.Thenew

editionofPageantmerely refers to “the carpetbags andbayonets of theGrantadministration”as though theywere fact.Theother four textbooksmerelyusethedrawing to illustrateReconstruction:“TheSouth’sheavyburden,”captionsTriumphoftheAmericanNation.

Attacking education was an important element of the white supremacists’program. “Theopposition toNegro educationmade itself felt everywhere in acombinationnottoallowthefreedmenanyroomorbuildinginwhichaschoolmightbetaught,”saidGen.O.O.Howard,headoftheFreedmen’sBureau.“In1865,1866,and1867mobsofthebaserclassesatintervalsandinallpartsoftheSouth occasionally burned school buildings and churches used as schools,flogged teachers or drove them away, and in a number of instancesmurderedthem.”68

Almost all textbooks include at least a paragraph onwhite violence duringReconstruction.Mosttellhowthatviolence,coupledwithfailurebytheUnitedStatestoimplementcivilrightslaws,playedamajorroleinendingRepublicanstate governments in the South, thus ending Reconstruction. But, overall,textbook treatments of Reconstruction still miss the point: the problem ofReconstructionwas integratingConfederates, not AfricanAmericans, into theneworder.Assoonasthefederalgovernmentstoppedaddressingtheproblemofracistwhites,Reconstructionended.Sincetextbooksfindithardtosayanythingreally damaging about white people, their treatments of why Reconstructionfailedstilllackclarity.

Into the 1990s, American history textbooks still presented the end ofReconstruction as a failureofAfricanAmericans.Triumph in1990explained,“Other northerners grewweary of the problems of black southerners and lesswillingtohelpthemlearntheirnewrolesascitizens.”TheAmericanAdventureechoed:“Millionsofex-slavescouldnotbeconverted in tenyears into literatevoters, or successful politicians, farmers, and businessmen.” Actually, blackvoters votedmore wisely thanmost white voters. To vote Republican duringReconstructionwasintheirclearinterest,andmostAfricanAmericansdid,butsomewerewillingtovoteforthosewhiteDemocratswhomadesincereeffortsto win their support. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of white Southernersblindly voted for white Democrats simply because they stood for whitesupremacy.

BecauseI,too,“learned”thatAfricanAmericansweretheunsolvedproblem

ofReconstruction,readingGunnarMyrdal’sAnAmericanDilemmawasaneye-openingexperienceforme.Myrdalintroducedhis1944bookbydescribingthechangeinviewpointhewasforcedtomakeasheconductedhisresearch.

Whenthepresentinvestigatorstartedhisinquiry,thepreconceptionwasthatithadtobefocusedontheNegropeople....Butasheproceededinhis studies into theNegroproblem, it became increasingly evident thatlittle, if anything, could be scientifically explained in terms of thepeculiarities of the Negroes themselves. . . . The Negro problem ispredominantlyawhite...problem.69

This is precisely the understandingmany nonblacks still need to achieve. Itgoes against our culture. As one college student said to me, “You’ll neverbelieve all the stuff I learned in high school about Reconstruction—like, itwasn’t so bad, it set up school systems.Then I sawGoneWith theWind andlearned the truth about Reconstruction!” What is identified as the problemdeterminestheframeofrhetoricandsolutionssought.Myrdal’sinsight,tofocuson whites, is critical to understanding Reconstruction. Textbooks still fail tocountertheConfederatemythofReconstruction,sowellportrayedinGoneWiththeWind,withananalysisthathasequalpower.

Focusing onwhite racism is evenmore central to understanding the periodRayfordLogancalled“thenadirofAmericanracerelations”:theyearsbetween1890 and 1940 when African Americans were put back into second-classcitizenship.70DuringthistimewhiteAmericans,NorthandSouth,joinedhandsto restrict black civil and economic rights.Unfortunately,mostAmericans donot even know the term, and not one of the textbooks I examined used it.Instead,theybreaktheperiodintovariouseras,mostoftheminaccurateaswellas inconsequential,suchasGayNinetiesorRoaringTwenties.DuringtheGayNineties, for example, the United States suffered its second-worst depressionever, as well as the Pullman and Homestead strikes and other major labordisputes.Thus“GayNineties”leadslogicallytothequery,“Gayforwhom?”

Althoughnoneusestheterm,mosttextbooksdoprovidesometwigsaboutthenadir, while failing to provide an overview of the forest. The finest overallcoverage,inAmericanHistory,summarizestheperiodinasectionentitled“TheLongNightBegins”:“After theCompromiseof1877 thewhitecitizensof theNorth turned their backs on the black citizens of the South. Gradually thesouthern states broke their promise to treat blacks fairly. Step by step they

deprivedthemoftherighttovoteandreducedthemtothestatusofsecond-classcitizens.” American History then spells out the techniques—restrictions onvoting, segregation in public places, and lynchings—which Southern whitesusedtomaintainwhitesupremacy.

Triumphof theAmericanNation,on theotherhand, sumsup in theseblandwords:“Reconstructionleftmanymajorproblemsunsolvedandcreatednewandequallyurgentproblems.Thiswas true even thoughmany forces in theNorthandtheSouthcontinuedworkingtoreconcilethetwosections.”Thesesentencesaresovagueastobecontent-free.FrancesFitzGeraldusedanearlierversionofthis passage to attack what she called the “problems” approach to Americanhistory. “These ‘problems’ seem to crop up everywhere,” she deadpanned.“History in these texts is amass of problems.”71 Five hundred pages later inTriumph,whentheauthorsreachthecivilrightsmovement,racerelationsagainbecomesa “problem.”Theauthorsmakenoconnectionbetween the failureoftheUnitedStatestoguaranteeblackcivilrightsin1877andtheneedforacivilrights movement a century later. Nothing ever causes anything. Things justhappen.

Infact,duringReconstructionandthenadir,abattleragedforthesouloftheSouthern white racist and in a way for that of the whole nation. There is aparallel in the reconstruction ofGermany afterWorldWar II, a battle for thesouloftheGermanpeople,abattlethatNazismlost(wehope).ButintheUnitedStates, asAmericanHistory tells, racismwon. Between 1890 and 1907 everySouthern and border state “legally” disenfranchised the vast majority of itsAfrican American voters. Lynchings rose to an all-time high. In 1896 theSupremeCourtupheldsegregationinPlessyv.Ferguson.

Unfortunately, the textbooks mostly misunderstand segregation. Therefore,theymisreadBrown,the1954SupremeCourtdecisionthatwouldbegintoundosegregation.“Theproblem,however,”inthewordsofAmericanJourney,“wasthat the facilitieswere separatebut innowayequal.”TheAmericansconcurs:“Without exception, the facilities reserved for whites were superior to thosereservedfornonwhites.”Whileitwastruethat“separate”rarelymeant“equal,”that was never the crux of the matter. As the Supreme Court said inBrown,“[Some] Negro and white schools involved have been equalized or are beingequalized, with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries ofteachers, and other ‘tangible’ factors. Our decision, therefore, cannot turn onmerelyacomparisonofthesetangiblefactors.”

OnlyBoorstinandKelleygetsBrownright:“Theproblem,ofcourse,wasthattherereallycouldneverbesuchathingas‘separatebutequal’facilitiesforthetwo races.When any racewas kept apart from another, itwas deprived of itsequality—whichmeantitsrighttobetreatedlikeallothercitizens.”Textbooksneed to offer the sociological definition of segregation: a system of racialetiquettethatkeepstheoppressedgroupseparatefromtheoppressorwhenbotharedoingequaltasks,likelearningthemultiplicationtables,butallowsintimatecloseness when the tasks are hierarchical, like cooking or cleaning for whiteemployers. The rationale of segregation thus implies that the oppressed are apariah people. “Unclean!” was the caste message of every “colored” waterfountain,waitingroom,andcourtroomBible.“Inferior”wastheimplicationofeveryschoolthatexcludedblacks(andoftenMexicans,NativeAmericans,and“Orientals”).Thisideologywasborninslaveryandremainedalivetorationalizethe second-class citizenship imposed on African Americans afterReconstruction.Thisstigmaiswhyseparatecouldnevermeanequal,evenwhenblack facilitiesmightbenewerorphysically superior.Elementsof this stigmasurvive toharm theself-imageofsomeAfricanAmericans today,whichhelpsexplain why Caribbean blacks who immigrate to the United States oftenoutperformblackAmericans.72

Duringthenadir,segregationincreasedeverywhere.JackieRobinsonwasnotthe firstblackplayer inmajor leaguebaseball.Blackshadplayed in themajorleagues in thenineteenth century, but by1889whiteshad forced themout. In1911theKentuckyDerbyeliminatedblackjockeysaftertheywonfifteenofthefirsttwenty-eightderbies.73ParticularlyintheSouth,whitesattackedtherichestandmostsuccessfulAfricanAmericans, justas theyhad themostacculturatedNativeAmericans, soupwardmobilityofferednowayout forblacksbutonlymadethemmoreofatarget.IntheNorthaswellasintheSouth,whitesforcedAfrican Americans from skilled occupations and even unskilled jobs such aspostalcarriers.74EventuallyoursystemofsegregationspreadtoSouthAfrica,toBermuda,andeventoEuropean-controlledenclavesinChinaandIndia.

OnceNorthernersdidnothingtostopwhatcametobecalledthe“Mississippiplan”—that state’s 1890 Constitution that “legally” (but in defiance of theFourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments) removed African Americans fromcitizenship—theybecamecomplicitwithit.AllotherSouthernstatesandplacesas far away as Oklahoma followed suit by 1907, and the nation acquiesced.Americanpopular culture evolved to rationalizewhites’ retractionof civil and

political rights fromAfricanAmericans. TheBronxZoo exhibited anAfricanbehind bars, like a gorilla.75 Theatrical productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabinplayedthroughoutthenadir,butsincethenovel’sindictmentofslaverywasnolongercongenialtoanincreasinglyracistwhitesociety,rewriteschangedUncleTom from amartyrwho gave his life to protect his people into a sentimentaldope who was loyal to kindly masters. In the black community,Uncle Tomeventually came tomean anAfricanAmericanwithout integritywho sells outhis people’s interests. In the 1880s and 1890s, minstrel shows featuringbumbling, mislocuting whites in blackface grew wildly popular from NewEngland to California. By presenting heavily caricatured images of AfricanAmericanswhowere happy on the plantation and lost and incompetent off it,theseshowsdemeanedblackability.Minstrelsongssuchas“CarryMeBacktoOldVirginny,”“OldBlackJoe,”and“MyOldKentuckyHome”toldwhitesthatHarriet Beecher Stowe gotUncle Tom’s Cabin all wrong: blacks really likedslavery.Second-classcitizenshipwasappropriateforsuchasorrypeople.76

Textbooksnowabandoned their idealisticpresentationsofReconstruction infavor of the Confederatemyth, for if blacks were inferior, then the historicalperiodinwhichtheyenjoyedequalrightsmusthavebeendominatedbywrong-thinkingAmericans,surelymotivatedbyprivategain.Vaudevillecontinuedtheminstrel show portrayals of silly, lying, chicken-stealing black idiots. So didearly silent movies. Some movies made even more serious charges againstAfricanAmericans:D.W.Griffith’sracistepicBirthofaNation showed themobsessedwithinterracialsexanddebasedbycorruptwhitecarpetbaggers.

ThesecartoonsbyThomasNastmirrortherevivalofracismintheNorth.Left,AndNotThisMan?fromHarper’sWeekly,August5,1865,providesevidenceof Nast’s idealism in the early days after the CivilWar. Nine years later, asReconstruction was beginning to wind down, Nast’s images of AfricanAmericansreflectedtheincreasingracismofthetimes.OppositeisColoredRulein a Reconstructed (?) State, from the same journal, March 14, 1874. Suchidiotic legislators could obviously be discounted as the white Northcontemplatedgivinguponblackcivilrights.

In politics, the white electorate had become so racist by 1892 that theDemocraticcandidate,GroverCleveland,wontheWhiteHousepartlybytarringRepublicanswiththeirattemptstoguaranteecivilrights toAfricanAmericans,therebyconjuringfearsof“Negrodomination”inNorthernaswellasSouthernwhite minds. From the Civil War to the end of the century, not a singleDemocratinCongress,representingtheNorthortheSouth,evervotedinfavorofanycivilrightslegislation.TheSupremeCourtwasworse:itssegregationistdecisions from1896 (Plessy) throughat least 1927 (Ricev.GongLum, whichbarredChinesefromwhiteschools)toldthenationthatwhiteswerethemasterrace. We have seen howWoodrowWilson won the presidency in 1912 andproceeded to segregate the federal government. Aided by Birth of a Nation,whichopenedin1915,theKuKluxKlanrosetoitszenith,boastingmorethanfour million members. For a time the KKK openly dominated the state

governments of Georgia, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon, and it probablyinductedPresidentWarrenG.HardingasamemberinaWhiteHouseceremony.DuringtheWilsonandHardingadministrations,perhapsonehundredraceriotstook place, more than in any other period since Reconstruction.White mobskilledAfricanAmericansacrosstheUnitedStates.Someoftheseevents,likethe1919 Chicago riot, are well-known. Others, such as the 1921 riot in Tulsa,Oklahoma, in which whites dropped dynamite from airplanes onto a blackghetto, killingmore than seventy-fivepeople anddestroyingmore than elevenhundredhomes,havecompletelyvanishedfromourhistorybooks.77

Notonly industrial jobsbut evenmoving serviceswere reserved forwhites insomecities.

It is almost unimaginable how racist the United States became during thenadir. FromMyakka City, Florida, toMedford, Oregon, whites attacked theirblackneighbors,drivingthemoutandleavingthetownsall-white.Communitieswithnoblackpopulationspassedordinancesorresolvedinformally to threatenAfricanAmericannewcomerswithdeathiftheyremainedovernight.Thuswerecreatedthousandsof“sundowntowns”—probablyamajorityofallincorporatedcommunities in Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, and several other Northern states.Sundown towns ranged in size from DeLand, Illinois, population 500, toAppleton, Wisconsin, 57,000, and Warren, Michigan, almost 200,000. Many

suburbskeptoutJews;intheWestmanytownsexcludedChinese,Mexican,orNative Americans. Entire areas—most of the Ozarks, the Cumberlands, theUpper Peninsula of Michigan—became almost devoid of African Americans.Withinmetropolitanareas,whitespushedblacksintowhatnowbecameknownas“blackneighborhoods”ascitiesgrewincreasinglysegregatedresidentially!78

African Americans were excluded from juries throughout the South and inmany places in theNorth, which usuallymeant they could forget about legalredress even for obvious wrongs like assault, theft, or arson by whites.Lynchings offer evidence of how defenseless blacks were, for the definingcharacteristicofalynchingisthatthemurdertakesplaceinpublic,soeveryoneknowswhodid it, yet thecrimegoesunpunished.During thenadir, lynchingstookplaceasfarnorthasDuluth.Onceagain,asDredScotthadproclaimedin1857, “aNegrohadno rights awhitemanwasbound to respect.”Every timeAfrican Americans interacted with European Americans, no matter howinsignificantthecontact,theyhadtobeawareofhowtheypresentedthemselves,lesttheygiveoffensebylookingsomeoneintheeye,forgettingtosay“sir,”orotherwise stepping out of “their place.” Always, the threat of overwhelmingforcelayjustbeneaththesurface.79

The nadir left AfricanAmericans in a dilemma.An “exodus” to form newblackcommunitiesintheWestdidnotleadtorealfreedom.Migrationnorthledonly to segregated urban ghettoes. Concentrating on Booker T.Washington’splan for economic improvementwhile forgoingcivil andpolitical rights couldnot work, because economic gains could not be maintained without civil andpoliticalrights.80“BacktoAfrica”wasnotpracticable.

Many African Americans lost hope; family instability and crime increased.ThisperiodofAmerican life,not slavery,marked thebeginningofwhatsomesocial scientists have called the “tangle of pathology” in African Americansociety.81Indeed,somehistoriansdatelowblackmoraletoevenlaterperiods,suchasthegreatmigrationtoNortherncities(1918-70),theDepression(1929-39),orchangesinurbanlifeandoccupationalstructureafterWorldWarII.Thistangle was the result, not the cause, of the segregation and discriminationAfrican Americans faced. Black jockeys and mail carriers were shut out, notbecausetheywereinadequate,butbecausetheysucceeded.

Recenttextbookspointoutmoretreesinthenadirforest.FromTheAmericanWay students learn that “By the early 1900s, [white workers] had convinced

most labor unions not to admit Blacks.” The Americans tells that “AfricanAmericans found themselves forced into segregated neighborhoods” in theNorth. Boorstin and Kelley lets Woodrow Wilson off the hook for hisadministration’s extreme racismbut does blameAttorneyGeneralA.MitchellPalmerforinciting“excitablecitizens”to“venttheirfearsandtheirhatesagainstany Americans who seemed ‘different,’ ” including “blacks, Jews, andCatholics.”Severalbookstellaboutlynchings,althoughnoneincludesapicture.ThreenewtextbooksmentiontheriotinSpringfield,Illinois,in1908,inwhichwhitesdroveouttwo-thirdsoftheblackpopulation,tryingtomakeSpringfieldasundowntown.Allofthenewertextsmentiontheriseofthe“second”KuKluxKlan.

Ontheotherhand,tentextbooksimplyorstatethatJackieRobinsonwas“thefirstAfricanAmericantoplaymajorleaguebaseball,”inthewordsofAmericanJourney,eventhoughhewasn’t.Studentsnever learnthatblacksplayedin themajor leagues until the nadir, so the usual textbook story line—generallyuninterrupted progress to the present—stays in place. None of the books thattreat the Springfield riot tells that its aim was to drive out the entire blackpopulation of the city. No textbook even mentions sundown towns. TheAmericansnotesthattheProgressives“didlittle”forAfricanAmericans,whichhardly does justice to the movement that removed black aldermen from citycouncils across the nation by enacting at-large voting. Current authors doemphasizethatAfricanAmericanswerenotmerevictimsbutdidrespondtothenewoppressionthatsurroundedthem.Intheprocess,however,Journeygoestoofar.“AfricanAmericansrosetothechallengeofachievingequality,”itassuresus; subsequent subheadings are “Equality for AfricanAmericans” and “OtherSuccesses.” No nadir here! And none of the textbooks that do more-or-lessrecognizethenadireveranalyzesthecausesoftheworsening.

Textbookauthorswouldnothavetoinventtheirdescriptionsofthenadirfromscratch.AfricanAmericans have left a rich and bitter legacy from the period.Studentswho encounter RichardWright’s narrative of his childhood inBlackBoy, read IdaB.Wells’sdescriptionofa lynching inTheRedRecord,orsingaloudBigBillBroonzy’s“IfYou’reBlack,GetBack!”cannotbutunderstandthe plight of a people envisioning a narrowing of their options. No book canconvey thedepthsof theblackexperiencewithout includingmaterial from theoppressed group. Yet not one textbook in my original sample let AfricanAmericansspeakforthemselvesabouttheconditionstheyfaced.

It is also crucial that students realize that the discrimination confrontingAfrican Americans during the nadir (and afterward) was national, not justSouthern.Fewtextbookspointthisout.Therefore,mostofmyfirst-yearcollegestudentshavenoideathatinmanylocalesuntilafterWorldWarII, theNorth,too,was segregated: that blacks could not buy houses in communities aroundMinneapolis, could notwork in the construction trades in Philadelphia,wouldnot be hired as department store clerks in Chicago, and so on.As late as the1990s and 2000s, some Northern suburbs still effectively barred AfricanAmericans.Sodid hundreds of independent run-down townsmore thanhalf acenturyaftertheBrowndecision.

EvenTheAmericanAdventureforgetsitsowngoodcoverageofthenadirandelsewhere offers this simplistic view of the period: “The years 1880-1910seemedfullofcontradictions....DuringReconstructionmanypeopletriedhardto help the black people in the South.Then, for years,mostwhiteAmericanspaid little attention to the blacks. Little by little, however, there grew a newconcernforthem.”Thetroubleis,manywhitehighschoolgraduatessharethisworldview.Evenifwhiteconcernforblackshasbeenonlysporadic,theywouldargue, why haven’t African Americans shaped up in the hundred-plus yearssinceReconstructionended?Afterall,immigrantgroupsdidn’thaveeverythinghandedtothemonaplatter,either.

Lynchmobsoftenposedforthecamera.Theyshowednofearofbeingidentifiedbecausetheyknewnowhitejurywouldconvictthem.Mississippi:ConflictandChange, a revisionist state history textbook I co-wrote, was rejected by theMississippiStateTextbookBoardpartlybecauseitincludedthisphotograph.Atthe trial that ensued, a rating committeemember stated thatmaterial like thiswouldmakeithardforateachertocontrolherstudents,especiallya“whiteladyteacher” in a predominantly black class.At this point the judge took over thequestioning.“Didn’tlynchingshappeninMississippi?”heasked.Yes,admittedtheratingcommitteemember,butitwasallsolongago,whydwellonitnow?“It is a history book, isn’t it?” asked the judge, who eventually ruled in thebook’sfavor.Noneoftheeighteentextbooksinmysampleincludesapictureofalynching.Ihastentoreassurethatnoclassroomriotsresultedfromourbookorthisphotograph.

Itistruethatsomeimmigrantgroupsfacedharshdiscrimination,fromtheNO

IRISHNEEDAPPLYsigns inBoston to the lynchingof ItalianAmericans inNewOrleans to thepogromsagainstChineseworkcamps inCalifornia.Somewhite suburban communities in the North shut out Jews and Catholics untilrecent years. Nonetheless, the segregation and physical violence aimed atAfrican Americans has been of a higher order of magnitude. If AfricanAmericans in the nadir had experienced only white indifference, as TheAmerican Adventure implies, rather than overt violent resistance, they couldhavecontinuedtowinKentuckyDerbies,delivermail,andevenbuyhousesinwhiteneighborhoods.Theirproblemwasnotblackfailureorwhiteindifference—itwaswhiteracism.

Although formal racial discrimination grows increasingly rare, as youngAmericans grow up, they cannot avoid coming up against the rift of racerelations. They will encounter predominantly black athletic teams cheered bypredominantlywhitecheerleadersontelevision,self-segregateddiningroomsoncollege campuses, and arguments about affirmative action in the workplace.Morethananyothersocialvariable(exceptsex),racewilldeterminewhomtheymarry.Most of their friendship networkswill remain segregated by race, andmost churches, lodges, and other social organizationswill be overwhelminglyeitherblackornonblack.The ethnic incidents and race riotsof tomorrowwillprovokestillmoreagonizingdebate.

Sincethenadir, theclimateofracerelationshasimproved,owingespeciallytothecivilrightsmovement.Butmassiveracialdisparitiesremain,inequalitiesthatcanonlybebrieflysummarizedhere.In2000,AfricanAmericanandNativeAmerican median family incomes averaged only 62 percent of white familyincome;Hispanicsaveragedabout64percentasmuchaswhites.Moneycanbeusedtobuymanythingsinoursociety,fromhigherSATscorestotheabilitytoswim, and African American, Hispanic, and Native American families lag intheiraccesstoallthosethings.Ultimately,moneybuyslifeitself,intheformofbetter nutrition and health care and freedom fromdanger and stress. It shouldtherefore come as no surprise that in 2000, African Americans and NativeAmericanshadmedianlifeexpectanciesatbirththatweresixyearsshorterthanwhites’.

Onaverage,AfricanAmericansstillhaveworsehousing,lowerscoresonIQtests,andhigherpercentagesofyoungmeninjail.ThesneakingsuspicionthatAfricanAmericansmight be inferior goes unchallenged in the hearts of someblacksandmanywhites.Itisalltooeasytoblamethevictimandconcludethat

people of color are themselves responsible for being on the bottom.Withoutcausalhistoricalanalysis,theseracialdisparitiesareimpossibletoexplain.

WhentextbooksmakeracisminvisibleinAmericanhistory,theyobstructouralreadypoorabilitytoseeitinthepresent.Theclosesttheycometoanalysisistopresentavague feelingofoptimism: in race relations, as ineverything,oursocietyisconstantlygettingbetter.Weusedtohaveslavery;nowwedon’t.Weusedtohavelynchings;nowwedon’t.Baseballusedtobeallwhite;nowitisn’t.The notion of progress suffuses textbook treatments of black-white relations,implyingthatracerelationshavesomehowsteadilyimprovedontheirown.Thischeery optimism only compounds the problem, because whites can infer thatracism is over. “The U.S. has done more than any other nation in history toprovideequalrightsforall,”TheAmericanTraditionassuresus.Ofcourse, itsauthors have not seriously considered the levels of human rights in theNetherlands,Lesotho,orCanadatoday,orinChoctawsocietyin1800,becausetheydon’tmeantheirdeclarationasaseriousstatementofcomparativehistory—itisjustethnocentriccheerleading.

High school students “have a gloomy view of the state of race relations inAmerica today,” according to nationwide polls. Students of all racialbackgrounds brood about the subject.82 Another poll reveals that for the firsttimeinthiscentury,youngwhiteadultshavelesstolerantattitudestowardblackAmericansthanthoseoverthirty.Onereasonisthat“theunder-30generationispathetically ignorant of recent American history.”83 Too young to haveexperiencedorwatched thecivil rightsmovementas ithappened, theseyoungpeople have no understanding of the past and present workings of racism inAmericansociety.

Educatorsjustifyteachinghistorybecauseitgivesusperspectiveonthepresent.Ifthereisoneissueinthepresenttowhichauthorsshouldrelatethehistorytheytell, the issue is racism. But as long as history textbooks make white racisminvisible in the twentieth century, neither they nor the studentswho use themwillbeabletoanalyzeracerelationsintelligentlyinthetwenty-first.

6.

JOHNBROWNANDABRAHAMLINCOLN

THEINVISIBILITYOFANTIRACISMINAMERICANHISTORYTEXTBOOKS

It is not only radical or currently unfashionable ideasthat thetexts leaveout—it isall ideas, includingthoseoftheirheroes.

—FRANCESFITZGERALD1

You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearlydisposedofnow.Butthisquestionisstilltobesettled—thisNegroquestion,Imean;theendofthatisnotyet.

—JOHNBROWN,18592

Iamhere topleadhiscausewithyou. Ipleadnot forhislife,butforhischaracter—hisimmortallife;andsoit becomes your cause wholly, and is not his in theleast.

—HENRYDAVIDTHOREAU,“APLEAFORCAPTAINJOHNBROWN,”18593

Weshallneedalltheanti-slaveryfeelinginthecountry,andmore;youcangohomeandtrytobringthepeople

toyourviews,andyoumaysayanythingyoulikeaboutme, if that will help. . . . When the hour comes fordealingwith slavery, I trust Iwillbewilling todomydutythoughitcostmylife.

—ABRAHAMLINCOLNTOABOLITIONISTUNITARIANMINISTERS,18624

PERHAPSTHEMOST tellingcriticismFrancesFitzGeraldmade inher1979surveyofAmericanhistorytextbooks,AmericaRevised,wasthattheyleaveoutideas. As presented by textbooks of the 1970s, “American political life wascompletelymindless,”sheobserved.5

Whywouldtextbookauthorsavoideventhoseideaswithwhichtheyagree?Takingideasseriouslydoesnotfitwiththerhetoricalstyleoftextbooks,whichpresentseventssoas tomake themseemforeordainedalonga lineofconstantprogress.Includingideaswouldmakehistorycontingent:thingscouldgoeitherway, and have on occasion. The “right” people, armedwith the “right” ideas,have not always won. When they didn’t, the authors would be in theembarrassing position of having to disapprove of an outcome in the past.Including ideas would introduce uncertainty. This is not textbook style.Textbooksunfoldhistorywithoutrealdramaorsuspense,onlymelodrama.

Onthesubjectofracerelations,JohnBrown’sstatementthat“thisquestionisstill to be settled” seems almost as relevant today, and almost as ominous, aswhenhespokein1859.Theoppositeofracismisantiracism,ofcourse,orwhatwemightcallracialidealismorequalitarianism,anditisstillnotclearwhetheritwillprevail.Inthisstruggle,ourhistorytextbooksofferlittlehelp.Justastheyunderplay white racism, they also neglect racial idealism. In so doing, theydeprivestudentsofpotential rolemodels tocalluponas they try tobridge thenewfaultlinesthatwillspreadoutinthefuturefromthegreatriftinourpast.

Since ideas and ideologies played an especially important role in the CivilWar era, American history textbooks give a singularly inchoate view of thatstruggle. Justas textbooks treat slaverywithout racism, they treatabolitionismwithoutmuchidealism.6Considerthemostradicalwhiteabolitionistofthemall,JohnBrown.

ThetreatmentofBrown,likethetreatmentofslaveryandReconstruction,haschangedinAmericanhistorytextbooks.From1890toabout1970,JohnBrownwas insane.Before 1890 hewas perfectly sane, and after 1970 he has slowlybeenregaininghissanity.Beforereviewingsixmoretextbooksin2006-07,Ihadimaginedthattheywouldmaintainthistrend,portrayingBrown’sactionssoastorenderthematleastintelligibleifnotintelligent.IntheirtreatmentofBrown,however,thenewtextbooksdon’tdiffermuchfromthoseofthe1980s,soIshalldiscussthemalltogether.SinceBrownhimselfdidnotchangeafterhisdeath—except to molder more—his mental health in our textbooks provides aninadvertent indexof the levelofwhite racism inour society.Perhapsournewtextbooks suggest that race relationscirca2007arenotmuchbetter thancirca1987.

In the eighteen textbooks I reviewed, Brown makes two appearances:Pottawatomie,Kansas,andHarpersFerry,Virginia.Recallthatthe1854Kansas-Nebraska Act tried to resolve the question of slavery through “popularsovereignty.” The practical result of leaving the slavery decision to whoeversettled inKansaswasan ideologicallymotivated settlementcraze.Northernersrushed to live and farm in Kansas Territory and make it “free soil.” FewerSouthern planters moved to Kansas with their slaves, but slave owners fromMissouri repeatedly crossed theMissouri River to vote in territorial electionsandtoestablishareignofterrortodriveoutthefree-soilfarmers.InMay1856hundredsofpro-slavery“borderruffians,”astheycametobecalled,raidedthefree-soiltownofLawrence,Kansas,killingtwopeople,burningdownthehotel,anddestroyingtwoprintingpresses.Anoldertextbook,TheAmericanTradition,describes Brown’s action at Pottawatomie flatly: “In retaliation, a militantabolitionist named John Brown led a midnight attack on the proslaverysettlement of Pottawatomie. Five people were killed by Brown and hisfollowers.”The2006editionofTheAmericanPageantprovidesamuchfulleraccount,butonethatisfarfromneutral.

The fanatical figure of John Brown now stalked upon the Kansasbattlefield. Spare, gray-bearded, and iron-willed, he was obsessivelydedicatedtotheabolitionistcause.Thepowerofhisglitteringgrayeyeswassuch,soheclaimed, thathisstarecouldforceadogorcat toslinkoutofa room.Becoming involved indubiousdealings, includinghorsestealing,hemovedtoKansasfromOhiowithapartofhislargefamily.Brooding over the recent attack on Lawrence, “Old Brown” of

Osawatomie ledabandofhis followers toPottawatomieCreek inMay1856.Theretheyliterallyhackedtopiecesfivesurprisedmen,presumedto be proslaveryites. This fiendish butchery besmirched the free-soilcauseandbroughtviciousretaliationfromtheproslaveryforces.

Pageant’s prose is typical of bookswritten during the nadir of race relations,1890-1940 (whenmostwhiteAmericans, including historians, felt that blacksshould not have equal rights), and comes as something of a shock at thebeginning of the twenty-first century. In this rendering, those who fought forblackequalityhadtobewrongheaded.

Indeed, the first edition of this textbook came out in 1956, long before thechanges wrought by the civil rights movement had any chance to percolatethrough our culture and influence the writing of our history textbooks. Thechoiceoflanguage—from“fanaticalfigure”and“dubiousdealings”to“fiendishbutchery”—ishardlyobjective.Oneman’s“stalk” isanother’s“walk.”Bias isalso evident in the choice of details included and omitted. The accountthroughout makes Northerners the initial aggressors, omitting mention of theearliermurders by pro-slaverySoutherners.Actually, free-staters, being in themajority,hadtriedtowinKansasdemocraticallyandlegally;itwaspro-slaveryforceswhohadused terrorand threats to try tocontrol thestate.No readerofPageant would guess that pro-slavery men had recently killed five free-statesettlers,includingthetwoslainintheLawrenceraid.NorhadBrownmovedtoKansas“withhislargefamily”;rather,hehadmovedtotheAdirondacks,hopinghis sonswould joinhim there,but fivesonsand their families insteadwent toKansas, hoping to farm in peace. They then asked their father for aid whenthreatenedbytheirpro-slaveryneighbors.Othererrorsinclude“presumedtobeproslaveryites”(theywere),and“literallyhackedtopieces”(theyweren’t).7

Ofalleighteentextbooks,anotherofthenewbooks,PathwaystothePresent,isthemostsympathetictoBrownbutnevergoesbeyondneutrality.ItcompactlydescribesBrown’sHarpersFerryraid:

OnOctober16,1859,theformerKansasraiderJohnBrownandasmallgroupofmenattackedthefederalarsenalatHarpersFerry,Virginia....Brownandhis followers hoped to seize theweapons andgive them toenslavedpeopletostartaslaveuprising.

United States troops under the command of Colonel Robert E. Leecornered anddefeatedBrown’smen.Convicted of treason,Brownwas

sentenced tobehanged. Justbeforehis execution,hewrote anote thatwouldprovetobealltooaccurate:“IJohnBrownamnowquitecertainthat the crimesof this guilty landwill neverbepurged away, butwithblood.”

Eightotherbooks,newandolder,arenegative,althoughtheydon’timplythathewascrazy.Theothernineareopenlyhostile.Several textbooks, includingfourofthesixrecentones,emphasizetheclaimthatnoslavesactuallyjoinedBrown.BoorstinandKelleymakesthepointatlength:“Thepartyforcibly‘freed’about30slaves.Takingthesereluctantpeoplewiththem,Brownandhismenretreatedto the arsenal. Ironically, the first person to die in the affair—killed by JohnBrown and his men—was an already-free black gunned down by these‘liberators.’”

TheUnitedDaughtersoftheConfederacy(UDC)wouldlovetheseaccounts,because they can be taken to imply thatAfricanAmericans had no interest infreedom.TheUDCerectedamonumentinHarpersFerrytoHaywoodShepherd,thefreeblackmanreferredtobyBoorstinandKelley.Atitsdedicationin1931,theyclaimedhewas“representativeofNegroesoftheneighborhood,whowouldnot take part.” But this is bad history. Hannah Geffert and Jean Libby haveshownthatBrowndrewconsiderablesupportfromenslavedAfricanAmericansaround Harpers Ferry. His men armed the thirty mentioned by Boorstin andKelley,includingsomewhocamefromnearbyplantationsthattheraidersnevervisited.8 These newly freed men then stopped the eastbound passenger train,guarded it, helped the raiders find other slave owners, and probably killed anarmedwhite residentof the townwho refused tohaltwhenchallenged. (Aftertheraidthestateindictedelevenofthemfortheseactions.)Wellaftertheraid,localAfricanAmericans continued the resistance to slavery thatBrown’s raidhad triggered: Libby notes that many slaves from the area were listed as“fugitive”inthe1860census,and“thebarnsofallofthejurorsofJohnBrown’strial were burned—a time-honored signal of revolution.” 9 Thus, the UDCinterpretation that textbooks supply, implying that the slaves themselveswerenotsympathetictothecauseofabolition,issimplyinaccurate.

FourtextbooksstilllingerintheformererawhenBrown’sactionsprovedhimmad.“JohnBrownwasalmostcertainlyinsane,”opinesAmericanHistory.TheAmericanWaytellsawhopper:“[L]aterBrownwasprovedtobementallyill.”The 2006 American Pageant, like its predecessor, characterizes Brown as

“deranged,” “gaunt,” “grim,” and “terrible,” says that “thirteen of his nearrelativeswere regardedas insane, includinghismotherandgrandmother,”andterms the Harpers Ferry raid a “mad exploit.” Other books finesse the sanityissuebycallingBrownmerely“fanatical.”Notoneauthor,oldornew,hasanysympathyforthemanortakesanypleasureinhisidealsandactions.

For thebenefitof readerswho, likeme,grewupreading thatBrownwasatleast fanatic if not crazed, let’s consider the evidence. To be sure, some ofBrown’s lawyers and relatives, hoping to save his neck, suggested an insanitydefense. But no one who knew Brown thought him crazy. He favorablyimpressedpeoplewhospokewithhimafterhiscapture,includinghisjailerandeven reporters writing for Democratic newspapers, which supported slavery.GovernorWiseofVirginiacalledhim“amanofclearhead”afterBrowngotthebetterofhiminaninformalinterview.“Theyarethemselvesmistakenwhotakehim to be a madman,” Governor Wise said. In his message to the Virginialegislature he said Brown showed “quick and clear perception,” “rationalpremisesandconsecutivereasoning,”“composureandself-possession.”10

After1890,textbookauthorsinferredBrown’smadnessfromhisplan,whichadmittedly was far-fetched. Never mind that John Brown himself prescientlytoldFrederickDouglassthattheventurewouldmakeastunningimpactevenifitfailed.Nor that his twenty-odd followers can hardly all be considered crazed,too.11Rather,wemust recognize that the insanitywithwhich historians havecharged John Brown was never psychological. It was ideological. Brown’sactionsmade no sense to textbookwriters between 1890 and about 1970. Tomakenosenseistobecrazy.

At left is JohnBrown as he appeared in 1858.He looked like amiddle-agedbusinessman—whichhewas.Hegrewabeardlaterthatyear,partlyasamodestattempt to disguise himself after becomingwanted for helping elevenAfricanAmericans escape slavery inMissouri. FewAmericans recognize this portrait.AtrightisJohnBrownashelookedin1937toJohnSteuartCurry,whopaintedaversionofhisportraitonthewallsoftheKansasStateCapitol.ThisBrownisgauntandderanged,whichhehadbecomeinourcultureby1937.Astoundingly,at the start of the newmillennium,American Journey chose a variant of thispaintingasitsonlyportraitofBrown.ManyAmericanscannamethisman.

Clearly, Brown’s contemporaries did not consider him insane. Brown’sideological influence in themonthbeforehishanging,andcontinuingafterhisdeath,wasimmense.Hemovedtheboundaryofacceptablethoughtsanddeedsregarding slavery. Before Harpers Ferry, to be an abolitionist was not quiteacceptable, even in the North. Just talking about freeing slaves—advocatingimmediate emancipation—was behavior at the outer limit of the ideologicalcontinuum.Byengaginginarmedaction, includingmurder,JohnBrownmademereverbalabolitionismseemmuchlessradical.

AfteraninitialshockwaveofrevulsionagainstBrown,intheNorthaswellasintheSouth,Americanswerefascinatedtohearwhathehadtosay.Inhis1859trialJohnBrowncapturedtheattentionofthenationlikenootherabolitionistorslaveownerbeforeorsince.Heknewit:“Mywholelifebeforehadnotaffordedmeonehalftheopportunitytopleadfortheright.”12InhisspeechtothecourtonNovember2,justbeforethejudgesentencedhimtodie,Brownargued,“Had

Isointerferedinbehalfoftherich,thepowerful,itwouldhavebeenallright.”HereferredtotheBible,whichhesawinthecourtroom,“whichteachesmethatallthingswhatsoeverIwouldthatmenshoulddotome,Ishoulddoevensotothem.Itteachesmefurther,torememberthemthatareinbondsasboundwiththem. I endeavored to act up to that instruction.”Brownwenton to claim thehighmoralground:“Ibelieve that tohave interferedas Ihavedone,as Ihavealways freely admitted I have done, in behalf of His despised poor, I did nowrong but right.”Although he objected that his impending death penaltywasunjust, he accepted it and pointed to graver injustices: “Now, if it is deemednecessarythatIshouldforfeitmylifeforthefurtheranceoftheendsofjustice,andminglemybloodfurtherwiththebloodofmychildrenandwiththebloodofmillionsinthisslavecountrywhoserightsaredisregardedbywicked,cruel,andunjustenactments,Isay,letitbedone.”13

Brown’swillingnesstogotothegallowsforwhathethoughtwasrighthadamoralforceofitsown.“ItseemsasifnomanhadeverdiedinAmericabefore,forinordertodieyoumustfirsthavelived,”HenryDavidThoreauobservedina eulogy inBoston. “Thesemen, in teaching us how to die, have at the sametimetaughtushowtolive.”ThoreauwentontocompareBrownwithJesusofNazareth,whohadfacedasimilardeathatthehandsofthestate.14

DuringtherestofNovember,Brownprovidedthenationgracefulinstructioninhowtofacedeath.InLarchmont,NewYork,GeorgeTempletonStrongwroteinhisdiary,“One’sfaithinanythingisterriblyshakenbyanybodywhoisreadyto go to the gallows condemning and denouncing it.”15Brown’s letters to hisfamilyandfriendssoftenedhisimage,showedhishumanside,andpromptedanoutpouringofsympathyforhischildrenandsoon-to-bewidow,ifnotforBrownhimself.His letters to supporters and remarks to journalists,widely circulated,formed a continuing indictment of slavery.We see his charisma in this letterfrom“aconservativeChristian”—so theauthorsigned it—written toBrown injail: “While I cannot approveof all your acts, I stand in aweof your positionsinceyourcapture,anddarenotopposeyoulestIbefoundfightingagainstGod;for you speak as one having authority, and seem to be strengthened from onhigh.”16WhenVirginiaexecutedJohnBrownonDecember2,makinghimthefirstAmericansincethefoundingofthenationtobehangedasatraitor,churchbellsmournedincitiesthroughouttheNorth.LouisaMayAlcott,WilliamDeanHowells,HermanMelville, JohnGreenleafWhittier, andWaltWhitmanwereamongthepoetswhorespondedtotheevent.“ThegazeofEuropeisfixedatthis

momentonAmerica,”wroteVictorHugofromFrance.HangingBrown,Hugopredicted, “will open a latent fissure thatwill finally split theUnion asunder.ThepunishmentofJohnBrownmayconsolidateslaveryinVirginia,butitwillcertainly shatter theAmericanDemocracy.You preserve your shame but youkillyourglory.”17

Brown remainedcontroversial afterhisdeath.Republicancongressmenkepttheirdistancefromhisfeloniousacts.Nevertheless,SouthernslaveownerswereappalledattheshowofNorthernsympathyforBrownandresolvedtomaintainslavery by anymeans necessary, including quitting theUnion if they lost thenextelection.Brown’scharismaintheNorth,meanwhile,wasnotspentbutonlyincreasedowingtowhatmanycametoviewashismartyrdom.Asthewarcame,as thousandsofAmericans found themselvesmaking the samecommitment toface death that JohnBrown hadmade, the force of his example took on newrelevance. That’s why soldiers marched into battle singing “John Brown’sBody.” Two years later, church congregations sang Julia Ward Howe’s newwords to the song: “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make menfree”—andtheidentificationofJohnBrownandJesusChristtookanotherturn.Thenextyearsawthe54thMassachusettsColoredRegimentparadingthroughBoston to the tune,enroute to itsheroicdestinywithdeath inSouthCarolina,whileWilliamLloydGarrisonsurveyedthecheeringbystandersfromabalcony,his hand resting on a bust of John Brown. In February 1865 anotherMassachusetts colored regiment marched to the tune through the streets ofCharleston,SouthCarolina.18

That was the high point of old John Brown.At the turn of the century, asSouthern and border states disfranchised African Americans, as lynchingsproliferated, as blackfaceminstrel shows came to dominateAmerican popularculture,whiteAmericaabandonedthelastshardsofitsracialidealism.Ahistorypublishedin1923makesplaintheconnectiontoBrown’sinsanity:“Thefartherwegetawayfromtheexcitementof1859themorewearedisposedtoconsiderthis extraordinary man the victim of mental delusions.”19 Not until the civilrights movement of the 1960s was white America freed from enough of itsracism to accept that awhite persondidnot have to be crazy to die for blackequality.Inasense,themurdersofMickeySchwernerandAndrewGoodmaninMississippi,JamesReebandViolaLiuzzoinAlabama,andvariousotherwhitecivil rightsworkers invariousotherSouthernstatesduring the1960s liberatedtextbookwriterstoseesanityagaininJohnBrown.RiseoftheAmericanNation,

writtenin1961,callstheHarpersFerryplan“awildidea,certaintofail,”whileinTriumphoftheAmericanNation,publishedin1986,theplanbecomes“aboldidea,butalmostcertaintofail.”20

Frequently in American history the ideological needs of white racists andblacknationalistscoincide.SoitwaswiththeirviewsofJohnBrown.Duringtheheydayof theBlackPowermovement, I listened to speaker after speaker in aMississippi forum denounce whites. “They are your enemies,” thundered oneblackmilitant. “Not onewhite person has ever had the best interests of blackpeopleatheart.”JohnBrownsprangtomymind,butthespeakeranticipatedmyobjection:“YoumightsayJohnBrowndid,butremember,hewascrazy.”JohnBrown might provide a defense against such global attacks on whites, but,unfortunately,Americanhistorytextbookshaveerasedhimasausablecharacter.

NoblackpersonwhometJohnBrownthoughthimcrazy.Manyblackleadersof the day—Martin Delaney, Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Douglass,Harriet Tubman, and others—knew and respected Brown. Only illness keptTubman from joining him at Harpers Ferry. The day of his execution black-owned businesses closed in mourning across the North. Frederick DouglasscalledBrown“oneofthegreatestheroesknowntoAmericanfame.”21Ablackcollege deliberately chose to locate at Harpers Ferry, and in 1918 its alumnidedicated a memorial stone to Brown and his men “to commemorate theirheroism.”Thestonestated,inpart,“Thatthisnationmighthaveanewbirthoffreedom, that slavery should be removed forever from American soil, JohnBrownandhis21mengavetheirlives.”

Quitepossiblytextbooksshouldnotportraythismurdererasahero,althoughother murderers, from Christopher Columbus to Nat Turner, get the heroictreatment. However, the flat prose that textbooks use for Brown is not reallyneutral.Textbookauthors’withdrawalofsympathyfromBrownisperceptible;their tone in presentinghim is different from the tone they employ for almosteveryone else. We see this, for instance, in their treatment of his religiousbeliefs.JohnBrownwasaseriousChristian,wellreadintheBible,whotookitsmoral commands to heart. Yet every recent textbook exceptPathways to thePresentdoesnotcreditBrownwithreligiositybut insteadblameshimfor it.22“Brownbelieved thatGodhadcalledonhim to fight slavery,”TheAmericanssays twice. But Brown never believed God commanded him in the sense ofgivinghim instructions; rather, he thought deeply about themoralmeaningof

Christianity and decided that slavery was incompatible with it. Boorstin andKelleycallsBrown“theself-proclaimedantislaverymessiah.”ButBrownneverthought of himself as a messiah. On the contrary, he tried to get FrederickDouglassorHarrietTubmantojoinhim,believingenslavedAfricanAmericanswouldbemuchmorelikelytofollowthemthanhim.

By way of comparison, consider Nat Turner, who in 1831 led the mostimportantslaverevoltsincetheUnitedStatesbecameanation.JohnBrownandNat Turner both killed whites in cold blood. Both were religious, but, unlikeBrown,Turnerdid seevisions andhearvoices. Inmost textbooks,Turnerhasbecomesomethingofahero.SeveraltextbookscallTurner“deeplyreligious”or“agiftedpreacher.”Nonecallshim“areligiousfanatic.”TheyreservethattermforBrown.TheclosestanytextbookcomestosuggestingthatTurnermighthavebeencrazyisthispassagefromAmericanHistory:“Historiansstillargueaboutwhether or not Turner was insane.” But the author immediately goes on toqualify: “The point is that nearly every slave hated bondage. Nearly all wereeager to see something done to destroy the system.” Thus even AmericanHistory emphasizes the political and social meaning of Turner’s act, not itspsychologicalgenesisinanallegedlyquestionablemind.

Thetextbooks’withdrawalofsympathyfromBrownisalsoapparentinwhatthey includeandexcludeabouthis lifebeforeHarpersFerry.“In the1840shesomehow got interested in helping black slaves,” according to AmericanAdventures.Brown’s interest isnomystery:he learned it fromhis father,whowasatrusteeofOberlinCollege,acenterofabolitionistsentiment.IfAdventureswanted,itcouldhaverelatedthewell-knownstoryabouthowyoungJohnmadefriends with a black boy during theWar of 1812, which convinced him thatblackswerenotinferior.Instead,itssentencereadslikeaslur.TextbookauthorsmakeBrown’sPottawatomiekillingsseemequallyunmotivatedbyneglectingtotell that the violence inKansas had hitherto been perpetrated primarily by thepro-slaveryside.Indeed,slaverysympathizershadpreviouslykilledsixfree-soilsettlers.SeveralmonthsafterPottawatomie,atOsawatomie,Kansas,Brownhadhelped thirty-five free-soil men defend themselves against several hundredmarauding pro-slavery men from Missouri, thereby earning the nickname“Osawatomie John Brown.” Not one textbook mentions what Brown did atOsawatomie,wherehewas thedefender,but fourteenofeighteen tellwhathedidatPottawatomie,wherehewastheattacker.23

Our textbooks also handicap Brown by not letting him speak for himself.

Evenhis jailer letBrownputpentopaper!Twelveof theeighteentextbooksIstudieddonotprovideevenaphrasehespokeorwrote.Brown’swords,whichmovedanation,thereforecannotmovemoststudentstoday.

Textbook authors may avoid Brown’s ideas because they are tinged withChristianity.Religionhasbeenoneofthegreatinspirationsandexplanationsofhuman enterprise in this country. Yet textbooks, while they may mentionreligious organizations such as the Shakers or Christian Science, never treatreligiousideasinanyperiodseriously.24Anin-depthportrayalofMormonism,Christian Science, or the Methodism of the Great Awakening would becontroversial. Mentioning atheism or Deism would be even worse. “Are yougoing to tell kids that Thomas Jefferson didn’t believe in Jesus? Not me!” atextbook editor exclaimed to me. Treating religious ideas neutrally,nonreligiously, simply as factors in society, won’t do, either, for that wouldlikelyoffend someadherents.The textbooks’ solution is to leaveout religiousideas entirely.25 Quoting John Brown’s courtroom paraphrase of the GoldenRule—“whatsoever Iwould thatmenshoulddo tome, I shoulddoevenso tothem”—wouldviolatethetaboo.

Ideological contradiction is terribly important in history. Ideas have power.TheideasthatmotivatedJohnBrownandtheexamplehesetlivedonlongafterhisbodylaya-molderingin thegrave.YetAmericanhistorytextbooksgiveusnowaytounderstandtheroleofideasinourpast.

Conceivably, textbook authors ignore John Brown’s ideas because in theireyeshisviolent actsmakehim ineligible for sympathetic consideration.Whenwe turn from Brown to Abraham Lincoln, we shift from one of the mostcontroversial to one of the most venerated figures in American history.Textbooks describe Abraham Lincoln with sympathy, of course. Nonetheless,theyalsominimizehisideas,especiallyonthesubjectofrace.InlifeAbrahamLincolnwrestledwith the race questionmore openly than any other presidentexcept perhaps Thomas Jefferson, and, unlike Jefferson, Lincoln’s actionssometimes matched his words. Most of our textbooks say nothing aboutLincoln’sinternaldebate.Iftheydidshowit,whatteachingdevicestheywouldbecome! Students would see that speakers modify their ideas to appease andappealtodifferentaudiences,sowecannotsimplytaketheirstatementsliterally.If textbooks recognizedLincoln’s racism, studentswould learn that racismnotonly affects Ku Klux Klan extremists but has been “normal” throughout our

history.AndastheywatchedLincolnstrugglewithhimselftoapplyAmerica’sdemocratic principles across the color line, studentswould see how ideas candevelopandapersoncangrow.

Inconversation,Lincoln,likemostwhitesofhiscentury,referredtoblacksas“niggers.”IntheLincoln-Douglasdebates,hesometimesdescendedintoexplicitwhitesupremacy,aswesawinthelastchapter.Lincoln’sideasaboutraceweremorecomplicatedthanDouglas’s,however.ThedayafterDouglasdeclaredforwhitesupremacyinChicago,sayingtheissueswere“distinctlydrawn,”Lincolnrepliedandindeeddrewtheissuedistinctly:

I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence,which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and makingexceptionstoit—wherewillitstop?IfonemansaysitdoesnotmeanaNegro,whydoesnot another say itdoesnotmean someotherman? IfthatDeclarationisnot...true,letustearitout![Criesof“no,no!”]Letussticktoitthen,letusstandfirmlybyitthen.26

Notextbookquotesthispassage,andeverybookbutoneleavesoutLincoln’sthundering summation of what his debates with Douglas were really about:“ThatistheissuethatwillcontinueinthiscountrywhenthesepoortonguesofJudgeDouglasandmyselfshallbesilent.Itistheeternalstrugglebetweenthesetwoprinciples—rightandwrong—throughouttheworld.”27

Lincoln’s realizationof thebasichumanityofAfricanAmericansmayhavederived from his father, who moved the family to Indiana partly because hedislikedtheracialslaverythatwassanctionedinKentucky.OritmaystemfromanexperienceLincolnhadonasteamboattripin1841,whichherecalledyearslaterwhenwritingtohisfriendJoshSpeed:“Youmayremember,asIwelldo,thatfromLouisvilletothemouthoftheOhiotherewereonboardtenortwelveslaves,shackledtogetherwithirons.Thatsightwascontinualtormenttome,andIseesomethinglikeiteverytimeItouchtheOhio,oranyotherslave-border.”Lincoln concluded that the memory still had “the power of making memiserable.”28Notextbookquotesthisletteroranythinglikeit.

As early as 1835, in his first term in the IllinoisHouse ofRepresentatives,Lincoln cast one of only five votes opposing a resolution that condemnedabolitionists.TextbooksimplythatLincolnwasnominatedforpresidentin1860becausehewasamoderateonslavery,but, infact,RepublicanschoseLincoln

over front-runnerWilliam H. Seward partly because of Lincoln’s “rock-solidantislaverybeliefs,”whileSewardwasconsideredacompromiser.29

As president, Lincoln understood the importance of symbolic leadership inimproving race relations. For the first time the United States exchangeddiplomatswithHaitiandLiberia.In1863LincolndesegregatedtheWhiteHousestaff,whichinitiatedadesegregationofthefederalgovernmentthatlasteduntilWoodrowWilson. Lincoln opened theWhite House to black callers, notablyFrederickDouglass.He also continued towrestlewithhis own racism, askingaides to investigate the feasibility of deporting (euphemistically termedcolonizing)AfricanAmericanstoAfricaorLatinAmerica.

Most of the textbooks mention that Lincoln “personally” opposed slavery.Two even quote his 1864 letter: “If slavery isn’t wrong, then nothing iswrong.”30However,mosttextbookauthorstakepainstoseparateLincolnfromundueidealismaboutslavery.TheyvenerateLincolnmainlybecausehe“savedtheUnion.”ByfartheirfavoritestatementofLincoln’s,quotedorparaphrasedby fifteen of the eighteen books, is his letter of August 22, 1862, to HoraceGreeley’sNewYorkTribune:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is noteither to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save theUnionwithoutfreeinganyslave,Iwoulddoit;andifIcouldsaveitbyfreeingall theslaves,Iwoulddoit;andifIcouldsaveitbyfreeingsomeandleavingothers alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and thecoloredraceIdobecauseIbelieveithelpstosavethisUnion;andwhatIforbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save theUnion....

Byemphasizingthisquote,mosttextbookspresentaLincolnwhowasmorallyindifferenttoslaveryandcertainlydidnotcareaboutblackpeople.AsPathwaysto the Present puts it, “Lincoln came to regard ending slavery as one morestrategy for ending the war.” Ironically, this is also the Lincoln whom blacknationalistspresenttoAfricanAmericanstopersuadethemtostopthinkingwellofhim.31

TopresentsuchaLincoln,thetextbookshavetoremoveallcontext.TheveryfirstthingtheyomitisthenextpointLincolnmade:“...Ihaveherestatedmypurposeaccordingtomyviewofofficialduty,andI intendnomodificationof

myoft-expressedpersonalwish that allmen, everywhere couldbe free.”Thatsays something quite different about slavery, of course. So all but threetextbooksleavethatpartout.

Next, they remove the political context. Every historian knows that thefragment of Lincoln’s letter to Greeley that most textbooks quote does notsimply represent his intent regarding slavery. Lincolnwrote the letter to seeksupport for the war from residents of New York City, one of the mostDemocratic(andthereforewhitesupremacist)citiesintheNorth.Hecouldneverhopetowinthatsupportbyclaimingthewarwouldendslavery.Theywouldbeagainstitonthatground.Sohemadetheonlyappealhecould:supportthewaranditwillholdthenationtogether.HewasspeakingnottoGreeley,whowantedslaverytoend,buttoantiwarDemocratsandantiblackIrishAmericans,aswellas to governors of the border states and the many other Northerners whoopposed emancipating the slaves. Saving theUnion hadnever been Lincoln’ssole concern, as shown by his 1860 rejection of the eleventh-hour CrittendenCompromise, a constitutional amendment intended to preserve the Union bypreservingslaveryforever.32Notoneauthorexplainsthepoliticalcontextortheintended audience for the Greeley letter. Nor does a single textbook quoteLincoln’sencouragementthatsamesummertoUnitarianministersto“gohomeand try to bring the people to your views,” because “we shall need all theantislavery feeling in the country, and more.” If they did, students wouldunderstandthatLincoln’sresponsetotheissueofslaveryinAmericawashardlyindifference.

When textbooks discuss the Emancipation Proclamation, they explainLincoln’s actions in realpolitik terms. “By September 1862,” saysTriumph oftheAmericanNation,“Lincolnhadreluctantlydecidedthatawarfoughtatleastpartly to free theslaveswouldwinEuropeansupportand lessen thedangerofforeign interventionon the sideof theConfederacy.”Tobe sure, internationaland domestic political concerns did impinge on Abraham Lincoln, masterpolitician that hewas. But so did considerations of right andwrong. PoliticalanalyststhenandnowbelievethatLincoln’sSeptember1862announcementofemancipationcostRepublicansthecontrolofCongressthefollowingNovember,becauseNorthernwhitepublicopinionwouldnotevolvetofavorblackfreedomforanotheryear.33TextbookauthorssuppressthepossibilitythatLincolnactedat least inpartbecausehe thought itwasright.FromIndianwars toslaverytoVietnam,textbookauthorsnotonlysidestepputtingquestionsofrightandwrong

toourpastactionsbutevenavoidacknowledgingthatAmericansofthetimedidso.

Abraham Lincoln was one of the great masters of the English language.Perhaps more than any other president he invoked andmanipulated powerfulsymbols in his speeches tomove public opinion, often on the subject of racerelationsandslavery.Textbooks,inkeepingwiththeirhabitoftellingeverythingintheauthorialmonotone,dribbleoutLincoln’swordsthreeandfouratatime.The only complete speech or letter any of them provide is the GettysburgAddress,and only six of the eighteen textbooks dispense even that. Lincoln’sthree paragraphs at Gettysburg comprise one of the most important speechesevergiveninAmericaandtakeuponlyafourthofapageinthetextbooksthatinclude them.Nonetheless, five books do not evenmention the speech,whilefiveothersprovideonlythelastsentenceorphrasefromit:“governmentofthepeople,by thepeople, for thepeople.”Silliestofall is theneweditionofTheAmericanPageant,whichdevotesanentirepagetotheaddressbutusesmostofittoshowthemanuscriptinLincoln’shandwriting,somuchreducedtofitonthepage that it is rendered illegible!34 Pageant provides more words about theAddress than are in the original—and fails to include a single phrase thatLincolnwrote.

Thewords,however,areimportant,anditisimportanttogetstudentstothinkabout them. Lincoln understood that fighting a war for freedom wasideologicallymoresatisfyingthanfightingsimplytopreserveamorallyneutralUnion.TosavetheUnion,itwasnecessarytofindrationalesforthewarotherthan“tosavetheUnion.”AtGettysburgheprovidedone.

Lincoln was a fine lawyer who knew full well that the United States wasconceived in slavery, for theConstitution specifically treats slavery in at leastfiveplaces.Neverthelesshebegan,“Fourscoreandsevenyearsago,ourfathersbroughtforthonthiscontinentanewnation,conceivedinlibertyanddedicatedto the proposition that all men are created equal.” Thus Lincoln wrapped theUnion cause in the rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence, whichemphasizedfreedomevenwhilemanyofitssignerswereslaveowners.35Insodoing,LincolnwasatthesametimeusingtheDeclarationtoredefinetheUnioncause, suggesting that it ultimately implied equal rights for all Americans,regardlessofrace.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war,” Lincoln continued, “testing

whether that nation or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can longendure.” Again, Lincoln knew better: by 1863 other nations had joined us indemocracy.Forthatmatter,everyEuropeannationandmostAmericannationshadoutlawedslavery.HowdidourCivilWar testwhether theycouldendure?Here Lincoln was wrapping the Union cause in the old “last best hope ofmankind”cloak,asecularversionoftheideaofaspecialcovenantbetweentheUnitedStates andGod.36Although bad history, such rhetoricmakes for greatspeeches.ThepresidentthusappealedtotheantiwarDemocratsoftheNorthtosupportthewareffortforthegoodofallmankind.

After invoking a third powerful symbol—“the bravemen, living and dead,who struggled here”—Lincoln closed by identifying the cause for which somanyhaddied:“thatthisnation,underGod,shallhaveanewbirthoffreedom.”Towhatfreedomdidherefer?Blackfreedom,ofcourse.AsLincolnwellknew,the war itself was undermining slavery, for what began as a war to save theUnion increasingly had become awar for black freedom.Citizens at the timeunderstood Lincoln perfectly. Indeed, throughout this period Americanspurchasedcopiesofpoliticalspeeches,readthem,discussedissues,andvotedatrates that now seem impossibly high. The Chicago Times, a Democraticnewspaper,denouncedtheaddresspreciselybecauseof“thepropositionthatallmen are created equal.” The Union dead, claimed the Times, “were menpossessing toomuch self-respect to declare thatNegroeswere their equals, orwereentitledtoequalprivileges.”37

Textbooks need not explain Lincoln’swords at Gettysburg as I have done.TheGettysburgAddressisrichenoughtosurvivevariousanalyses.38Butofthesixbooks that do reprint the speech, fourmerelyput it in a boxby itself in acorner of the page.Pathways to the Present offers a rather empty summationafterward. Only Life and Liberty asks intelligent questions about it.39 As aresult, Ihaveyet tomeetahighschoolgraduatewhohasdevotedany time tothinkingabouttheGettysburgAddress.

The strange career of the log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was bornsymbolizesinawaywhattextbookshavedonetoLincoln.TheactualcabinfellintodisrepairprobablybeforeLincolnbecamepresident.Accordingtoresearchby D. T. Pitcaithley, the new cabin, a hoax built in 1894, was leased to twoamusementparkowners,went toConey Island,where itgotcommingledwiththebirthplacecabinofJeffersonDavis(anotherhoax),andwasfinallyshrunktofitinsideamarblepantheoninKentucky,where,reassembled,itstillstands.Thecabin also became a children’s toy: Lincoln Logs, invented by Frank LloydWright’s son John in 1920, came with instructions on how to build bothLincoln’slogcabinandUncleTom’scabin!Thecabinstillmakesitsarchetypalappearance in our textbooks, signifying the rags-to-riches legend of AbrahamLincoln’s upwardmobility.Nowonder one college student could only say ofhim, in amuch-repeated blooper, “Hewas born in a log cabinwhich he builtwithhisownhands.”

Even worse is textbook treatment of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. In thistowering speech, one of the masterpieces of American oratory, LincolnspecificallyidentifieddifferencesoverslaveryastheprimarycauseoftheCivilWar,theninitsfourthbloodyyear.40

IfweshallsupposethatAmericanslaveryisoneofthoseoffenseswhich,intheprovidenceofGod,mustneedscome,butwhich,havingcontinuedthroughhisappointedtime,henowwillstoremove,andthathegivestobothNorthandSouththisterriblewar,asthewoeduetothosebywhomthe offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those

divine attributeswhich the believers in a livingGod always ascribe tohim?

Lincolncontinuedinthisveinbyinvokingthedoctrineofpredestination,amorevitalelementofthenation’sideasystemthenthannow:

Fondlydowehope—ferventlydowepray—thatthismightyscourgeofwarmayspeedilypassaway.Yet, ifGodwills that itcontinueuntilallthe wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years ofunrequited toilshallbesunk,anduntileverydropofblooddrawnwiththelashshallbepaidbyanotherdrawnwiththesword,aswassaidthreethousandyearsago,sostillitmustbesaid,“ThejudgmentsoftheLordaretrueandrighteousaltogether.”

Thislast isanastonishingsentence.Itslengthaloneastounds.Politiciansdon’ttalk like that nowadays. When students read this passage aloud, slowly anddeliberately,theydonotfailtoperceiveitasasearingindictmentofAmerica’ssins against black people. The Civil War was by far the most devastatingexperienceinournation’shistory.Yetwehaditcoming,Lincolnsayshere.Andinhisrhetoricalcontext,sinorcrime,notmeretragedy,isthefittingandproperterm. Indeed, this indictment of U.S. race relations echoes John Brown’s lastnote: “I, JohnBrown, amnowquite certain that the crimesof this guilty landwillneverbepurgedaway,butwithBlood.”41

Lincoln’sSecondInauguralmadesuchanimpactonAmericansthatwhenthepresidentwas shot, amonth later, farmers inNewYork andOhio greeted hisfuneral trainwith placards bearing its phrases.But onlyTheUnited States—AHistoryoftheRepublicincludesanyofthematerialquotedabove.42Sevenothertextbooksrestrict theirquotation to thespeech’sfinalphrase,aboutbindingupthe nation’s wounds “with malice toward none.” Ten ignore the speechaltogether.

Like Helen Keller’s concern about the injustice of social class, Lincoln’sconcern about the crime of racismmay appear unseemly to textbook authors.Mustwe rememberLincoln for that? Let’s leave it out! Such an approach toLincolnmightbecalled theWaltDisneyinterpretation:Disney’sexhibitat the1964 NewYorkWorld’s Fair featured an animated sculpture of Lincoln thatspoke for several minutes, choosing his words carefully to say nothing aboutslavery.

Having disconnected Abraham Lincoln from considerations of right andwrong, several textbookspresent theCivilWar the sameway. In reality,U.S.soldiers,whobegan fighting to save theUnion and notmuchmore, ended byfightingforallthevaguebutportentousideasintheGettysburgAddress.From1862 on, Union armies sang “Battle Cry of Freedom,” composed by GeorgeRootinthesummerofthatyear:

Wewillwelcometoournumberstheloyaltrueandbrave,Shoutingthebattlecryoffreedom.Andalthoughhemaybepoor,notamanshallbeaslave,Shoutingthebattlecryoffreedom.43

TriumphoftheAmericanNationincludesthisevocativephotographofthecrewof the USSHunchback in the CivilWar. Such racial integration disappearedduringthenadirofracerelationsintheUnitedStates,from1890-1940.

Surely no one can sing these lines even today without perceiving that bothfreedomand thepreservationof theUnionwerewaraimsof theUnitedStatesandwithoutfeelingsomeofthepowerofthatpotentcombination.Thispoweriswhattextbooksomit:theygivestudentsnoinklingthatideasmatter.

The actions of African Americans played a big role in challenging whiteracism. Slaves fled to Union lines. After they were allowed to fight, thecontributionsofblacktroopstothewareffortmadeitharderforwhitestodenythat blackswere fully human.44 AUnion captainwrote to hiswife, “A greatmany[whites]havetheideathattheentireNegroracearevastlytheirinferiors—afewweeksofcalmunprejudicedlifeherewoulddisabusethem,I think—IhaveamoreelevatedopinionoftheirabilitiesthanIeverhadbefore.”45Unlikehistoriansofa fewdecadesago, today’s textbookauthors realize that trying topresentthewarwithouttheactionsofAfricanAmericansmakesforbadhistory.Alleighteentextbooksatleastmentionthatmorethan180,000blacksfoughtinthe Union army and navy. Several of the textbooks include an illustration ofAfricanAmericansoldiersanddescribetheunequalpaytheyreceiveduntillatein the war.46 Discovering American History mentions that Union soldierstrappedbehindConfederatelinesfoundslavestobe“ofinvaluableassistance.”OnlyTheUnitedStates—AHistoryoftheRepublic,however,takesthenextstepbypointingouthowtheexistenceandsuccessofblacktroopsdecreasedwhiteracism.47

Opposite:ThisistheOctober15,1864,centerfoldofHarper’smagazine,whichthroughoutthenineteenthcenturywasthemouthpieceoftheRepublicanParty.The words are from the Democratic platform. The illustrations, by youngThomas Nast, show shortcomings in the Democratic plan. One could hardlyimagineapoliticalparty today seekingwhitevoteson thebasisof such racialidealism.

The Democratic platform began innocuously enough: “We will adhere withunswerving fidelity to theUNION under the CONSTITUTION as theONLYsolid foundation of our STRENGTH, SECURITY, and HAPPINESS as aPEOPLE.”ButNast’sillustrationwasaknockout:heshowsslavecatchersanddogspursuinghapless runaways into a swamp.He jolts the reader to exclaim,Whataboutthem?Thesearepeople,too!

TheantiracistrepercussionsoftheCivilWarwereparticularlyapparentintheborder states. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation applied only to theConfederacy. It left slavery untouched in Unionist Delaware, Maryland,Kentucky, and Missouri. But the war did not. The status of planters becameambiguous:owningblackpeoplewasnolongerwhatayoungwhitemanaspiredto do or what a young white woman aspired to accomplish by marriage.MarylandwasaslavestatewithconsiderablesupportfortheConfederacyattheonsetofthewar.ButMarylandheldfortheUnionandsentthousandsofsoldierstodefendWashington.Whathappenednextprovidesa“positive”exampleoftheeffectsofcognitivedissonance:forMarylandwhitestofightawaragainstslaveowners while allowing slavery within their own state created a tension thatdemanded resolution. In 1864 the increasingly persuasive abolitionists inMaryland brought the issue to a vote. The tally went narrowly againstemancipation until the large number of absentee ballots were counted. By anenormous margin, these ballots were for freedom. Who cast most absenteeballots in 1864 in Maryland? Soldiers and sailors, of course. Just as thesesoldiersmarchedintobattlewith“JohnBrown’sBody”upontheirlips,sotheirmindshadchangedtofavorthefreedomthattheiractionswereforging.48

As noted in the previous chapter, songs such as “Nigger Doodle Dandy”reflecttheracisttoneoftheDemocrats’presidentialcampaignin1864.HowdidRepublicans counter? Inpart, they soughtwhitevotesbybeingantiracist.TheRepublicancampaign,boostedbymilitaryvictories in the fallof1864,provedeffective. The Democrats’ overt appeals to racism failed, and antiracistRepublicans triumphed almost everywhere.OneNewYorkRepublicanwrote,“Thechangeofopiniononthisslaveryquestion...isagreatandhistoricfact.Who could have predicted . . . this great and blessed revolution?”49 Peoplearound theworld supported theUnionbecauseof its ideology.Forty thousandCanadians alone, some of them black, came south to volunteer for theUnioncause.“Ideasaremoreimportantthanbattles,”saidabolitionistsenatorCharlesSummer,speakingasthewarwounddown.50

Illustrating“PUBLICLIBERTYandPRIVATERIGHT,”NastshowstheNewYorkCitydraftriotof1863:whitethugsareexercisingtheir“right”tobeatandkillAfricanAmericans,includingachildheldupsidedown.

IdeasmadetheoppositeimpactintheConfederacy.Ideologicalcontradictionsafflicted the slave system even before the war began. John Brown knew thatmasters secretly feared that their slaves might revolt, even as they assuredabolitionists that slaves really likedslavery.One reasonhisHarpersFerry raidpromptedsuchanoutcryintheSouthwasthatslaveownersfearedtheirslavesmightjoinhim.YettheircondemnationsofBrownandthe“BlackRepublicans”who financedhimdidnotpersuadeNorthernmoderatesbutonlypushed themtoward theabolitionistcamp.Afterall, ifBrownwas trulydangerous,asslave

ownersclaimed,thenslaverywastrulyunjust.Happyslaveswouldneverrevolt.

White Southerners founded the Confederacy on the ideology of whitesupremacy. According to Alexander Stephens, vice president of theConfederacy:“Ournewgovernment’sfoundationsarelaid,itscornerstonerests,uponthegreattruththattheNegroisnotequaltothewhiteman,thatslavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition.”Confederate soldierson theirway toAntietamandGettysburg, their twomainforays intoUnion states, put this ideology into practice: they seized scores offree black people in Maryland and Pennsylvania and sent them south intoslavery. Confederates maltreated black Union troops when they capturedthem.51Throughoutthewar,pointsouthistorianPaulEscott,“theprotectionofslaveryhadbeenandstillremainedthecentralcoreofConfederatepurpose.”52Textbooksdownplayallthis,probablybecausetheydonotwanttooffendwhiteSouthernerstoday.

The last chapter showed that concern for states’ rights did not motivatesecession. Moreover, as the war continued, the Confederacy began to denystates’ rights within the new nation. As early as December 1862, PresidentJeffersonDavisdenouncedstates’rightsasdestructivetotheConfederacy.Themountainous counties in western Virginia bolted to the Union. Confederatetroopshad tooccupyeastTennessee tokeep it fromemulatingWestVirginia.Winn Parish, Louisiana, refused to secede from the Union. Winston County,Alabama, declared itself the Free State of Winston. Unionist farmers andwoodsmeninJonesCounty,Mississippi,declaredtheFreeStateofJones.EveryConfederate state except South Carolina supplied a regiment or at least acompanyofwhite soldiers to theUnion army, aswell asmanyblack recruits.ArmedguerrillaactionsplaguedeveryConfederatestate.(WiththeexceptionofMissouri, and the 1863 New York City draft riots, few Union states wereafflictedwithsuchproblems.)ItbecamedangerousforConfederatestotravelinpartsofAlabama,Florida,NorthCarolina,Tennessee,andTexas.Thewarwasfought not just between North and South but between Unionists andConfederates within the Confederacy (and Missouri).53 By February 1864,President Davis despaired: “Public meetings of treasonable character, in thename of state sovereignty, are being held.” Thus states’ rights as an ideologywascontradictoryandcouldnotmobilizethewhiteSouthforthelonghaul.

Everyrecenttextbooktellshowtheissueofstates’rightsinterferedwiththe

Confederate cause. Otherwise, however, they ignore the role of ideas in theSouth.The racial ideasof theConfederacyprovedeven lessserviceable to thewar effort. According to Confederate ideology, blacks liked slavery;nevertheless, to avert revolts and runaways, the Confederate states passed the“twenty nigger law,” exempting frommilitary conscription one white man asoverseerforeverytwentyslaves.Throughoutthewar,Confederateswithheldasmuchasa thirdof their fightingforcesfromthefront linesandscattered themthroughoutareaswithlargeslavepopulationstopreventslaveuprisings.54WhentheUnitedStatesallowedAfricanAmericanstoenlist,Confederateswereforcedby their ideology to assert that itwould notwork—blackswould hardly fightlike white men. The undeniable bravery of the 54thMassachusetts and otherblack regiments disproved the idea of black inferiority. Then came theincongruityoftrulybeastlybehaviorbySouthernwhitestowardcapturedblacksoldiers, such as the infamous Fort Pillow massacre by troops under NathanBedfordForrest,whocrucifiedblackprisonerson tent framesand thenburnedthemalive,allinthenameofpreservingwhitecivilization.55

AfterthefallofVicksburg,PresidentDavisproposedtoarmslavestofightforthe Confederacy, promising them freedom to win their cooperation. But ifservitudewas the best condition for the slave, protested supporters of slavery,how could freedombe a reward?Black behavior proved that slavesdid valuefreedom:several textbooks showhowslaverybrokedownwhenUnionarmiescame near. But authors miss the ideological confusion that slaves’ defectionscausedamong their formerowners.Contradictionpileduponcontradiction.Towin foreign recognition,otherConfederate leadersproposed to abolish slaveryaltogether.Somenewspapereditorsconcurred.“Althoughslavery isoneof theprinciplesthatwestartedtofightfor,”saidtheJacksonMississippian,ifitmustbejettisonedtoachieveour“separatenationality,awaywithit!”AmonthbeforeAppomattox,theConfederateCongresspassedameasuretoenrollblacktroops,showing how the war had elevated even slave owners’ estimations of blackabilitiesandalsorevealingcompleteideologicaldisarray.What,afterall,wouldthe new black soldiers be fighting for? Slavery? Secession? What, for thatmatter, would white Southern troops be fighting for, once blacks were alsoarmed?AsHowellCobbofGeorgiasaid,“Ifslaveswillmakegoodsoldiersourwholetheoryofslaveryiswrong.”56

In part, owing to these contradictions, some Confederate soldiers switchedsides,beginningasearlyas1862.WhenShermanmadehisfamousmarchtothe

sea from Atlanta to Savannah, his army actually grew in number, becausethousandsofwhiteSouthernersvolunteeredalong theway.Meanwhile,almosttwo-thirds of the Confederate army opposing Sherman disappeared throughdesertion.57 Eighteen thousand slaves also joined Sherman, so many that thearmyhadtoturnsomeaway.ComparethesefactswiththeportraitcommoninourtextbooksofSherman’smarauderslootingtheirwaythroughaunitedSouth.

The increasing ideologicalconfusion in theConfederatestates,coupledwiththeincreasingideologicalstrengthoftheUnitedStates,helpsexplaintheUnionvictory.“Evenwithallthehardships,”CarletonBealshasnoted,“theSouthupto the very end still had great resources and manpower.” Many nations andpeoplehavecontinuedtofightwithfarinferiormeansandweapons.Bealsthinksthat the Confederacy’s ideological contradictions were its gravest liabilities,ultimately causing its defeat. He shows how the Confederate army wasdisbandingbythespringof1865inTexasandotherstates,evenintheabsenceofUnionapproaches.Onthehomefront,too,asJeffersonDavisputit,“Thezealofthepeopleisfailing.”58

Whyare textbookssilent regarding ideasor ideologiesasaweaknessof theConfederacy?59 The Civil War was about something, after all, and thatsomethingeveninfluenceditsoutcome.Textbooksshouldtelluswhatitwas.60

This silence has a history. Throughout the twentieth century, textbookspresentedtheCivilWarasastrugglebetween“virtuallyidenticalpeoples.”Thisisallpartoftheunspokenagreement,reachedduringthenadirofracerelationsintheUnitedStates(1890-1940),thatwhitesintheSouthwereasAmericanaswhites in theNorth.61WhiteNorthernersandwhiteSoutherners reconciledonthebacks ofAfricanAmericans in those years,while the abolitionists becamethebadguys.

As the nadir set in, Confederate Col. John S. Mosby, “Gray Ghost of theConfederacy,”grew frustratedat theobfuscation thathistorianswere throwingupas towhat thewarhadbeenabout. “TheSouthwent towaronaccountofslavery,” he wrote in 1907, seeking historical accuracy. He cited SouthCarolina’ssecessionproclamationandnotedscornfully,“SouthCarolinaoughttoknowwhatwasthecauseforherseceding.”Bythe1920stheGrandArmyofthe Republic, the organization of Union veterans, complained that Americanhistory textbookspresented theCivilWarwith“nosuggestion” that theUnioncausewas right. Apparently the UnitedDaughters of the Confederacy carried

more weight with publishers.62 Beyond influencing the tone of textbooks toportraytheConfederatecausesympathetically,theUDCwasevenabletoerectastatue to the Confederate dead in Wisconsin, claiming they “died to repelunconstitutional invasion, to protect the rights reserved to the people, toperpetuate the sovereignty of the states.”63 Not aword about slavery or evendisunion.

To this day, history textbooks still present Union and Confederatesympathizersasequallyidealistic.TheNorthfoughttoholdtheUniontogether,while the Southern states fought, according to The American Way, “for thepreservation of their rights and freedom to decide for themselves.” Nobodyfoughttopreserveracialslavery;nobodyfoughttoendit.Asoneresult,unliketheNazi swastika,which liesdisgraced, even in theNorthwhites stillproudlydisplay theStars andBarsof theConfederacyondenwalls, licenseplates,T-shirts,andhighschoollogos.Evensome(white)Northernersvaguelyregretthedefeatofthe“lostcause.”Itisasifracismagainstblackscouldberememberedwithnostalgia.64Inthissense,longafterAppomattox,theConfederacyfinallywon.

Five days afterAppomattox, PresidentLincolnwasmurdered.Hismartyrdompushed Union ideology one step further. Even whites who had opposedemancipation now joined to call Lincoln the great emancipator.65 UnderRepublicanleadership,thenationenteredReconstruction,aperiodofcontinuingideologicalconflict.

At firstConfederates tried tomaintainprewar conditions throughnew laws,modeled after their slave codes and antebellum restrictions on free blacks.Mississippiwasthefirststatetopassthesedraconian“BlackCodes.”Theydidnotwork, however. TheCivilWar had changedAmerican ideology.The newantiracismforgedinitsflameswoulddominateNorthernthinkingforadecade.TheChicagoTribune, themost importantorganof theRepublicanParty in theMidwest,respondedangrily:“WetellthewhitemenofMississippithatthemenof theNorthwill convert the stateofMississippi into a frogpondbefore theywillallowanysuchlawstodisgraceonefootofsoilinwhichthebonesofoursoldiers sleep and overwhich the flag of freedomwaves.”66 Thus black civilrights again became the central issue in the congressional elections of 1866.

“Support Congress and You Support the Negro,” said the Democrats in acampaign broadside featuring a disgusting caricature of anAfricanAmerican.“SustainthePresidentandYouProtect theWhiteMan.”67Northernvotersdidnot buy it. They returned “radical” Republicans to Congress in a thunderousrepudiation of President Andrew Johnson’s accommodation of the ex-Confederates. Evenmore than in 1864, when Republicans swept Congress in1866,antiracismbecamethepolicyofthenation,agreedtobymostofitsvoters.Despite Johnson’s opposition, Congress and the states passed the FourteenthAmendment, making all persons citizens and guaranteeing them “the equalprotectionofthelaws.”Thepassage,onbehalfofblacks,ofthisshiningjewelofourConstitutionshowshowidealisticweretheofficeholdersoftheRepublicanParty,particularlywhenweconsiderthatsimilarlegislationonbehalfofwomencannotbepassedtoday.68

DuringReconstructionasurprisingvarietyofpeoplewenttothenewcivilian“front lines” and worked among the newly freed African Americans in theSouth. Many were black Northerners, including several graduates of OberlinCollege.ThispassagefromaletterbyEdmoniaHighgate,ablackwomanwhowentsouthtoteachschool,describesherlifeinLafayetteParish,Louisiana.

Themajorityofmypupils come fromplantations, three, fourandeveneight miles distant. So anxious are they to learn that they walk thesedistancessoearlyinthemorningasnevertobetardy.

TherehasbeenmuchoppositiontotheSchool.TwiceIhavebeenshotatinmyroom.Mynightschoolscholarshavebeenshotbutnonekilled.Aweekagoanagedfreedmanjustacrossthewaywasshotsobadlyastobreak his arm and leg. The rebels here threatened to burn down theschoolandhouseinwhichIboardyet theyhavenotmateriallyharmedus.Thenearestmilitaryprotectionis200milesdistantatNewOrleans.69

SomeUnionsoldiersstayedintheSouthwhentheyweredemobilized.SomeNorthernRepublicanwould-bepoliticiansmovedsouthtoorganizetheirpartyinaregionwhereithadnotbeenafactorbeforethewar.Somewenthopingtowinoffice by election or appointment. Many abolitionists continued theircommitmentbyworkingintheFreedman’sBureauandprivateorganizationstohelp blacks obtain full civil and political rights. In terms of party affiliation,almost all of these persons were Republicans; otherwise, they were a diversegroup.Still, allbutoneof theeighteen textbooks routinelyuse thedisgraceful

oldtagcarpetbaggers,withoutquotationmarksandoftenwithoutnotingitsbias,to describe Northern white Republicans who lived in the South duringReconstruction.70

Thewhitewoman at left,whom textbookswould call a “carpetbagger,” couldhardly expect to grow rich teaching school near Vicksburg, where thisillustration was done. This woman risked her life to bring basic literacy toAfricanAmericanchildrenandadultsduringReconstruction.

Manywhiteswhowere born in the South supported Reconstruction. Every

SouthernstateboastedUnionists,someofwhomhadvolunteeredfortheUnionarmy. Most of them now became Republicans. Some former Confederates,including even Gen. James Longstreet, second in command under Lee atGettysburg, also became Republicans because they had grown convinced thatequality for blacks wasmorally right. Robert Flournoy, aMississippi planter,hadraisedacompanyofConfederatesoldiersbutthenresignedhiscommissionandreturnedhomebecause“therewasaconflictinmyconscience.”DuringthewarhewasoncearrestedforencouragingblackstofleetoUnionlines.DuringReconstructionhehelpedorganizetheRepublicanParty,publishedanewspaper,EqualRights,andarguedfordesegregatingtheUniversityofMississippiandthenew state’s public school system.71 Republican policies, including free publiceducation, never before available in the South to children of either race,convincedsomepoorwhitestovotefortheparty.ManyformerWhigsbecameRepublicans rather than join their old nemesis, the Democrats. Some whiteSoutherners became Republicans because they were convinced that blacksuffragewasanaccomplishedfact;theypreferredwinningpoliticalpowerwithblacksontheirsidetolosing.OthersbecameRepublicanstomakeconnectionsorwincontractsfromthenewRepublicanstategovernments.Ofthe113whiteRepublican congressmen from the South during Reconstruction, 53 wereSoutherners, many of them from wealthy families.72 In sum, this is anotherdiverse group, amounting to between one-fourth and one-third of the whitepopulationand insomecountiesamajority.Nevertheless,allbutone textbookstill routinely apply the disgraceful old tag scalawags to Southern whiteRepublicans.73

CarpetbaggersandscalawagsaretermscoinedbywhiteSouthernDemocratsto defame their opponents as illegitimate. At the time, newspapers inMississippi, at least, used Republicans far more often than carpetbaggers orscalawags.CarpetbaggerimpliesthatthedregsofNorthernsociety,carryingalltheirbelongings inacarpetbag,hadcomedown tomake their fortunesoff the“prostrate[white]south.”Scalawagmeans“scoundrel.”Theybecamethetermsof choice long after Reconstruction, during the nadir of race relations, whenwhite Americans, North as well as South, found it hard to believe that whiteNorthernerswouldhavegone south tohelpblackswithout ulteriormotives. Ifauthorsexplainedwhenandwhythetermsbecamepopular,studentswouldlearnsomethingimportantaboutReconstruction,thenadir,andthewritingofhistory.TheclosesttheycomeisthissentencefromTheAmericans:“Althoughtheterms

scalawagandcarpetbaggerwerenegative labels imposedbypoliticalenemies,historiansstillusethetermswhenreferringtothetwogroups.”Likealltheotherbooks, The Americans then uses the words as if they were proper historicallabels,withnoquotationmarks.

ConsiderthisphrasefromPathwaystothePresentlistingthevictimsofKlanviolence: “carpetbaggers, scalawags, freedmenwho had become prosperous—eventhosewhohadmerelylearnedtoread.”Whynotsimplysay“Republicans—black andwhite”?Or this fromThe American Tradition: “Despite southernwhiteclaimstothecontrary,theRadicalregimeswerenotdominatedbyblacks,but by scalawags and carpetbaggers.” In reality, “scalawags” were Southernwhites,ofcourse,but thissentencewrites themoutof thewhiteSouth, justasdie-hardConfederateswerewont to do.Moreover, referring to perfectly legalgovernments as “regimes” is a way of delegitimizing them, a techniqueTradition applies to no other administration, not even the 1836 Republic ofTexasorthe1893DolepineappletakeoverinHawaii.

Tobesure,newereditionsofAmericanhistorytextbooksnolongerdenounceNortherners who participated in Southern politics and society as “dishonestadventurerswhoseonlythoughtwastofeathertheirownnestsattheexpenseoftheir fellows,” asRiseof theAmericanNation put it in 1961.Again, the civilrights movement has allowed us to rethink our history. Having watchedNortherners, black and white, go south to help blacks win civil rights in the1960s, today’s textbook authors display more sympathy for Northerners whoworkedwithSouthernblacksduringReconstruction.74Hereistheparagraphon“carpetbaggers” from Rise’s successor, Holt American Nation, published in2003:

The arrival of northern Republicans—both whites and AfricanAmericans—eager to participate in the state conventions increasedresentment amongmanywhite southerners. They called these northernRepublicans carpetbaggers. The newcomers, they joked, were “needyadventurers” of the “lowest class” who could carry everything theyownedinacarpetbag—atypeofcheapsuitcase.

Andhereistheparagraphon“scalawags”:

FormerConfederatesheapedevengreaterscornonsouthernwhiteswhohad backed the Union cause and now supported Reconstruction. Theycalled these whites scalawags, or scoundrels. They viewed them as

“southernrenegades,betrayersoftheirraceandcountry.”

The new treatment distances the author from the derogatory terms, puttingthemin themouthsof“manywhitesoutherners,”but the termsthemselvesareneverdiscredited.Instead,theyaretobelearned,whichiswhytheyarebolded.Andtextbooksstillinvokegreedto“explain”whiteswhobelievedblacksshouldhavecivilandpoliticalrights.Ofcourse,authorsmightusethenotionofprivategain to disparage every textbook hero from Christopher Columbus and thePilgrims throughGeorgeWashington to JackieRobinson.Theydon’t, though.Textbooksattributeselfishmotivesonlytocharacterswithwhomtheyhavelittlesympathy,suchastheidealistsinReconstruction.Thenegativesthenstickinthemind,cementedby thecatchypejorativescarpetbaggers and scalawags,whilethequalifyingphrases—manywhitesoutherners—arelikelytobeforgotten.

EveryonewhosupportedblackrightsintheSouthduringReconstructiondidsoatpersonalrisk.AtthebeginningofReconstruction,simplytowalktoschoolto teach could be life-threatening. Toward the end of the era, there werecommunities in which simply to vote Republican was life-threatening.Whilesome Reconstructionists undoubtedly achieved economic gain, it was adangerouswaytomakeabuck.Textbooksneedtoshowtherisk,andtheracialidealismthatpromptedmostofthepeoplewhotookit.75

Instead,mosttextbooksdepriveusofourracialidealists,fromHighgateandFlournoy, whom they omit, through Brown, whom they make fanatic, toLincoln, whose idealism they flatten. In the course of events, Lincoln wouldcome to accomplish on a national scale what Brown tried to accomplish atHarpersFerry:helpingAfricanAmericansmobilizetofightslavery.Finally,likeJohn Brown, Abraham Lincoln became a martyr and a hero. Seven millionAmericans,almostone-thirdoftheentireUnionpopulation,stoodtowatchhisfuneral train pass.76 African Americans mourned with particular intensity.GideonWelles,secretaryofthenavy,walkedthestreetsofWashingtonatdawnan hour before the president breathed his last and described the scene: “Thecoloredpeopleespecially—and therewereat this timemoreof them,perhaps,thanofwhites—wereoverwhelmedwithgrief.”Welleswentonto tellhowalldaylong“ontheavenueinfrontoftheWhiteHousewereseveralhundredblackpeople,mostlywomenandchildren,weepingfor their loss,”acrowdthat“didnotappear todiminish through thewholeof thatcold,wetday.” In theirgriefAfricanAmericanswereneithermisguidednorchildlike.When thehourcame

fordealingwithslavery,asLincolnhadsurmised,hehaddonehisdutyand ithadcosthislife.77AbrahamLincoln,racismandall,wastheblacks’legitimatehero,asearlierJohnBrownhadbeen.Inasense,BrownandLincolnwereevenkilled for the samedeed: armingblackpeople for theirown liberation.Peoplearoundtheworldmournedthepassingofbothmen.

InVicksburg,Mississippi, theseAfricanAmericansgatheredat thecourthouseto hear the news of Lincoln’s death confirmed, to express their grief, andperhapstoseekprotectioninthefaceofanuncertainfuture.

ButwhenIaskmy(white)collegestudentsonthefirstdayofclasswhotheirheroesare inAmericanhistory,onlyoneor twoinahundredpickLincoln.78Even those who choose Lincoln know only that he was “really great”—theydon’t know why. Their ignorance makes sense—after all, textbooks presentAbraham Lincoln almost devoid of content. No students choose John Brown.Notonehasevernamedawhiteabolitionist,aReconstructionRepublican,orawhitecivilrightsmartyr.YetthesesamestudentsfeelsympathywithAmerica’sstruggle to improve race relations. Among their more popular choices areAfricanAmericans,fromSojournerTruthandFrederickDouglasstoRosaParksandMalcolmX.

While John Brown was on trial, the abolitionistWendell Phillips spoke of

Brown’splaceinhistory.Phillipsforesawthatslaverywasacausewhosetimewas passing, and he asked “theAmerican people” of the future,when slaverywas long dead in “the civilization of the twentieth century,” this question:“Whenthatdaycomes,whatwillbethoughtofthesefirstmartyrs,whoteachushow to live and how to die?”79 Phillips meant the question rhetorically. HeneverdreamedthatAmericanswouldtakenopleasureinthosewhohadhelpedleadthenationtoabolishslavery,orthattextbookswouldlabelBrown’ssmallbandmisguidedifnotfanaticandBrownhimselfpossiblymad.80

AntiracismisoneofAmerica’sgreatgiftstotheworld.Itsrelevanceextendsfarbeyondracerelations.Antiracismledto“anewbirthoffreedom”aftertheCivilWar, and not only for African Americans. Twice, once in each century, themovementforblackrightstriggeredthemovementforwomen’srights.Twiceitreinvigoratedourdemocraticspirit,whichhadbeenatrophying.Throughouttheworld, fromSouthAfrica toNorthernIreland,movementsofoppressedpeoplecontinuetousetacticsandwordsborrowedfromourabolitionistandcivilrightsmovements.TheclandestineearlymeetingsofanticommunistsinEastGermanywere marked by singing “We Shall Overcome.” Iranians used nonviolentmethodsborrowedfromThoreauandMartinLutherKingJr.,tooverthrowtheirhatedshah.OnHoChiMinh’sdeskinHanoionthedayhediedlayabiographyof John Brown. Among the heroes whose ideas inspired the students inTiananmen Square and whose words spilled from their lips was AbrahamLincoln.81YetweinAmerica,whoseantiracistidealistsareadmiredaroundtheglobe,seemtohavelostthesemenandwomenasheroes.Ourtextbooksneedtopresenttheminsuchawaythatwemightagainvalueourownidealism.

7.

THELANDOFOPPORTUNITY

Labor isprior to,and independentof,capital.Capitalisonlythefruitoflabor,andcouldneverhaveexistediflabor had not first existed. Labor is the superior ofcapital,anddeservesmuchthehigherconsideration.

—ABRAHAMLINCOLN1

Ihadoncebelievedthatwewereallmastersofourfate—that we could mold our lives into any form wepleased. . . . I had overcome deafness and blindnesssufficiently to be happy, and I supposed that anyonecouldcomeoutvictoriousifhethrewhimselfvaliantlyintolife’sstruggle.ButasIwentmoreandmoreaboutthecountryIlearnedthatIhadspokenwithassuranceonasubject Iknewlittleabout. . . . I learned that thepower to rise in the world is not within the reach ofeveryone.

—HELENKELLER2

Tenmeninourcountrycouldbuythewholeworldandtenmillioncan’tbuyenoughtoeat.

—WILLROGERS,1931

The history of a nation is, unfortunately, too easilywrittenasthehistoryofitsdominantclass.

—KWAMENKRUMAH3

HIGHSCHOOLSTUDENTShaveeyes,ears,andtelevisionsets(alltoomanyhavetheirownTVsets),sotheyknowalotaboutrelativeprivilegeinAmerica.Theymeasure their family’s social position against that of other families, andtheir community’s position against other communities. Middle-class students,especially,knowlittleabouthowtheAmericanclassstructureworks,however,and nothing at all about how it has changed over time.These students do notleave high schoolmerely ignorant of theworkings of the class structure; theycomeoutasterriblesociologists.“Whyarepeoplepoor?”Ihaveaskedfirst-yearcollegestudents.Or,iftheirownclasspositionisoneofrelativeprivilege,“Whyis your family well-off ?” The answers I’ve received, to characterize themcharitably,arehalf-formedandnaïve.Thestudentsblamethepoorfornotbeingsuccessful.4 They have no understanding of the ways that opportunity is notequal in America and no notion that social structure pushes people around,influencingtheideastheyholdandthelivestheyfashion.

High school history textbooks can take some of the credit for this state ofaffairs.Sometextbooksdocovercertainhighpointsoflaborhistory,suchasthe1894Pullman strikenearChicago thatPresidentClevelandbrokewith federaltroops,orthe1911TriangleShirtwaistfirethatkilled146womeninNewYorkCity,butthemostrecenteventmentionedinmostbooksistheTaft-HartleyActofsixtyyearsago.Nobookmentionsanyofthemajorstrikesthatlaborlostinthe late twentieth century, such as the 1985 Hormel meatpackers’ strike inAustin,Minnesota, or the 1991 Caterpillar strike in Decatur, Illinois—defeatsthat signify labor’s diminished power today.5Nor domost textbooks describeany continuing issues facing labor, such as the growth of multinationalcorporationsandtheirexportingofjobsoverseas.Withsuchomissions,textbookauthors can construe labor history as something that happened long ago, likeslavery,and that, likeslavery,wascorrected longago.It logicallyfollowsthatunions now appear anachronistic. The idea that they might be necessary forworkerstohaveavoiceintheworkplacegoesunstated.

Thisphotographof a sweatshop inNewYork’sChinatown, taken in the early1990s,illustratesthattheworkingclassstillworks,inAmerica,sometimesunderconditionsnotsodifferentfromacenturyago,andofteninthesamelocations.

Thesebooks’poortreatmentoflaborhistoryismagnificentcomparedtotheirtreatment of social class.Nothing that textbooks discuss—not even strikes—isever anchored in any analysis of social class.6 This amounts to delivering thefootnotes instead of the lecture! Half of the eighteen high school Americanhistory textbooks I examined contain no index listing at all for social class,social stratification, class structure, income distribution, inequality, or anyconceivablyrelatedtopic.Notonebooklistsupperclassor lowerclass.Threelistmiddle class, but only to assure students that America is a middle-classcountry. “Except for slaves, most of the colonists were members of the‘middlingranks,’”saysLandofPromise,andnailshomethepointthatweareamiddle-classcountrybyaskingstudentsto“describethree‘middle-class’valuesthat united free Americans of all classes.” Several of the textbooks note the

explosionofmiddle-classsuburbsafterWorldWarII.Talkingaboutthemiddleclass is hardly equivalent to discussing social stratification, however. On thecontrary, asGregoryMantsios has pointed out, “such references appear to beacceptablepreciselybecausetheymuteclassdifferences.”7

Stressing how middle-class we all are is increasingly problematic today,because the proportion of households earning between 75 percent and 125percentofthemedianincomehasfallensteadilysince1967.TheReagan-Bushadministrationsacceleratedthisshrinkageofthemiddleclass,andmostfamilieswholeftitsranksfellratherthanrose.8Aslateas1970,familyincomesintheUnitedStateswereonlyslightlylessequalthaninCanada.By2000,inequalityherewasmuchgreaterthanCanada’s;theUnitedStateswasbecomingmorelikeMexico,averystratifiedsociety.9TheBushIIadministration,withits taxcutsaimedopenly at thewealthy, continued to increase thegapbetween thehavesandhave-nots.Thisisthekindofhistoricaltrendonewouldthinkhistorybookswouldtakeasappropriatesubjectmatter,butonlyfiveoftheeighteenbooksinmysampleprovideanyanalysisofsocialstratificationintheUnitedStates.Eventhese fragmentary analyses are set mostly in colonial America. Boorstin andKelley,unusual inactually includingsocialclass in its index, lists only socialclasses in 1790 and social classes in earlyAmerica.These turnout to be tworeferences to the same paragraph,which tells us that England “was a land ofrigid social classes,” while here in America “social classes were much morefluid.”“OnegreatdifferencebetweencolonialandEuropeansocietywasthatthecolonists had more social mobility,” echoes The American Tradition. Nevermind that the most violent class conflicts in American history—Bacon’sRebellion and Shays’s Rebellion—took place in and just after colonial times.Textbooksstillsaythatcolonialsocietywasrelativelyclasslessandmarkedbyupwardmobility.

And things have only gotten rosier since. “By 1815,” The Challenge ofFreedomassuresus,twoclasseshadwitheredawayand“Americawasacountryofmiddleclasspeopleandofmiddleclassgoals.”Thisbookreturnsrepeatedly,everyfiftyyearsorso,tothethemeofhowopenopportunityisinAmerica.Thestress on upwardmobility is striking. There is almost nothing in any of thesetextbooks about class inequalities or barriers of any kind to social mobility.“Whatconditionsmadeitpossibleforpoorwhiteimmigrantstobecomericherin the colonies?” Land of Promise asks. “What conditions made/make itdifficult?” goes unasked. Boorstin and Kelley close their sole discussion of

socialclass(in1790,describedabove)withthehappysentence,“Asthecareersof American Presidents would soon show, here a person might rise by hardwork, intelligence, skill, andperhapsa little luck, from the lowestpositions tothehighest.”

If only that were so! Social class is probably the single most importantvariableinsociety.Fromwombtotomb,itcorrelateswithalmostallothersocialcharacteristics of people thatwe canmeasure.Affluent expectantmothers aremore likely to get prenatal care, receive current medical advice, and enjoygeneralhealth,fitness,andnutrition.Manypoorandworking-classmothers-to-be first contact the medical profession in the last month, sometimes the lasthours,oftheirpregnancies.Richbabiescomeouthealthierandweighingmorethanpoorbabies.Theinfantsgohometoverydifferentsituations.Poorbabiesaremorelikelytohavehighlevelsofpoisonousleadintheirenvironmentsandtheirbodies.Richbabiesgetmoretimeandverbalinteractionwiththeirparentsand higher quality day care when not with their parents. When they enterkindergarten, and through the twelve years that follow, rich children benefitfromsuburbanschoolsthatspendtwotothreetimesasmuchmoneyperstudentasschoolsininnercitiesorimpoverishedruralareas.Poorchildrenaretaughtinclasses that are often 50 percent larger than the classes of affluent children.Differencessuchasthesehelpaccountforthehigherschool-dropoutrateamongpoorchildren.

Evenwhenpoor children are fortunate enough to attend the same school asrich children, they encounter teachers who expect only children of affluentfamiliestoknowtherightanswers.Socialscienceresearchshowsthatteachersareoftensurprisedandevendistressedwhenpoorchildrenexcel.Teachersandcounselors believe they can predict who is “college material.” Since manyworking-classchildrengiveoffthewrongsignals,eveninfirstgrade,theyendupinthe“generaleducation”trackinhighschool.10“Ifyouarethechildoflow-income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limited and oftencareless attention from adults in your high school,” in thewords of TheodoreSizer’sbestselling studyofAmericanhigh schools,Horace’sCompromise.“Ifyouarethechildofupper-middle-incomeparents,thechancesaregoodthatyouwill receive substantial and careful attention.”11 Researcher Reba Page hasprovidedvividaccountsofhowhighschoolAmericanhistorycoursesuserotelearningtoturnoff lower-classstudents.12Thusschoolshaveput intopracticeWoodrowWilson’srecommendation:“Wewantoneclassofpersonstohavea

liberaleducation,andwewantanotherclassofpersons,averymuchlargerclassofnecessityineverysociety,toforgotheprivilegeofaliberaleducationandfitthemselvestoperformspecificdifficultmanualtasks.”13

Asifthisunequalhomeandschoollifewerenotenough,richteenagersthenenroll in the Princeton Review or other coaching sessions for the ScholasticAptitudeTest.Evenwithoutcoaching,affluentchildrenareadvantagedbecausetheir background is similar to that of the testmakers, so they are comfortablewiththevocabularyandsubtlesubculturalassumptionsofthetest.Tonoone’ssurprise,socialclasscorrelatesstronglywithSATscores.

All theseareamong the reasons that socialclasspredicts the rateofcollegeattendanceandthetypeofcollegechosenmoreeffectivelythandoesanyotherfactor, including intellectual ability, however measured. After college, mostaffluent children get white-collar jobs, most working-class children get blue-collar jobs,and theclassdifferencescontinue.Asadults, richpeoplearemorelikelytohavehiredanattorneyandtobeamemberofformalorganizationsthatincrease their civic power.Poor people aremore likely towatchTV.Becauseaffluent families can save somemoney while poor families must spend whatthey make, wealth differences are ten times larger than income differences.Therefore most poor and working-class families cannot accumulate the downpayment required tobuyahouse,which in turnshuts themout fromourmostimportant tax shelter, the write-off of home mortgage interest.Working-classparentscannotaffordto liveinelitesubdivisionsorhirehigh-qualitydaycare,so theprocessofeducational inequality replicates itself in thenextgeneration.Finally, affluentAmericans alsohave longer life expectancies than lower- andworking-classpeople,thelargestsinglecauseofwhichisbetteraccesstohealthcare.14 Echoing the results ofHelenKeller’s study of blindness, research hasdeterminedthatpoorhealthisnotdistributedrandomlyaboutthesocialstructurebut is concentrated in the lower class. Social Security then becomes a hugetransfer system, using monies contributed by all Americans to pay benefitsdisproportionatelytolonger-livedaffluentAmericans.

Ultimately,socialclassdetermineshowpeoplethinkaboutsocialclass.WhenaskedifpovertyinAmericaisthefaultofthepoororthefaultofthesystem,57percentofbusiness leadersblamedthepoor; just9percentblamedthesystem.Labor leaders showed sharply reversed choices: only 15 percent said the poorwereatfaultwhile56percentblamedthesystem.(Somepeoplereplied“don’t

know” or chose amiddle position.) The largest single difference between ourtwomainpoliticalpartiesliesinhowtheirmembersthinkaboutsocialclass:55percentofRepublicansblamedthepoorfortheirpoverty,whileonly13percentblamedthesystemforit;68percentofDemocrats,ontheotherhand,blamedthesystem,whileonly5percentblamedthepoor.15

Fewofthesestatementsarenews,Iknow,whichiswhyIhavenotbotheredtodocumentmostofthem,butthemajorityofhighschoolstudentsdonotknoworunderstandtheseideas.Moreover,theprocesseshavechangedovertime,fortheclassstructureinAmericatodayisnotthesameasitwasin1890,letaloneincolonialAmerica.YetinthemostrecentAmericanPageant,forexample,socialclassgoesunmentionedin the twentiethcentury.Manyteacherscompoundtheproblem by avoiding talking about social class in the twenty-first.A study ofhistory and social studies teachers “revealed that they had a much broaderknowledge of the economy, both academically and experientially, than theyadmitted inclass.”Teachers“expressedfear thatstudentsmightfindoutaboutthe injusticesand inadequaciesof theireconomicandpolitical institutions.”16Byneverblamingthesystem,AmericanhistorycoursesthuspresentRepublicanhistory.

Historically,socialclassisintertwinedwithallkindsofeventsandprocessesin our past. Our governing system was established by rich men, followingtheories that emphasized government as a bulwark of the propertied class.Althoughrichhimself,JamesMadisonworriedaboutsocialinequalityandwroteTheFederalist#10toexplainhowtheproposedgovernmentwouldnotsuccumbto the influence of the affluent. Madison did not fully succeed, according toEdward Pessen, who examined the social-class backgrounds of all AmericanpresidentsthroughReagan.Pessenfoundthatmorethan40percenthailedfromtheupperclass,mostlyfromtheupperfringesofthatelitegroup,andanother15percent originated in families located between the upper and upper-middleclasses.Morethan25percentcamefromasolidupper-middle-classbackground,leaving just sixpresidents,or15percent, tocomefrom themiddleand lower-middleclassesandjustone,AndrewJohnson,representinganypartofthelowerclass. One recent president, Bill Clinton, also comes from a working-classbackground,foratotaloftwo.Forgoodreason,PessentitledhisbookTheLogCabinMyth.17ClearlyBoorstinandKelleyneverreadPessen,ortheycouldnothaveclaimedthatthecareersofourpresidentsdemonstratehowpersonscanrise“from the lowest positions to the highest.” In fact,mostAmericans die in the

samesocialclass inwhich theywereborn,sociologistshaveshown,and thosewhoaremobileusuallyriseorfalljustasinglesocialclass.

Beerhasbeenoneofthefewproducts(pickuptrucks,somepatentmedicines,and false-teeth cleansers are others) that advertisers try to sell with working-class images. Advertisers use upper-middle-class imagery to sell most items,fromwine tonylons to toilet-bowl cleansers.Signsof social class cover thesetwomodels,fromfootweartoheadgear.Notewhohasthenewspaper,briefcase,lunchbox,and,inafinalstatement,thecansandthebottles.

Socialclassbuyslifeeveninthemidstofdanger.WhileitwassadwhenthegreatshipTitanicwentdown,astheoldsongrefraingoes,itwassaddestforthelowerclass:amongwomen,only4of143first-classpassengerswerelost,while15 of 93 second-class passengers drowned, along with 81 of 179 third-classwomenandgirls.Thecreworderedthird-classpassengerstoremainbelowdeck,holdingsomethereatgunpoint.18Morerecently,socialclassplayedamajorrolein determiningwho fought in theVietnamWar: despite the “universal” draft,sonsoftheaffluentwoneducationalandmedicaldefermentsthroughmostoftheconflict. The all-volunteer army that fights in Iraq relies evenmore on lower-classrecruits,whosignupasonewayoutofpoverty.19Textbooksandteachersignoreallthis.

Teachersmayavoidsocialclassoutofalaudabledesirenottoembarrasstheircharges. Ifso, theirconcern ismisguided.Whenmystudentsfromnonaffluent

backgrounds learn about the class system, they find the experience liberating.Once they see the social processes that have helped keep their families poor,theycanletgooftheirnegativeself-imageaboutbeingpoor.Iftounderstandistopardon,forworking-classchildrentounderstandhowstratificationworksistopardonthemselvesandtheirfamilies.Knowledgeofthesocial-classsystemalsoreducesthetendencyofAmericansfromothersocialclassestoblamethevictimfor being poor. Pedagogically, stratification provides a gripping learningexperience. Students are fascinated to discover how the upper class wieldsdisproportionatepower relating toeverything fromenergybills inCongress tozoningdecisionsinsmalltowns.

Consider a white ninth-grade student taking American history in apredominantly middle-class town in Vermont. Her father tapes Sheetrock,earninganincomethatinslowconstructionseasonsleavesthefamilyquitepoor.Hermotherhelpsoutbydrivingaschoolbuspart-time,inadditiontotakingcareofher twoyoungersiblings.Thegirl liveswithher family ina smallhouse,awinterized former summer cabin, while most of her classmates live in largesuburban homes. How is this girl to understand her poverty? Since historytextbooks present the American past as four hundred years of progress andportrayoursocietyasalandofopportunityinwhichfolksgetwhattheydeserveanddeservewhattheyget,thefailuresofworking-classAmericanstotranscendtheirclassorigininevitablygetlaidattheirowndoorsteps.

Within the white working-class community the girl will probably find fewresources—teachers,churchparishioners,familymembers—whocantellherofheroesorstrugglesamongpeopleofherbackground, for,except inpocketsofcontinuingclassconflict,theworkingclassusuallyforgetsitsownhistory.Morethan any other group, white working-class students believe that they deservetheir low status. A subculture of shame results. This negative self-image isforemost among what Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb have called “thehiddeninjuriesofclass.”20Twostudentsofmineprovidedademonstration:theydrovearoundBurlington,Vermont,inabig,nearlynew,shinyblackluxurycarand then in a battered ten-year-old subcompact. In each vehicle, when theyreached a stoplight and it turnedgreen, theywaiteduntil theywerehonked atbeforedrivingon.Motoristsaveragedlessthansevensecondstohonkattheminthesubcompact,butintheluxurycarthestudentsenjoyed13.2secondsbeforeanyonehonked.Besidesprovidingagoodreason tobuyanexpensivecar, thisexperiment showshowAmericansunconsciouslygrant respect to theeducated

andsuccessful.Sincemotoristsofall socialstationshonkedat thesubcompactmore readily, working-class drivers were in a sense disrespecting themselveswhiledeferringtotheirbetters.Thebitingquip“Ifyou’resosmart,whyaren’tyourich?”conveystheinjurydonetotheself-imageofthepoorwhentheideathatAmericaisameritocracygoesunchallengedinschool.

Part of the problem is that American history textbooks describe Americaneducationitselfasmeritocratic.Ahugebodyofresearchconfirmsthateducationisdominatedbytheclassstructureandoperatestoreplicatethatstructureinthenext generation.21 Meanwhile, history textbooks blithely tell of such federallargesse to education as theElementary andSecondaryEducationAct, passedunder President Lyndon Johnson. Not one textbook offers any data on oranalysisofinequalitywithineducationalinstitutions.Nonementionshowschooldistricts in low-incomeareas laborunder financialconstraints soshocking thatJonathanKozol calls them“savage inequalities.”22No textbook ever suggeststhatstudentsmightresearchthehistoryoftheirownschoolandthepopulationitserves.Theonlytextbooksthatrelateeducationtotheclasssystematallseeitasaremedy!Schooling“wasakeytoupwardmobilityinpostwarAmerica,”inthewordsofTheChallengeofFreedom.Itwasalsokeytocontinuedinequality.23

The tendencyof teachers and textbooks to avoid social class as if itwere adirtylittlesecretonlyreinforcesthereluctanceofworking-classfamiliestotalkaboutit.PaulCowanhastoldofinterviewingthechildrenofItalianimmigrantworkersinvolvedinthefamous1912Lawrence,Massachusetts,millstrike.Hespoke with the daughter of one of the Lawrence workers who testified at aWashingtoncongressionalhearinginvestigatingthestrike.Theworker,CamellaTeoli,thenthirteenyearsold,hadbeenscalpedbyacotton-twistingmachinejustbefore the strike and had been hospitalized for severalmonths.Her testimony“becamefront-pagenewsalloverAmerica.”ButTeoli’sdaughter, interviewedin1976afterhermother’sdeath,couldnothelpCowan.Hermotherhadtoldhernothing of the incident, nothing of her trip toWashington, nothing about herimpactonAmerica’sconscience—even thoughalmosteveryday, thedaughter“had combed hermother’s hair into a bun that disguised the bald spot.”24 Aprofessionalofworking-classorigintoldmeasimilarstoryaboutbeingashamedof her uncle “for being a steelworker.” A certain defensiveness is built intoworking-classculture;even its successfulactsofworking-class resistance, likethe Lawrence strike, necessarily presuppose lower status and income, henceconnoteacertaininferiority.Ifthelargercommunityissogood,astextbookstell

usitis,thencelebratingorevenpassingonthememoryofconflictwithitseemssomehowdisloyal.

Textbooks do present immigrant history. Around the turn of the centuryimmigrants dominated the American urban working class, even in cities asdistant from seacoasts as Des Moines and Louisville. When more than 70percent of the white population was native stock, less than 10 percent of theurbanworkingclasswas.25Butwhen textbooks tell the immigrant story, theyemphasize Joseph Pulitzer, Andrew Carnegie, and their ilk—immigrants whomadesupergood.Several textbooksapply thephrasesrags torichesor landofopportunity to the immigrant experience. Such legendary successes wereachieved, to be sure, but they were the exceptions, not the rule. Ninety-fivepercent of the executives and financiers in America around the turn of thecenturycamefromupper-classorupper-middle-classbackgrounds.Fewerthan3percentstartedaspoorimmigrantsorfarmchildren.Throughoutthenineteenthcentury, just 2 percent of American industrialists came from working-classorigins.26 By concentrating on the inspiring exceptions, textbooks presentimmigranthistoryasanotherhearteningconfirmationofAmericaasthelandofunparalleledopportunity.

Againandagain,textbooksemphasizehowAmericahasdifferedfromEuropeinhavinglessclassstratificationandmoreeconomicandsocialmobility.Thisisanother aspect of the archetype of American exceptionalism: our society hasbeen uniquely fair. It would never occur to historians in, say, France orAustralia, to claim that their societywas exceptionally equalitarian.Does thistreatmentoftheUnitedStatespreparestudentsforreality?Itcertainlydoesnotaccuratelydescribeourcountrytoday.SocialscientistshaveonmanyoccasionscomparedthedegreeofeconomicequalityintheUnitedStateswiththatinotherindustrialnations.Dependingonthemeasureused,theUnitedStateshasrankedsixth of six, seventh of seven, ninth of twelve, thirteenth of thirteen, orfourteenthoffourteen.27IntheUnitedStatestherichestfifthofthepopulationearnstwelvetimesasmuchincomeasthepoorestfifth,oneofthehighestratiosin the industrializedworld; inGreatBritain the ratio is seven toone, in Japanjust four to one.28 In 1965 the average chief executive officer in the UnitedStatesmade26timeswhat theaverageworkermade.By2004, theCEOmade431 times an average worker’s pay. Meanwhile, Japanese CEOs continue tomakeabout26 timesasmuchas theiraverageworkers,and it ishard toclaimthat the leadership of GM and Ford is that much better than Toyota’s and

Honda’s.29 The Jeffersonian conceit of a nation of independent farmers andmerchants is also long gone: only one working American in thirteen is self-employed,comparedtooneineightinWesternEurope.30Thus,notonlydowehave far fewer independententrepreneurscompared to twohundredyearsago,wehavefewercomparedtoEuropetoday.

SincetextbooksclaimthatcolonialAmericawasradicallylessstratifiedthanEurope,theyshouldtelltheirreaderswheninequalitysetin.Itsurelywasnotarecentdevelopment.By1910thetop1percentoftheU.S.populationreceivedmore than a third of all personal income,while the bottom fifth got less thanone-eighth.31 This level of inequality was on a par with that in Germany orGreatBritain.32Iftextbooksacknowledgedinequality,thentheycoulddescribethe changes in our class structure over time, which would introduce theirstudentstofascinatinghistoricaldebate.33

Forexample,somehistoriansarguethatwealthincolonialsocietywasmoreequallydistributedthanitistodayandthateconomicinequalityincreasedduringthepresidencyofAndrewJackson—aperiodknown,ironically,astheageofthecommonman.Othersbelieve that thefloweringof the largecorporation in thelate nineteenth century made the class structure more rigid. Walter DeanBurnhamhasarguedthattheRepublicanpresidentialvictoryin1896(McKinleyover Bryan) brought about a sweeping political realignment that changed “afairlydemocraticregimeintoaratherbroadlybasedoligarchy,”sobythe1920s,businesscontrolledpublicpolicy.34Clearlythegapbetweenrichandpoor,likethedistancebetweenblacksandwhites,wasgreaterattheendoftheProgressiveEra in 1920 than at its beginning around 1890.35 The story is not all one ofincreasingstratification,forbetweentheDepressionandtheendofWorldWarII,incomeandwealthinAmericagraduallybecamemoreequal.DistributionsofincomethenremainedreasonablyconstantuntilPresidentReagantookofficein1981, when inequality began to grow.36 Still other scholars think that littlechange has occurred since the Revolution. Lee Soltow, for example, finds“surprising inequalityofwealth and income” inAmerica in1798.At least forBoston,StephanThernstromconcludesthatinequalitiesinlifechancesowingtosocialclassshowaneeriecontinuity.37AllthisispartofAmericanhistory.ButitisnotpartofAmericanhistoryastaughtinhighschool.

Tosocialscientists,thelevelofinequalityisaportentousthingtoknowabout

asociety.Whenwerankcountriesbythisvariable,wefindScandinaviannationsat the top, the most equal, and agricultural societies like Colombia andZimbabwe near the bottom. The policies of the Reagan and first Bushadministrations,whichopenlyfavoredtherich,abettedaseculartrendalreadyinmotion,causinginequalitytoincreasemeasurablybetween1981and1992.FortheUnitedStatestomoveperceptiblytowardColombiainsocialinequalityisadevelopment of no small import.38 Surely high school students would beinterested to learn that in 1950 physicians made two and a half times whatunionized industrial workers made but nowmake five times as much. Surelytheyneedtounderstandthattopmanagersofclothingfirms,whousedtoearn50timeswhat theirAmericanemployeesmade,nowmake1,500 timeswhat theirBangladeshi workers earn. Surely it is wrong for our history textbooks andteachers to withhold the historical information that might prompt and informdiscussionofthesetrends.

Why might they commit such a blunder? First and foremost, publishercensorshipoftextbookauthors.“Youalwaysruntherisk,ifyoutalkaboutsocialclass,ofbeinglabeledMarxist,”theeditorforsocialstudiesandhistoryatoneofthe biggest publishing houses told me. This editor communicates the taboo,formally or subtly, to everywriter sheworkswith, and she implied thatmostothereditorsdo,too.

Publisher pressure derives in part from textbook adoption boards andcommittees in states and schooldistricts.These are subject in turn topressurefrom organized groups and individuals who appear before them. Perhaps themostrobustsuchlobbyisstillEducationalResearchAnalysts,leduntil2004byMelGablerofTexas.Gabler’sstableofright-wingcriticsregardsevenallegingthata textbookcontains someclassanalysisasadevastatingcriticism.Asonewriterhasputit,“Formulatingissuesintermsofclassisunacceptable,perhapsevenun-American.”39FearofnotwinningadoptioninTexasisaprimesourceofpublisherangstandmighthelpexplainwhyLifeandLibertylimitsitssocial-class analysis to colonial times in England. By contrast, “the colonies wereplaces of great opportunity,” even back then. Some Texans cannot easily beplacated, however. Deborah L. Brezina, a Gabler ally, wrote that Life andLiberty describes America “as an unjust society,” unfair to lower economicgroups, and therefore should not be approved.40 Such pressure is hardly new.HaroldRugg’s Introduction toProblems ofAmericanCulture and his popularhistorytextbook,writtenduringtheDepression,includedsomeclassanalysis.In

the early 1940s, according to Frances FitzGerald, theNational Association ofManufacturersattackedRugg’sbooks,partlyforthisfeature,and“broughttoanend”socialandeconomicanalysisinAmericanhistorytextbooks.41

More often the influence of the upper class is less direct. Themost potentrationaleforclassprivilegeinAmericanhistoryhasbeensocialDarwinism,anarchetypethatstillhasgreatpowerinAmericanculture.Thenotionthatpeoplerise and fall in a survival of the fittest may not conform to the data onintergenerationalmobility in theUnited States, but that has hardly caused thearchetype to fade away fromAmerican education, particularly fromAmericanhistory classes.42 Facts that do not fit with the archetype, such as the entireliteratureofsocialstratification,simplygetleftout.

Textbookauthorsmaynotevenneedpressurefrompublishers,therightwing,theupperclass,orculturalarchetypestoavoidsocialstratification.Aspartoftheprocessofheroification,textbookauthorstreatAmericaitselfasahero,indeedastheherooftheirbooks,sotheyremoveitswarts.EventoreportthefactsofincomeandwealthdistributionmightseemcriticalofAmericathehero,foritisdifficulttocomeupwithatheoryofsocialjusticethatcanexplainwhy1percentof thepopulationcontrolsalmost40percentof thewealth.Could theother99percentofusbethatlazyorotherwiseundeserving?Togoontoincludesomeofthe mechanisms—unequal schooling and the like—by which the upper classstaysupperwouldclearlyinvolvecriticismofourbelovednation.

Foranyorallofthesereasons,textbooksminimizesocialstratification.Theythendosomethinglesscomprehensible:theyfailtoexplainthebenefitsoffreeenterprise.Writingaboutanearliergenerationoftextbooks,FrancesFitzGeraldpointedoutthatthebooksignored“thevirtuesaswellasthevicesoftheirowneconomicsystem.”43 Teachersmightmention free enterprisewith respect, butseldomdothewordsbecomemorethanaslogan.44Thisomissionisstrange,forcapitalismhas its advantages, after all.Formerbasketball starMichael Jordan,ChryslerexecutiveLeeIacocca,andice-creammakersBenandJerryallgotrichby supplying goods and services that people desired. To be sure,much socialstratificationcannotbe justified soneatly,because it results from theabuseofwealthandpowerbythosewhohavetheseadvantagestoshutoutthosewhodonot. As a social and economic order, the capitalist system offers much tocriticize but also much to praise. America is a land of opportunity for manypeople.And for all thedistortions capitalism imposesupon it, democracyalso

benefits fromtheseparationofpowerbetweenpublicandprivatespheres.Ourhistorytextbooksfailtoteachthesebenefits.

Publishers or thosewho influence themhave evidently concluded thatwhatAmerican society needs to stay strong is citizens who assent to its socialstructure and economic system without thought. As a consequence, today’stextbooks defend our economic system mindlessly, with insupportable pietiesabout its unique lack of stratification; thus they produce alumni of Americanhistory courses unable to criticize or defendour systemof social stratificationknowledgeably.

Butisn’titnicesimplytobelievethatAmericaisequal?Maybethe“landofopportunity” archetype is an empoweringmyth—maybe believing in it mightevenhelpmakeitcometrue.Forifstudentsthinktheskyisthelimit,theymayreachforthesky,whileiftheydon’t,theywon’t.

Theanalogyofgenderpoints to theproblemwith this lineof thought.Howcould high school girls understand their place in American history if theirtextbookstoldthemthat,fromcolonialAmericatothepresent,womenhavehadequal opportunity for upwardmobility and political participation? How couldtheythenexplainwhynowomanhasbeenpresident?Girlswouldhavetoinfer,perhaps unconsciously, that it has been their own gender’s fault, a conclusionthatishardlyempowering.

Textbooksdo tell howwomenwere denied the right to vote inmany statesuntil 1920 and faced other barriers to upwardmobility.Textbooks also tell ofbarriersconfronting racialminorities.The finalquestionLandofPromise asksstudents following its “Social Mobility” section is “What social barrierspreventedblacks, Indians, andwomen fromcompetingon an equal basiswithwhite male colonists?” After its passage extolling upward mobility, TheChallengeofFreedomnotes,“Notallpeople,however,enjoyedequalrightsoranequalchancetoimprovetheirwayoflife,”andgoesontoaddresstheissuesof sexism and racism. But neither here nor anywhere else do Promise orChallenge (or most other textbooks) hint that opportunitymight not be equaltoday for white Americans of the lower and working classes.45 Perhaps as aresult,evenbusinessleadersandRepublicans,therespondentsstatisticallymostlikelytoengageinwhatsociologistscall“blamingthevictim,”blamethesocialsystem rather thanAfricanAmericans forblackpovertyandblame the systemrather than women for the latter’s unequal achievement in the workplace. In

sum, affluent Americans, like their textbooks, are willing to credit racialdiscrimination as the cause of poverty among blacks and Indians and sexdiscrimination as the cause of women’s inequality but don’t see classdiscriminationasthecauseofpovertyingeneral.46

More than math or science, more even than American literature, courses inAmericanhistoryholdthepromiseoftellinghighschoolstudentshowtheyandtheirparents, theircommunities,and their societycame tobeas theyare.Oneway things are unequal is by social class. Although poor and working-classchildrenusuallycannotidentifythecauseoftheiralienation,historyoftenturnsthem off because it justifies rather than explains the present. When thesestudentsreactbydroppingout,intellectuallyifnotphysically,theirpoorschoolperformancehelpsconvincethemaswellastheirpeersinthefastertracksthatthe system ismeritocratic and that they themselves lackmerit. In the end, theabsence of social-class analysis in American history courses amounts to onemorewaythateducationinAmericaisriggedagainsttheworkingclass.

8.

WATCHINGBIGBROTHER

WHATTEXTBOOKSTEACHABOUTTHEFEDERALGOVERNMENT

Thehistorianmusthavenocountry.—JOHNQUINCYADAMS1

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy ofmine?Ilearnedourgovernmentmustbestrong.It’salwaysrightandneverwrong....That’swhatIlearnedinschool.

—“WHATDIDYOULEARNINSCHOOLTODAY?,”TOMPAXTON,19632

We have to face the unpleasant as well as theaffirmativesideof thehumanstory, includingourownstory as a nation, our own stories of our peoples.Wehave got to have the ugly facts in order to protect usfromtheofficialviewofreality.

—BILLMOYERS3

As long as you are convinced you have never doneanything,youcanneverdoanything.

—MALCOLMX4

To study foreignaffairswithout putting ourselves intoothers’ shoes is to deal in illusion and to preparestudentsforalifelongmisunderstandingofourplaceintheworld.

—PAULGAGNON5

SOMETRADITIONALHISTORIANS, critics of the new emphasis on socialandculturalhistory,believethatAmericanhistorytextbookshavebeenseducedfromtheircentralnarrative,which theyseeas thestoryof theAmericanstate.Methinks they protest toomuch.The expanded treatments that textbooks nowgive to women, slavery, modes of transportation, developments in popularmusic,andothertopicsnotdirectlyrelatedtothestatehaveyettoproduceanewcore narrative. Therefore, they appear as unnecessary diversions that onlyinterrupt the basic narrative that the textbooks still tell: the history of theAmericangovernment.Twoof the twelve textbooks inmy initial samplewere“inquiry” textbooks,mostly assembled from primary sources. They no longermadethestoryofthestatequitesocentral.6Thetennarrativetextbooksinthatsampleandallcurrenttextbookscontinuetopayoverwhelmingattentiontotheactionsoftheexecutivebranchofthefederalgovernment.TheystilldemarcateU.S.historyasaseriesofpresidentialadministrations.

Thus, for instance, Land of Promise grants each president a biographicalvignette,evenWilliamHenryHarrison (whoserved foronemonth),butnevermentions arguably our greatest composer, Charles Ives; our most influentialarchitect,FrankLloydWright;orourmostprominentnon-Indianhumanitarianon behalf of Indians,HelenHunt Jackson.Although textbook authors includemoresocialhistorythantheyusedto,theystillregardtheactionsandwordsofthestateasincomparablymoreimportantthanwhattheAmericanpeopleweredoing,listeningto,sleepingin,livingthrough,orthinkingabout.ParticularlyforthecenturiesbeforetheWoodrowWilsonadministration,thisstressonthestateisinappropriate,becausethefederalexecutivewasnotnearlyasimportantthenasnow.

Whatstorydotextbookstellaboutourgovernment?First,theyimplythatthestateweliveintodayisthestatecreatedin1789.Textbookauthorsoverlookthe

possibilitythatthebalanceofpowerssetforthintheConstitution,grantingsomepower to each branch of the federal government, some to the states, andreserving some for individuals, has been decisively altered over the last twohundredyears.Thefederalgovernmenttheypictureisstillthepeople’sservant,manageable and tractable. Paradoxically, textbooks then underplay the role ofnongovernmentalinstitutionsorprivatecitizensinbringingaboutimprovementsin the environment, race relations, education, andother social issues. In short,textbookauthorsportrayaheroic state,and, like theirotherheroes, thisone isprettymuchwithoutblemishes.Suchanapproachconvertstextbooksintoanti-citizenshipmanuals—handbooksforacquiescence.

Perhaps the bestway to show textbooks’ sycophancy is by examining howauthorstreatthegovernmentwhenitsactionshavebeenleastdefensible.LetusbeginwithconsiderationsrelatingtoU.S.foreignpolicy.

College courses in political science generally take one of two approacheswhen analyzingU.S. actions abroad. Some professors and textbooks are quitecritical of what might be called the American colossus. In this “Americancentury”(1917-2017?),theUnitedStateshasbeenthemostpowerfulnationonearthandhastypicallyactedtomaintainitshegemony.ThisviewholdsthatweAmericans abandoned our revolutionary ideology long ago, if indeedwe everheld one, and now typically act to repress the legitimate attempts at self-determinationofothernationsandpeoples.

Morecommonistherealpolitikview.GeorgeKennan,whoforalmosthalfacenturywasanarchitectofandcommentatoronU.S.foreignpolicy,providedasuccinctstatementofthisapproachin1948.AsheadofthePolicyPlanningStaffoftheStateDepartment,Kennanwroteinanowfamousmemorandum:

We have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of itspopulation.Inthissituation,wecannotfailtobetheobjectofenvyandresentment.Our real test in the comingperiod is todevise apatternofrelationshipswhichwillpermitustomaintainthispositionofdisparity.We need not deceive ourselves thatwe can afford today the luxury ofaltruismandworldbenefaction—unrealobjectivessuchashumanrights,theraisingoflivingstandards,anddemocratization.7

Under this view, the historian or political scientist proceeds by identifyingAmericannationalinterestsasarticulatedbypolicymakersinthepastaswellasbyhistorianstoday.Thens/heanalyzesouractsandpoliciestoassessthedegree

towhichtheyfurtheredtheseinterests.

HighschoolAmericanhistorytextbooksdonot,ofcourse,adoptorevenhintat the American colossus view. Unfortunately, they also omit the realpolitikapproach.Instead,theytakeastrikinglydifferenttack.Theyseeourpoliciesaspart of amorality play inwhich theUnited States typically acts on behalf ofhumanrights,democracy,and“theAmericanway.”WhenAmericanshavedonewrong,accordingtothisview,ithasbeenbecauseothersmisunderstoodus,orperhapsbecausewemisunderstood the situation.Butalwaysourmotivesweregood.Thisapproachmightbecalledthe“internationalgoodguy”view.

Textbooksdonotindulgeinanydirectdiscussionofwhat“good”isormightmean.InFrancesFitzGerald’sphrase,textbookspresenttheUnitedStatesas“akindofSalvationArmy to the rest of theworld.”8 In so doing, they echo thenation our leaders like to present to its citizens: the supremely moral,disinterested peacekeeper, the supremely responsible world citizen. “Othercountrieslooktotheirowninterests,”saidPresidentJohnF.Kennedyin1961,pridefully invokingwhat he termedour “obligations” around theglobe. “OnlytheUnitedStates—andweareonlysixpercentoftheworld’spopulation—bearsthiskindofburden.”9Todaythis“peacekeepingburden”hasgottenoutofhand:theUnited States now spendsmore on its armed forces than all other nationscombinedandhas themstationed in144countries.Butunder the internationalgood guy interpretation fostered by Kennedy and our textbook authors, theseactionsbecomesymbolsofouraltruismratherthanourhegemony.Sinceatleastthe 1920s, textbook authors have also claimed that the United States is moregenerousthananyothernationintheworldinprovidingforeignaid.10Themythwasuntruethen;itislikewiseuntruenow.TodayatleasttwentyEuropeanandArab nations devote much larger proportions of their gross domestic product(GDP) or total governmental expenditures to foreign aid than does theUnitedStates.11

Thedesiretoemphasizeourhumanitariandealingswiththeworldinfluenceswhat textbook authors choose to include andomit.All but oneofmyoriginaltwelvetextbookscontainedatleastaparagraphonthePeaceCorps,andthetoneof these treatmentswas adoring. “The PeaceCorpsmade friends forAmericaeverywhere,” gushed Life and Liberty. Most recent textbooks agree: “a hugesuccess”claimsTheAmericans.Onlyonebookadmits anyproblems. “Curingthe ills of needy people was not so simple,” Boorstin and Kelley note.

“Intelligent young Americans with high ideals seldom had enough of theknowledgeortheskillsrequired.”

Atleast thePeaceCorpsmeanswell.Moreimportantandoftenlessaffable,American exports are ourmultinational corporations.Onemultinational alone,InternationalTelephoneandTelegraph(ITT),whichtooktheleadinpromptingourgovernmenttodestabilizethesocialistgovernmentofSalvadorAllende,hadmore impact onChile than all the PeaceCorpsworkersAmerica ever sent toLatinAmerica.The samemightbe saidofUnionCarbide in IndiaandUnitedFruit inGuatemala.By influencingU.S.governmentpolicies,otherAmerican-basedmultinationalshavehadevenmoreprofoundeffectsonothernations.12Attimes the corporations’ influence has been constructive. For example, whenPresidentGeraldFordwastryingtopersuadeCongresstosupportU.S.militaryintervention on behalf of the UNITA rebels in Angola’s civil war, Gulf Oillobbiedagainstintervention.GulfwashappilyproducingoilinpartnershipwithAngola’s Marxist government when it found its refineries coming under firefromAmericanarmsinthehandsofUNITA.Atothertimes,multinationalshavepersuadedour government to intervenewhenonly their corporate interest, notournationalinterest,wasatstake.

Textbookauthorsselectimagestoreinforcetheideathatourcountry’smain

roleintheworldistobringaboutgood.ThisphotographfromTheAmericansiscaptioned“APeaceCorpsvolunteergivesaride toaNigeriangirl.”IhavenoquarrelwiththePeaceCorps,butstudentsshouldrealizethatitsmainimpacthasbeenontheintellectualdevelopmentofitsownvolunteers.

Allthisisamatterofgravepotentialconcerntostudents,whoaftergraduationmaygetsent tofight inaforeigncountry,partlybecauseU.S.policyhasbeenundulyinfluencedbysomeDelawarecorporation,Texasconstructioncompany,orNewYorkbank.Orstudentsmayfindtheirjobseliminatedbymultinationalsthatmovefactoriesorcomputerprogramming toThirdWorldcountrieswhosecitizensmustwork for almostnothing.13Social scientistsused todescribe theworld as stratified into a wealthy industrialized center and a poor colonizedperiphery;somenowholdthatmultinationalsandfastermodesoftransportationand communication havemademanagement the new center,workers at homeandabroadthenewperiphery.Evenifstudentsarenotpersonallyaffected,theywill have to deal with themultinationalization of theworld. AsmultinationalcorporationssuchasWal-MartandMitsubishicometohavebudgetslargerthanthoseofmostgovernments,nationaleconomiesarebecomingobsolete.RobertReich, secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, has pointed out, “TheveryideaofanAmericaneconomyisbecomingmeaningless,asarethenotionsof an American corporation, American capital, American products, andAmerican technology.”14 Multinationals may represent a threat to nationalautonomy,affectingnotonlysmallnationsbutalsotheUnitedStates.

When Americans try to think through the issues raised by the complexinterweavingofoureconomicandpoliticalinterests,theywillnotbehelpedbywhattheylearnedintheirAmericanhistorycourses.Mosthistorytextbooksdonotevenmentionmultinationals.Thetopicdoesn’tfit their“internationalgoodguy”approach.Amongmyoriginaltwelvetextbooks,onlyAmericanAdventureseven listedmultinationals in its index, and its treatment consisted of a singlesentence: “These investments [in Europe after World War I] led to thedevelopment of multinational corporations—large companies with interests inseveral countries.” Even this lone statement was inaccurate: Europeanmultinationalsdatebackcenturies,andAmericanmultinationalshaveplayedanimportantroleinourhistorysinceatleast1900.

Among the sixnewbooks, just twobooksevenmention the term,andbothpairitwith“benefit.”PathwaystothePresentsuppliesthesetwosentences:

Multinationals benefit consumers and workers around the world byproviding new products and jobs and by introducing advancedtechnologiesandproductionmethods.Ontheotherhand,thesepowerfulbigbusinessessometimesskirtthelawbyusingtheireconomicclouttoundulyinfluencepoliticiansorbydevisingdishonestwaystokeepprofitsgrowing.

That’snotadequate.OftenmultinationalsbribetheelitesofpoorcountrieslikeEquatorialGuinea,Kazakhstan,andNigeria.IBM,Monsanto,Schering-Plough,and many other companies have had executives or corporate policies in onecountryor another found tobecorrupt. InEquatorialGuinea, for example,oilcompanies paymillions of dollars to the regime’s leaders for the privilege oftaking the country’s oil—supporting their children in luxurywhen they studyabroad, leasing buildings from them, and simply paying bribes. Meanwhile,three-fourthsofEquatorialGuinea’spopulationsuffersfrommalnutrition.Whydoouroilcompaniesdobusinessthisway?Becausetheypayroyaltiesofonlyabout 10 percent for takingEquatorialGuinea’s oil—far less than theywouldpay in a justly-run nation.15 In the process, these companies comprise anantidemocraticforcethathelpstosolidifythecontrolofarapaciouseliteonthecountry.ThisisexactlytheoppositeofwhatU.S.influenceshouldaccomplish,accordingtoeithertherealpolitikor“internationalgoodguy”model.Eventually,asinIran,ourentwinementwithregimeslikeGuinea’smaycomebacktohauntus.

Theundue impact ofmultinationals ongovernments isn’t limited to foreigncountries. Textbooks need to discuss their influence on U.S. foreign policy,beginningperhapswith theadministrationofWoodrowWilson.Pressure fromFirstNationalBankofNewYorkhelpedpromptWilson’sinterventioninHaiti,for example. After Russia’s new communist government nationalized allpetroleumassets,StandardOilofNewJerseywas“themajor impetus”behindtheU.S. invasionofRussia in1918, according tohistorianBarryWeisberg.16Textbooks mystify these circumstances, however. The closest they come totellingthestoryofeconomicinfluencesonourforeignpolicyisinpassagessuchasthis,fromthecurrentAmericanPageant:

Hoping to head off trouble,Washington urgedWall Street bankers topumpdollars into the financialvacuums inHondurasandHaiti tokeepoutforeignfunds.TheUnitedStates,undertheMonroeDoctrine,would

notpermitforeignnationstointervene,andconsequentlyfeltobligatedtoput its money where its mouth was to prevent economic and politicalinstability.

Evidentlyevenourfinancialinterventionswerehumanitarian!TheauthorsofPageantcoulduseashotoftherealismsuppliedbyformerMarineCorpsGen.SmedleyD.Butler,whose1931statementhasbecomefamous:

IhelpedmakeMexicosafeforAmericanoil interests in1914.IhelpedmakeHaitiandCubaadecentplacefortheNationalCityBankboystocollect revenue in. I helped purify Nicaragua for the internationalbankinghouseofBrownBrothers....IbroughtlighttotheDominicanRepublicforAmericansugarinterestsin1916.IhelpedmakeHonduras“right” for American fruit companies in 1903. Looking back on it, ImighthavegivenAlCaponeafewhints.17

Business influence on U.S. foreign policy did not start with WoodrowWilson’s administration. John A. Hobson, in his 1903 book, Imperialism,described “a constantly growing tendency” of the wealthy class “to use theirpoliticalpowerascitizensofthisStatetointerferewiththepoliticalconditionofthoseStateswheretheyhaveanindustrialstake.”18Nordidsuchinfluenceendwith Wilson. Jonathan Kwitny’s fine book Endless Enemies cites variousdistortions of U.S. foreign policy owing to specific economic interests ofindividual corporations and/or to misconceived ideological interests of U.S.foreign policy planners. Kwitny points out that during the entire period from1953 to 1977, the people in charge of U.S. foreign policy were all on theRockefeller family payroll. Dean Rusk and Henry Kissinger, who ran ourforeignpolicyfrom1961to1977,weredependentonRockefellerpaymentsfortheirverysolvency.19Nonetheless,notextbookevermentionstheinfluenceofmultinationalsonU.S.policy.Thisisthecasenotnecessarilybecausetextbookauthors are afraid of offendingmultinationals, but because they never discussanyinfluenceonU.S.policy.Rather,theypresentourgovernmentalpoliciesasrational humanitarian responses to trying situations, and they do not seek topenetratethesurfaceofthegovernment’sownexplanationsofitsactions.

Havingignoredwhythefederalgovernmentactsasitdoes,textbooksproceedtoignoremuchofwhatthegovernmentdoes.TextbookauthorsportraytheU.S.government’s actions as agreeable and nice, even when U.S. governmentofficialshaveadmittedmotivesandintentionsofaquitedifferentnature.Among

thelesssavoryexamplesarevariousattemptsbyU.S.officialsandagenciestoassassinate leaders or bring down governments of other countries. TheUnitedStates has indulged in activities of this sort at least since the Wilsonadministration, which hired two Japanese-Mexicans to try to poison PanchoVilla.20IsurveyedalleighteentextbookstoseehowtheytreatedsixmorerecentU.S. attempts to subvert foreign governments. To ensure that the eventswereadequately covered in the historical literature, I examined only incidents thatoccurred before 1973, well before any of these textbooks went to press. Theepisodesare:

1.Ourassistance to theshah’s faction in Iran indeposingPrimeMinisterMossadeghandreturningtheshahtothethronein1953;

2.OurroleinbringingdowntheelectedgovernmentofGuatemalain1954;3. Our rigging of the 1957 election in Lebanon, which entrenched theChristians on top and led to theMuslim revolt and civil war the nextyear;

4. Our involvement in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba of Zaire in1961;

5.OurrepeatedattemptstomurderPremierFidelCastroofCubaandbringdownhisgovernmentbyterrorandsabotage;and

6.OurroleinbringingdowntheelectedgovernmentofChilein1973.

TheU.S.governmentcallsactionssuchas these“state-sponsored terrorism”whenothercountriesdothemtous.WewouldbeindignanttolearnofCubanorLibyan attempts to influence our politics or destabilize our economy. Ourgovernment expressed outrage at Iraq’s SaddamHussein for trying to arrangethe assassination of former President George H. W. Bush when he visitedKuwaitin1993andretaliatedwithabombingattackonBaghdad,yettheUnitedStateshasrepeatedlyorchestratedsimilarassassinationattempts.

Ourreviewbeginsauspiciously.EightofthetwelvetextbooksIreviewedforthe first edition of Lies omitted all mention of the CIA coup that put ShahMohammadRezaPahleviinpowerinIranin1953.AllsixnewbooksdotellofouroverthrowofMossadegh.TheAmericanPageantprovidesthisaccount:

ThegovernmentofIran,supposedlyinfluencedbytheKremlin,begantoresist the power of the gigantic Western companies that controlledIranianpetroleum.Inresponse,the...CIAhelpedtoengineeracoupin1953that installedtheyouthfulshahofIran,MohammedRezaPahlevi,as a kind of dictator. Though successful in the short run in securing

IranianoilfortheWest,theAmericaninterventionleftabitterlegacyofresentmentamongmanyIranians.

These sentences do give students somemeans for understandingwhy Iranianstook over theAmerican embassy in 1979, imprisoning its occupants formorethanayear.

Iran’s continuing hostility to U.S. policies in theMiddle East may explainwhy textbooks now cover our provocative actions there more fully.Unfortunately, other than about Iran, textbooks have not improved in theirtreatment of our foreign adventures. In Guatemala, in 1944, college students,urbanworkers,andmembersofGuatemala’smiddleclassjoinedtooverthrowadictatorandsetupademocraticgovernment.Duringthenexttenyears,electedgovernments extended the vote to American Indians, to the poor (largelysynonymous), and to women; ended forced labor on coffee plantations; andenactedotherreforms.Allthiscametoanendin1954,whentheCIAthreatenedthe government of Jacobo Arbenz with an armed invasion. Arbenz hadantagonizedtheUnitedFruitCompanybyproposinglandreformandplanningahighwayandrailroadthatmightbreaktheirtrademonopoly.TheUnitedStateschoseanobscurearmycolonelasthenewpresident,andwhenArbenzpanickedand sought asylum in the Mexican embassy, we flew our man to the capitalaboard theU.S. ambassador’s private plane. The resultwas a repressive juntathattreateditsIndianmajoritybrutallyforanotherfortyyears.

Four of six recent textbooks domention this event.The American Journeyprovidesarepresentativetreatment:

The Eisenhower administration also faced Communist challenges inLatin America. In 1954 the Central Intelligence Agency helpedoverthrowthegovernmentofJacoboArbenzinGuatemala,whichsomeAmericanleadersfearedwasleaningtowardcommunism.

HereJourneyoffersanticommunismasthesolemotiveforU.S.policies.Bearinmind that this incident took place at the height of McCarthyism, when, ascommentatorLewisLaphamhaspointedout,theUnitedStatessawcommunismeverywhere: “When the duly elected Guatemalan president, Jacobo Arbenz,began to talk too much like a democrat, the United States accused him ofcommunism.”21 Fifty years later The American Journey maintains the U.S.government’s McCarthyist rhetoric. So do other textbooks, if they mentionGuatemalaatall.

Not one textbook includes a word about how the United States helped theChristiansinLebanonfixthe1957parliamentaryelectioninthatthentenuouslybalanced country. The next year, denied a fair share of power by electoralmeans,theMuslimstooktoarmedcombat,andPresidentEisenhowersentinthemarines on the Christians’ behalf. Eight of eighteen books discuss that 1958intervention.LandofPromiseoffersthefullesttreatment:

Next,chaosbrokeoutinLebanon,andtheLebanesePresident,CamilleChamoun, fearing a leftist coup, asked for American help. Althoughreluctanttointerfere,inJuly1958Eisenhowersent15,000UnitedStatesmarines into Lebanon.Orderwas soon restored, and themarineswerewithdrawn.

This is standard textbook rhetoric: chaos seems always to be breaking out orabout to break out, and Americans intervene only “reluctantly.” Other thancommunism, “chaos” iswhat textbooks usually offer to explain the actions ofthe other side. The recent edition of American Pageant relies on the olderexplanation,communism:

[B]othEgyptianandcommunistplottingsthreatenedtoengulfWestern-oriented Lebanon. After its president had called for aid under theEisenhowerDoctrine, theUnitedStates boldly landed several thousandtroopsandhelpedrestoreorderwithouttakingasinglelife.

But communism was never a significant factor in Lebanon, and in othercountriesitoftenoffersnobetterexplanationthanchaos.Kwitnypointsoutthatthe United States has often behaved so badly in the Third World that somegovernmentsandindependencemovementssawnoalternativebuttoturntotheUSSR.22SincetextbookauthorsareunwillingtocriticizetheU.S.government,theypresentopponentsof theUnitedStates that arenot intelligible.Thisonlymisleads andmystifies students.Only by disclosing our actions can textbooksprovidereaderswithrationalaccountsofouradversaries.

Promisegoesontotellthehappyresultsofourintervention:“AlthoughtherewasnoimmediateCommunistthreattoLebanon,Eisenhowerdemonstratedthatthe United States could react quickly. As a result, tensions in the regionreceded.” In reality, the civil war in Lebanon broke out again in 1975, withmountingdestructioninBeirutandthroughoutthenation.In1983awholelotofchaosbrokeout,soPresidentReagansent inourmarinesagain.Atruckbombthen killed 241 marines in their barracks, prompting Reagan to withdraw the

rest.Severaltextbookstellofthisevent,butnotoneoffersstudentsanythingofsubstanceaboutthecontinuityofconflictinLebanonorourroleincausingit.In2006, “chaos” broke out in Lebanon once more in the form of a miniwarbetween the Arab nationalist organization Hezbollah and Israel. Textbooks’shallow discussions of Lebanon’s past provide no help to students seeking tounderstandthisnewconflict.

ZaireortheCongoappearsintheindexofjusttwooldertextbooks,TriumphoftheAmericanNationandthe1991editionofAmericanPageant.Neitherbookmentions that theCIAurged theassassinationofPatriceLumumba in1961.23Pageantofferedanaccurateaccountofthebeginningofthestrife:“TheAfricanCongo received its independence from Belgium in 1960 and immediatelyexploded into violence. The United Nations sent in a peacekeeping force, towhichWashingtoncontributedmuchmoneybutnomanpower.”TherePageantstops.TheaccountinTriumphoftheAmericanNationmentionedLumumbabyname: “Anewcrisisdeveloped in1961whenPatriceLumumba, leaderof thepro-Communist faction, was assassinated.” Triumph says nothing about U.S.involvementwiththeassassinationandconcludeswiththehappiestofendings:“By the late 1960s, most scars of the civil war seemed healed. The Congo(Zaire)becameoneofthemostprosperousAfricannations.”Wouldthatitwere!TheCIAhelpedbringtopowerJosephMobutu,aformerarmysergeant.Bytheendofthe1960s,Triumphtothecontrary,ZaireunderMobutuhadbecomeoneof themostwretchedAfricannations,economicallyandpolitically. In thefirstedition of this book, I predicted “in 1994, Zaire is ripe for a ‘new’ crisis todevelop.” Indeed, soon civilwar did erupt inZaire, forcingMobutu to flee in1997.Variouspartsofthecountryhavefacedcontinuedstrifesincethen,killingalmost four million residents. Today’s students and authors have no basis tounderstandthisnewoutbreakof“chaos,”however,becausenotonerecentbookevenmentionsCongo/Zaire.

Nor does any textbook, old or new, mention our repeated attempts toassassinatePremierFidelCastroofCuba.24ThefederalgovernmenthadtriedtokillCastroeighttimesby1965,accordingtotestimonybeforetheU.S.Senate;by 1975 Castro had thwarted twenty-four attempts, according to Cuba. Theseundertakings ranged from a botched effort to getCastro to light an explodingcigartoacontractwiththeMafiatomurderhim.AftertheBayofPigsinvasionfailed,PresidentJohnF.KennedylaunchedOperationMongoose,“avastcovertprogram”todestabilizeCuba,inthewordsofPierreSalinger,Kennedy’spress

secretary.SalingeralsohaswrittenthatJFKevenplannedtoinvadeCubawithU.S. armed forcesuntil forestalledby theCubanmissile crisis.25No textbooktellsaboutOperationMongoose.

Authors’ silence about our attempts to assassinate Castro undermines theirtreatmentsoftheassassinationofJFK.SinceKennedyprobablyorderedseveraloftheearlierattemptsonCastro’slifepersonally,includingtheMafiacontract,Kennedy’s own assassination might be explained as a revenge slaying. Ofcourse, Lee Harvey Oswald may have killed Kennedy on his own, and JackRuby may have killed Oswald on his own. Because no textbook tells howKennedy tried to killCastro, however, none can logically suggest aCuban orMafia connection in discussing Kennedy’s death.26 Instead, authors limitthemselvestovaguestatementslikethis,fromPathwaystothePresent:“Someinvestigations support the theory that Oswald was involved in a largerconspiracy,andthathewaskilledinordertoprotectotherswhohadhelpedplanKennedy’smurder.”

UndauntedbyitsfailuresinCuba,theCIAturneditsattentionfarthersouth.OnlysixofeighteentextbooksevenmentionChile.“PresidentNixonhelpedtheChileanarmyoverthrowChile’selectedgovernmentbecausehedidnotlikeitsradical socialist policies,”Life and Liberty says bluntly. This single sentence,whichisallthatLifeandLibertyoffers,liesburiedinasectionaboutPresidentCarter’s human rights record, but it is the best account in any textbook. Tworecentbooks,TheAmericanJourneyandHoltAmericanNation,echoLifeandLibertylessbluntly.Threebooks leave thematterofAmerica’s involvement—which is not in question at all—up in the air. The other twelve leave it outentirely.

Whyleaveour involvementopentoquestion?Historiansknowthat theCIAhadearlierjoinedwithITTtotrytodefeatAllendeinthe1970elections.Failingthis, theUnitedStates sought todisrupt theChilean economyandbringdownAllende’s government.TheUnitedStates blocked international loans toChile,subsidized opposition newspapers, labor unions, and political parties, deniedsparepartstoindustries,paidforandfomentedanationwidetruckers’strikethatparalyzedtheChileaneconomy,andtrainedandfinancedthemilitarythatstagedthe bloody coup in 1973 in which Allende was killed. The next year, CIADirectorWilliamColbytestifiedthat“asecrethigh-levelintelligencecommitteeledbyKissingerhimselfhadauthorizedCIAexpendituresofovereightmillion

dollars during theperiod1970-73 to ‘destabilize’ thegovernment ofPresidentAllende.”27 Secretary of State Kissinger himself later explained, “I don’t seewhy we have to let a country go Marxist just because its people areirresponsible.”28 Since the Chilean people’s “irresponsibility” consisted ofvotingforAllende,hereKissingeropenlysaysthattheUnitedStatesshouldnotandwillnotrespecttheelectoralprocessorsovereigntyofanothercountryiftheresultsdonotpleaseus.29

Do textbooksneed to include all government skullduggery?Certainlynot. Iamnot arguing in favor ofwhatPaulGagnon calls “relentlessmentioning.”30Textbooks do need to analyze at least some of our interventions in depth,however,fortheyraiseimportantissues.Todefendtheseactsonmoralgroundsisnoteasy.TheactsdiminishU.S.foreignpolicytothelevelofMafiathuggery,strip theUnitedStates of its claim to lawful conduct, and reduce our prestigearoundtheworld.Tobesure,covertviolencemaybedefensibleonrealpolitikgrounds as an appropriate way to deal with international problems. It can beargued that the United States should be destabilizing governments in othercountries, assassinating leaders unfriendly to us, and fighting undeclaredunpublicizedwars.The six cloak-and-daggeroperations recountedheredonotsupportthisview,however.InCuba,forinstance,theCIA’s“pointlesssabotageoperations,” in Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones’s words, “only increased Castro’spopularity.”Evenwhentheysucceed,thesecovertactsprovideonlyashort-termfix,keepingpeoplewhoworryusoutofpower for a time,but identifying theUnited States with repressive, undemocratic, unpopular regimes, henceunderminingourlong-terminterests.31ThehistorianRonaldKesslerrelatesthata CIA officer responsible for engineering Arbenz’s downfall in Guatemalaagreedlaterthatoverthrowingelectedleadersisashortsightedpolicy.32“Wasitdesirable to tradeMossadegh for theAyatollahKhomeini?” asks the historianCharles Ameringer about our “success” in Iran. Covert action always risksblowback—retaliation from abroad thatwe cannot effectively counter becauseour initial acts were taken without support from the American people.Whencovert attacks fail, like the Bay of Pigs landing in 1961, they leave the U.S.governmentwithnoviablenext stepshortofembarrassedwithdrawalorovertmilitary intervention. If instead of covert action we had had a public debateabouthowtohandleMossadeghorCastro,wemighthaveavoidedKhomeiniorthe Bay of Pigs debacle. Unless we become more open to nationalistgovernmentsthatembodythedreamsoftheirpeople,RobertF.Smithbelieves

wewillface“crisisaftercrisis.”33

ThisdebatecannottakeplaceinAmericanhistorycourses,however,becausemost textbooksdonot letonaboutwhatourgovernmenthasdone.Except forIran,mostoftheeighteentextbooksIsurveyedleaveoutallsixincidents.Whenauthors do treat one or two, they often imply that our actions were based onhumanitarianmotives.Thus,textbookauthorsportraytheUnitedStatesbasicallyas an idealistic actor, responding generously to other nations’ social andeconomicwoes. Robert Leckie has referred to “themyth of ‘themost peace-lovingnationintheworld’”andnotedthatitpersists“inAmericanfolklore.”Italsopersistsinourhistorytextbooks.34

Theseinterventionsraiseanotherissue:Aretheycompatiblewithdemocracy?Covert violent operations against foreign nations, individuals, and politicalparties violate the openness on which our own democracy relies. Inevitably,covert international interference leads to domestic lying. U.S. citizens cannotpossiblycritiquegovernmentpoliciesiftheydonotknowofthem.Thus,covertviolent actions usually flout the popular will. These actions also threaten ourlong-standing separation of powers, which textbooks so justly laud in theirchapters on the Constitution. Covert actions are always undertaken by theexecutivebranch,whichtypicallyliestothelegislativebranchaboutwhatithasdoneandplanstodo,thuspreventingCongressfromplayingitsconstitutionallyintendedrole.

The U.S. government lied about most of the six examples of foreigninterventionjustdescribed.Onthesamedayin1961thatourCubanexileswerelanding at theBay of Pigs in their hapless attempt to overthrowFidelCastro,SecretaryofStateDeanRusksaid,“TheAmericanpeopleareentitledtoknowwhetherweareinterveninginCubaorintendtodosointhefuture.Theanswerto that question is no.”Among the dead three days laterwere fourAmericanpilots. When asked about Chile in his Senate confirmation hearings for U.S.secretaryofstatein1973,HenryKissingerreplied,“TheCIAhadnothingtodowiththe[Chilean]coup,tothebestofmyknowledgeandbelief,andIonlyputin that qualification in case some madman appears down there who, withoutinstruction, talked to somebody.” Later statements by CIA Director WilliamColby and Kissinger himself directly contradicted this testimony. The U.S.Senate IntelligenceCommitteeeventuallydenouncedourcampaignagainst theAllendegovernment.35

PresidentEisenhowerusednationalsecurityashisexcusewhenhewascaughtin an obvious lie: he denied that the United States was flying over Sovietairspace,onlytohavecapturedairmanGaryPowersadmitthetruthonRussiantelevision.Muchlater,thepubliclearnedthatPowershadbeenjustthetipoftheiceberg:inthe1950swehadatleastthirty-oneflightsdownedovertheUSSR,withmorethan170menaboard.Fordecadesourgovernmentliedtothefamiliesof the lostmen and nevermade substantial representation to theUSSR to getthemback, because the flightswere illegal andwere supposed to be secret.36Similarly, during theVietnamWar the government kept our bombingofLaossecret for years, later citing national security as its excuse. This did not foolLaotians,whoknewfullwellwewerebombingthem,butdidfoolAmericans.Oftenpresidentsandtheiradvisorskeepactionscovertnotforreasonsoftacticsabroad,butbecausetheysuspecttheactionswouldnotbepopularwithCongressorwiththeAmericanpeople.

Overandover,presidentshavechosennottorisktheirpopularitybywagingthe campaign required to persuade Americans to support their secret militarypolicies.37OurConstitutionprovides thatCongressmustdeclarewar.Back in1918WoodrowWilson tried to keep our intervention in Russia hidden fromCongressandtheAmericanpeople.HelenKellerhelpedgetoutthetruth:“Ourgovernmentsarenothonest.TheydonotopenlydeclarewaragainstRussiaandproclaimthereasons,”shewrotetoaNewYorknewspaperin1919.“Theyarefighting the Russian people half-secretly and in the dark with the lie ofdemocracyontheirlips.”38Ultimately,Wilsonfailedtokeephisinvasionsecret,buthewasabletokeepithiddenfromAmericanhistorytextbooks.Thereinliestheproblem:textbookscannotreportaccuratelyonthesixforeigninterventionsdescribedin thischapterwithoutmentioningthat theU.S.governmentcoveredthemup.

Thesolepieceofcriminalgovernmentactivitythatmosttextbookstreatistheseries of related scandals called Watergate. In its impact on the public, theWatergate break-in stood out. In the early 1970s Congress and the AmericanpeoplelearnedthatPresidentNixonhadhelpedcoverupastringofillegalacts,including robberies of the Democratic National Committee and the office ofLewis Fielding, a psychiatrist. Nixon also tried with some success to use theInternalRevenueService, theFBI,theCIA,andvariousregulatoryagenciestoinspirefearintheheartsofhis“enemieslist”ofpeoplewhohaddaredtoopposehispoliciesorhis reelection. In tellingofWatergate, textbooksblameRichard

Nixon, as they should.39 But they go no deeper. Faced with this undeniableinstance of governmental wrongdoing, they manage to retain their uniformlyrosy view of the government. In the representative words ofPathways to thePresent:

ManyAmericanslostagreatdealoffaithandtrustintheirgovernment.However, the scandal also proved the strength of the nation’sconstitutional system, especially its balanceof powers.Whenmembersof the executive branch violated the law instead of enforcing it, thejudicial and legislative branches of government stepped in and stoppedthem.

GettingridofRichardNixondidnotsolvetheproblem,however,becausetheproblemisstructural, stemmingfromthevastly increasedpowerof thefederalexecutive bureaucracy. Indeed, in some ways the Iran-Contra scandal of theReagan and first Bush administrations, a web of secret legal and illegal actsinvolvingthepresident,vicepresident,cabinetmembers,specialoperativessuchasOliverNorth,andgovernmentofficialsinIsrael,Iran,Brunei,andelsewhere,showed an executive branch more out of control than Nixon’s.40 Textbooks’failure to putWatergate into this perspective is part of their authors’ apparentprogramtowhitewashthefederalgovernmentsothatschoolchildrenwillrespectit.Sincethestructuralprobleminthegovernmenthasnotgoneaway,itislikelythat students will again, in their adult lives, face an out-of-control federalexecutivepursuingcriminalclandestineforeignanddomesticpolicies—indeed,somehavearguedthattheBushIIadministration’spost-9/11behavioramountsto just that.41To the extent that their understandingof thegovernment comesfrom theirAmericanhistory courses, studentswill be shockedby these eventsandunpreparedtothinkaboutthem.

“Ourcountry...mayshealwaysbeintheright,”toastedStephenDecaturin1816,“butourcountry,rightorwrong!”Educatorsandtextbookauthorsseemtowanttoinculcatethenextgenerationintoblindallegiancetoourcountry.Goinga step beyond Decatur, textbook analyses fail to assess our actions abroadaccording to either a standard of right and wrong or realpolitik. Instead,textbooksmerelyassumethatthegovernmenttriedtodotherightthing.Citizenswho embrace the textbook view would presumably support any intervention,armed or otherwise, and any policy, protective of our legitimate nationalinterests or not, because they would be persuaded that all our policies and

interventions are on behalf of humanitarian aims.They could never credit ourenemieswithequalhumanity.

This “international goodguy” approach is educationallydysfunctional ifweseekcitizenswhoareabletothinkrationallyaboutAmericanforeignpolicy.42Tothecitizenraisedontextbookplatitudes,GeorgeKennan’srealpolitikmaybepainfultocontemplate.UnderthethralloftheAmerica-the-goodarchetype,weexpect more from our country. But Kennan describes how nations actuallybehave.Wewould not risk the decline of democracy and the end ofWesterncivilization ifwe simply let students seea realisticdescriptionandanalysisofour foreign policies. Doing so would also help close the embarrassing gapbetweenwhathighschooltextbookssayaboutAmericanforeignpolicyandhowtheirbigbrothers,collegetextbooksinpoliticalsciencecourses,treatthesubject.

When high school history textbooks turn to the internal affairs of the U.S.government, the books again part company with political scientists. A largechunkofintroductorypoliticalsciencecourseworkisdevotedtoanalyzingthevarious forces that influence our government’s domestic policies.High schoolAmericanhistorytextbookssimplycreditthegovernmentformostofwhatgetsdone.This isnot surprising, forwhenauthors idealize the federalgovernment,perforce they also distort the real dynamic between the governed and thegovernment.Itisparticularlyupsettingtowatchthishappeninthefieldofcivilrights,wherethecourageousactsofthousandsofcitizensinthe1960sentreatedandevenforcedthegovernmenttoact.

Between1960and1968thecivilrightsmovementrepeatedlyappealedtothefederal government for protection and for implementation of federal law,including the Fourteenth Amendment and other laws passed duringReconstruction. Especially during the Kennedy administration, governmentalresponsewaswoefully inadequate. InMississippi,movementofficesdisplayedthisbitterrejoinder:

THERE’SASTREETINITTABENACALLEDFREEDOM.THERE’SATOWNINMISSISSIPPICALLEDLIBERTY.THERE’SADEPARTMENTINWASHINGTONCALLED

JUSTICE.

TheFederalBureau of Investigation’s response to themovement’s callwasparticularly important, since the FBI is the premier national law enforcementagency. The bureau had a long and unfortunate history of antagonism towardAfricanAmericans. J. EdgarHoover and the agency that became the FBI gottheir start investigating alleged communists during the Woodrow Wilsonadministration. Although the last four years of that administration saw moreantiblackraceriotsthananyothertimeinourhistory,Wilsonhadagentsfocuson gathering intelligence onAfricanAmericans, not onwhiteAmericanswhowere violatingblacks’ civil rights.Hoover explained the antiblack race riot of1919 in Washington, D.C., as due to “the numerous assaults committed byNegroes upon white women.” In that year the agency institutionalized itssurveillance of black organizations, not white organizations like the Ku KluxKlan. In the bureau’s early years, there were a few black agents, but by the1930sHooverhadweededoutallbuttwo.Bytheearly1960stheFBIhadnotasingle black officer, although Hoover tried to claim it did by counting hischauffeurs.43FBIagentsintheSouthweremostlywhiteSouthernerswhocaredwhattheirwhiteSouthernneighborsthoughtofthemandwerethemselveswhitesupremacists.Andalthoughthisnextcomplaintisreminiscentofthedinerwhoprotestedthatthesoupwasterribleandtherewasn’tenoughofit,thebureauhadfartoofewagentsintheSouth.InMississippiithadnoofficeatallandreliedforitsinitialreportsonlocalsheriffsandpolicechiefs,oftenpreciselythepeoplefromwhomthecivilrightsmovementsoughtprotection.

Even in the 1960s Hoover remained an avowed white supremacist whothoughtthe1954SupremeCourtdecisionoutlawingracialsegregationinBrownv. Board of Education was a terrible error. He helped Kentucky prosecute aCaucasian civil rights leader, Carl Braden, for selling a house in a whiteneighborhoodtoablackfamily.InAugust1963HooverinitiatedacampaigntodestroyMartinLutherKingJr.,andthecivilrightsmovement.Withtheapprovalof Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he tapped the telephones of King’sassociates, bugged King’s hotel rooms, and made tape recordings of King’sconversationswithandaboutwomen.TheFBIthenpassedontheluriddetails,includingphotographs, transcripts, and tapes, toSenatorStromThurmond andother white supremacists, reporters, labor leaders, foundation administrators,and, of course, the president. In 1964 a high FBI administrator sent a taperecording ofKing having sex, alongwith an anonymous note suggesting thatKing kill himself, to the office ofKing’s organization, the SouthernChristian

Leadership Conference (SCLC). The FBI must have known that the incidentmightnotactuallypersuadeKingtocommitsuicide;thebureau’sintentionwasapparentlytogetCorettaScottKingtodivorceherhusbandortoblackmailKinginto abandoning the civil rights movement.44 The FBI tried to sabotagereceptionsinKing’shonorwhenhetraveledtoEuropetoclaimtheNobelPeacePrize.HoovercalledKing“themostnotorious liar in thecountry”and tried toprovethattheSCLCwasinfestedwithcommunists.Kingwasn’ttheonlytarget:Hoover also passed on disinformation about theMississippi Summer Project;othercivilrightsorganizationssuchasCORE(CongressofRacialEquality)andSNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee); and other civil rightsleaders,includingJesseJackson.45

AtthesametimetheFBIrefusedtopassontoKinginformationaboutdeaththreats to him.46 The FBI knew these threats were serious, for civil rightsworkers were indeed being killed. In Mississippi alone, civil rights workersenduredmore thana thousandarrestsat thehandsof localofficials, thirty-fiveshootingincidents,andsixmurders.TheFBIrepeatedlyclaimed,however,thatprotectingcivil rightsworkers fromviolencewasnot its job.47 In1962SNCCsuedRobertF.KennedyandJ.EdgarHoovertoforcethemtoprotectcivilrightsdemonstrators.DesperatetogetthefederalgovernmenttoenforcethelawintheDeepSouth,MississippicivilrightsworkersAmzieMooreandRobertMoseshitupon the 1964 “Freedom Summer” idea: bring a thousand Northern collegestudents, most of them white, to Mississippi to work among blacks for civilrights. Even this helped little: white supremacists bombed thirty homes andburned thirty-seven black churches in the summer of 1964 alone.48 After thenationaloutcrypromptedbythemurdersofJamesChaney,AndrewGoodman,andMichael Schwerner in Philadelphia,Mississippi, however, the FBI finallyopenedanofficeinJackson.Laterthatsummer,atthe1964Democraticnationalconvention in Atlantic City, the FBI tapped the phones of the MississippiFreedomDemocraticPartyandMartinLutherKingJr.;insodoing,thebureauwascomplyingwitharequestfromPresidentLyndonJohnson.49

BecauseIlivedanddidresearchinMississippi,Ihaveconcentratedonactsofthefederalgovernmentandthecivilrightsmovementinthatstate,buttheFBI’sattackonblackandinterracialorganizationswasnationalinscope.Forexample,afterCongresspassedthe1964CivilRightsBill,abowlingalleyinOrangeburg,SouthCarolina, refused to obey the law.Students from the nearbyblack state

college demonstrated against the facility. State troopers fired on thedemonstrators, killing three andwounding twenty-eight,manyof themshot intheballsof their feetas theyranawayand threwthemselveson theground toavoidthegunfire.TheFBIrespondednotbyhelpingtoidentifywhichofficersfired inwhat became known as “theOrangeburgMassacre,” but by falsifyinginformation about the students to help the troopers with their defense.50 InCalifornia,Chicago,andelsewhereintheNorth,thebureautriedtoeliminatethebreakfastprogramsoftheBlackPantherorganization,spreadfalserumorsaboutvenerealdiseaseandencounterswithprostitutestobreakupPanthermarriages,helpedescalateconflictbetweenotherblackgroupsandthePanthers,andhelpedChicagopoliceraidtheapartmentofPantherleaderFredHamptonandkillhiminhisbedin1969.51TheFBIwarnedblackleaderStokelyCarmichael’smotherof a fictitiousBlackPanther plot tomurder her son, promptingCarmichael tofleetheUnitedStates.52ItisevenpossiblethattheFBIortheCIAwasinvolvedin the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. “Raoul” in Montreal, who suppliedKing’sconvictedkiller,JamesEarlRay,withthealias“EricGault,”mayhavehadCIA connections.53 Certainly Ray, a country boy with no income, couldneverhavetraveledtoMontreal,arrangedafalseidentity,andflowntoLondonandLisbonwithouthelp.Despiteorbecauseoftheseincongruities,theFBIhasnevershownanyinterestinuncoveringtheconspiracythatkilledKing.Instead,shortlyafterKing’sdeathin1968,theFBItwicebrokeintoSNCCoffices.Yearslater the bureau tried to prevent King’s birthday from becoming a nationalholiday.54

TheFBIinvestigatedblackfacultymembersatcollegesanduniversitiesfromVirginia to Montana to California. In 1970 Hoover approved the automaticinvestigationof“allblackstudentunionsandsimilarorganizationsorganizedtoproject the demands of black students.” The institution at which I taught,Tougaloo College, was a special target: at one point agents in Jackson evenproposed to “neutralize” the entire college, in part because its students hadsponsored “out-of-state militant Negro speakers, voter-registration drives, andAfricanculturalseminarsandlectures. . .[and]condemnedvariouspublicizedinjustices to thecivil rightsofNegroes inMississippi.”Obviouslyhighcrimesandmisdemeanors!55

TheFBI’sconductandthefederalleadershipthattolerateditandsometimesrequested it are part of the legacy of the 1960s, alongside such positive

achievementsasthe1964CivilRightsActandthe1965VotingRightsAct.AshistorianKennethO’Reillyputit,“WhentheFBIstoodagainstblackpeople,sodid thegovernment.”56HowdoAmerican history textbooks treat this legacy?Theysimply leaveouteverythingbad thegovernmenteverdid.TheyomitnotonlytheFBI’scampaignagainstthecivilrightsmovement,butalsoitsbreak-insand undercover investigations of church groups, organizations promotingchanges in U.S. policy in Latin America, and the U.S. Supreme Court.57Textbooks don’t even want to say anything bad about state governments: allsixteennarrativetextbooksinmysampleincludepartofMartinLutherKing’s“IHaveaDream”speech,butfifteenofthemcensorhisnegativecommentsaboutthegovernmentsofAlabamaandMississippi.

Notonlydotextbooksfailtoblamethefederalgovernmentforitsoppositionto the civil rights movement, many actually credit the government, almostsingle-handedly,fortheadvancesmadeduringtheperiod.Insodoing,textbooksfollow what we might call the Hollywood approach to civil rights. To dateHollywood’smain feature film on themovement isAlan Parker’sMississippiBurning.58Inthatmovie,thethreecivilrightsworkersgetkilledinthefirstfiveminutes;fortherestofitstwohoursthemovieportraysnotasinglecivilrightsworker or blackMississippian over the age of twelve with whom the viewercouldpossiblyidentify.Instead,ParkerconcoctstwofictionalwhiteFBIagentswhoplayoutthehoary“goodcop/badcop”formulaandintheprocessdouble-handedly solve themurders. In reality—that is, in the real story onwhich themovie is based—supporters of the civil rights movement, including MichaelSchwerner’swidow,Rita,andeverywhitenorthernfriendthemovementcouldmuster,pressuredCongressandtheexecutivebranchofthefederalgovernmenttoforcetheFBItoopenaMississippiofficeandmakebringingthemurdererstojusticeapriority.Meanwhile,HoovertappedSchwerner’sfather’s telephonetoseeifhemightbeacommunist.EveryoneineasternMississippiknewforweekswhohadcommittedthemurderandthattheNeshobaCountydeputysheriffwasinvolved.Noinnovativepoliceworkwasrequired;theFBIfinallyapprehendedthe conspirators after bribing one of themwith $30,000 to testify against theothers.59

The twelve textbooks I studied for the first edition of this book offered aParker-likeanalysisof theentirecivil rightsmovement.Like thearrestsof theMississippiKlansmen, advances in civil rightswere simply the result of goodgovernment.Federalinitiativeinitself“explained”suchmilestonesastheCivil

Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. John F. Kennedyproposedthem,LyndonBainesJohnsonpassedthemthroughCongress,andthuswe have them today. Or, in the immortal passive voice ofAmericanHistory,“Another civil rights measure, the Voting Rights Act, was passed.” Severaltextbooks even reversed the time order, putting the bills first, the civil rightsmovementlater.ChallengeofFreedomprovidedatypicaltreatment:

PresidentKennedyandhisadministrationrespondedtothecallforracialequality. In June 1963 the President asked for congressional action onfar-reaching equal rights laws. Following the President’s example,thousandsofAmericansbecameinvolvedin theequalrightsmovementaswell.InAugust1963morethan200,000peopletookpartinamarchinWashington,D.C.

Thisaccount reverses leaderand led. In reality,Kennedy initially tried to stopthe march and sent his vice president to Norway to keep him away from itbecause he felt Lyndon Johnson was too pro-civil rights. Even ArthurSchlesinger Jr., a Kennedy partisan, has dryly noted that “the best spirit ofKennedywaslargelyabsentfromtheracialdeliberationsofhispresidency.”60

The damage is not localized to the unfounded boost textbooks give toKennedy’s reputation.Thegreaterdangercomes fromremovingwhat scholarscall “agency” from African Americans. When describing the attack onsegregationthatculminatedinthe1954SupremeCourtdecision,thebestsellingoldbook,Triumph of theAmericanNation, and one of the bestselling currentbooks,TheAmericanPageant,makenomention thatAfricanAmericansweretheplaintiffsandattorneys inBrownv.BoardofEducation or thatpriorcasesalso brought by the NAACP prepared the way. The latest Pageant actuallyclaims that the Kennedys—Jack and Robert—prodded SNCC and other civilrightsgroupstoregisterblackstovote.Allproddingwenttheotherwayaround!TodaymanyyoungAfricanAmericansthinkthatdesegregationwassomethingthefederalgovernmentimposedontheblackcommunity.Theyhavenoideaitwas something the black community forced on the federal government.61Meanwhile,manyyoungwhiteAmericanscanreasonablyinferthatthefederalgovernment has beennice enough to blacks.Crediting the federal governmentfor actions instigated by African Americans and their white allies surelydisempowersAfricanAmericanstudents today,andsurelyhelps themfeel thatthey“haveneverdoneanything,”asMalcolmXputit.

Fortunately,thesixrecenttextbooksdoshowsomeimprovement.AllsixtellhowattemptsbyAfricanAmericansinSelma,Alabama,tovoteledtoattacksbywhitepolice.AllsixnotethattheresultingmarchfromSelmatoMontgomery,led by Martin Luther King Jr., prodded LBJ and Congress to pass the 1965VotingRightsAct.Threeofthesixcurrenttextbooks—PathwaystothePresent,The Americans, andAmerican Journey—show that African Americans forcedthe federal government tomove on civil rightsmore generally, although theyclaimthatPresidentKennedypersonallyfavoredthem.62AlongwithAmericanAdventures andDiscovering AmericanHistory, these new books do show thebasic dynamics of the civil rights movement: African Americans, often withwhite allies, challenged an unjust law or practice in a nonviolent way, whichthen incited whites to respond barbarically to defend “civilization,” in turnappallingthenationandconvincingsomepeopletochangethelaworpractice.These books celebrate the courage of the civil rights volunteers. But onlyDiscovering American History, published in 1974, tells how the movementdirectly challenged the mores of segregation, with the result that some civilrightsworkerswerekilledorbeatenbywhiteracistssimplyforholdinghandsasaninterracialcoupleoreatingtogetherinarestaurant.

Textbookstreattheenvironmentalmovementsimilarly,tellinghow“Congresspassed” the lawssettingup theEnvironmentalProtectionAgencywhilegivinglittleornoattentiontotheenvironmentalcrusade.Studentsareagainlefttoinferthatthegovernmenttypicallydoestherightthingonitsown,andnewbooksareno better than old ones in this regard. Many teachers don’t help; a study oftwelve randomly selected teachers of twelfth-grade American governmentcourses found that about the onlyway the teachers suggested that individualscouldinfluencelocalornationalgovernmentswasthroughvoting.63

Textbook authors seem to believe that Americans can be loyal to theirgovernment only so long as they believe it has never done anything bad.Textbooks therefore present a U.S. government that deserves students’allegiance, not their criticism. “We live in the greatest country in theworld,”wrote James F. Delong, an associate of the right-wing textbook critic MelGabler, in his critique ofAmerican Adventures. “Any book billing itself as astory of this country should certainly get that heritage and pride across.”American Adventures, in conveying the basic dynamic of the civil rightsmovement,impliesthattheU.S.governmentwasnotdoingallitshouldforcivilrights.Perhapsasaresult,AdventuresfailedDelong’spatriotismtest:“Iwillnot,

Icannotendorseitforuseinourschools.”64

Thetextbooks’sycophanticpresentationsofthefederalgovernmentmayhelpwinadoptions,buttheydon’twinstudents’attention.Itisboringtoreadaboutall thegoodthings thegovernmentdidon itsown,withnodramaticstruggles.Moreover,mostadultAmericansnolongertrustthegovernmentascredulouslyastheydidinthe1950s.FromtheVietnamWartoWatergatetoIran-ContragatetoClinton’ssexlifetothemythicalweaponsofmassdestructionthatallegedlycausedGeorgeW.BushtoinvadeIraq,revelationafterrevelationofmisconductand deceit in the federal executive branch shattered the trust of theAmericanpeople,asconfirmedinpollafteropinionpoll.In1964,64percentofAmericansstill trusted the government to “do the right thing”; thirty years later thisproportion had dwindled to just 19 percent. Textbook authors, since they areunwilling to say bad things about the government, come across as the lastinnocents in America. Their trust is poignant. They present students with abenign government whose statements should be believed. This is hardly theopinion of their parents, who, according to opinion polls, remain deeplyskepticalofwhat leaders in the federalgovernment tell them.Toencounter solittlematerialinschoolaboutthebadthingsthegovernmenthasdone,especiallywhenparentsandthedailynewspapertelladifferentstory,“makesalleducationsuspect,”accordingtoeducationresearcherDonaldBarr.65

Nor can the textbook authors’ servile approach to the government teachstudentstobeeffectivecitizens.JustasthestoryofColumbus-the-wisehasasitsflip side the archetype of the superstitious unruly crew, so the archetype of awise and good government implies that the correct role for us citizens is tofollowitsleadership.Withoutpushingthepointtoofar,itdoesseemthatmanynondemocraticstates,fromtheThirdReichtotheCentralAfricanEmpiretotheDemocratic People’s Republic of (North) Korea, have had citizens who gavetheirgovernmentstoomuchratherthantoolittleallegiance.TheUnitedStates,on the other hand, has been blessedwith dissenters. Some of these dissentershave had to flee the country. Since 1776, Canada has provided a refuge forAmericans who disagreed with policies of the U.S. government, from TorieswhofledharassmentduringandaftertheRevolution,tofreeblackswhosoughthavenfromtheDredScott ruling, toyoungmenofdraftableagewhoopposedtheVietnamWar.NotextbookmentionsthisCanadianrole,becausenotextbookportraysaU.S.governmentthatmightevermeritsuchprincipledopposition.66

CertainlymanypoliticalscientistsandhistoriansintheUnitedStatessuggestthat governmental actions are a greater threat to democracy than citizendisloyalty.Manyworry that thedominanceof theexecutivebranchhaserodedthechecksandbalancesbuilt into theConstitution.Someanalystsalsobelievethatthemightofthefederalgovernmentvis-à-visstategovernmentshasmadeamockeryoffederalism.FromtheWoodrowWilsonadministrationuntilnow,thefederalexecutivehasgrowneverstrongerandnowloomsasbyfarournation’slargest employer. In the last fifty years, the power of the CIA, the NationalSecurityCouncil,andothercovertagencieshasgrowntobecome,insomeeyes,a fearsome fourth branch of government. Threats to democracy aboundwhenofficials in the FBI, the CIA, the State Department, and other institutions ofgovernment determine not only our policies but alsowhat the people and theCongressneedtoknowaboutthem.67

By downplaying covert and illegal acts by the government, textbook authorsnarcotizestudentsfromthinkingaboutsuchissuesastheincreasingdominanceandsecrecyoftheexecutivebranch.Bytakingthegovernment’sside,textbooksencourage students to conclude that criticism is incompatiblewith citizenship.Andbypresentinggovernmentactionsinavacuum,ratherthanasresponsestosuch institutions as multinational corporations and civil rights organizations,textbooksmystifythecreativetensionbetweenthepeopleandtheirleaders.Allthis encourages students to throw up their hands in the belief that thegovernment determines everything anyway, so why bother, especially if itsactions areusually sobenign.Thus,ourAmericanhistory textbooksminimizethepotentialpowerofthepeopleand,despitetheirbestpatrioticefforts,takeastancethatisovertlyantidemocratic.

9.

SEENOEVIL

CHOOSINGNOTTOLOOKATTHEWARINVIETNAM

Ifwedonot speakof it, otherswill surely rewrite thescript. Each of the body bags, all of the mass graveswillbereopenedandtheircontentsabracadabraedintoanoblecause.

—GEORGESWIERS,VIETNAMVETERAN1

We have destroyed their two most cherishedinstitutions: the family and the village. We havedestroyed their land and their crops. . . . We havecorrupted their women and children and killed theirmen.

—MARTINLUTHERKINGJR.2

Withoutcensorship,thingscangetterriblyconfusedinthepublicmind.

—GEN.WILLIAMWESTMORELAND3

Heisaloverofhiscountrywhorebukesanddoesnotexcuseitssins.

—FREDERICKDOUGLASS4

ASWECOLLEGEPROFESSORSgetolder,wegrowevermoreastonishedatwhatourundergraduatesdon’tknowabouttherecentpast.Ifirstbecameawareofthisphenomenonasthe1970sinexorablybecamethe1980s.LecturingontheVietnamWar,Iincreasinglygotblanklooks.Oneinfour,thenoneintwo,andinthe1990sfourinfivefirst-yearcollegestudentsdidnotknowthemeaningofthefour-letterwordshawkanddove.Onthefirstdayofclassin1989Igavemystudents aquiz including theopen-endedquestion, “Who fought in thewar inVietnam?”AlmostafourthofmystudentssaidthecombatantswereNorthandSouth Korea! I was stunned—to me this resembled answering “1957” to thequestion“WhendidtheWarof1812begin?”Infact,manyrecenthighschoolgraduatesknowmoreabouttheWarof1812thanabouttheVietnamWar.5

Itmakes little sense and surely does no good to blame the students. It canhardlybe their fault. Ifourcivicmemoriesbeginwhenweareabout tenyearsold, then the last students tohaveanymemoryof theVietnamWargraduatedfrom high school in the spring of 1983. The war is unknown territory to theparents of most high school students today. So are the women’s movement,Watergate, and the Iran hostage crisis. Students need information about theVietnamWarfromtheirhighschoolAmericanhistorycourses.

Inthetextbooksofthe1980stheydidnotgetmuch.Sincethewarendedin1975, even the earliest of thesebookshad thebenefit ofhindsight in teachingabouttheconflictthathasoftenbeencalled“America’slongestwar,”aswellastheadvantageoftheirauthors’personalknowledgeoftheevent.Theysquandertheseadvantages.

ComparingcoverageoftheVietnamWarandtheWarof1812inmyoriginaltwelve textbooks illuminates theproblem.TheWarof1812 tookplacealmosttwocenturiesagoandkilledmaybetwothousandAmericans.Nevertheless,thehighschoolhistorybooksinmyoriginalsampledevotedthesamequantitativecoverage—nine pages—to theWar of 1812 and theVietnamWar.Onemightargue, I suppose, that theWar of 1812was somuchmore important than theVietnamWarthatitdeservesasmuchspace,eventhoughittookplacesolong

ago.Ourtextbooksmadenosuchclaim;mostauthorsdidn’tknowwhattomakeoftheWarof1812andclaimednoparticularimportanceforit.

SincetheWarof1812lastedonlyhalfas longas theVietnamWar,authorstreateditinfarmoredetail.Theyenjoyedtheluxuryoftellingaboutindividualbattlesandheroes.LandofPromise,forinstance,devotedthreeparagraphstoanaval battle off Put-in-Bay Island in Lake Erie, which works out to oneparagraphperhourofbattle.Vietnamgotnosuchcoverage.

Scantspacewasonlypartoftheproblem.NinegrippinganalyticpagesontheVietnamWar might prove more than adequate.6 We must ask what kind ofcoveragetextbooksprovided.

IntheoriginaleditionofLies,Ididnotsetoutmyownaccountofthewarandthencritiqueauthorsforpresentingananalysisdifferentfrommyown.Instead,toavoid thechargeofsubjectivity, I focusedon thephotographs the textbookssupplied.TheVietnamWarwasdistinguishedbyaseriesofimagesthatsearedthemselvesintothepublicconsciousness.Iidentifiedsevenoftheseimages:fivefamousphotos (such as the little girl runningnaked toward the camera as shefledanapalmattack,andthebodiespiledintheditchattheMyLaimassacre)andtwogenericimagesofthewar’sdestructiveness.PhotographshavebeenpartoftherecordofwarintheUnitedStatessinceMatthewBrady’sfamousimagesoftheCivilWar.InVietnam,televisionimagesjoinedstillphotostoshapetheperceptions and sensibility of the American people. Even including our tworecentwarsinIraq,Vietnamisstillourmostphotographedandtelevisedwar.

Iaskeddozensofadultsoldenough tohave livedduring thewar to tellmewhat visual images they remember; the list of images they supplied showsremarkableoverlap.Ashortlistincludesthesefivespecificimages:

1.ABuddhistmonksittingataSaigonintersectionimmolatinghimselftoprotesttheSouthVietnamesegovernment;

2.ThelittlegirlrunningnakeddownHighway1,fleeinganapalmattack;3. The national police chief executing a terrified man, a member of theVietcong,withapistolshottothesideofhishead;

4.ThebodiesintheditchaftertheMyLaimassacre;and5. Americans evacuating from a Saigon rooftop by helicopter whiledesperateVietnamesetrytoclimbaboard.

QuangDuc,thefirstBuddhistmonktosethimselfonfiretoprotestthepoliciesof the Ngo Dinh Diem regime that the United States supported in SouthVietnam, shocked theSouthVietnamese and theAmericanpeople.Before thewarended,severalotherVietnameseandatleastoneAmericanfollowedQuangDuc’sexample.

The listalso included twogeneric images:B-52swithbombsstreamingbelowthem into the pockmarked countryside of Vietnam, and a ruined city such asHué, nothing but rubble in view, as American and South Vietnamese troopsmoveintoretakeitaftertheTetoffensive.7

This little girl, Kim Phuc, ran screaming down Highway 1, fleeing from anaccidentalnapalmattackonhervillagebySouthVietnameseairplanes.Shehadstripped off her burning clothing as she ran. The television footage and stillphotographs of her flight were among the most searing of the war. Thephotograph violates two textbook taboos at once: no textbook ever showsanyonenaked,andnoneshowssuchsuffering,evenintimeofwar.

Merely reading these short descriptions prompts most older Americans toremembertheimagesinsharpdetail.Theemotionsthataccompaniedthemcomebackvividlyaswell.Ofcourse,sincethemainAmericaninvolvementinthewartookplacefrom1965to1973,Americansmustbewelloverfortytorecalltheseimages today. Young people have little chance to see or recall these imagesunlesstheirhistorybooksprovidethem.

In 1995 the twelve textbooks in my original sample failed miserably. Onebook,The American Pageant, included one of these pictures: the police chiefshooting the terrified man.8 No other textbook reproduced any of them. TheAmerican Adventures contained an image of our bombing Vietnam, but thephotograph showed B-52s and bombs from below and gave no sense of any

damageontheground.Thus,thereremainedhugeroomforimprovement.

ThesevencitedimagesareimportantexamplesoftheprimarymaterialsoftheVietnamWar.Hawks(peoplewhowerepro-war)mightclaimthattheseimagesexaggerate the aspects of the war they portray. However, these images haveadditional claims to historical significance: they actually made history,prompting news stories and changing the way viewers around the worldunderstood theconflict.Severalof thesephotographs remain“among themostwell-known images in the world even now [1991],” according to PatrickHagopian, who studied the ways America memorialized the Vietnam War.9Leavingthemoutshortchangestoday’sreaders.Asastudentofminewrote,“Toshowaphotographofonenakedgirlcryingaftershehasbeennapalmedchangestheentiremeaningofthatwartoahighschoolstudent.”

NguyenNgocLoan,thenationalpolicechiefofSouthVietnam,casuallyshotthisman,amemberoftheVietcong,onastreetinSaigononFebruary1,1968,as anAmerican photographer and television crew looked on.This photographhelpedpersuademanyAmericansthattheirsidewasnotmorallysuperiortothe

communists.10The image is sohaunting that, fortyyears later, I haveonly tocockmyfingerslikeagunandpeoplewhowereoldenoughtoreadnewspapersorwatch television in1968immediatelyrecall theeventandcandescribe it insomedetail.

InVietnam theUnited States dropped three times asmany explosives as itdroppedinalltheatersofWorldWarII,evenincludingournuclearbombingofHiroshimaandNagasaki,sotextbookauthorshadmanyimagesofbombdamagetochoosefrom.Ontheground,after theTetoffensive, inwhichVietcongandNorth Vietnamese troops captured cities and towns all over South Vietnam,AmericanandSouthVietnamese troopsshelledHué,BenTre,QuangTri, andother cities before moving in to retake them. Nonetheless, not one textbookshowedanydamagedonebyourside.

Thatwasthen.Chapter11showshowtheVietnamWarwasstillconsideredrecentinthe1980sandearly1990s,andtextbooksalwaysslighttherecentpast,nomatterhow important itwas.Howdo theydo today,now that thewarhasrecededintothedistantpastformostAmericans?

Left: In theMyLaimassacreAmerican combat troopsmurderedwomen, oldmen,andchildren.RonaldHaeberle’sphotographs,includingthisone,whichraninLifemagazine, seared themassacre into thenation’s consciousnessand stillaffectsourculture.11MostHollywoodmoviesmadeaboutVietnamincludeMyLaiimagery;Platoonoffersaparticularlyvividexample.

Right: OnApril, 29, 1975, thisAmerican helicopter evacuated people from aSaigon rooftop. The next day Saigon fell, and the long American (andVietnamese)nightmarecame toanend.More thanhalfofallAmericansalivetodaywereyounger than tenornotyetbornwhen thisphotographwas taken.Thus, most Americans know the war only from movies and textbooks. OnJanuary14,2007,theWashingtonPostdevotedhalfapageto this image,withthecaption:“IraqEndgame:WillItLookLikeThis?”

Two“legacytextbooks”—BoorstinandKelleyandTheAmericanPageant—descended from books originally published half a century ago, still aimlesslygivetheWarof1812aboutasmuchspaceastheVietnamWar.NeitherincludesevenoneoftheimportantimagesoftheVietnamWar.Pageantactuallymovedbackward:itdroppeditsphotoofthepolicechiefexecutingtheVietcongman.

The three “really new” books, along withHolt American Nation (distantlydescended from Todd and Curti, Triumph of the American Nation), providemuchmorecoverage.TheAmericansgivesthewarmorethanthirty-fourpages.Still,acertainsoftnessinhibitsitstreatment.AlthoughTheAmericans includestwenty-one illustrationsof thewar,onlyone—themonk immolatinghimself—comesfrommylistofseven.Notoneoftwenty-onephotosshowsanydamagetheUnitedStatesinflicteduponVietnam.PathwaystothePresentalsoincludestheimmolationimage,anditandAmericanJourney showtheevacuationfromtherooftopnearourembassy.Journeyalsoprovidesagenericrubblephoto.HoltshowsalandscapepockmarkedbyB-52craters.Amongallsixbooks,that’sit.

Of course, the authors and editors of textbooks choose among thousands ofimagesof theVietnamWar.Theymightmakedifferent selectionsandstilldojustice to thewar. But at the very least theymust show atrocities against theVietnamese civilian population, for thesewere a frequent and even inevitablepart of this war without front lines, in which our armed forces had only thefoggiestnotionastowhowasallyoropponent.Indeed,attacksoncivilianswereU.S.policy, as shownbyGen.WilliamC.Westmoreland’scharacterizationofciviliancasualties:“Itdoesdeprivetheenemyofthepopulation,doesn’t it?”12Weevaluatedourprogressbybodycountsanddrewfree-firezonesinwhichtheentire civilianpopulationwas treated as the enemy.Such a strategy inevitablyled to war crimes. Any photograph of an American soldier setting fire to aVietnamesehootch(house),acommonsightduringthewar,wouldgetthispointacross,butnotextbookshowssuchanact.13AmericanJourney includesashotofmarinesclimbing“amoundofrubblethatwasonceatowerofthefortressofHué.”Readersmightbeabletoinferthatourmunitionsreducedthefortresstorubble, so that photographqualifies as the only illustration ofanydestruction,even of legitimate targets, clearly caused by our side, to be found in anytextbook.Today’stextbooksseemtobesupplyingpreciselythecensorshipthatGen.WilliamWestmorelandwishedfor(inthequoteattheheadofthechapter),while he was in command. Unfortunately, censorship is the cause, not theremedy,ofconfusionaboutthewar.

MyLaiwasnotaminorevent,unworthyofinclusioninanation’shistory,butwasimportantpreciselybecauseitwasemblematicofmuchofwhatwentwrongwiththeentirewar inVietnam.MyLaiwasthemostfamousinstanceofwhatJohnKerry,formerlyofVietnamVeteransAgainst theWar,nowU.S.senator,called“not isolated incidentsbutcrimescommittedonaday-to-daybasiswiththe full awarenessofofficersat all levelsofcommand.”Appearingbefore theSenate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971, Kerry said, “Over onehundred and fifty honorably discharged and many very highly decoratedveterans testified towar crimes committed in SoutheastAsia.”Hewent on toretell howAmerican troops “had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads,tapedwiresfromportabletelephonestohumangenitalsandturnedupthepower,cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages infashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisonedfoodstocks,andgenerallyravagedthecountrysideofSouthVietnam.”Allthiswas “in addition to the normal ravage of war,” as Kerry pointed out in his

testimony.14

OnlyDiscoveringAmericanHistory,theoldesttextbookinmysample,treatstheMyLaimassacreasanythingbutanisolatedincident.TheAmericanshasaperfectlyadequateparagraphonMyLai,farbetterthananyothernewbook,butitnevermentionsthatattacksoncivilianswereageneralproblem.Inadditiontoleaving students ignorant of the history of the war, textbook silence on thismatteralsomakestheantiwarmovementincomprehensible.

Two textbook authors, James West Davidson and Mark H. Lytle, are onrecord elsewhere as knowing of the importance of My Lai. “The Americanstrategyhadatrocitybuiltintoit,”Lytlesaidtome.DavidsonandLytledevotemost of a chapter to theMyLaimassacre in their bookAfter theFact. Therethey tellhownewsof themassacrestunned theUnitedStates.“One thingwascertain,” theywrite, “the encounter becameadefiningmoment in thepublic’sperceptionofthewar.”15Plainlytheydonotthinkhighschoolstudentsneedtoknowaboutit,however,fortheirhighschoolhistorytextbook,TheUnitedStates—A History of the Republic, like ten other textbooks in my sample, nevermentionsMyLai.16

IftextbooksomittheimportantphotographsoftheVietnamWar,whatimagesdotheyinclude?Uncontroversialshots,forthemostpart—servicemenonpatrol,walkingthroughswamps,orjumpingfromhelicopters.Tenbooksshowrefugeesor damage caused by the other side, but since such damage was usually lessextensive than that caused by our bombardment, the pictures are not verydramatic.

TheonlyphotographoftroopsinTriumphoftheAmericanNation shows themhappily surrounding President Johnson when he visited the American base atCamRanhBayduringthewar.

Thisisanoutrage,andthereisnoexcuseforit.JoyHakimshowswecandobetter in her textbook A History of US, intended for about fifth grade. Sheincludes the police chief shooting the terrifiedman, another image of a guardthreateningaVietnamesePOWwithaknife,aphotographofatowndestroyedby“ourside,”andthemostfamousimageoftheMyLaimassacre.Surprisingly,Hakim also gives her readers the image of the little girl running naked downHighway1.This issurprisingbecause textbookpublishers typically followtheruleof“nonudity”;asoneeditortoldme,“inelementarybookscowsdon’thaveudders.” Yet her series has been a bestseller—perhaps because it also readsbetterthanmoststandardtextbooks.

What about their prose?Sadly,most textbook authors also leaveout all thememorablequotationsoftheera.NotextbookquotesthetrademarkcadencesofMartin Luther King Jr., the first major leader to come out against the war,reproducedattheheadofthischapter.17EvenmorefamouswasthedissentofMuhammadAli, thenheavyweightboxingchampionof theworld.Ali refused

inductionintothemilitary,forwhichhistitlewasstrippedfromhim,andsaid,“NoVietcongever calledme ‘nigger.’ ”All eighteen textbooks leaveout thatline, too.After theTetoffensive,aU.S.armyofficer involvedinretakingBenTresaid,“Itbecamenecessary todestroy the town tosave it.”FormillionsofAmericans, this statement summarized America’s impact on Vietnam. Notextbook supplies it.18 Nor does any textbook quote John Kerry’s plea forimmediatewithdrawal:“Howdoyouaskamantobethelastmantodieforamistake?”19Mostbooksalsoexcludetheantiwarsongs,thechants—“Hell,no;wewon’tgo!”and“Hey,hey,LBJ,howmanykidsdidyoukilltoday?”—and,above all, the emotions. Indeed, the entire antiwar movement becomesunintelligibleinmanytextbooks,becausetheydonotallowittospeakforitself.VirtuallytheonlypeoplewhodogetquotedarePresidentsJohnsonandNixonandSecretaryofStateHenryKissinger.20

Threenewbooksdobetter.ThenewPageantandWeAmericansincludethechantsfromtheopposition.TheyaswellasPathwaystothePresentgivemorespace to the antiwarmovement and to thedirty undersideof thewar thandidolder texts. The improvement may reflect that, with the passage of time, theVietnamWar is no longer very recent or very controversial, as we shall seebelow.Authorsmaybecomingto treat thewarmoreforthrightly,as theynowtreat slavery, now that the ColdWar, like formal segregation against AfricanAmericans,hasended.

However,theircoverageisjerky,perhapsreflectingthemultipleauthorswhoprobablywrote it.Chapter 12 explains that the authors listedon the covers ofhighschoolAmericanhistory textbooksoftendidnotwrite them,especially intheir latereditions.Twocompetingbooksshowthisproblemintheir treatmentofVietnam.

Because some of the enemy lived amidst the civilian population, itwas difficult for U.S. troops to discern friend from foe. A womanselling soft drinks toU.S. soldiersmight be aVietcong spy.A boystandingonthecornermightbereadytothrowagrenade.

—TheAmericans

Americantroops. . .nevercouldbesurewhowasafriendandwhowas an enemy. The Vietnamese woman selling soft drinks by the

roadsidemightbeaVietCongally,countinggovernmentsoldiersasthey passed. A child peddling candy might be concealing a livegrenade.

—PathwaystothePresent

Itishardlylikelythatindependentauthorswrotethesetwopassages.DidGeraldDanzer(oroneofhis“coauthors”)copyandmodifyfromPathways?DidAlanWinkler(oroneofhis“coauthors”)copyandmodifyfromTheAmericans?Ifso,one shouldcharge theotherwithplagiarism.Nooneeverdoes,however—notabout high school textbooks—because everyone in the publishing industryknowsthattheir“authors”didnotreallywritethem.ProbablythepublishersofPathwaysandTheAmericanshappened tohire the same freelancer towriteorupdatebothbooks.Stillotherunnamedclerksaddphotosandwritecaptionsandteachingsuggestions.

Usingdifferentunnamedauthorsfordifferentchapters,differentfeatures,anddifferentupdatesisnotonlymisleading,sinceschoolsystemschoosetextbookspartly because they think distinguished historians wrote them. It also makestextbooks less coherent. Often different paragraphs in the core narrativecontradicteachother.Topresentcontrastingviewpointswouldbefine,butthatisnotwhattextbooksdo.Instead,theirtreatmentsofthewaramounttoonethingafter another, displaying little overall organization and no point of view orinterpretation. They cannot be organized, because they were written by whatamount to disorganized sequential committees that never met. That’s whyFrancesFitzGerald,who,inadditiontoAmericaRevisedwroteFireintheLake,afinebookaboutVietnam,calledthetextbooksshereviewedin1979“neitherhawkishnordovishonthewar—theyaresimplyevasive.”Shewentontosay,“Since it is reallyquitehard todiscuss thewarandevadeall themajor issues,theirVietnamsectionsmakeremarkablereading.”21

Tosomedegree,definingtheissuesisamatterofinterpretation,andIwouldnotwant tofault textbooksforholdingadifferent interpretationfrommyown.PerhapswecanagreethatanyreasonabletreatmentoftheVietnamWarwoulddiscussatleastthesesixquestions:

WhydidtheUnitedStatesfightinVietnam?

WhatwasthewarlikebeforetheUnitedStatesenteredit?Howdidwe

changeit?

HowdidthewarchangetheUnitedStates?

Whydid anantiwarmovementbecome so strong in theUnitedStates?WhatwereitscriticismsofthewarinVietnam?Weretheyright?

WhydidtheUnitedStateslosethewar?

Whatlesson(s)shouldwetakefromtheexperience?

Simply to list these questions is to recognize that each of them is stillcontroversial. Take the first. Some people still argue that the United Statesfought inVietnamtosecureaccess to thecountry’svaluablenatural resources.The“internationalgoodguy”approachnotedinthelastchapterwouldclaimthatwefoughttobringdemocracytoVietnam’speople.Perhapsmorecommonareanalysesofour internalpolitics:DemocraticPresidentsKennedyand Johnson,having seen how Republicans castigated Truman for “losing” China, did notwant to be seen as “losing” Vietnam. One realpolitik approach stresses thedominotheory:whileweknownowthatVietnam’scommunistsareantagonistsofChina,wedidn’tthen,andsomeleadersbelievedthatifVietnam“fell”tothecommunists, sowouldThailand,Malaysia, Indonesia, and thePhilippines.YetanotherviewisthatAmericafeltitsprestigewasontheline,soitdidnotwantadefeatinVietnam,lestPaxAmericanabethreatenedinAfrica,SouthAmerica,or elsewhere in the world.22 Some conspiracy theorists go even further andclaimthatbigbusinessfomentedthewartohelptheeconomy.Otherhistorianstake a longer view, arguing that our intervention in Vietnam derives from aculturalpatternofracismandimperialismthatbeganwiththefirstIndianwarinVirginia in1622,continuedin thenineteenthcenturywith“ManifestDestiny,”andisnowwindingdowninthe“Americancentury.”TheypointoutthatGIsinVietnam collected and displayed Vietnamese ears just as British colonists inNorthAmericacollectedanddisplayedIndianscalps.23A finalviewmightbethattherewasnoclearcauseandcertainlynoclearpurpose,thatweblunderedintothewarbecausenosubsequentadministrationhadthecouragetoundoour1946mistakeofopposingapopularindependencemovement.“Thefundamentalblunder with respect to Indochina was made after 1945,” wrote Secretary ofStateJohnFosterDulles,when“ourGovernmentalloweditselftobepersuaded”bytheFrenchandBritish“torestoreFrance’scolonialpositioninIndochina.”24

PerhapstheseedsofAmerica’s tragicinvolvementwithVietnamweresown

atVersaillesin1918,whenWoodrowWilsonfailedtohearHoChiMinh’spleaforhiscountry’sindependence.PerhapstheygerminatedwhenFDR’spolicyofnothelpingtheFrenchrecolonizeSoutheastAsiaafterWorldWarIIterminatedwith his death. Since textbooks rarely suggest that the events of one periodcausedeventsofthenext,unsurprisingly,noneofthetextbooksIsurveyedlooksbeforethe1950stoexplaintheVietnamWar.

Within the 1950s and 1960s, the historical evidence for some of theseconflicting interpretations ismuchweaker than for others, although Iwill notchoosesideshere.25Textbookauthorsneednotchoosesides,either.Theycouldpresentseveralinterpretations,alongwithanoverviewofthehistoricalsupportforeach,andinvitestudentstocometotheirownconclusions.Suchchallengesarenotthetextbookauthors’style,however.Theyseemcompelledtopresentthe“right”answertoallquestions,evenunresolvedcontroversies.

Sowhichinterpretationdotheychoose?Noneof theabove!Most textbookssimply dodge the issue. Here is a representative analysis, from AmericanAdventures:“Laterinthe1950s,warbrokeoutinSouthVietnam.ThistimetheUnited States gave aid to the South Vietnamese government.” “War brokeout”—whatcouldbesimpler?Adventuresdevotesfourpagestodiscussingwhywegot into theWarof1812but just these twosentences towhywefought inVietnam. Newer textbooks simply rely on anticommunism to explain U.S.involvement.

Teachers are unlikely to make up for the deficiencies in their textbooks’treatment of the war. According to Linda McNeil, most teachers particularlydon’twant to teach aboutVietnam. “Theirmemories of theVietnamWar eramade themwish toavoid topicsonwhich the studentswere likely todisagreewith their views or that would make the students ‘cynical’ about Americaninstitutions.”Therefore, in the1980s, theaverage teachergranted theVietnamWar0to4.5minutesintheentireschoolyear.Coveragehasnotincreasedmuchsince then;many college students report that their high school history courseswounddownaboutthetimeoftheKoreanWar.26

Neither our textbooks normost teachers help students think critically abouttheVietnamWarandmarshallhistoricalevidencetosupporttheirconclusions.Neverdo they raisequestions like“Was thewar right?Was it ethical?”Somebooks appear to raisemoral issues but veer away. For example,Challenge ofFreedomasks,“WhydidtheUnitedStatesusesomuchmilitarypowerinSouth

Vietnam?”Attemptingtoanswerthisquestioncouldgetinteresting:Becauseourantagonists weren’t white? Because they couldn’t strike at the United States?Because we had it available? Because the United States has a history ofimperialism vis-à-vis “primitive” peoples from our Indian wars through thePhilippine-AmericanWar of 1899-1913 toVietnam?Because, likemost othernations,webehavenotbystandardsofmoralitybutofrealpolitik?TheanswerthatChallengesuggeststoteachers,however,showsthattheauthorsdon’treallywantstudentstothinkaboutwhyweintervenedandcertainlynotaboutwhetherwe should have done so, butmerely to regurgitate President Johnson’s statedrationale for somuch bombing, which the book has previously supplied: “Toshow theVietcong and their ally,NorthVietnam, that they could notwin thewar.”Thisanswerismystifying,sincetheVietcongandNorthVietnamdidwinthe war; moreover, the authors’ claim to know Johnson’s motivation arriveswithoutevidence.Intherhetoricalclimatecreatedbythistextbook,forateachertoraiseamoralquestionwouldcomeacrossasaviolationofclassroomnorms.

Similarly,Boorstin andKelleymostly ask regurgitation items like “IdentifyDeanRusk,” occasionally interspersedwith “Critical Thinking” questions like“How did the Tonkin Gulf incident lead to our increased involvement inVietnam?”Infact,onAugust2,1964,aU.S.destroyer,Maddox,wascruisingthe Tonkin Gulf fourmiles from islands belonging to North Vietnam. At thesame time, smallerU.S. boatswere ferryingSouthVietnamese commandos toattacksomeofthoseislands.ThreeNorthVietnamesepatrolboatsfiredtorpedosatMaddox,missing;thedestroyercrippledtwoofthemandsankthethird.NorthVietnamprotestedtotheInternationalControlCommission.Thenextday,asthesmaller U.S. boats ferried South Vietnamese commandos to attack mainlandtargetsthistime,Maddoxreturned,thoughtitwasagainattacked,andfiredinalldirections.Soonitbecamefairlyclearthattheattackswerephantomscausedbyweather and misinterpretations of sonar. Nevertheless, President Johnsonprofessed outrage and sent what came to be called the “Gulf of TonkinResolution” to Congress, where it passed overwhelmingly. This resolutionauthorized thepresident todowhatever hewanted inVietnam, andheused itimmediately to begin bombing North Vietnam. Real “critical thinking”mightlead students to conclude that the question has it backward: our increasedinvolvement in Vietnam led to the Tonkin Gulf incident, especially since thesecondattackonMaddox,uponwhich“ourincreasedinvolvementinVietnam”was predicated, never happened. (As Johnson confided to an aide at the time,

“Thosedumbstupidsailorswerejustshootingatflyingfish.”27)Unfortunately,except for the oldDiscovering AmericanHistory, published in 1974, all highschoolhistorytextbooksIsurveyedshyawayfromactuallypromptingstudentstothinkcriticallyabouttheVietnamWar.

Ironically, students could probably get away with critical thinking withoutupsetting their parents. At least 70 percent of Americans now consider theVietnamWar tohavebeenmorallywrongaswell as tactically inept.28That’squite a consensus. Nevertheless, the strident arguments about the militaryrecordsofGeorgeW.BushandJohnKerry in the2004presidentialcampaignshowedthatthewarcanstillbecontroversial.FearofcontroversymaybewhyFlorida’s DisneyWorld, in its “American Adventure” exhibit, a twenty-nine-minute history of the United States, completely, if awkwardly, leaves out theVietnamWar.And itmayexplainwhyhistory textbooksomit the imagesandtheissuesthatmighttroublestudents—ortheirparents—today.

MystifyingtheVietnamWarhasleftstudentsunabletounderstandmuchpublicdiscourse since then. Politicians across the political spectrum invoked “thelessonsofVietnam” as theydebated intervening inAngola,Lebanon,Kuwait,Somalia, Bosnia, and, most recently, Iraq. Bumper stickers reading ELSALVADORISSPANISHFORVIETNAMhelpedblocksendingU.S. troopsto that nation. John Dumbrell and David Ryan’sVietnam in Iraq and RobertBrigham’sIsIraqAnotherVietnam?drawspecificparallelsbetweenthosetwoseemingly endless wars.29 In 2006 Henry Kissinger used his perversemisreading of our Vietnam debacle—he blames Congress for pulling out—toadviseGeorgeW.Bushto“staythecourse”inIraq.30“ThelessonsofVietnam”havealsobeenused to informormisleaddiscussionsaboutsecrecy, thepress,how the federal government operates, and even whether the military shouldadmitgays.HighschoolgraduateshavearighttoenoughknowledgeabouttheVietnamWartoparticipate intelligently insuchdebates.Afterall, theyare thepeoplewhowill be called upon to fight in our next (and our ongoing)war—whetheritresemblesVietnamornot.31

10.

DOWNTHEMEMORYHOLE:

THEDISAPPEARANCEOFTHERECENTPAST

Weseethingsnotastheyarebutasweare.—ANAÏSNIN

Patriotism can flourish only where racism andnationalism are given no quarter. We should nevermistakepatriotismfornationalism.Apatriotisonewholoveshishomeland.Anationalistisonewhoscornsthehomelandsofothers.

—JOHANNESRAU1

Ofcoursethepeopledonotwantwar....But,afterall,it is the leaders of the country who determine thepolicy, and it is always a simple matter to drag thepeople along, whether it is a democracy, a fascistdictatorship, a parliament, or a communistdictatorship.Voiceornovoice, thepeoplecanalwaysbebrought to thebiddingof the leaders.That is easy.All you have to do is tell them that they are beingattacked and denounce the pacifists for lack ofpatriotism.

—GERMANFIELDMARSHALLHERMANNGOERING,NUREMBERG,APRIL18,

19462

Wheninformationwhichproperlybelongstothepublicissystematicallywithheldbythoseinpower,thepeoplesoonbecomeignorantoftheirownaffairs,distrustfulofthosewhomanagethem,and—eventually—incapableofdeterminingtheirowndestinies.

—RICHARDM.NIXON3

MANYAFRICANSOCIETIESdividehumansintothreecategories:thosestillaliveontheearth,thesasha,andthezamani.Therecentlydepartedwhosetimeonearthoverlappedwithpeople stillhereare thesasha, the living-dead.Theyarenotwhollydead,fortheystillliveinthememoriesoftheliving,whocancallthem tomind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote.Whenthelastpersontoknowanancestordies,thatancestorleavesthesashaforthezamani,thedead.Asgeneralizedancestors,thezamaniarenotforgottenbutrevered. Many, like George Washington or Clara Barton, can be recalled byname.Buttheyarenotliving-dead.Thereisadifference.4

BecausewelacktheseKiswahiliterms,werarelythinkaboutthisdistinctionsystematically, but we also make it. Consider howwe read an account of aneventwelivedthrough,especiallyoneinwhichweourselvestookpart,whetherasportingeventortheIraqWar.Wereadpartlyinaspiritofcriticism,assessingwhattheauthorsgotwrongaswellasagreeingwithandperhapslearningfromwhat they got right.Whenwe study themore distant past, wemay also readcritically,butnowourprimarymode is ingestive.Especially ifweare readingfor the first time about an event,wehave little groundonwhich to stand andcriticizewhatweread.

AuthorsofAmericanhistorytextbooksappearalltooawareofthesasha—ofthefactthatteachers,parents,andtextbookadoptionboardmemberswerealivein the recent past. They seem uncomfortable with it. Revering the zamani—generalizedancestors—ismoretheirstyle.Bydefinition,theworldofthesasha

is controversial, because readers bring to it their own knowledge andunderstanding, so theymaynot agreewithwhat iswritten.Therefore, the lesssaidabouttherecentpast,thebetter.

I examined how the ten narrativeAmerican histories inmyoriginal samplecoveredthefivedecadesleadinguptothe1980s.(Iexcludedthe1980sbecausesome of the older textbooks came out in that decade, so they could not beexpectedtocoveritfully.)Onaverage,thetextbooksgiveforty-sevenpagestothe1930s,forty-fourtothe1940s,andfewerthanthirty-fivepagestoeachlaterdecade. Even the turbulent decade of the 1960s—including the civil rightsmovement,mostof theVietnamWar, and themurdersofMartinLutherKingJr.,MedgarEvers,MalcolmX,andJohnandRobertKennedy—gotfewerthanthirty-fivepages.5

Textbooksin2006-07showquiteadifferentapproach.Nowthe1960sarenolonger recent history, so textbooks can give them the emphasis they shouldalwayshave received, fifty-fivepages. (That total isgreater than foranyotherdecadeofthetwentiethcentury.)Buttoday’stexts,publishedbetween2000and2007, give short shrift to the new recent past, the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.6Nowtheydevoteforty-ninepagestothe1930sandforty-seventothe1940s,butfewerthantwentytothe1980sand1990s(eventossinginthefirstyearsofthenewmillennium).YetthesewereimportantdecadesinwhichtheUnitedStatestwiceattacked Iraq,went through the secondpresidential impeachment trial inhistory, saw itsclosestandmostdisputedelection inmore thanacentury,andenduredtheterroriststrikesof9/11/2001.

Each of these matters is still contentious, however. Some parents areDemocrats,someRepublicans,sowhatauthorssayabouttheimpeachmentandtrial of Bill Clinton will likely offend half the community. An increasingproportionofAmericansbelievetheIraqWartobeabadidea,butifauthorssaythat, theywill alienate some importantpeople,perhaps including schoolboardmembers. Homosexuality is even more taboo as a subject of discussion orlearning inAmerican high schools.Affirmative action leads to angry debates.Thewomen’smovementcanstillbeaminefield,even though itpeaked in the1970s.Everyschooldistrictincludesparentswhostronglyaffirmtraditionalsexrolesandotherswhodonot.Solet’snotsaymuchaboutfeminismtoday;let’sleave it in the 1970s. Thus authors tiptoe through the sasha with extremecaution,evadingallthemainissues,allthe“why”questions.

Textbookauthorsarenotsolelyresponsiblefortheslightingoftherecentpastinhigh schoolhistorycourses.Many teachersalso lackcourageor simply runoutoftime.Eveniftextbooksgavethesashathespaceitdeserves,moststudentswouldhavetoreadaboutitontheirown,becausemostteachersnevergetnearthe end of the textbook. In her yearlong American history course, fifth-gradeteacherChrisZajac,subjectofTracyKidder’sAmongSchoolchildren,nevergetspastReconstruction!7Timeisnottheonlyproblem.Likepublishers,teachersdonotwant to riskoffendingparents.The result is a treatmentof the recent pastalongthelinesuggestedbyThumper’smom:“Ifyoucan’tsaysome-thin’nice,don’tsaynothin’atall.”

Oneexcuseauthorsandpublisherssometimesgivefor theircompressedandblandaccountsoftherecentpastinAmericanhistorytextbooksispreciselythatit is so recent.We don’t know how historianswill view the period once theyhaveachieved thedetachment thathistoricalperspectivewillbring, so the lesssaid,thebetter.

Fortopicsinthezamani,textbookauthorsdoindeedusehistoricalperspectiveasashield.Bywritinginanomniscientboringtoneabouteventsinthezamani,authors imply that a single historic truth exists, upon which historians haveagreed and which they now teach and students should now memorize. Suchwritingimpliesthatourhistoricalperspectivegrowsevermoreaccuratewiththepassage of time, blessing today’s textbook authors with cumulative historicalinsight. They cannot use historical perspective to defend their treatment ofevents in the sasha, however.Without historical perspective, textbook authorsappearnaked:noparticularqualificationgives them the right tonarrate recenteventswith the sameOlympiandetachment and absolute certaintywithwhichthey declaimon events in the zamani.Aswell, textbooks are tertiary sources,supposed tobebasedon secondary sources, and thesebooksandarticleshavemostlynotyetbeenwrittenabouttheveryrecentpast.

As usually thought about, historical perspective does implicitly justifyneglectingthesasha.Historianstellushowwearetooclosetorecenteventstobe able to step back and view them in context. As new material becomesavailable in archives, they claim, or as the consequences of actions becomeclearerover time,wecan reachmore“objective” assessments.Thepassageoftimedoesnotinitselfprovideperspective,however.Informationislostaswellas gained over time. Therefore, the claim of inadequate historical perspectivecannotexcuseignoringthesasha.

At this pointwemight usefully recall three changes in perspectivenoted inearlierchapters.WoodrowWilsonenjoysadramaticallymorepositiverankingnow than he did in 1920. His elevated reputation did not derive from thediscovery of fresh information on his administration but from the ideologicalneedsof the late1940sandearly1950s. In thoseyearswhitehistorianswouldhardly fault Wilson for segregating the federal government, because noconsensusheldthatracialsegregationwaswrong.Theforemostpublicissueofthat postwar era was not race relations but the containment of communism.During the Cold War our government operated as it did under Wilson, withsemi-declaredwars, executive deception ofCongress, and suppression of civilliberties in the name of anticommunism.Wilson’s policies, controversial andunpopularin1920,hadbecomeordinarybythe1950s.Statesmenandhistoriansofthe1950srejectedandeventrivializedisolationism.InterestedinpushingtheUnitedNations,thenthoroughlyunderU.S.influence,theyappreciatedWilson’sefforts on behalf of the League ofNations. HistorianGordon Levin Jr. put itneatly: “Ultimately, in the post-WorldWar II period,Wilsonian valueswouldhave their complete triumph in the bipartisan Cold War consensus.” 8 Thus,Wilson’s improvedevaluation in today’s textbookscanbeattributed largely tothefactthattheideologicalneedsofthe1950s,whenWilsonwasinthezamani,weredifferentfromthoseofthe1920s,whenhewaspassingintothesasha.

Changingtimescanalsochangeourviewofthemoredistantpast.BartolomédeLasCasasandotherwritersandpriestsnotedtheSpaniards’mistreatmentandenslavement of the Caribbean Indianswhile Columbuswas still in the sasha.Later, however, Columbus was lionized as a daring man of science whodisproved theflat-earthnotionandopenedanewhemisphere toprogress.Thisnineteenth-century Columbus appealed to a nation concluding three hundredyearsof triumphantwarfareover Indiannations.Butby1992manyColumbuscelebrations drew counter-celebrations, often mounted by Native Americans;nowColumbus the exploiter began receiving equal billingwithColumbus theexplorer.The“new”Columbus,closertotheColumbusofthesasha,appealedto a nation that had to get alongwith dozens of former colonies of Europeanpowers, nownewnations, oftengovernedbypeopleof color.By2007, aswehave seen, evenour textbooksbegan to recorddisastrous aswell asbeneficialconsequencesof theColumbianExchange.Thecontrastbetween the1892and1992celebrationsofColumbus’sfirstvoyageagainshowstheeffectofdifferentvantagepoints.AsAnaïsNinputit,weseethingsasweare,and“we”changed

between1892and1992.

The Confederate myth of Reconstruction first permeated the historicalliteratureduringthenadirofracerelations,from1890to1940,andhungonintextbooks until the 1960s. Reconstruction regimes came to be portrayed asillegitimateandcorruptexamplesof“Negrodomination.”NowhistorianshavereturnedtotheviewofReconstructionputforthinearlierhistories,writtenwhileRepublicangovernmentsstilladministeredtheSouthernstates.EricFonerhailsthechangeasowedto“objectivescholarshipandmodernexperience,”aturnofphrasethatconciselylinksthetwokeycauses.Objectivescholarshipdoesexistin history, which is why I risk words like truth and lies. Unfortunately, thepassage of time does not in itself foster objective scholarship. Merechronological distance did not promote a more accurate depiction ofReconstruction.Because thefactsaboutReconstructionsimplydidnotsuit the“modernexperience”ofthenadirperiod,theylaymuteduringtheearlydecadesofthetwentiethcentury,overlookedbymosthistorians.Notuntilthecivilrightsmovementaltered“modernexperience”couldthefactsspeaktous.9Historicalperspective is thus not a by-product of the passage of time. Amore accurateview derives from Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, whichsuggests that the social practices of the periodwhen history iswritten largelydeterminethathistory’sperspectiveonthepast.10Objectivescholarshipmustbelinkedwithamodernexperiencethatpermitsittoprevail.

In writing about the recent past, then, textbook authors may not bedisadvantagedbyanylackofhistoricalperspective.Onthecontrary,therecencyof events confers three potential benefits upon them. First, since the authorsthemselves lived through the events, they were exposed to a wealth ofinformationfromtelevision,journalism,andconversationswithothersabouttheissuesoftheday.Second,multiplepointsofviewareavailable,eachbackedbyevidence, more or less convincing. Third, authors are free to do researchthemselves—consult newspapers, interview recent history-makers, and sharetheir interpretationswith scholars in disciplines like political science,who arestudyingtheseissues.Armedwiththisinformation,textbookauthorscouldthendevelop a story line about the recent past thatwould be interesting aswell asinformative.That’swhatI triedtodowhilewritingthischapter.11 Iconcludedthatamongthemostimportantissuesofthepastdecadeweretheterroristattacksof 9/11/2001, our response inAfghanistan, and our (second)war against Iraq.FarmorethantheClintonimpeachment,forexample,thesethreeeventspromise

to impact our lives in the future. What do textbooks say about them? Whatshouldtheysay?

About 9/11, surely students—like other Americans—seek answers to fourquestions.First,whathappened?Second,whywereweattacked?Third,howdidwe allow it to happen? Questions two and three lead logically to the fourthquery,Willithappenagain?

Perhaps because it is the easiest task, textbooks do tell what happened onSeptember11,2001—atgreatlength.HoltAmericanNationandTheAmericans,forexample,devotefivefullpagestowhathappenedattheWorldTradeCenterandthePentagon.Theymakemistakes;Holtclaims,forinstance,“Forthefirsttime since the War of 1812, a foreign enemy had attacked the Americanhomeland.”ThiswillcomeasnewstotheresidentsofColumbus,NewMexico,wherePanchoVillaStateParkmaintains thememoryofMexico’s1916attackthatkilled twodozenAmericansand left the towna smoldering ruin.There isalso a lot of slack in these accounts—wasted words that could be far betteremployed.AtonepointHolttellsus,forexample:“Thecollapseofthemassivebuildings killed or trapped thousands of people still inside or near the towers,includinghundredsof firefighters, policeofficers, andother rescuers.”Apagelater it repeats: “About 2,500 people were killed by the attack on theWorldTradeCenter.Thisnumberincludedmorethan300firefightersandmanyotherrescueworkerswhowereonthescene.”

Telling what happened answers the least important of the four questions,becausetoday’shighschoolstudentsalreadyknowwhathappened.(Inthreeorfour years, however, students too young to remember will need thesedescriptions,though.)Whataboutthe“why”question,whichtoday’sstudentsdoneedtocontemplate?Initsteacher’sedition,Holtmakesclearthat“why”isnotsomething teachers shouldaddress:“Tell students that in this section theywilllearn about the attacks of September 11, 2001, their economic and socialconsequences, and the response by Americans and the U.S. government.”Pathways to the Present and Boorstin and Kelley also ignore the “why”question.TheAmericansblursanycausalinvestigationbyaddinginterroristactsby the Irish Republican Army, Peru’s Shining Path movement, and Japan’sreligiouscult,AumShinrikyo.12OnlyPageanttellswhytheUnitedStateswasattacked:

BinLadenwasknowntoharborvenomousresentmenttowardtheUnited

States for its economic embargo against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, itsgrowingmilitarypresence in theMiddleEast (especially on the sacredsoiloftheArabianPeninsula),anditssupportforIsrael’shostilitytowardPalestiniannationalism.BinLadenalsofedonworldwideresentmentofAmerica’senormouseconomic,military,andculturalpower.

Thefirstsentenceaccuratelysummarizesthe“DeclarationoftheWorldIslamicFront for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders” that Osama bin Laden,leaderofalQaeda,whichwasresponsibleforthe9/11attacks,issuedin1998.13Thesecondsentenceisalsoaccurateanduseful.

Unfortunately, other thanPageant’s two sentences, today’s textbooks leavestudents defenseless against the misinterpretations deliberately spread by ourgovernment. Nine days after the attacks, President George W. Bush gaveCongresshisanswertothe“why”question:

Americansareasking,whydotheyhateus?Theyhatewhatweseerighthere in this chamber—a democratically elected government. Theirleaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms—our freedom ofreligion,our freedomof speech,our freedom tovoteandassembleanddisagreewitheachother.14

Whatahappythought:theyhateusbecausewearegood!

Bush repeated variants on that paragraph throughout the next year. Perhapsbecause it is so consoling, his interpretation took hold widely. The first andperhaps leading book interpreting the terrorist attacks for young people,UnderstandingSeptember11th, byTime reporterMitchFrank,made a similarclaimspecificallyfortheWorldTradeCenter:

The Twin Towers were meant to symbolize peace. Shortly after theywere finished in 1973, the architect who designed them, MinoruYamasaki, said, “World trade means world peace. The World TradeCenter isa livingsymbolofman’sdedicationtoworldpeace.Itshouldbecome a representation of man’s belief in humanity, his need forindividual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and throughcooperation,hisabilitytofindgreatness.”Theterroristswerestrikingatallofthis.15

Of course, this is nonsense. If on September 10, 2001, Frank had asked ahundred visitors to theWorld Trade Centerwhat the buildings symbolized to

them, none would have replied, “world peace,” “individual dignity,” or “thecooperation of men.”16 The building housed stockbrokers and investmentbankers,afterall.AstheeditorsofAmericanHeritageputitin2005,inanessaycommendingefforts to restoreanddisplay thearchitecturalmodelof theTwinTowers,theywere“internationallyrecognizablesymbolsofAmericaneconomicmight.”17

Thenotionthatterroristsattackedusbecauseofourvalues,ourfreedoms,orourdedication toworldpeace is self-servingbut shallowand inaccurate.Suchthinking might be termed nationalist but is hardly patriotic, to follow thedistinctionmadebyJohannesRauattheheadofthischapter.Nationalismdoesnot encourage us to critique our country and seek its betterment. Therefore,nationalism serves us only in the short run. In the long run, our nation needscitizens who question its policies rather than blindly saluting them. Indeed,knowledgeable Americans pointed this out to journalist James Fallows, whosummarizedinAtlanticMonthly:“Thesoldiers,spies,academics,anddiplomatsIhaveinterviewedareunanimousinsayingthat‘Theyhateusforwhoweare’isdangerousclaptrap.”Fallowshimself called the idea that theyhateus forwhoweare“lazilyself-justifyingandself-deluding.”MichaelScheuer,firstchiefoftheCIA’sbinLadenunit,agreed:

BinLadenhasbeenpreciseintellingAmericathereasonsheiswagingwaronus.Noneof the reasonshaveanything todowithour freedom,liberty,anddemocracy,buthaveeverythingtodowithU.S.policiesandactionsintheMuslimworld.

InNovember2004,confirmationofthisviewcamefromaninterestingsource:aPentagonreportthatpointedout“Muslimsdonot‘hateourfreedom,’butrathertheyhateourpolicies.”Ifwetookthissentenceseriously,wemightquestionorchangeour policies in theMiddleEast.Bush’s analysis—andmost textbooks’avoidanceofanyanalysis—stiflessuchthought.18

TextbooksfindithardtoquestionourforeignpolicybecausefrombeginningtoendtheytypicallyassumetheAmericaas“internationalgoodguy”modelwenoted in Chapter 8. Consider the first page of Pathways to the Present, forexample, which introduces history as a “theme” (along with geography,economics, etc.). Here is every word it supplies students about “history as atheme”:

Fighting forFreedomandDemocracy:Throughout thenation’shistory,Americanshave risked their lives toprotect their freedomsand to fightfor democracy both at home and abroad. Use the American Pathwaysfeatureonpages410-411tohelpyoutracespecificeventsinthestruggletoprotectanddefendthesecherishedideas.

Turning to thesepagesas instructed reveals the sameheadingand the sameprose,accompaniedby images from theRevolutionaryWar,CivilWar,WorldWarI,WorldWarII,andtheiconicshotoffiremenraisingtheU.S.flaginfrontof the ruins of theWorldTradeCenter after 9/11/2001.Conspicuously absentareimagesfromourcenturiesofwarfareagainstNativeAmericans,theMexicanWar,PhilippinesWar,oranyotherconflict thatcannotbeshoehorned into theclassification“tofightfordemocracybothathomeandabroad.”Ourlongestwar—Vietnam—rates not even a mention. To be sure, some of our militaryengagements—our1999interventioninSerbia-Kosovo,perhaps,orWorldWarII—might fit under the “international goodguy” rubric.Others—theSeminoleWars, the Philippines War—cannot. When authors blandly treat our militaryhistoryundertheheading“FightingforFreedomandDemocracy,”theymerelysignalstudentsthattheywillnotbepresentingaseriousanalysis.

InthemiddleofAHistoryoftheUnitedStates,rightafterdescribingtheendofourwaragainstVietnam,BoorstinandKelleysendstudentsasimilarsignal:“Still a superpower, theUnited States could not avoid some responsibility forkeeping peace in the world. Since the American Revolution, the nation hadserved as a beacon of hope for people who wanted to govern themselves.”ApparentlystudentsarenotsupposedtohavenoticedthattheUnitedStateshadjust spent a decade making war, not “keeping peace,” precisely to deny theVietnamesetheability“togovernthemselves.”Such“analysis”makesithardtounderstandwhyanyonewouldattackapeacekeeper,“abeaconofhope.”

The very last paragraph in Appleby, Brinkley, and McPherson’s TheAmericanJourneyprovidesthemostegregiousexampleofall:

TheUnitedStatesspentthelastdecadeofthetwentiethcenturytryingtoincrease the peace and prosperity of the world. Many Americans stillbelieved that their nation should serve as an example to theworld.AsPresident Clinton explained in his 1997 State of the Union address:“Americamustcontinuetobeanunrelentingforceforpeace—fromtheMiddleEasttoHaiti...”

Now, really. This is hardly “telling the truth about history,” the title ofAppleby’s 1995 book on historiography. Such a passagemay amount tomerepanderingtotheright,andifso,itseemstohaveworked.In2004,theThomasB.FordhamInstitute,aconservativethinktankinWashington,D.C.,releasedAConsumer’sGuidetoHighSchoolHistoryTextbooksbyDianeRavitch,ChesterFinn, and others, rating sixAmerican history textbooks. Journey won highestranking: “Analysis overall seems to be fair,measured, and reasonable.”19 ButsurelyneitherRavitchnorFinnwould claim in a lecture onAmerican foreignpolicy,“TheUnitedStatesspentthelastdecadeofthetwentiethcenturytryingto increase thepeace andprosperityof theworld.” It’s not even clear that thenationshouldhavethisagenda.Likeallnations,theUnitedStatesseeksfirsttoincreaseitsownprosperityandinfluenceintheworld.

Carryinga2000copyrightdate,JourneyistheoldestofthesixnewtextbooksIstudiedforthisbook,sowecannotknowforsurewhatitsauthorsmighthavesaid when the United States—no longer “trying to increase the peace andprosperity of the world”—preemptively attacked Iraq three years later. Butwouldtheyhavebeenastonishedatbehaviorsoatoddswiththeirassessmentofournationalcharacter?Surelynot; afterall, theUnitedStateshadbeenatwarsomewherealmosteveryoneofthesixtyyearsbeforetheirbookcameout.Toclose a textbook with that paragraph is to confuse justification with fact, topresent ideology instead of analysis. Again, such words do not help studentscomprehendwhyothersmightattacksuchaselfless,innocentnation.

Presenting a nationwithout sin—one that has always conducted itsMiddleEasternpoliciesevenhandedlyandwithbestintentionstowardbothPalestiniansandIsraelis,forexample—merelyleavesstudentsignorant,unabletounderstandwhy others are upset with us. Such presentations also fuel students’ethnocentrism—thebeliefthatoursisthefinestsocietyintheworldandallothernations should be like us. Americans are already more ethnocentric than anyother people, partly because the immense economic, military, and culturalstrengthsoftheUnitedStatesencourageustobelievethatournationisnotonlythemostpowerfulbutalsothebestontheplanet.Anyhistorycoursethatfurtherincreases this already robust ethnocentrism only decreases students’ ability tolearnfromothercultures.

Besidesbeingcrippledbytheir“internationalgoodguy”assumption,textbookauthors operate at a second disadvantage. Our wars with Iraq have a history.Chapter8pointedouthowtextbookshavedoneawoeful jobofdiscussingthe

history of U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The United States helpedSaddam Hussein seize power in the first place. In 1963, Iraq’s Shi’ite primeminister, Gen. Abdul Karim Qassem, “began to threaten U.S. and Britishinfluence,” in the words of journalists Anthony Lappé and StephenMarshall.TheCIAmastermindedQassem’soverthrow;inreturn,HusseinandhisBa’athParty welcomed Western oil companies at first. A few years later, however,Husseinnationalized theIraqioil industry.Nevertheless,sinceanoldprincipleofwaranddiplomacyholds“theenemyofmyenemyismyfriend,”theUnitedStates supported Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980. In 1982, PresidentReagan removed Iraq from the list of known terrorist countries so we couldsupply Hussein with military equipment and other aid for his war with Iran.During the rest of the 1980s, theUnited States sold Iraqmilitary helicopters,computers,scientificinstruments,chemicals,andothergoodsforIraq’smissile,chemical,biological,andnuclearweaponsprograms,accordingtoreporterJohnKing. The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency supplied Iraq withinformationtohelpitsforcesusechemicalweaponsonIraniantroops.Althoughsuch weapons have long been outlawed, the United States then blocked UNSecurityCouncilresolutionscondemningIraq’suseofthem.Evenafterthewarwith Iran ended and we knew Hussein was using these weapons on his ownpeople, we continued to send weapons-grade anthrax, cyanide, and otherchemical and biological weapons to Iraq. No textbook acknowledges ourlinkageswithHusseininthepast.20

Evenmoreimportanttounderstanding9/11wereouractionsinIran.Chapter8 tells of our repeated interventions on behalf of the shah, interventions thatexplain that country’s enmity toward us today. The Iranian Revolution thatoverthrew the shah is key to the subsequent history of theMiddleEast. Sincemost textbooks don’t portray our role in Iran honestly, they are handicappedwhentheytrytoexplainwhathappenednext,sostudentscannotusehistorytounderstand what happens today. Just as we supported the shah in Iran in the1970s,wecastour lot todaywith repressive regimes inSaudiArabia,Kuwait,Egypt,Uzbekistan, andelsewhere,whichpromptsmostArabsandmanyotherMuslims to consider the United States “a great hypocrite,” in the words ofhistorianScottAppleby.Wepreachdemocracywhile supportingdictatorships.21

AlsocrucialtoanyunderstandingoftheMiddleEastandterrorismisourtilttoward Israel. The United States is adamant that Iran must not have nuclear

weapons.PresidentBushusedIraq’sallegedattempttoobtainnuclearweaponsto legitimize our preemptive war upon that country. Yet we have never evenadmonished Israel verbally for possessing nuclear weapons, which we haveknown about for decades.22 On the contrary, from its formation in 1948 totoday,regardlessofitsnuclearweaponsorotherpolicies,theUnitedStateshasalwaysprovidedIsraelcriticalfinancialandmilitarysupport.

Havingpassedonthe“whywereweattacked”question,mosttextbooksalsoignore query three: How did we allow it to happen? Authors do not want tocriticize theU.S.government,but theblame isbipartisan. In its eightyears inoffice,theClintonadministrationtookfewstepstoimproveoursecurityagainstterrorist attacks. In particular, the Immigration andNaturalization Service hasbeennotoriously incompetentforyears—unable tocreateuseful listsofpeoplewho should not be let in to theUnited States, incompetent at tracking peopleonce theyoverstaystudentorworkvisas,notevenwilling toseekpeoplewhofail to showup for courthearings related to immigrationviolations.TheBushadministrationdidevenlesstomakeussecure,butauthorssaynothingaboutthepresident’sfailuretoactonthewarningshehadbefore9/11/2001.In2000,theClinton administration had staged rescue exercises simulating a plane beingcrashedintothePentagon,showingthattheywereawareofthepossibility.“Atleast three months before 9/11,” according to Lappé and Marshall, “Germanagentswarned theCIA that ‘MiddleEastern terroristswereplanning tohijackcommercialaircrafttouseasweaponstoattackimportantsymbolsofAmericanculture.’”TheCIAdidnotevenrelaythatwarningtoairlinecompanies.AgentswithintheFBIsentmemostotheirsuperiorsaboutsuspiciousArabstrainingtoflycommercialjetsinU.S.flyingschools,tonoavail.GeorgeW.Bushreceivedabriefing titled “BinLadenDetermined toStrike inU.S.”more thanamonthbeforetheattacks,buttooknoaction.23

Prompted by the families of 9/11 victims, Congress was inspired by theseissuestocallforacommissiontoinvestigatethefailureofintelligence,defense,and law enforcement agencies to cooperate, investigate, and forestall theterrorists.TheAmericansmakesGeorgeBushtheinstigatoroftheresulting9/11Commission. In reality he opposed it, and after public opinion forced him toagree to it, his administrationcooperatedonlygrudgingly.All theotherbooksomitthecommissionentirely.

Willithappenagain?Thebooksdonotsay,ofcourse,norcanthey,buttheir

toneisupbeat.“ThePresidentalsomovedquicklytocombatterrorismathome,”saysPathways to thePresent. “Less thanamonthafter the9/11attacks,BushcreatedtheOfficeofHomelandSecurity.”Thenfollowthreelongencouragingparagraphsaboutthisgovernmentalreorganization—paragraphsthatcontainnota word of critique or query. To be sure, Pathways went to press before thefederal government’s pathetic response toHurricaneKatrina revealed that theBush administration had actually downsized and downgraded FEMA—theFederal Emergency Management Agency—while merging it into HomelandSecurity, in the process drastically curtailing our national ability to copewithdisasters. But authors did have available to them widespread and expertquestioningofourpreparednessagainstterroristmaterialscominginthroughourports,thewaiverprogramthatmadeitespeciallyeasyforSaudiArabianstogetvisas,andotherproblems thatHomelandSecurityhadnotaddressed.Cheerfulprose will reassure students only until the next attack. Then they will feelcheated.

The initial U.S. response to 9/11 was to attack the Taliban government inAfghanistaninOctober2001.LikeHussein,thisfundamentalistMuslimregimehad initially been supported by our CIA because they opposed the previouscommunist regime inAfghanistan,whichwas backedby theSovietUnion. Inthe 1980s the CIA not only supplied Afghan Muslim fundamentalists withAmericanadvisorsandantiaircraftmissilesbutalsohelpedrecruitMuslimsfromother countries to fight alongside theAfghans.Unfortunately, after coming topower theseextremists shelteredOsamabinLadenandhis trainingcamps thatproducedtheterroristswhoattackedtheWorldTradeCenterandthePentagon.After the 9/11/2001 attacks and in response to U.S. demands, the TalibangovernmentofferedtohandbinLadenovertoathirdnation.TheUnitedStatesdeclined the offer, calling it inadequate.24 Instead, within amonth, we beganbombing Taliban forces on behalf of the Northern Alliance, enemies of theTaliban.WithouraidtheAlliancewonaquickvictory.AsAfghans,membersofthe Alliance were able to differentiate between Taliban supporters and otherAfghans.However,distractedbypreparationsforitsupcomingwaronIraq,theBush administration then lost focus on capturing Osama bin Laden and onsecuring Afghanistan as a neutral or favorable state. Those mistakes in early2002 still haunted theUnitedStates fiveyears later, asbinLaden remainedatlargeandtheAfghangovernmenthadlittlecontrolovermuchofAfghanistan.25

Only one textbook,Pageant, tells that the United States had supported the

Islamic fundamentalists in their battle against Afghanistan’s communistgovernment.Pageantjoinsotherbooksinstating,inaccurately,thattheTalibanflatlyrefusedtohandoverbinLaden.Otherwise,however,mosttextbooksgivea compact and reasonably accurate account of how theUnitedStateswith theNorthern Alliance brought down the Taliban government. They do note thatOsama bin Laden got away. Perhaps we should not be surprised that theiraccounts are accurate: our intervention in Afghanistan was justified andeffective,atleastatfirst.26

TheUnitedStatesseemstogotowarevermoreeasily,partlybecausemostofusdonotreallyknowwar’shumancosts.Ourignorancehasseveralcauses.InIraq,ourbodyarmor,medicalcare,etc.,havebeenmuchbetterthanpreviously.Asaresult,theratioofcombatdeathstowoundedisfarlower—about1to9,whileinVietnamitwas1 to3.It issplendid thatfewersoldiersaredying.Sincemanymorearewounded,however,someseverely,likethismanatWalterReedArmyMedicalCenter,deathsnolongertellthefullstory.Thedeathtollshrinksfurtherbecausemanywarservices,likedrivingandguardingtruckconvoys,havebeencontracted out to private companies, whose losses are omitted from officialstatistics. Iraqideaths—farmorenumerous thanourown—alsodon’t figure inthe totals.Yet thedeath toll formsourmainknowledgeof awar’s cost, sincemostofusmakenopersonalsacrifice.

Historically,thenexteventisthewartheUnitedStateslaunchedagainstIraqin March 2003. However, while chronological, our attack on Iraq was notobviously logical. To be sure, the Bush administration initially claimed aconnectionbetweenthe9/11terroristsandSaddamHussein.Twodaysafterweattacked,explainingwhy,PresidentBushgavethreereasons:“todisarmIraqofweapons ofmass destruction, to end SaddamHussein’s support for terrorism,andtofreetheIraqipeople.”Similarly,VicePresidentDickCheneycalledIraq“thegeographicbaseof the terroristswhohavehadusunderassault formanyyears,butmostespeciallyon9/11.”Evenatthetime,thelinkageclaimmadenosense.Iraqhadnoconnectionwiththe9/11attacksontheUnitedStates;OsamabinLaden had nothing but contempt for SaddamHussein’s secular and brutaldictatorship;andHussein,inturn,hadnointerestinlettingterroristsorganizeinhispolicestateofanation.27

Nor did the “weapons of mass destruction” claim make sense, for Bush’saggressivediplomacyhadpersuadedHusseintoletUNweaponsinspectorsbackinto Iraq the previous November, and they had found no evidence of suchweapons. Hussein’s government had also submitted a report the next monthdescribing(truthfully,itturnedout)howIraqhaddismantleditsWMDprogramsinthe1990s.TheinspectorsbeggedBushtoletthemfinishtheirinspections,butBushorderedtheUNoutofIraqsotheinvasioncouldproceed.Afterourinitialmilitaryvictory,thoroughsearchconfirmedthatnoweaponsofmassdestructionexisted in Iraq. Information suppressed at the time has since made clear thatBritish PrimeMinister TonyBlair aswell as PresidentBush knew before theinvasion that Iraq had noWMD, or should have known.28Moreover, even if

Iraq’s alleged WMD programs had made the progress claimed by the Bushadministration, theywould still have lagged far behind those of the other twonationsBush denounced as part of the “Axis of Evil,” Iran andNorthKorea.Logically, then, we should have attacked those countries first. Instead, weattacked Iraq—preciselybecause itwas theweakest target.29Among its otherproblems,ourattackonIraqthusencouragedIranandNorthKorea—alongwithanyothernationwantingtoforestallapossibleU.S.attackinthefuture—togetnuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Clearly we attacked Iraq notbecauseithadWMDbutbecauseitdidnot.

President Bush’s third stated reason for attacking Iraq, “to free the Iraqipeople,” is another example of the “international good guy” school of U.S.foreignpolicy.Withoutdoubt,underHusseinthepeopleofIraq—especiallyitsShi’ite majority and Kurdish minority—suffered. As a result, substantialsegments of Iraqi society initially, and correctly, briefly viewed our troops asliberators.Asacauseofourintervention,however,Hussein’soppressionneverfiguredprominently.Ifapeople’ssufferingpromptedAmericanintervention,wewould have sent troops first to Darfur, in southern Sudan, where the Arab-dominatedgovernmentwaskillingorallowingitscivilianalliestokillhundredsof thousands of black Africans; or to Zimbabwe, whose dictator, RobertMugabe,grewmorerepressivewitheachpassingyear.The“internationalgoodguy” interpretationdidprovide rhetoricalcover for the invasion,however, anddidconvincesomeDemocratstovotefortheresolutionawardingthepresidentwarpowers.

If the government’s stated reasons for attacking Iraqwon’t scan,what doesexplain thismilitaryadventure?Surelyahugeunstatedcause is this:PresidentBush and his associates hoped to gain from it, politically and economically.EveryoneknewthatHussein’sarmedforces,whichtheUnitedStateshadeasilydefeatedinthePersianGulfWarin1991,werenowfarweaker.BeforetheGulfWar, Iraq had 4,280 tanks; it ended thatwarwith 580.30 Iraq’s armed forceswerefurthercrippledbythe“noflyzone”imposedbytheUnitedStatesanditsalliessince1991,whichmeantU.S.planeswouldcontrolIraqiairspacefromthebeginning of any hostilities. So politicians knew it would be dangerouspolitically to oppose a war that we would win in a few weeks. Indeed, inNovember 2004, electoral fallout from the seemingly successful war and thecaptureofSaddamHusseinhelpedPresidentBushwinreelectionandhispartycontrolofCongress.Economicsplayedanevenmoreobviousrole.Manyofthe

Bush family’s friends have long been involved in the construction of the oilindustryandarmedforcesprojects. InApril2003, theBushadministrationputthe international community on notice that U.S. companies and governmentagencies, not thoseof other nations,would rebuild Iraq.Tonoone’s surprise,VicePresidentCheney’sformerfirm,Halliburton,hasgottenmoregovernmentmoneyforthisrebuildingthananyothercompany—andhasbeenchargedwithmorefraudandmalfeasance.Meanwhile,Cheneycontinuestoreceive$150,000ayear indeferredcompensation fromHalliburtonandhas stockoptionsworthmorethan$18millioninit.Conversely,tohelpensureCheney’sreelectionandthat of his allies,Halliburton funneledmore than half amillion dollars to theRepublicanParty.31

The Bush family has historic ties to the oil industry, and early in Bush’spresidency, Vice President Cheney convened a secret energy task forcecomprisedmainlyofoilindustryinsiders.In2003apoliticalinsider,TomFoley,formerspeakerofthehouse,bluntlyassailedthegoodguyinterpretationofU.S.foreign policy, implicitly offering a far less flattering picture of a U.S.administrationwagingwaronbehalfofprivateoilfirms:“Ourbeliefisthatwearenotself-interested.Forexample,ourperception is thatwedidn’tgo towaragainst Iraq to dominate the oil market, and we’re very offended if anyonesuggests such a thing. We always excuse ourselves from self-interestedmotives.”32Ifanyonestilldoubtedthatoilplayedakeyrole,in2007DowJonesannouncedthatIraq’spuppetparliamentwasconsideringalaw“whichtheU.S.government has been helping to craft” that would give giant Western oilcompaniesthirty-yearcontractstoextractIraqioil.Moreover,75percentoftheprofits in the early yearswould go to the foreign companies, compared to anaverageof10percentinotheroil-producingcountries.33

No textbook suggests that reasons such as these played any part in ourdecisiontogotowar,ourselectionofIraqastarget,orsuchtacticalmatters—nowwidelyunderstoodtobeblunders—asthechoicetosidelineentitiessuchasFrance,Germany, and theUnitedNations from participating in the rebuildingandreorganizationofIraq.Textbooksneverdo.Eventhoughseveraltextbooksnote the boost in the polls that Americans gave George H. W. Bush afterAmerica’squickvictoryinthePersianGulfWar,authorsneversuggestdomesticpoliticsasanexplanationforwar.34Instead,theychoosetobelievethereasonsofficials supply for their actions, rather thanpeeringbeneath the surface.Notetheperspective adopted in the first sentenceof the accountof the IraqWar in

TheAmericans, forexample:“In2003,BushexpandedthewaronterrorismtoIraq.” As we have seen, attacking Iraq had nothing to do with “the war onterrorism.” Soon enough, evenBush had to admit therewas no connection.35Nevertheless, the president and vice president continued making their nowcontradicted statements linking Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. PoliticalscientistsAmyGershkoff and ShanaKushner have shown that this imaginaryconnection was the primary wellspring of public support for the war, whichshowsthetruthofHermanGoering’sstatementthattogetpeopletobackawar,“all you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked” and denounceopponents for their lack of patriotism. When textbooks like The Americansrepeat the fictional tie between terrorism and Hussein’s Iraq, they promotesupportforthismisguidedwaramongouryoung.36

WhateveritsreasonsforgoingtowarinIraq,afteritsinitialvictorytheBushadministrationforgotthebasicruleofanysuccessfuloccupation:decapitatetheoccupiedsociety,thenruleitthroughthestructuresalreadyinplaceonthelocallevel. After all, Saddam Hussein used more than half a million troops andpolicementokeepIraqquiet.AttheinsistenceofSecretaryofDefenseDonaldRumsfeld, who overruled Pentagon brass, we went in with far fewer troops,almostnoneofwhomspokeArabic.SowehadnoalternativebuttousetheIraqimilitary tocordonoffammunitiondumps,direct traffic,accompanyour forcesonpatrol,anddootherusefuljobs.Instead,againsttheadviceofU.S.officialswithIraqexperiencelikeGen.JayGarner,wesimplydeclaredtheIraqimilitaryillegal.Moreover,wedid sowithoutbothering tohave it come inanddisarm,instantlycreatingan illegalarmedforceoutsideourcontrol.OccupyingIraq isnotrocketscience.Allwehadtodowasemulatemostsuccessfuloccupationsofthelastfivehundredyears.HowdidGermanygovernFrancein the1940s,forinstance?Through the French police, local leadership, and the imposedVichygovernment.Thecoursewechoseshowedincompetenceofahighorder.37

Fromthestandpointofrealpolitik,thewaragainstIraqwasapoorideafromthestart.TheUnitedStateshadSaddamHusseininabox.HiscavingintotheUN’sdemandtoreadmitWMDinspectorsexemplifiedhisdilemma:heruledhisnationbyforce,yetcouldhardlymobilizesignificantforcevis-à-vistheUNandtheUnitedStates.Moreover,IraqwasasecularArabstate, ifnotademocraticone.By2004,expertsontheMiddleEast,armycommanders,andCIAofficialswere telling journalist Fallows that our choice to attack Iraq “hampered thecampaigninAfghanistanbeforefightingbeganandwounditdownprematurely,

alongthewaylosingthechancetocaptureOsamabinLaden.”Italsodistractedourattention from the true sources—inSaudiArabia,Egypt, andPakistan—ofthe 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks and from the gaping holes in our domesticsecurity apparatus. It “overused and wore out” the army, Fallows continues,“withoutcommittingenoughtroopsforasuccessfuloccupation.”Worstofall,itcreated new terrorists. Fourmonths after attacking Iraq, PresidentBush daredMuslim extremists to “attack us there. My answer is, bring them on.”38 Theextremistsresponded.AlQaeda,whichhadnopresenceinIraqunderHussein,foundIraqunderBushfertilegroundforrecruits.

This graph shows Iraq’s steady slide toward statelessness. Of coursestatelessnesswaslikelyaftertheUnitedStatesdisbandedIraq’sgovernmentandarmedforces.

Tobe sure, thewar did not look asmisguidedormishandled in 2004 as in2007, so it is hardly fair forme to suggest that textbook authors should haveknownthenwhatisobviousnow.However,forthemostpartIhavesummarizedcriticisms levied by journalists, historians, and former government officialsbetween2002and2004,beforefourofthesebookshadgonetopress.Certainlyby 2007, almost all historians and policy analysts—as well as a majority ofAmerican citizens—concluded that the decision to wage war on Iraq was amistake. Today, Iraq, instead of being a secular (if undemocratic) state, ismoving towardstatelessness,whichbreeds terrorism,or toward fundamentalistShi’itecontrolwithexpandedIranianinfluence.Iran,unlikeIraq,hassponsored

terrorist groups in theMiddle East, so its enhanced power resulting from ourinterventionishardlyinourinterest.Ourmilitarypresenceasoccupiergeneratesever-increasing resentment among Muslims everywhere, which in turn helpsterroristssolicitnewmembers.Owing to internalsabotage, Iraqhardlyexportsanyoilandsuffersshortagesofitsown,sothewarhashardlyhelpedtheworldcopewithitsenergyshortfall.Americanprestigeabroadhassunktoanewlow,owing partly to the illegal and inhumane methods we have used against“detainees” suspected of being terrorists. All these problems, too, werepredictable from the start. Indeed, theCIAwarned theBush administrationofthelikelynegativeoutcomesofourinvasion,butBushandCheneypaidnoheed.Forthatmatter,backinApril1999,anoperationoftheU.S.governmentunderthe Clinton administration, a series of war games known as Desert Crossing,predictedmostofthem.Stillearlier,apaperbyIvanEland,directorofdefensepolicy studies at the Cato Institute, asked, “Does U.S. Intervention OverseasBreedTerrorism?TheHistoricalRecord,”andansweredaffirmatively.39

Yetonlyonetextbook—againitisPageant—suggeststhewarwasamistake.ItdoessobyreprintingPresidentGeorgeH.W.Bush’srationalefornottopplingHusseinafterthePersianGulfWar:

TryingtoeliminateSaddam...wouldhaveincurredincalculablehumanand political costs. . . . Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterallyexceeding the United Nations’ mandate, would have destroyed theprecedent of international response to aggression that we hoped toestablish. Had we gone this invasion route, the United States couldconceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. Itwould have been a dramatically different—and perhaps barren—outcome.

Astheauthorsnote,theparagraphmakes“soberingreadinginthecontextofhisson’s subsequent invasion of Iraq.” To suggest that the other five textbookssupport administration policy would be too strong, however. Probably theirauthorswould claim they neither support nor decry administration policy.Butsincetheymostlyadopttheadministration’sterms,andsincetheystartfromthe“internationalgoodguy”pointofview,authorsdocomeacrossassupportive,onthe whole. In addition, given that the quagmire in Iraq—like any failedenterprise—wasnotinAmerica’sbestinterest,evenaneutralassessmentseemsinappropriate.

Evenmorethanearlierchapters,thelastpagesofU.S.historytextbookscomeacross as “just one damn thing after another” (a line variously attributed toHenry Ford, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, historian H.A.L. Fisher,Voltaire,andanonymous).Notwithstandingthenamesoffamoushistorianswithimposing personalities on their title pages, the books’ final chapters seemespeciallydevoidofapointofview.Isuspectthisisbecausenoonewritesthem—atleastnoonehiredtohaveapointofview.Chapter12tellshowpublishersoftenfarmouthistorytextbooks,especiallyaftertheirfirsteditions,tobewrittenby underlings.Many of these clerks and freelancewriters are not qualified tohaveapointofview—somehavenobackgroundinhistoryatall,notevenaBA.Norcantheyaffordthetime,asIcouldwhilewritingthischapter,toreviewtheliteratureanddevelopasenseofitsmostcogentpositions.Theyarehiredsimplyto summarizewhat happened in the recent past, and summarize they do. Theproductthatresultshasevenlessstyleandisevenmoreboringthantherestoftheseponderousvolumes.Nowonderteachersskipthelastchapters!

Nevertheless, the notion that history courses should slight the sasha for thedistant zamani is perverse. Giving short shrift to the sasha, the way mosttextbooksdo,oravoiding therecentpastaltogether, thewaymost teachersdo,does not meet students’ needs. Authors may work on the assumption thatcoveringrecenteventsthoroughlyisunnecessarybecausestudentsalreadyknowabout them.Since textbookauthors tend tobeold,however,what issasha forthemiszamanitotheirstudents.Studentsneedinformationabouttherecentpastto understand ongoing developments. Yet high school juniors have almost nopersonal memory of the Clinton administration, to say nothing of anythingearlier, like thewomen’smovement.Soon thedisputedFloridaelectionresultsof2000,sorecenttomanyofus,willbeancienthistorytohighschoolstudents.Moreover,whentextbooksandteachersdownplaythesasha,theymakeithardfor students to draw connections between the study of the past and the issuestheyaresuretofaceinthefuture,whichcanonlyencouragestudentstoconsiderallhistoryirrelevant.

“The past is never dead,” wrote William Faulkner. “It’s not even past.”Unquestionably this is truest about the sasha. The sasha is perhaps our mostimportantpast,becauseitisnotdeadbutliving-dead.Itstheftbytextbooksandteachers is themostwicked crime schools perpetrate on high school students,deprivingthemofperspectiveabouttheissuesthatmostaffectthem.Thesemi-

rememberedfactoidsstudentscarrywiththemabouttheBattleofPut-in-BayorSilentCalCoolidgedolittletohelpthemunderstandtheworldintowhichtheymoveatgraduation.Thatworldisstillworkingoutsexroles.Thatworldfacesnations such as Pakistan, Iran, and North Korea with growing capabilities tomake nuclear bombs. That world is marked by growing social and economicinequalitywithinandbetweennations,whichamongotherthingsunderliesourinabilitytokeepoutillegalimmigrants.Leavingouttherecentpastensuresthatstudentswill take away little from their history courses that they can apply tothatworld.

11.

PROGRESSISOURMOSTIMPORTANTPRODUCT

Godhasnotbeenpreparing theEnglishspeakingandTeutonicpeoplesforathousandyearsfornothing....Hehasgivenusthespiritofprogresstooverwhelmtheforcesofreactionthroughouttheearth.Hehasmadeusadept in government that we may administergovernmentamongsavageandsenilepeople. . . .AndofallourraceHehasmarkedtheAmericanpeopleasHis chosennation to finally lead in the redemptionoftheworld.

—SENATORALBERTJ.BEVERIDGE,19001

Americansseehistoryasastraightlineandthemselvesstandingatthecuttingedgeofitasrepresentativesforallmankind.

—FRANCESFITZGERALD2

Thestudyofeconomicgrowthistooserioustobelefttotheeconomists.

—E.J.MISHAN3

It isbecoming increasinglyapparent thatweshallnothave the benefits of this world for much longer. The

imminent and expected destruction of the life cycle ofworldecologycanonlybepreventedbyaradicalshiftin outlook from our present naïve conception of thisworldasatestinggroundtoamorematureviewoftheuniverse as a comprehensive matrix of life forms.Making this shift in viewpoint is essentially religious,noteconomicorpolitical.

—VINEDELORIAJR.4

STEADFASTREADER,weareabouttodosomethingnohighschool

American history class has ever accomplished in the annals of Americaneducation:reachtheendofthetextbook.WhatfinalwordsdoAmericanhistorycoursesimparttotheirstudents?

TheAmericanTraditionassuresstudents“thattheAmericantraditionremainsstrong—strong enough tomeet themany challenges that lie ahead.” “If thesevalues are those on which most Americans can agree,” says The AmericanAdventure, “the American adventure will surely continue.” “Most Americansremained optimistic about the nation’s future. Theywere convinced that theirfree institutions, their great natural wealth, and the genius of the Americanpeoplewould enable theU.S. to continue tobe—as it alwayshasbeen—THELANDOFPROMISE,”LandofPromiseconcludes.

Evenmosttextbooksthatdon’tendwiththeirtitlesclosewiththesamevapidcheer.“TheAmericanspiritsurgedwithvitalityasthenationheadedtowardthecloseofthetwentiethcentury,”theauthorsofTheAmericanPageantassuredusin 1991, ignoring opinion polls that suggest the opposite. Fifteen years later,“TheAmericanspiritpulsedwithvitalityintheearlytwenty-firstcentury,”theywrite, but now “grave problems continued to plague the Republic.” Life andLibertyclimbsfartheroutonthishollowlimb:“Americawillhaveagreatroletoplayinthesefutureevents.Whatthisnationdoesdependsonthepeopleinit.”Can’t argue with that! “Problems lie ahead, certainly,” predicts AmericanAdventures.“Butsodoopportunities.”TheAmericanpeople“needonlythewilland the commitment to meet the new challenges of the future,” according toTriumph of the American Nation. In short, all wemust do to prepare for the

morrow is keep our collective chin up. Or asHolt AmericanNation put it in2003,“Americansfacedthefuturewithhopeanddetermination.”5

Back in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me poked fun at textbooks for suchendings.ObviouslyLieshadlittleinfluenceontextbookpublishers.

Well,whynotendhappily?mightbeoneresponse.Wedon’twanttodepresshighschoolstudents.Afterall,it’snotreallyhistoryanyway—wecannotknowforsurewhat’sgoingtocomenext.Solet’sendonanupbeat.

Indeed,justaswedon’tknowwithprecisionwhatwentonthousandsofyearsago,we cannot knowwith precisionwhatwill happen next. Precisely for thisreason, the endings of these books provide another site where authors mightappropriatelyprovokeintellectualcuriosity.CanstudentsapplyideastheyhavelearnedfromthesehugeAmericanhistorytextbooks?Afterall,asShakespearesaid,“thepastisprologue.”Ifweunderstandwhathascausedwhatinthepast,we may be able to predict what will happen next and even adopt nationalpoliciesinformedbyourknowledge.Surelyhelpingstudentslearntodosoisthekey reason for teachinghistory in the firstplace. Ifhistory textbooks suppliedtoolsforprojectionorexamplesofcausationinthepastthatmight(ormightnot)continueintothefuture,theywouldencouragestudentstothinkaboutwhattheyhavejustspentayearlearning.Whatathrillingwaytoendahistorytextbook!

AccordingtoAmericanHistory,WestwardtheCourseofEmpireTakesItsWayhas been reproduced in more American histories than any other picture byCurrier and Ives. Stereotypically contrasting “primitive” Native hunters andfisherswithbustlingwhitesettlers,thepicturesuggeststhatprogressdoomedtheIndian,soweneednotlookcloselytodayattheprocessofdispossession.

Butno,thelackofintellectualexcitementinthesebooksismostpronouncedattheirends.Alliswell,theauthorssootheus.Justkeeponkeepin’on.Noneedtoponderwhetherthenationorallhumankindareontherightpath.Noneedtothink at all. Not only is this boring pedagogy, it’s bad history. Nevertheless,endingslikethesearecustomary.

As usual, such content-free unanimity signals that a social archetype lurksnearby. This one, the archetype of progress, bursts forth in full flower on thetextbooks’lastpagesbuthasbeengerminatingfromtheiropeningchapters.

Forcenturies,Americansviewedtheirownhistoryasademonstrationoftheideaofprogress.AsThomasJeffersonputit:

LetthephilosophicalobservercommenceajourneyfromthesavagesoftheRockyMountains eastwards towards our seacoast. These hewouldobserveintheearlieststageofassociation,livingundernolawbutthatofnature....Hewouldnextfindthoseonourfrontiersinthepastoralstate,raisingdomesticanimalstosupplythedefectsofhunting,...andsoinhisprogresshewouldmeetthegradualshadesofimprovingmanuntilhewouldreachhis,asyet,mostimprovedstateinourseaporttowns.This,infact,isequivalenttoasurvey,intime,oftheprogressofmanfromtheinfancyofcreationtothepresentday.Andwherethisprogresswillstopnoonecansay.6

The idea of progress dominatedAmerican culture in the nineteenth centuryandwasstillbeingcelebratedinChicagoattheCenturyofProgressExpositionin1933.As recently as the1950s,morewas still assumed to bebetter.Everymidwestern town displayed civic pride in signs marking the city limits:WELCOME TO DECATUR, ILLINOIS, POP. 65,000 AND GROWING.Growth meant progress, and progress provided meaning, in some basic butunthinkingway.InWashingtonthesecretaryofcommerceroutinelycelebratedwhen our nation hit each newmilestone—170,000,000, 185,000,000, etc.—onhis“populationclock.”7WeboastedthatAmerica’smarvelouseconomicsystemhadgiventheUnitedStates“72percentoftheworld’sautomobiles,61percent

oftheworld’stelephones,and92percentof theworld’sbathtubs,”andall thiswithonly6percentoftheworld’spopulation.8Thefuturelookedbrighteryet:mostAmericansbelievedtheirchildrenwould inheritabetterplanetandenjoyfullerlives.

ThisistheAmericainwhichmosttextbookauthorsgrewupandtheAmericathey still try to sell to students today. Perhaps textbooks do not question thenotionthatbiggerisbetterbecausetheideaofprogressconformswiththewayAmericans like to think about education: ameliorative, leading step by step toopportunityforindividualsandprogressforthewholesociety.Theideologyofprogress also provides hope for the future. CertainlymostAmericanswant tobelieve that their society has been, on balance, a boon and not a curse tomankind and to the planet.9 History textbooks go even further to imply thatsimply by participating in society, Americans contribute to a nation that isconstantly progressing and remains the hope of the world. As Boorstin andKelley put it, near the end of A History of the United States, “Americans—makers of something out of nothing—have delivered a newway of life to farcornersof theworld.”Thus, the ideaofAmericanexceptionalism—theUnitedStatesas thebestcountry in theworld—whichstarts inour textbookswith thePilgrims,getsprojectedintothefuture.

Inthe1950sagraphicsfirmredesignedthesymbolforExplorerScoutingtobemore “up to date.” The new symbol’s onward and upward thrust perfectly

representsthearchetypeofprogress.

Faith in progress has played various functions in society and in Americanhistorytextbooks.Thefaithhaspromotedthestatusquointhemostliteralsense,foritproclaimsthattoprogresswemustsimplydomoreofthesame.Thisbeliefhas been particularly useful to the upper class, because Americans could bepersuadedtoignoretheinjusticeofsocialclassiftheythoughttheeconomicpiekept getting bigger for all. The idea of progress also fits in with socialDarwinism,which implies that the lowerclass is lowerowingto itsownfault.Progressasanideologyhasbeenintrinsicallyantirevolutionary:becausethingsaregettingbetterallthetime,everyoneshouldbelieveinthesystem.PortrayingAmerica so optimistically also helps textbooks withstand attacks byultrapatrioticcriticsinTexasandothertextbookadoptionstates.

Internationally, referring to have-not countries as “developing nations” hashelped the “developed nations” avoid facing the injustice of worldwidestratification. In reality “development” has been making ThirdWorld nationspoorer,comparedto theFirstWorld.Percapita incomein theFirstWorldwasfivetimesthatintheThirdWorldin1850,tentimesin1960,andfourteentimesby1970.It’strickytomeasuretheseratios,partlybecauseadollarbuysmoreintheThirdWorldthanintheFirst,butpercapitaincomeintheFirstWorldisnowtwenty to sixty times that in the ThirdWorld.10 The vocabulary of progressremains relentlessly hopeful, however, with regard to the “undeveloped.” Aseconomist E. J. Mishan put it, “Complacency is suffused over the globe, byreferring to these destitute and sometimes desperate countries by the fatuousnomenclature of ‘developing nations.’”11 In the nineteenth century, progressprovided an equally splendid rationale for imperialism. Europeans andAmericans saw themselves as performing governmental services for andutilizingthenaturalresourcesofnativesindistantlands,whoweretoobackwardtodoitthemselves.

Gradually the archetype of progress has been losing its grip. In the lastquarter-century the intellectual community in the United States has largelyabandoned the idea.Opinionpolls show that thegeneral public, too, has beenlosingitsfaiththatthefutureisautomaticallygettingbetter.Reportingthisnewclimateofopinion, theeditorsofa1982symposiumentitled“ProgressandItsDiscontents”put it thisway: “Futurehistorianswill probably record that fromthemid-twentieth century on, itwas difficult for anyone to retain faith in the

ideaofinevitableandcontinuingprogress.”12

Probably not even textbook authors still believe that bigger is necessarilybetter.Noonecelebrateshigherpopulations.13Today, rather thanboastofourconsumption, we are more likely to lament our waste, as in this passage byDonellaH.Meadows,coauthorofTheLimits toGrowth:“In termsofspoilingthe environment and using world resources, we are the world’s mostirresponsible and dangerous citizens.” Each American born in the 1970s willthrowouttenthousandno-returnbottlesandalmosttwentythousandcanswhilegenerating 126 tons of garbage and 9.8 tons of particulate air pollution. Andthat’s just the tipof the trashberg,becauseevery tonofwasteat theconsumerendhasalsorequiredfivetonsatthemanufacturingstageandevenmoreatthesiteofinitialresourceextraction.14

Insomeways,biggerstillseemstoequalbetter.Whenwecompareourselvestoothersaroundus,havingmoreseemstobringhappiness,forearningalotofmoneyordrivinganexpensivecarimpliesthatoneisamorevaluedmemberofsociety. Sociologists routinely find positive correlations between income andhappiness.Over time,however, and in an absolute sense,moremaynotmeanhappier.Americansbelievedthemselvestobelesshappyin1970thanin1957,andstilllesshappyby1998,yettheyusedmuchmoreenergyandrawmaterialspercapitain1998.15

The 1973 oil crisis precipitated the new climate of opinion, for it showedAmerica’svulnerabilitytoeconomicandevengeologicalfactorsoverwhichwehave little control. The new pessimism was exemplified by the enormouspopularityofthatyear’secocidalbestseller,TheLimitstoGrowth.16Writingthenextyear,RobertHeilbronernotedthenewpessimism:“Thereisaquestionintheair...‘Istherehopeforman?’”17RobertNisbet,whothinksthattheideaofprogress“hasdonemoregoodovera2500-yearperiod...thananyothersingleideainWesternhistory,”18nonethelessagrees that the idea is in twilight.Thischangedidnottakeplaceallatonce.Intellectualshadbeenchallengingtheideaof progress for some time, dating back toTheDecline of theWest, publishedduring World War I, in which Oswald Spengler suggested that Westerncivilizationwasbeginningaprofoundandinevitabledownturn.19Thewaritself,the Great Depression, Stalinism, the Holocaust, and World War II shookWesternbeliefinprogressatitsfoundations.

Developments in social theory further undermined the idea of progress bymaking social Darwinism intellectually obsolete. Modern anthropologists nolongerbelievethatoursocietyis“aheadof”or“fitterthan”so-called“primitive”societies.Theyrealizethatoursocietyismorecomplexthanitspredecessorsbutdo not rank our religions higher than “primitive” religions or consider ourkinshipsystemsuperior.Evenourtechnology,thoughassuredlymoreadvanced,maynotbebetterinthatitmaynotmeethumanneedsoverthelongterm.20

Anotherkeyjustificationforourbeliefinprogresshadcomefrombiologicaltheory.Biologistsusedtoseenaturalevolutionasthesurvivalofthefittest.By1973amuchmore complexviewof thedevelopmentoforganismshad sweptthefield.“Lifeisnotataleofprogress,”accordingtoStephenJayGould.“Itis,rather,astoryof intricatebranchingandwandering,withmomentarysurvivorsadaptingtochanginglocalenvironments,notapproachingcosmicorengineeringperfection.”21

Sincetextbooksdonotdiscussideas,itisnosurprisethattheyfailtoaddressthechangesinAmericanthinkingresultingfromWorldWarI,WorldWarII,theHolocaust, or Stalinism, let alone from developments in anthropological orbiological theory. By 1973, however, another problem with progress wasbecomingapparent:thedownsiderisksofourincreasingdominanceovernature.Environmentalproblemshavegrownmoreominouseveryyear.

In the 1980s and 1990s, most books at least mentioned the energy crisescausedbytheoilembargoof1973andtheIran-IraqWarin1980.Noworries,however: textbookauthors implied thatbothcrises found immediate solutions.“As a result” of the 1973 embargo,Triumph of the AmericanNation told us,“Nixon announced a program to make the United States independent of allforeign countries for its energy requirements by the early 1980s.” Ten pageslater,inresponsetogasrationingin1979,“Cartersetforthanotherenergyplan,callingforamassiveprogramtodevelopsyntheticfuels.Thelong-rangegoaloftheplanwastocut importationofoil inhalf.”Nomentionin1979ofNixon’s1973plan,whichhadfailedsoabjectlythatourdependenceonforeignoilhadspiraledupward,notdownward.22NomentionthatCongressneverevenpassedmost of Carter’s 1979 plan, inadequate as it was. Virtually all the textbooksadoptedthistrouble-freeapproach.“BytheendoftheCarteradministration,theenergycrisishadeasedoff,”LandofPromisereassureditsreaders.“Americanswere building and buying smaller cars.” “People gradually began to use less

gasolineandconserveenergy,”echoesTheAmericanTradition.

Ifonlyitwerethatsimple!Between1950and1975worldfuelconsumptiondoubled,oilandgasconsumptiontripled,andtheuseofelectricitygrewalmostsevenfold.23 Since then things have only grownworse.Meanwhile, world oilproductionhasreachedaplateau,asM.K.Hubbertpredicteditwoulddecadesago. In 1994 Iwrote, “If our sources of energy are not infinite,which seemslikelysinceweliveonafiniteplanet,thenatsomepointwewillrunupagainstshortages.”By2007theseshortageshavebeguntomanifestthemselves,andthedislocationswillproveenormous.AcenturyagofarminginAmericawasenergyself-sufficient: livestockprovidedthefertilizerandtillagepower,farmfamiliesdidtheworkofplantingandweeding,woodheatedthehouse,windpumpedthewater, and photosynthesis grew the crops. Today American farming relies onenormousamountsofoil,notonlyfor tractorsandtrucksandair-conditioning,but also for fertilizers and herbicides. Given these circumstances,most socialand natural scientists concluded from the 1973 energy crisis that we cannotblithely maintain our economic growth forever. “Anyone having the slightestfamiliaritywiththephysicsofheat,energy,andmatter,”wroteMishanin1977,“willrealizethat,intermsofhistoricaltime,theendofeconomicgrowth,aswecurrentlyexperienceit,cannotbethatfaroff.”24Thisislargelybecauseoftheawesome power of compound interest. Economic growth at 3 percent, aconventional standard,means that the economydoubles everyquarter-century,typically doubling society’s use of rawmaterials, expenditures of energy, andgenerationofwaste.

Theenergycrisesof1973and1979pointedtothedifficultythatcapitalism,amarveloussystemofproduction,wasneverdesignedtoaccommodateshortage.Fordemandtoexceedsupplyissupposedtobegood forcapitalism,leadingtoincreased production and often to lower costs. Oil, however, is not reallyproducedbutextracted.InawayitisrationedbytheoilcompaniesandOPECfromanunknownbutfinitepool.Thus,theoilcompanies,whichwehabituallyperceiveascompetingcapitalistproducers,mightmoreaccuratelybeviewedaskeepersofthecommons.

America has seen commons problems before. Imagine a colonial NewEngland town inwhich each household kept a cow. Everymorning, a familymemberwouldtakethecowtothecommontownpasture,whereitwouldjoinother cows and graze all day under the supervision of a cowherd paid by the

town.Anaffluent familymightbenefit frombuyingasecondcow;anyexcessmilkandbutter theycouldsell tocowlesssailorsandmerchants.Expansionofthis sort could go on only for a finite period, however, before the commonpasturewas hopelessly overgrazed.Whatwas in the short-term interest of theindividual family was not in the long-term interest of the community. If wecompare contemporary oil companies with cow-holding colonial families, weseethatnewformsofgovernmentalregulations,analogoustotheregulateduseofthecommons,maybenecessarytoassuretherewillbeacommons—inthiscase,anoilpool—forourchildren.25

Thecommonsissueaffectsoursocietyinotherways.Fishingandshellfishingare incrisis.Acatchof20millionbushelsofcrabsandoysters inChesapeakeBay in 1892 and 3.5 million in 1982 fell to just 166,000 bushels in 1992.Fisherfolkrespondedthewaypeopleusuallydowhentheirstandardoflivingisimperiled:workharder.Thismeantredoublingtheireffortstotakemoreofthefew crabs and oysters still out there. Although this tactic may benefit anindividual family, it cannot but wreak disaster on the commons. By 2006,scientists estimated that one-fifth of the fishing and oystering fleet in the baywould reap about the same harvest, with much less ecological damage. Theproblem of the bay is amplified in the oceans by the use of increasinglysophisticatedfishing technology.Areport inScience in2006predicted that90percentofallspeciesoffishandshellfishthatnowfeedpeoplemaybegoneby2048.Twenty-ninepercentofthosespecieshavealreadycollapsed,meaningthattheirharvestswerealreadylessthanone-tenthwhattheyhadbeen.TheUnitedNationsisstrugglingtodevelopaglobalsystem“tomanageandrepropagatethefish that are still left.” Since international waters are involved, however,negotiationsmaynotsucceeduntilaftermanyspecieshavebeenmadeextinct.26

Becausetheeconomyhasbecomeglobal,thecommonsnowencompassestheentireplanet. Ifweconsider thataroundtheworldhumansownedtentimesasmany cars in 1990 as in 1950, no sane observer would predict that such aproportional increase could or should continue for another forty years.27According to JaredDiamond, in 2005 the averageAmerican consumed thirty-two times as much of the world’s largesse and produced thirty-two times asmuchpollutionas theaverageThirdWorldcitizen.28Ourcontinuedeconomicdevelopment coexists in some tension with a corollary of the archetype ofprogress: thenotion thatAmerica’scause is thecauseofallhumankind.Thus,our economic leadership is very different from our political leadership.

Politically,wecanhopeothernationswillputinplaceourformsofdemocracyandrespectforcivilliberties.Economically,wecanonlyhopeothernationswillneverachieveourstandardof living,for if theydid, theearthwouldbecomeadesert. Economically, we are the bane, not the hope of the world. Since theplanet is finite, as we expand our economy we make it less likely that lessdeveloped nations can expand theirs. Today, increasing demand for fuel forChinesevehiclesisalreadycreatingaworldwideoilshortage.

Almost every day brings new reasons for ecological concern, fromdeforestationattheequatortoozoneholesatthepoles.Cancerratesclimbandwe don’t know why.29 We have no way even to measure the full extent ofhuman impacton the earth.The average spermcount inhealthyhumanmalesaroundtheworldhasdroppedbynearly50percentoverthepastfiftyyears.Ifenvironmentally caused, this is no laughing matter, for sperm have only todecline in a straight line for another fifty years and we will have wiped outhumankindwithoutevenknowinghowwedidit.30WeweresimilarlyunawareforyearsthatkillingmosquitoeswithDDTwaswipingoutbirdsofpreyaroundtheglobe.Ourincreasingpowermakesit increasinglypossiblethathumankindwill make the planet uninhabitable by accident. Indeed, we almost have, onseveral occasions. In the early 1990s, for example, nations around the planetagreedtostopproductionofmanyCFCs(chlorofluorocarbons)thatdamagedtheozoneintheupperatmosphere.In2006WashingtonPostwriterJoelAchenbachnoted,“ScientistsarehauntedbytherealizationthatifCFCshadbeenmadewithaslightlydifferenttypeofchemistry,they’dhavedestroyedmuchoftheozonelayerovertheentireplanet.”31Weweresimplylucky.

Alltheseconsiderationsimplythatmoreofthesameeconomicdevelopmentandnation-stategovernancethatbroughtusthisfarmaynotguideustoalivableplanet in the long run.We do not simply face an energy crisis thatmight besolved ifwe only develop a low-cost form of energy that does not pollute orcauseglobalwarming.On thecontrary, ifwehadcheaperenergy, imagine thehavocwemightcause!Scientistshavealreadyenvisionedhowwecouldhappilyuseittodecreasethesalinityoftheseas,increaseourarableland,andinotherways make our planet nicer for us—in the short run. Instead, we must starttreatingtheearthasifweplantostayhere.Atsomepointinthefuture,perhapsbefore readers of today’s high school textbooks pass their fiftieth birthdays,industrialized nations, including the United States, may have tomove towardsteady-stateeconomiesintheirconsumptionofenergyandrawmaterials.Thus,

ouroilcrisiscanbestbeviewedasawake-upcalltochangeourways.

Gettingtozeroeconomicgrowthinvolvesanotherformoftheproblemofthecommons, however, for no country wants to be first to achieve a no-growtheconomy,justasnoindividualfamilyfindsitinitsinteresttostopwithonecow.A new international mechanism may be required, one hard even to envisiontoday. Heilbroner is pessimistic: “No substantial voluntary diminution ofgrowth,much less aplanned reorganizationof society, is todayeven remotelyimaginable.”32 If, tomorrow, citizens must imagine diminished growth, wecannot rest easily, knowing that most high school history courses do nothingwhatever to prepare Americans of the future to think imaginatively about theproblem. Continued unthinking allegiance to the idea of progress in ourtextbookscanonlybeadeterrent,blindingstudentstotheneedforchange,thusmaking change that much more difficult. David Donald characterizes the“incurableoptimism”ofAmericanhistorycoursesas“notmerelyirrelevantbutdangerous.”33Inthissense,ourenvironmentalcrisisisaneducationalproblemtowhichAmericanhistorycoursescontribute.

EdwardO.Wilsondividesthosewhowriteonenvironmentalissuesintotwocamps: environmentalists and exceptionalists.34 Most scholars and writers,includingWilson,areoftheformerpersuasion.Ontheothersidestandarelativehandful of political scientists, economists, and natural scientists, severalassociatedwith right-wing think tanks, who havemounted important counter-arguments to the doomsaying environmentalists. In 1994 I pointed to JulianSimon,HermanKahn,andsomeotherswhocomparedtheirworldtotheworldofourancestorsandarguedthatalthoughmodernsocietieshavemorepowertoharmtheplanet, theyalsohavemorepowertosettheenvironmentright.Afterall,environmentaldamagehasbeenundoneonoccasion.SomeAmericanriversthatwere deemed hopelessly polluted forty years ago are now fit for fish andhuman swimmers. Human activity has reforested South Korea.35 Hence, theexceptionalistsclaimed,moderntechnologymayexemptusfromenvironmentalpressures. They noted that recovery time after natural disasters such asearthquakes or man-made disasters such as World War II has become muchshorter todaythanin thenineteenthcentury,owinginpart to theabilityofourlarge bureaucratic organizations to mobilize information and coordinateenormousundertakings.Human life expectancy,onemeasureof thequalityoflife,continuestolengthen.HerbertLondon,whotitledhisbookWhyAreTheyLying to Our Children? because he believes that teachers and textbooks

overemphasize theperilsof economicgrowth,pointedout thatmore foodwasavailable in 1990 than twenty years earlier.36 Simon pointed out how mostshort-term predictions of shortages in everything from whale oil in the lastcentury to silver in the 1990s have been confuted by new technologicaldevelopments.37Tobesure,higherpriceswilleventuallymakeitprofitable touseextraordinarymeasures—steampressureandthelike—toextractmoreoil.

In1994Ifaultedtextbooksfornotsupplyingstudentswitheithersideofthisdebate and then encouraging them to think about it. Not only did the booksignoretheloomingproblems,theyalsodidnotpresenttheadaptivecapacitiesofmodernsociety.Authorsshouldhaveshown trends in thepast that suggestweface catastrophe and other trends that suggest solutions. Doing so wouldencouragestudentstouseevidencefromhistorytoreachtheirownconclusions.Instead,authorsassuredusthateverythingwillcomeoutrightintheend,soweneed not worry much about where we are going.38 Their endorsement ofprogresswasasshallowasGeneralElectric’s,acompanythatclaims,“Progressis our most important product,” but whose ecological irresponsibility hasrepeatedly earned it a place on Fortune’s list of the ten worst corporateenvironmentaloffenders.39

NolongerdoIsuggestthisevenhandedapproach.EventhoughSimonisrightandcapitalismissupple,inatleasttwowaysourcurrentcrisisisnewandcannotbesolvedbycapitalismalone.First,wefaceapermanentenergyshortage,onlybeginning with an oil shortage. Such a shortage leads toward oligopoly—a“natural”cartel,not a forcedcartel suchas JohnD.Rockefeller achievedwithStandardOilaround1900—andcartelsarenotgoodcapitalism.Ifahandfulofcompanies controlled themanufacture of skis, so they could get together andchargewhatevertheywanted,someonemightstartanothercompanynotboundby their agreement or develop new, cheaper materials for skis or invent thesnowboard—or we the public could stop buying skis. But if a handful ofcompaniesorcountriescontrol theoil industry,nonewproducercanbreak in.Moreover,noalternativecaneasilybedevelopedforpetroleumintransportation.

Second, our use of oil (and all other fossil fuels) has a serious worldwideimpact: global warming. As everyone now knows, except some high schoolhistory textbook authors, this warming melts the polar ice caps, causing sealevels to rise.Oceans roseone foot in the last century.Themost conservativeestimate, embraced by the GeorgeW. Bush administration, predicts they will

riseanotherthreefeetinthiscentury.Aroundtheworld—fromMiamitoVenicetomuchofBangladesh—hundredsofmillionsofpeoplelivecloseenoughtosealevel that this rise will endanger their lives and occupations. The resultingdislocation will constitute the biggest crisis mankind has faced since thebeginning of recorded history. And this is the most pleasant estimate. If theGreenlandicesheetmelts,theoceansmayrisetwenty-threefeet.ScientistJamesLovelock in 1970 famously invented the “Gaia hypothesis,” the idea that theearthactsasahomeostaticsystem.RecentlyLovelockhaspointedoutthatastheearth’s equilibrium gets disturbed, some disequilibrium processes may causeeven fasterwarming.As the polar ice capsmelt, for example, they no longerreflectthesun’srays,sotheearthabsorbsstillmoreheat.Lovelockpredictsthedeathofbillionsofpeoplebeforeequilibriumisestablishedoncemore.Globalwarming also increases other weather problems: the average windspeeds ofhurricanes have doubled in the past thirty years, and they are also morefrequent.40

That’snotall.Evidenceshowsthatcarbondioxide,anormalresultofburningoilorcoal,alsomakestheoceansmoreacidic.Scientistswarnthat,bytheendofthis century, this acidity could decimate coral reefs and kill off creatures thatundergird the sea’s food chain. “It’s the single most profound environmentalchangeI’velearnedaboutinmyentirecareer,”saidThomasLovejoy,authorofClimateChange and Biodiversity. “Whatwe’re doing in the next decadewillaffect our oceans formillions of years,” said Ken Caldeira, oceanographer atStanfordUniversity.41

In addition to our energy and global-warming crises, we face other severeproblems. Thousands of species face imminent extinction. One list of likelycandidatesincludesathirdofallamphibians,afourthoftheworld’smammals,andaneighthofitsbirds.Wilsonthinkstheforegoingisoptimisticandbelievestwo thirds of all species will perish before the end of the century. Nuclearproliferationposesanotherthreat.In1945onlyonecountry—theUnitedStates—hadtheknow-howandeconomicmeanstobuildnuclearweapons.Sincethen,Great Britain, the USSR, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa,andapparentlyNorthKoreahavejoinedthenuclearclub.IfPakistanandNorthKorea can do it, clearly almost every nation on earth—and some privateorganizations, includingterroristgroups—hasthecapability.TheUnitedStatescame uncomfortably close to using nuclearweapons inVietnam in 1969, andIndiaandPakistancameuncomfortablyclosetousingthemagainsteachotherin

2002.42

Inthelongrun,justkeepingtotheoldpathsregardingallthesenewproblemsis unlikely to work. “From the mere fact that humanity has survived to thepresent,nohopeforthefuturecanbesalvaged,”Mishannoted.“Thehumanracecan perish only once.”43 If the arguments in this new edition of this chapterseemskewedtofavortheenvironmentalists,perhapsthepotentialdownsideriskif they are right, aswell as the ominous developments since the first edition,make this bias appropriate. After all, history reveals many previously vitalsocieties, from the Mayans and Easter Island to Haiti and the Canaries, thatirreparablydamaged theirecosystems.44 “Considering thebeautyof the land,”Christopher Columbus wrote on first seeing Haiti, “there must be gain to begot.” Columbus and the Spanish transformed the island biologically byintroducing diseases, plants, and livestock. The pigs, hunting dogs, cows, andhorsespropagatedquickly,causingtremendousenvironmentaldamage.By1550the“thousandsuponthousandsofpigs”intheAmericashadalldescendedfromtheeightpigsthatColumbusbroughtoverin1493.“Althoughtheseislandshadbeen,sinceGodmade theearth,prosperousandfullofpeople lackingnothingtheyneeded,”aSpanishsettlerwrotein1518,aftertheEuropeans’arrival“theywerelaidwaste, inhabitedonlybywildanimalsandbirds.”45Later,sugarcanemonoculture replaced gardening in the name of quick profit, therebyimpoverishing thesoil.Morerecently,populationpressurehascausedHaitiansandDominicans to farm the island’s steephillsides, resulting inerosionof thetopsoil.TodaythisislandecosystemthatformerlysupportedalargepopulationinrelativeequilibriumisinfarworseconditionthanwhenColumbusfirstsawit.This sad storymaybe aprophecy for the future, now thatmodern technologyhasthepowertomakeoftheentireearthaHaiti.

Notonetextbookbringsupthewhaleoillesson,theHaitilesson,oranyotherinference from the past that might bear on the question of progress and theenvironment.Insum,althoughthisissuemaybethemostimportantofourtime,no hint of its seriousness seeps into our history textbooks. To my surprise,today’s textbookshaveactuallygottenworse than theirpredecessorsabout theenvironment.ExceptfortwopassagesinPageantandoneinJourney, theysaynothing about environmental issues since the Carter presidency. The 1970inventionofEarthDay,1973Araboilembargo,and1979Iranhostagecrisisarethe environmental events that get into our textbooks, along with theestablishment of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Nixon

administration. Fifteenmore years have passed since these events took place.Sinceauthors takenonoteofunderlyingtrendsbutonlyofflashyevents, theyseenohistorytoreportintheinterval.Puttingtheenergycrisisthatmuchfurtherbackintime,however,impliesthatit’soldnews.Moreover,thetextbooksimplythatithasprettymuchbeenfixed.“Withthehelpofthe[NationalEnergy]act,”TheAmericansassuresusinatypicalpassage,“U.S.dependenceonforeignoilhadeasedslightlyby1979.” If so,1979wasunusual,because in1975,beforeCarterbecamepresident,theUnitedStatesimported35percentofitspetroleum,whilein2005weimported58percent.

Toexpecttextbookspublishedaround1990totreatglobalwarmingmightnotbe fair. InAtlanticMonthly in 2006,Gregg Easterbrook noted that it had notbeenproven:

Fifteenyearsago,athoughtfulpersonlookingatglobal-warmingstudiesmight have focused on the uncertainty; at that time the NationalAcademyofSciencesitselfemphasizeduncertainty.Todayathoughtfulpersonwholooksat recentscience, includingrecentNationalAcademyofSciencesstatements,mustdeducethereisadanger.

Easterbrookdescribedhimselfas“skeptical,” then“graduallypersuadedbytheevidence. Inuits living in the Arctic strongly agree; they warn that the entireecosystem there is incollapse.Everyyearbetween1997and2005wasoneofthetenhottesteverrecorded;2005setarecord.”46

So how do today’s textbooks treat what may be the most important singleissueofourtime?Hereiseverywordonthesubjectinallsixtextbooks,exceptforapassageattheveryendofPageantthatwewillanalyzeattheendofthischapter:

At the outset of the 21st century, developments like global warmingserved dramatic notice that planet earth was the biggest ecologicalsystemofthemall—onethatdidnotrecognizenationalboundaries.YetwhileAmericanstookprideintheeffortstheyhadmadetocleanuptheirownturf,whowerethey,havinglongsinceconsumedmuchoftheirowntimberlands, to tell the Brazilians that they should not cut down theAmazonrainforest?

—TheAmericanPageant

Althoughnoone issurewhatcausesglobalwarming,aUnitedNationsreportwarnedthatairpollutioncouldbeafactor.

—TheAmericanJourney

HerePageantimpliesthatThirdWorldcountriesformthebulkoftheproblem,althoughtheUnitedStatescontributesalmost25percentofallCO2emissions,farmorethananyothernation.Journeyhedges:airpollution“couldbeafactor.”Andfourbooksnevermentionthesubject.47

Why are textbook treatments of environmental issues so feeble? If authorsrevisedtheirclosingpagestojettisontheunthinkingdevotiontoprogress,theirfinal chapterswould sit in uneasydissonancewith earlier chapters.Their tonethroughout might have to change. From their titles on, American historytextbooks are celebratory, and the idea of progress legitimates the celebration.Textbookauthorspresentournationasgettingeverbetterinallareas,fromracerelations to transportation. The traditional portrayal of Reconstruction as aperiodofYankeeusurpationandNegrodebaucheryfitswiththeupwardcurveofprogress,forifrelationswerebadinReconstruction,perhapsnotasbadasinslavery but surelyworse thanwhat came later, thenwe can imagine that racerelations have gradually been getting better. However, the facts aboutReconstruction compelus to acknowledge that inmanyways race relations inthiscountryhaveyettoreturntothepointreachedin,say,1870.Inthatyear,totake a small but symbolic example,A.T.Morgan, awhite state senator fromHindsCounty,Mississippi,marriedCarrieHighgate,ablackwomanfromNewYork,andwasreelected.48Todaythisprobablycouldnothappen,notinHindsCounty, Mississippi, or in many counties throughout the United States.Nonetheless, the archetype of progress prompts many white Americans toconcludethatblackAmericanshavenolegitimateclaimonourattentiontodaybecausetheproblemofracerelationshassurelybeenameliorated.49

A.T.Morgan’smarriageishardforustomakesenseof,becauseAmericanshave so internalized the cultural archetypeof progress that bynowwehave abuilt-intendencytoassumethatwearemoretolerant,moresophisticated,more,well,progressivethanwewereinthepast.Evenatrivialillustration—AbrahamLincoln’sbeard—can teachusotherwise. In1860aclean-shavenLincolnwonthe presidency; in 1864, with a beard, he was reelected. Could that happennowadays?Todaymanyinstitutions,frominvestmentbankingfirmstoBrighamYoung University, are closed to white males with facial hair. No white

presidentialcandidateorsuccessfulSupremeCourtnomineehasventuredevenamustachesinceTomDeweyin1948.Beardsmaynotinthemselvesbesignsofprogress,althoughminehassubtlyimprovedmythinking,butwehavereachedanarrestingstateofintolerancewhenthehugeDisneycorporation,foundedbyaman with a mustache, will not allow any employee to wear one. On a moreprofoundnote,consider thatLincolnwasalsothelastAmericanpresidentwhowasnotamemberofaChristiandenominationwhen takingoffice.Americansmay not be becoming more tolerant; we may only think we are. Thus, theideologyofprogressamountstoachronologicalformofethnocentrism.

Notonlydoesthesirensongofprogresslullusintothinkingthateverythingnow ismore “advanced,” it also temptsus to conclude that societies long agoweremore primitive than theymay have been. Progress underlies the variousunilinearevolutionaryschemes intowhichour societyused toclassifypeoplesandcultures:savagery-barbarism-civilization,forexample,orgathering-hunting-horticultural-agricultural-industrial. Under the influence of these schemes,scholars completely misconceived “primitive” humans as living lives that, asHobbes put it, were “nasty, brutish, and short.” Only “higher” cultures wereconceivedofashavingsufficientleisuretodevelopart,literature,orreligion.

TheUnitedStateswasfoundedinaspiritofdominionovernature.“Myfamily,Ibelieve, have cut downmore trees inAmerica than any other name!” boastedJohnAdams.BenjaminLincoln, aRevolutionaryWargeneral, spoke formostAmericans of his day when he observed in 1792, “Civilization directs us toremove as fast as possible that natural growth from the lands.” The Adams-Lincolnmode of thought didmake possibleAmerica’s rapid expansion to thePacific,theChicagoschoolofarchitecture,andHenryFord’sassemblyline.Ourgrowingenvironmentalawarenesscastsacolderlightontheseaccomplishments,however.Since1950morethan25percentoftheremainingforestsontheplanethave been cut down. Recognizing that trees are the lungs of the planet, fewpeoplestillthinkthatthisrepresentsprogress.

Anthropologists have long known better. “Despite the theories traditionallytaughtinhighschoolsocialstudies,”pointedoutanthropologistPeterFarb,“thetruth is, themore primitive the society, themore leisured itsway of life.” 50Thus“primitive”cultureswerehardly“nasty.”Asto“brutish,”wemightrecallthecomparisonofthepeacefulArawaksonHaitiandtheSpanishconquistadorswho subdued them. “Short” is also problematic. Before encountering thediseases brought by Europeans and Africans, many people in Australia, thePacific islands, and the Americas probably enjoyed remarkable longevity,particularlywhencomparedwithEuropeanandAfricancitydwellers.“Theylivealonglifeandrarelyfallsick,”observedGiovannidaVerrazano,afterwhomtheVerrazanoNarrowsandbridgeinNewYorkCityarenamed.51“TheIndiansbeoflustyandhealthfulbodiesnotexperimentallyknowingtheCatalogueofthosehealth-wasting diseaseswhich are incident to otherCountries,” according to avery early New England colonist, who apparently ignored the recentlyintroducedEuropeandiseasesthatwerethenlayingwastetheNativeAmericans.He reported that the Indians lived to “three-score, four-score, some a hundredyears, before the world’s universal summoner cites them to the cravingGrave.”52 InMaryland, another early settlermarveled thatmany Indiansweregreat-grandfathers, while in England few people survived to becomegrandparents.53ThefirstEuropeanstomeetAustralianaboriginesnotedarangeofagesthatimpliedagoodlynumberlivedtobeseventy.Forthatmatter,Psalm90 in theBible implies that thousandsofyearsagomostpeople in theMiddleEastlivedtobeseventy:“Theyearsofourlivesarethreescoreandten,andifbyreasonofstrengththeybefourscore,yetistheirlaborsorrow...”54

Besides fostering ignorance of past societies, belief in progress makesstudents oblivious to merit in present-day societies other than our own. Toconcludethatothercultureshaveachievedlittleaboutwhichweneedtoknowisanaturalsideeffectofbelievingoursocietythemostprogressive.Anthropologyprofessorsdespairofthesevereethnocentrismshownbymanyfirst-yearcollegestudents.WilliamA.Haviland,authorofapopularanthropologytextbook,saysthat inhisexperience thepossibility that“someof the things thatweaspire totoday—equal treatment ofmen andwomen, to cite but one example—have infact been achieved by some other peoples simply has never occurred to theaverage beginning undergraduate.”55 Few high schools offer anthropologycourses,andfewerthanoneAmericanintenevertakesacollegeanthropologycourse,sowecanhardlycountonanthropologytoreduceethnocentrism.Highschoolhistoryandsocialstudiescoursescouldhelpopenstudentstoideasfromother cultures. That does not happen, however, because the idea of progresssaturatesthesecoursesfromColumbustotheirfinalwords.Therefore,theycanonlypromote,notdiminish,ethnocentrism.YetethnocentricfaithinprogressinWesternculturehashaddisastrousconsequences.Peoplewhobelievedintheirsocietyasthevanguardofthefuture, themostprogressiveonearth,havebeenall too likely to indulge in such excessive cruelties as the Pequot massacre,Stalin’spurges,theHolocaust,ortheGreatLeapForward.

Ratherthanassumingthatourwaysmustbebest,textbookauthorswoulddowell to challenge students to think about practices from theAmericanway ofbirth to the American way of death. Some elements ofmodernmedicine, forinstance, are inarguably more effective and based on far better theory thanpreviousmedicines.Ontheotherhand,our“scientific”antigravitywayofbirth,whichdominateddeliveryroomsintheUnitedStatesfromabout1930toatleast1970, shows the influence of the idea of progress at its most laughable. Theanalogyforchildbirthwasanoperation:thedoctoranesthetizedthemotherandremovedtheanesthetizedinfantlikeagallbladder.56Evenaslateas1992,onlyhalfofallwomenwhogavebirthinU.S.hospitalsbreast-fedtheirbabies,eventhoughwenowknow,as“primitive”societiesneverforgot,thathumanmilk,notbovinemilkor“formula,”isdesignedforhumanbabies.57Ifhistorytextbooksrelinquishedtheirblinddevotiontothearchetypeofprogress,theycouldinvitereaderstoassesstechnologiesastowhichhavetrulybeenprogressive.Definingprogress would itself become problematic. Alternative forms of socialorganization, made possible or perhaps even necessary by technological and

economicdevelopments,couldalsobeconsidered.Today’schildrenmayseethedecline of the nation-state, for instance, because the problem of the planetarycommons may force planetary decision-making or because growing tribalismmay fragment many nations from within.58 The closing chapters of historytextbooksmight become inquiry exercises, directing students toward facts andreadingsonboth sidesof such issues.Surely suchan approachwouldpreparestudents for their six decades of life after high school better than today’smindlesslyupbeattextbookendings.

Thoughtfulnessabout suchmatters as thequalityof life isoften toutedas agoal of education in the humanities, but history textbooks sweep such topicsunder thebrightlycoloredrugofprogress.Textbooksmanifestnorealworrieseven about the environmental downside of our economic and scientificinstitutions. Instead, they stress the fortunate adequacy of our government’sreaction. Textbook authors seem much happier telling of the governmentalresponse—mainly the creation of the Environmental ProtectionAgency—thandiscussing any continuing environmental problems. By far the most serioustreatmentofourfutureinanyofthenewtextbooksisthispassageonthenexttolastpageofTheAmericanPageant:

Environmentalworriescloudedthecountry’sfuture.Coal-firedelectricalgeneratingplantshelpedformacidrainandprobablycontributed to thegreenhouseeffect,anominouswarmingoftheplanet’stemperature.Theunsolved problem of radioactive waste disposal hampered thedevelopment of nuclear power plants.The planetwas being drained ofoil....

Bytheearlytwenty-firstcentury,theonce-lonelycriesforalternativefuel sourceshadgivenway tomainstreampublic fascinationwithsolarpower and windmills, methane fuel, electric “hybrid” cars, and thepursuit of an affordable hydrogen fuel cell. Energy conservationremained another crucial but elusive strategy—much-heralded at thepolitician’srostrum,buttoorarelyembodiedinpublicpolicy....

Althoughhardlyawake-upcall,atleastthosewordsraisetheissuesanddonotimplythattheyarenothingtoworryabout.

Unfortunately, on the next page—its last page—Pageant blandly reassures:“In facing those challenges, the world’s oldest republic had an extraordinarytraditionofresilienceandresourcefulnesstodrawon.”Manystudentsarenotso

easilyreassured.Accordingtoa1993survey,childrenaremuchmoreconcernedabouttheenvironmentthanaretheirparents.59Inthelate1980saboutonehighschool senior in three thought that nuclear or biological annihilation willprobablybethefateofallmankindwithintheirlifetimes.60“Ihavetalkedwithmy friends about this,” a student ofminewrote in her class journal. “We allagreethatwefeelasifwearenotgoingtofinishouradultlives.”Asurveyofhighschoolseniorsin1999foundthatalmosthalfbelievedthe“bestyearsoftheUnitedStateswerebehindus.”61ThesestudentshadalltakenAmericanhistorycourses,butthetextbooks’regimenofpositivethinkingdoesnotseemtohaverubbedoffonthem.Studentsknowwhentheyarebeingconned.Theysensethatunderneath the mindless optimism is a defensiveness that rings hollow. Ormaybetheysimplyneverreachedthecheerfulendingsoftheirtextbooks.

Probably the principal effect of the textbook whitewash of environmentalissues in favorof the ideaofprogress is topersuadehigh school students thatAmericanhistorycoursesarenotappropriateplacestobringupthefuturecourseofAmericanhistory.62Whatisperhapsthekeyissueofthedaywillhavetobediscussedinotherclasses—maybescienceorhealth—eventhoughitisforemostasocialratherthanbiologicalorhealthissue.Meanwhile,backinhistoryclass,therearemorebland,data-freeassurancesthatthingsaregettingbetter.

E. J. Mishan has suggested that feeding students rosy tales of automaticprogress helps keep them passive, for it presents the future as a process overwhichtheyhavenocontrol.63Idon’tbelievethisiswhytextbooksendastheydo, however. Their upbeat endings may best be understood as ploys bypublishers who hope that nationalist optimism will get their books adopted.Moreover,theyknowthatRepublicanshavedescendedfromthepartyofNixon—whentheypassedtheEnvironmentalProtectionAct—tothepartyofGeorgeW. Bush, where big business, especially oil, directs our environmental andenergypolicies.Intoday’spoliticalclimatepublishersmayworrythattosuggestthatglobalwarmingorenergyshortagesarerealthreatsmaybetakenaspartisanDemocratichistory.Hence,theymayloseadoptions.

Suchhappyendingsinourhistorybooksreallyamounttoconcessionsofdefeat,however.Byimplyingthatnorealquestionsaboutourfutureneedbeaskedandno real thinking about trends in our history need be done, textbook authors

concedeimplicitlythatourhistoryhasnoseriousbearingonourfuture.Wecanhardlyfaultstudentsforconcludingthatthestudyofhistoryisirrelevanttotheirfutures.

12.

WHYISHISTORYTAUGHTLIKETHIS?

I donot know if there is anyother fieldof knowledgewhich suffers sobadlyashistory from the sheerblindrepetitionsthatoccuryearafteryear,andfrombooktobook.

—HERBERTBUTTERFIELD1

There is no other country in theworldwhere there issuch a large gap between the sophisticatedunderstandingof someprofessionalhistoriansand thebasiceducationgivenbyteachers.

—MARCFERRO2

When you’re publishing a book, if there’s somethingthatiscontroversial,it’sbettertotakeitout.—HOLT,RINEHARTANDWINSTONREPRESENTATIVE3

They hired somebody. I don’t remember the man’sname.

—BROOKSMATHERKELLEY,COAUTHOR,AHISTORYOFTHEUNITEDSTATES,EXPLAININGWHOREALLYWROTEITSLASTCHAPTER4

Here’s$3,000forafreelancewriter,andoureditorialstaff will take it from there. . . . They pick things uppretty quickly, and in a couple of days, they’re up ontheCivilWar.

—VETERANEDITOROFHIGHSCHOOLHISTORYTEXTBOOKS5

ELEVEN CHAPTERS HAVE SHOWN that textbooks supply irrelevant andeven erroneous details, while omitting pivotal questions and facts in theirtreatmentsof issuesrangingfromColumbus’ssecondvoyageto thepossibilityofimpendingecocide.Wehavealsoseenthathistorytextbooksofferstudentsnopracticeinapplyingtheirunderstandingofthepasttopresentconcerns,hencenobasis for thinking rationally about anything in the future. Reality gets lost asauthors stray further and further from the primary sources and even thesecondary literature. Textbooks rarely present the various sides of historicalcontroversies and almost never reveal to students the evidence onwhich eachside bases its position. The textbooks are unscholarly in other ways. Of theeighteenIstudied,onlythetwooldest,publishedbackinthe1970s,containanyfootnotes.6Tentextbooksevendenystudentsabibliography.

Despiteheavycriticismsbyscholars,7neweditionsoftheoldtextscomeoutyearafteryear, largelyunchanged.Yearafteryear,clonesappear,allegedlybynewauthorsbutwithnearlyidenticalcovers,titles,andcontents.Whatexplainssuchappallinguniformity?

Thetextbooksmustbesatisfyingsomebody.

Publishers produce textbooks with several audiences in mind. One is theirintended readers: students. Their characteristics, as publishers perceive them,particularlyaffectreadinglevelandpagelayout,andwewillreturntothispoint.Historians and professors of education are another audience, perhaps twoaudiences. Teachers comprise another, and their characteristics and wants wewill also review. Conceptions of the general public also enter publishers’thinking,sincepublicopinioninfluencesadoptioncommitteesandsinceparentsrepresentapotentialinterestgroupthatpublishersseeknottoarouse.

Some members of the public have not been shy about what they wanttextbookstodo.In1925theAmericanLegiondeclaimedthattheidealtextbook:

mustinspirethechildrenwithpatriotism...

mustbecarefultotellthetruthoptimistically...

must dwell on failure only for its value as amoral lesson,must speakchieflyofsuccess...

must give each State and Section full space and value for theachievementsofeach.8

Bycontrast, in1986ShirleyEngleandAnnaOchoa, longtime luminariesofsocial studies education,voicedverydifferent recommendations for textbooks.Fromtheirvantagepoint,theidealtextbookshould:

confront students with important questions and problems for whichanswersarenotreadilyavailable;

behighlyselective;

beorganizedaroundanimportantprobleminsocietythatistobestudiedindepth;

utilize . . . data from a variety of sources such as history, the socialsciences, literature, journalism, and from students’ first-handexperiences.9

Today’stextbookshewcloselytotheAmericanLegionlineanddisregardtherecommendationsofEngleandOchoa.Why?

Isthesecondaryliteratureinhistorytoblame?Wecanhardlyexpecttextbookauthors toreturn toprimarysourcesanddigoutfacts thatare trulyobscure.Afew decades back, the secondary literature in history was quite biased. UntilWorldWar II, history,muchmore than the other social sciences,was overtlyanti-Semiticandantiblack.AccordingtoPeterNovick,whosebookThatNobleDream is the best recent account of the history profession, looking at everywhitecollegeanduniversity inAmerica,exactlyoneblackwaseveremployedto teach history before 1945.10 Most historians were males from privilegedwhite families. They wrote with blinders on. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. foundhimself able to write an entire book on the presidency of Andrew Jacksonwithout ever mentioning perhaps the foremost issue Jackson dealt with as

president: the removal ofAmerican Indians from the Southeast.What’smore,Schlesinger’sbookwonthePulitzerPrize!11

These days, however, the secondary literature inAmerican history ismuchmore comprehensive. Indeed, every chapter of this book has been based oncommonlyavailableresearch.Competenthistorianswillfindnothingnewhere.Theinformationisallthere,inthesecondaryliterature,buthasnotmadeitswayinto our textbooks, educational media, or teacher-training programs, andtherefore hasn’t reached our schools.12 As a consequence, according tocomparative historian Marc Ferro, the United States has wound up with thelargestgapofanycountryintheworldbetweenwhathistoriansknowandwhattherestofusaretaught.13

Could these omissions be a question of professional judgment? Textbookauthorscannotincludeeveryevent.Thepastisimmense.Nobookclaimstobecomplete.Decisionsmustbemade.Whatisimportant?Whatisappropriateforagivenagelevel?PerhapsteachersshoulddevotenotimeatalltoHelenKeller,nomatterhowheroicshewas.

Butwhenwe lookatwhat textbooksdo include—whenwecontemplate theminutedetails,someofthemfalse,thattheyfoistuponusaboutColumbus,forexample—we have to think again. Constraints of time and space cannot becausing textbooks to leave out any discussion ofwhatColumbus didwith theAmericas or how Europe came to dominate the world, since these issues areamongthemostvitalinallthebroadsweepofthepast.

Perhaps an upper-class conspiracy is to blame. Perhaps we are all dupes,manipulated by elite white male capitalists who orchestrate how history iswrittenaspartoftheirschemetoperpetuatetheirownpowerandprivilegeattheexpenseoftherestofus.Certainlyhighschoolhistorytextbooksaresosimilarthat they look as if theymight all have been produced by the same executivecommittee of the bourgeoisie. In 1984, George Orwell was clear about whodetermines the way history is written: “Who controls the present controls thepast.”14

The symbolic representation of a society’s past is particularly important instratifiedsocieties.TheUnitedStatesisstratified,ofcourse,bysocialclass,byrace, and by gender. Some sociologists think that social inequality motivatespeople, prompting harderwork andmore innovative performance. It does, but

stratificationisalsointrinsicallyunfair,becausethosewithmoremoney,status,and influence use their advantage to get still more, for themselves and theirchildren.Inasocietymarkedbyinequality,peoplewhohaveenduredless-than-equal opportunities may become restive. Members of favored groups maybecomeashamedoftheunfairness,unabletodefendittotheoppressedoreventothemselves.Tomaintainastratifiedsystem,itisterriblyimportanttocontrolhow people think about that system. Marx advanced this analysis under therubricfalseconsciousness.Howpeoplethinkaboutthepastisanimportantpartoftheirconsciousness.Ifmembersoftheelitecometothinkthattheirprivilegewashistorically justified and earned, itwill behard topersuade them toyieldopportunity to others. Ifmembers of deprived groups come to think that theirdeprivationistheirownfault,thentherewillbenoneedtouseforceorviolencetokeepthemintheirplaces.

“Textbooks offer an obvious means of realizing hegemony in education,”according to William L. Griffen and John Marciano, who analyzed textbooktreatmentoftheVietnamWar.

Byhegemonywereferspecificallytotheinfluencethatdominantclassesor groups exercise by virtue of their control of ideological institutions,suchasschools,thatshapeperceptiononsuchvitalissuesastheVietnamWar....Withinhistorytexts,forexample,theomissionofcrucialfactsand viewpoints limits profoundly the ways in which students come toviewhistoryevents.Further,throughtheirone-dimensionalitytextbooksshieldstudents fromintellectualencounterswith theirworld thatwouldsharpentheircriticalabilities.15

Here,inpoliteacademiclanguage,GriffenandMarcianotellusthatcontrollingelementsofoursocietykeepcrucialfactsfromustokeepusignorantandstupid.

Mostscholarsofeducationsharethisperspective,oftenreferredtoas“criticaltheory.”16 Jonathan Kozol is of this school when he writes, “School is inbusinesstoproducereliablepeople.”17PauloFreireofBrazilputsitthisway:“Itwouldbeextremelynaïve toexpect thedominant classes todevelopa typeofeducation that would enable subordinate classes to perceive social injusticescritically.”18 Henry Giroux, Freire’s leading disciple in the United States,maintains,“Thedominantcultureactivelyfunctionstosuppressthedevelopmentofacriticalhistoricalconsciousnessamong thepopulace.”19DavidTyackandElisabeth Hansot tell us when this all started: between 1890 and 1920

businessmencametohavebyfaragreaterimpactonpubliceducationthananyotheroccupationalgrouporstratum.20Somewritersoneducationevenconcludethat upper-class control makes real improvement impossible. In a critique ofeducationalreforminitiatives,HenryM.Levinstated,“Theeducationalsystemwill always be applied toward serving the role of cultural transmission andpreserving the statusquo.”21 “Thepublic schoolswehave today arewhat thepowerfuland theconsiderablehavemadeof them,”wroteWalterKarp.“Theywillnotberedeemedbytriflingreforms.”22

These education writers take their cue from an even weightier school ofthoughtinsocialscience,thepowerelitetheorists.Thisschoolhasshownthatanupper class does exist in America, and its members can be found at elegantprivate clubs, gatherings of the Trilateral Commission, and boardmeetings ofthedirectorsofthemultinationalcorporations.RichcapitalistscontrolthemajorTVnetworks,mostnewspapers,andalltextbook-publishingcompanies,andthuspossessimmensepowertoframethewaywetalkandthinkaboutcurrentevents.Andonoccasion theyuse it.ExxonMobil, forexample,bysomemeasures theworld’slargestcorporation,gave$6millionoverthelastdecadetotheNationalScience Teachers Association, chump change to Exxon but a bonanza to theteachers. As a result, NSTA initially refused fifty thousand free copies of AlGore’s video about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth—which was theMotionPictureAcademywinnerfor“BestDocumentary”—citing“unnecessaryriskuponthecapitalcampaign”iftheyaccepted.NSTAdoesdistributeavideoby the American Petroleum Institute that aWashington Post reporter calls “ashamelesspitchforoildependence.”Somoneycorrupts.23

Nevertheless,itisinappropriatetolaythisparticularbundleonthedoorstepoftheupperclass.ToblamethepowereliteforwhatistaughtinaruralVermontschool or an inner-city classroom is too easy. If the elite is sodominant,whyhasn’t it also censored the books and articles that expose its influence ineducation?Paradoxically,criticaltheorycannotexplainitsownpopularity.Anyupperclassworthitssalt—sodominantandsomonolithicthatitdetermineshowAmericanhistoryistaughtinalmosteveryAmericanclassroom—mustalsohavethe power tomarginalize those social scientists who expose it. But the upperclass has hardly kept critical theory out of education.On the contrary, criticaltheorists dominate scholarship in the field. Their books get prominentlypublishedandwellreviewed;educationprofessorsassignthemtothousandsofstudentseveryyear.

Theupperclasscontrolspublishing,tobesure,butitscontroldoesnotextendtocontent,atleastnotifthebooksinquestionmakemoney.RobertHeilbronerhaspointedout thatnomatterwhat isdoneinAmerica,membersof theupperclassusuallyhaveahand in it, but theirparticipationdoesnotmean that theydirectedtheaction,northatitwasintheirclass’sinterest.24ManyofthebooksthatcriticizeAmericaneducationarepublishedbycompanies thatalsoputoutthetextbookstheycriticize.Oneof thegloriesofcapitalismis thatsomewheretherearepublisherswhowillpublishalmostanybook,solongastheystandtomakeaprofitfromit.Iftheupperclassforcestheomissionof“crucialfactsandviewpoints,” then why has it failed to censor the entire marvelous secondaryliteratureinAmericanhistory—whichoccasionallyevenbreaksintoprime-timepublic television inseries likeEyeson thePrize,anaccountof thecivil rightsmovement.Theupperclassseemstobefallingdownonthejob.

Theelitehas also apparently lost controlof the landscape.AcrossAmerica,new,moreaccuratehistoricalmarkersandmonumentsaregoingup.InAlabamaandIllinois,forexample,newmarkersgivetouristsagoodsenseofthe“TrailofTears”oftheCherokeesandChoctaws.AnewmonumentinDuluth,Minnesota,tellsof the tragicday in thenadirof race relationswhenwhites lynched threeblackcircusworkers.AmericanIndianshavecreatednewmuseums,suchasthePequotMuseum in Connecticut that tells the full story of the tribe, includingtheir partial annihilation by the Pilgrims, their survival through the nadir, andtheir successful new casino. The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond,Virginia,mounteditsfirst-everexhibitonslavery,whichincludedchains,torturedevices, and a resulting book that did not minimize the inhumanity of theinstitution.25Perhapswemustconclude,mixingametaphor,thatthepowerelitedidnothaveitsthumbineverypie.

Interestingly,theupperclassmaynotevencontrolwhatistaughtinits“own”historyclassrooms.Graduatesofelite“prep”schoolsaremorelikelythanpublicschool graduates to have encountered high school history teachers whochallengedthemanddivergedfromroteuseoftextbooks.Suchteachers’successin teaching “subversively” in thebellyof theupper class shouldheartenus tobelieve that it can be done anywhere.26 On the other hand, if textbooks aredevisedby theupper class tomanipulateyoungsters to support the statusquo,theyhardlyseemtobesucceeding.InsteadofreveringColumbusetal.,studentswindupdetestinghistory.Evidencesuggeststhathistorytextbooksandcourses

make little impact in increasing trust in the United States or inducing goodcitizenship,howeverthesearemeasured.27

In sum, power elite theories seem to explain everything but may explainnothing.Theymaycredittheupperclasswithmorepower,unity,andconsciousself-interest than it has. Indeed, regarding its alleged influence on Americanhistorytextbooks,theupperclassmaybeascapegoat.Blamingthepowereliteiscomforting.Powerelitetheoryofferstidyexplanations:educationalinstitutionscannotreformbecausetodosoisnotinthatclass’sinterest,sotheupperclassprevents change. Accordingly, power elite theory may create a world moresatisfyingandmorecoherent inevil than the realworldwithwhichweareallcomplicit.Powerelitetheoriesthusabsolvetherestofusfromseeingthatallofusparticipateintheprocessofculturaldistortion.Thislineofthoughtnotonlyexcuses us from responsibility for the sorry state of American history ascurrentlytaught,italsofreesusfromtheresponsibilityforchangingit.What’stheuse?Anyactionwemighttakewouldbeinconsequentialbydefinition.

Upper-class control may not be necessary to explain textbookmisrepresentation, however. Special pressures in the world of textbookpublishing may account to some extent for the uniformity and dullness ofAmerican history textbooks. Almost half the states have textbook adoptionboards. Some of these boards function explicitly as censors,making sure thatbooksnotonlymeetcriteriaforlength,coverage,andreadinglevel,butalsothattheyavoidtopicsandtreatmentsthatmightoffendsomeparents.Stateswithoutsuchboards arenot necessarily freer of censorship, for their screeningusuallytakesplaceonthelocal level,whereconcernaboutgivingoffensecanbeevenmore immediate. Moreover, states without textbook boards constitute smallermarkets,sincepublishersmustwinapprovalat theindividualdistrictorschoollevel. Therefore, stateswithout boards have less influence on publishers,whoorienttheirbesteffortstowardthelargestateswithadoptionboards.CaliforniaandTexas, in particular, directly affect publishers and textbooks because theyare largemarketswithstatewideadoptionandactive lobbyinggroups.Schoolsanddistricts innonadoption statesmust choose amongbooksdesigned for thelargermarkets.28

Textbookadoptionprocessesarecomplex.29Somestates,suchasTennessee,accept almost every book thatmeets certain basic criteria for binding, readinglevel,andsubjectmatter.Tennesseeschools thenselect fromamongperhapsa

dozen books, usually making district-wide decisions.30 At the other extreme,Alabama used to adopt just one book per subject for the entire state. Statetextbook boards are usually small committees whose members have beenappointed by the governor or the state commissioner of education. They arevolunteerswhomaybe teachers, lawyers,parents,orotherconcernedcitizens.Thedailyworkofthetextbookboardistypicallyperformedbyasmallstaffthatbeginsbycirculatingspecificationsthattellpublishersthegradelevels,physicalrequirements (size, binding, and the like), and guidelines as to content for allsubjects in which they next plan to adopt textbooks. Publishers respond bysendingbooksandancillarymaterials.Meanwhiletheboard,withinputfromtheperson(s)whoappointed themand sometimeswith staff input aswell, sets uprating committees in each subject area—for instance, high school Americanhistory. The staff holds orientation meetings for these rating committees,explainstheformsusedforratingthetextbooks,andthensendsthebookstotheraters.

Usuallyoneformalmeetingissetupforpublishers’representativestoaddresstheratingcommittees.Largestatesmayholdseveralmeetingsindifferentpartsofthestate.Atthesemeetingstherepresentativesemphasizethewaysinwhichtheirbooksexcel.Forthemostpartrepresentativespushform,notcontent:theytoutspecialfeaturesoflayout,artwork,“skillsbuilding,”andancillarymaterialsuchasvideosandexams.

Ratingcommittees faceaHerculean task.Remember that therecentbooksIexaminedaverage1,150pages.Inasinglesummer,raterscannotevenreadallthe books, let alone compare themmeaningfully. Raters also wrestle with anaverageofseventy-threedifferentratingcriteriathattheyaresupposedtoapplytoeachbook—anAugeanstable.Sincetheyhavetimeonlytoflipthroughmostbooks,theylookforeasyreadability,newness,astunningcolorcover,appealingdesign, color illustrations, andancillaries suchas audiovisualmaterials, ready-made teaching aids, and test questions. Ancillaries can be critical. Manyteachers, especially those with little background, depend on them. Publisherssupplycompletelectureoutlines,littlestoriestoaddcolortothebasicnarrative,andwebsiteswith“animatedmaps”and“infographics,” toquoteaMcDougal-Littell brochure. Test questions are especially important. Many teachers haveneithertimenorknowledgetomakeuptheirownunittests,having120studentsinfoursectionsofthecourse.Thus,adiscussiongroupofteachersofadvanced-placement U.S. history courses was notified in fall 2006 that some teacher

somewhere had posted questions and answers from the test bank thataccompaniesTheAmericanPageant.“Tosaytheleastthisisquitedistressing,”wroteateacherinalarm.“Ihavee-mailedtheteacherinquestionandaskedhimtoremovethelinksASAP.”31

Unfortunately,marketingtextbooksislikemarketingfishinglures:thepointistocatch fishermen,not fish.Thus,manyadopted textbooksare flashy tocatchtheeyeofadoptioncommitteesbutdullwhen readbystudents.TheAmericanJourney,thenewseventh-gradetextbookbyJoyceAppleby,AlanBrinkley,andJames McPherson, exemplifies the problem. It is disjointed to the point ofincoherence.Perhapsinresponsetotheallegedshortattentionspansoftoday’sstudents, the layout department atMcGraw-Hill has run amok.Considerwhatshouldbeacompact, interestingchapter:“WorldWar II.”Thischapterbeginswithastarinaboxcontainingaparagraphtitled“WhyIt’sImportant.”Anotherstar in a box introduces five “Chapter Themes.” A theme, we learn in thebeginningofthebookundertheheading“HowCanIRememberEverything?”is“a concept, or main idea, that happens again and again throughout history.”Whetheraconceptor idea“happens” isdubious,as iswhethersuch themesas“continuity and change” can help anyone remember anything.Aswe read thefirstsection,“RoadtoWar,”forexample,howdoesithelpustoknowthatitfitsunderthetheme“continuityandchange”?Whatdoesn’t?

Then,highlightedbyastarinarectangletitled“HistoryandArt,”comesthetitle“Embarkation,SanFrancisco,California,”forapaintingbyBarseMiller.Itiscaptioned,“WorldWarIIAmericansoldiersbelieved theywerefightingforwhat President Roosevelt called the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech andexpression,freedomofworship,freedomfromwant,andfreedomfromfear.”Asa historical statement, that caption is questionable, showing none of thesophistication one of the authors, JamesMcPherson, brought to his bookForCauseandComrades:WhyMenFoughtintheCivilWar.Thenextpagebringsatime line of the 1930swith only four events on it: Japan invadesManchuria,Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany, Italy invades Ethiopia, and GermanyseizesCzechoslovakia.Attheriskofsuggestingmorecluttering,plentyofroomremains for more entries, such as Kristallnacht, the 1938 event that launchedGermany’spogromagainsttheJews.

Eventhegraphicsgetruinedbythebusynessofmoderntextbooks.OnthenextpageafterWorldWarIIinTheAmericanJourney,weseeNormanRockwell’sfamouspaintingTheProblemWeAllLiveWith,showingablackgirldressedinherSundaybestforherfirstdayofschool,withfederalmarshalswalkingbeforeandafterher.Onlywedon’tseeitwell.Theillustrationisoverlaidbyanadfora1957Chevrolet,abuttonfortheUnitedFarmWorkersgrapeboycott,andahat.Itspowerisfurthervitiatedbytheunfortunatelayout:thedesignerhasmoveditintothecreasebetweenpagestomakeroomforthecaption“Vietnamveteran’shat.”(Showingtheirownattentiondeficitdisorder, theauthorsgiveusanother“Vietnam veteran’s hat” with the same caption, superimposed over anotherimage, a hundred pages later.) This placement cuts out much of the forwardmarshalandmakesthegirlappeartobemarchingintothepagecrease.

Thencomesaheading,“Section1,”inalittlegoldenegg,and“RoadtoWar.”Still the chapter does not start; first we have a summary headed “Read toDiscover . . .”followedbythreetopics.(Iwouldcall them themes,except thattermhasalreadybeenusurped.)Thenwehavefive“TermstoLearn.”Theyarefollowed by a heading, “The Storyteller,” which introduces a paragraph byWilliamShireraboutaNazirally.Atlast,afteraphotographofthebookjacketofMeinKampf,wefinallybegin thenarrative textaboutWorldWarII. Inall,about 55 percent of the World War II chapter is not the narrative text, butinterruptionstoit.Someofthesesidebarsandboxesofferexcerptsfromoriginalsourcesorusefulvignettes.Othersarelessthanuseful“Activities”and“TermstoLearn.”Overall,theydistract.Sincethenarrativetextcompriseslessthanhalf

of the whole, often it looks lost on the page, becoming just one moreinterruption.

Couldthisjumblebenecessary?Millionsofmiddle-schoolershavereadHarryPotterbooksvoluntarily.Yeteachbookcontainshundredsofpairsoffacingtextpageswithnoillustrations,nosidebars—nothingbutthemainstory.Clutteringevery page with “Multimedia Activities,” “The Storyteller,” and “Terms toLearn”seemsaimedattextbookadoptioncommitteesratherthanactualreaders.The narrative looks more readable than Harry Potter but is actually far lessreadable.

Movingbeyond style,what content do adopterswant to see?First off, theylook for nice treatments of events and people important to their own state. InNewHampshire, woe to the textbook that speaks honestly about FranklinW.Pierce, famed fourteenthpresidentof theseUnitedStates.Hewasperhapsoursecond-worstpresidentever,ashepresidedovernearcivilwar inKansas,hadhis diplomats gather to produce the embarrassing Ostend Manifesto (whichthreatened to takeCuba; eventually theU.S.StateDepartmenthad todisavowthedocument),andwasdrunkmuchofthetime.ButhewastheonlypresidentNewHampshire ever produced.Likewise, theAlamo lies deep in the heart of(Anglo)Texans;woe toany textbook thatmightpointout that loveof slaverymotivatedAnglos to fight there for “freedom.”Some local demandsmake formoreinclusivehistory:California’slegislaturerecentlydebatedabilltorequiretextbooks to include the internmentof JapaneseAmericansduringWorldWarII.32

Usuallyadopters find thedetails theyseek.Most textbookeditors start theircareers inpublishingas sales representatives.Theyarenothistorians,but theyknowtheirmarket.Theymakesuretheirbooksincludewhateverislikelytobeof concern. Everything getsmentioned. LynneCheney, former director of theNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,decriedtheresult:“Textbookscometoseemlikeglossariesofhistoricalevents—compendiumsoftopics.”33Inrecentyears, evenmorehas togetmentioned,owing to themultiple-choice tests thatmany states have concocted to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act.Teacherswillalwaysteachtoatest,especiallyahigh-stakestestthatresultsinstudents not getting diplomas or schools being placed on probation.Multiple-choiceexamsalmosthave to test“twighistory”—tinyfactoids like“WhendidtheWar of 1812 begin?”34 No Child Left Behind does not require multiple-

choicetestsinhistory.Indeed,itdoesnotrequireanytestsinhistory.Teachershavelearnedtotheirsorrow,however,thattheonlythingworsethanamultiple-choice test in history is no test in history, for then a school district de-emphasizes history entirely, focusing instead on those subjects that are tested.Thereisananswertothisconundrum,however,andsomestateshavefoundit:develop a test—or portfolio or other instrument—worth teaching to. In themeantime,however,NCLBandthestatewideexamsithasspawnedprovideonemorereasonfortextbookstogrowlongerandteacherstousethemhaplessly.

In some states the next step is hearings, at which the public is invited tocommentonbooksunderconsiderationbytheratingcommittees.InTexasandCalifornia, at least, these hearings are occasions at which organized groupsattackor promote oneormore of the selections, often contending that a bookfails to meet a requirement found within the regulations or specifications.Although publishers lament the procedure, critics, particularly in Texas, haveunearthedandforcedpublisherstocorrecthundredsoferrors,frommisspellingstomajorblunders.Sinceadoptioncommitteesdotrytopleaseconstituents,thosewhocomplainathearingsoftenmakeadifference,forbetterandsometimesforworse.

Adoptionstatesused topressurepublishersovertly toespousecertainpointsofview.ForyearsanytextbooksoldinDixiehadtocalltheCivilWar“theWarbetween the States.” Earlier editions ofThe American Pageant used the evenmore pro-Confederate term “the War for Southern Independence.” This issimplybadhistory.Between1861and1865whileitwasgoingon,theCivilWarwas called “theCivilWar,” “theRebellion,” or “theGreatRebellion”—hence“rebels.”ButPageantdid“exceptionallywell”inSouthernstates,sowhocares?Only after the civil rightsmovementdidPageant revert to “theCivilWar.”35Alabamalawusedtorequirethatschoolsavoid“textbookscontaininganythingpartisan, prejudicial, or inimical to the interests of the [white] people of theState” or that would “cast a reflection on their past history.”36 Texas stillrequires that “textbooks shall not containmaterial which serves to undermineauthority.” 37 Such standards are astounding in their breadth andmight forcedrasticcutsinalmosteverychapterofeverytextbook,exceptthatauthorshavealreadyomittedmostunpleasantriesandcontroversies.

Manystateshaverewrittentheirtextbookspecificationstostrikesuchblatantcontentrequirements.Sinceatleast1970Mississippi’sregulations,forexample,

haveconsistedofaseriesofclichéswithwhichnoreasonabletextbookauthororcriticcoulddisagree.Publishersmightbeforgiveniftheybelievethatthespiritof the old regulations still survives, however, for the initial rejection ofMississippi:ConflictandChangeprovesthatitdoes.Iwasseniorauthorofthebook, a revisionist state history text finally published by Pantheon Books in1974. I say “finally” because Pantheon brought it out only after eleven otherpublishers refused. The problem wasn’t with the quality of the manuscript,whichwontheLillianSmithAwardforbestSouthernnonfictionthatyear.Theproblemwasthattradepublisherssaidtheycouldnotpublishatextbook,whiletextbookpublisherssaidtheycouldnotpublishabooksounlikelytobeadopted.Some publishers even feared that Mississippi might retaliate against theirtextbooks in other subjects. Textbook publishers proved partly right—thetextbookboardrefusedtoallowourbook.Itcontainedtoomuch“blackhistory,”includedaphotographofalynching,andgavetoomuchattentiontotherecentpast,accordingtothewhitemajorityontheratingcommittee.MycoauthorsandI,joinedbythreeschoolsystemsthatwantedtoadoptthebook,suedthestateinaFirstAmendmentchallenge,Loewenetal.v.Turnipseedetal.,andin1980gotthebookonthestate’sapprovedlist.

DespitethevalueofTurnipseedasaprecedent,publishersstillfearright-wingcriticism.Andwithreason.In2006Floridapassedalawthatstates,“ThehistoryoftheUnitedStatesshallbetaughtasgenuinehistoryandshallnotfollowtherevisionistorpostmodernistviewpointsof relative truth. . . .Americanhistoryshallbeviewedasfactual,notasconstructed.”Thislawismeantasashotacrossthe bow of “liberal” professorswho “interpret” the past rather than “telling itlikeitwas.”Itsauthorshavenounderstandingthatanytellingofhistoryrequireschoicesastowhatisincludedandwhatisleftoutandisthereforebydefinitionaninterpretation.

Another force for uniform, conservative textbooks comes from publishinghousesthemselves.“There’sagreatdealofcopying,”CarolynJackson,whohasprobably edited more American history textbooks than any other singleindividual,toldme.Inthe1980severyhousecovetedthesuccessofTriumphofthe AmericanNation, which held a quarter to a third of themarket. Somosttextbooks resembled Triumph. Indeed, they still do. Although adequatescholarship exists in the secondary literature to support such venturesintellectually,notasingleleft-wingorright-wingAmericanhistorytextbookhaseverappearedfromamainstreampublisher.Neitherhasatextbookemphasizing

AfricanAmerican,Latino,labor,orfeministhistoryastheentrypointtogeneralAmericanhistory.38Suchbooksmightselldozensofthousandsofcopiesayearand make thousands of dollars in profit. At the least, they would commandniches in the marketplace all their own. Publishers might do fine withoutTexas.39 Nonetheless, no publishing house can see such possibilities. All areblinded by the golden prospect of putting out the next Triumph and makingmillions of dollars. One editor characterized a prospective book, perhapsunfairly, as too focused on “themistreatment of blacks” inAmerican history.“We couldn’t have that as our onlyAmerican history,” he continued. “Sowebroke the contract.” Themanuscript was never published. “We didn’t want abookwithanaxtogrind,”theeditorconcluded.Ofcourse,oneperson’spointofview is another’s ax to grind, so textbooks end up without axes or points ofview.

Thus, textbook uniformity cannot be attributed exclusively to overt statecensors. Even in the formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe,censorshipwaslargelyeffectedbyauthors,editors,andpublishers,notbystatecensors, and was “ultimately a matter of . . . sensitivity to the ideologicalatmosphere.”40 It is not too different here: textbook publishers rarely doanything that they imaginemight risk state disapproval. Therefore, they neverstrayfarfromthetraditionaltextbooksinform,tone,andcontent.Indeed,whenScott,ForesmanmerelyreplacedMacbethwithHamletintheirliteraturereader,educatorsandeditorsconsideredthechangesoradicalthatHillelBlackdevotedthree pages to the event in his book on textbook publishing, The AmericanSchoolbook.41 In American history, even more than in literature, publishersstrivefora“balanced”approachtooffendnoone.

Publishers would undoubtedly think twice before including a hard-hittingaccountofColumbus,forexample.InChapter2,IusedgenocidetorefertothedestructionoftheArawaksintheCaribbean.Whenscholarsusedthesametermin applying for a grant for a television series onColumbus from theNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,theendowmentrejectedthem.42LynneCheneysaid that thewordwasaproblem.Theentireproject,1492:ClashofVisions ,wastoopro-Indianfortheendowment.“It’sokaytotalkaboutthebarbarismofthe Indians, but not about the barbarism of the Europeans,” complained theseriesproducer.43

For publishers to avoid giving offense is getting increasingly difficult,

however. A dizzying array of critics—creationists, the radical right, civillibertiesgroups,racialminorities, feminists,andevenprofessionalhistorians—have entered the fray. No longer do textbooks get denounced only asintegrationistorliberal.44Nowtheyarealsoattackedascolonialist,Eurocentric,orEastCoast-centric.Publishersmustfeelabitflusteredastheydeleteapassagemodestly critical of American policy to please right-wing critics in one state,only to find they have offended left-wing critics in another. Including aphotograph ofHenryCisnerosmay pleaseHispanics but risk denunciation byNewEnglandersdemandinganimageofJohnAdams.

Although publisherswant to think of themselves asmoral beings, they alsowanttomakemoney.“Wewanttodowellwhiledoinggood,”thepresidentofRandomHouse,theparentcompanyofPantheon,saidtomeasheinquiredintothecommercialprospectsofourMississippitextbook.45Thoughtsofthebottomlinenarrowtherangeofthoughtpublisherstolerateintextbooks.Publishersriskover half a million dollars in production costs with every new textbook.Understandably,thisscaresthem.

What about the authors? Since every bad paragraph had to have an author,surelyauthorslieat theheartof theprocess.It’snotalwaysclearwhotherealauthorsare,however.Thenamesonthecoverofatextbookarerarelythoseofthepeoplewhoreallywroteit.46LewisToddandMerleCurtimayhavewrittenthefirstdraftofRiseof theAmericanNationbackin1949,butbythe timeitstenth edition came out in 1991, now titled Triumph of the American Nation,Curtiwas ninety-five and in a nursing home andToddwas dead. The peoplelistedasauthorsonsomeothertextbookshaveevenlesstodowiththem.Someteachers and historians merely rent their names to publishers, supplyingoccasionaladviceinreturnforafractionoftheusualroyalties,whileminionsinthebowelsof thepublishinghousesdo theworkoforganizingandwriting thetextbooks.OftentheseanonymousclerkshaveonlyaBAinEnglish,accordingtoaneditoratMcGraw-Hill.47

An executive at PrenticeHall toldme that Daniel Boorstin “controls everyword thatgoes intohisbook,”whichdoesnot claim thathewrote it butdoesimply substantial author involvement. We will see later that even this claimcannot be substantiated. PrenticeHall relies onDavidson andLytle to keepAHistoryoftheRepubliccurrentinhistoricalcontent,accordingtothepublisher.Eventhesemodestclaimsaresuspect,however.MarkLytleadmittedthatheand

his coauthor play only “a kind of authentication role” regarding new editions.Thepublisher initiates thenewmaterial, and it is “too late tomakeanymajorchangesonceitreachesus.”

In2006, as Iwas studying the sixnew textbooks for this revised editionofLiesMyTeacher ToldMe, one topic I focused onwas their treatments of therecentpast,especiallyofourtwoIraqwarsandtheattacksof9/11/2001ontheWorld Trade Center and the Pentagon. Tomy astonishment, I found that forparagraph after paragraph, two books—America: Pathways to the Present, byAndrewCayton,ElisabethPerry,LindaReed,andAllanWinkler,andAHistoryof the United States, by Daniel Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley—wereidentical,ornearlyidentical.Here,forexample,arethefirstparagraphsoftheirdiscussionofthedisputedFloridaelectionbetweenBushandGorein2000.

On electionnight, the votes in several stateswere too close to call;neithercandidatehadcapturedthe270electoralvotesneededtowinthe presidency. One undecided state, Florida, could give eithercandidateenoughelectoralvotes towin thepresidency.Because thevote therewas so close, state law required a recount of the ballots.Florida became a battleground for the presidency as lawyers,politicians,andthemediaswarmedtheretomonitortherecount.

—America:PathwaystothePresent

Onelectionnightthevotesinseveralstatesweretooclosetocallandneithercandidatecapturedthe270electoralvotesneededtowin.Oneundecided state, Florida, would give either candidate the electoralvotesneededtowin.Arecountofthevotestherewasorderedbylaw,duetothecloseresultswhichslightlyfavoredBush.Floridabecameabattleground for the presidency as lawyers and themedia swarmedtheretomonitortherecount.

—AHistoryoftheUnitedStates

BothbookschoosethesameimagetorepresentthedestructionoftheWorldTradeCenter on 9/11/2001: threemen in firemen’s hats raising theAmericanflag,reminiscentofthefamousphotoofthemarinesonIwoJima.Bothgivethe

photo the same caption: “Rescue workers raise the American flag amidst therubbleofthefallenWorldTradeCentertowers,”althoughBoorstinandKelleyappend the date. The rest of their treatments of the 9/11 attacks are equallysimilar.InPathways,“theimpactofthefullyfueledjetscausedbothtowerstoburstintoflames,”whileinAHistory,“theimpactofthefullyfueledjetscausedthetwintowerstoburstintoflames.”

So it goes, page after page. The books describe our war in Afghanistan inidenticalsentences, too.Bothcontainasection titledDepartmentofHomelandSecurity,althoughPathwaysdropsDepartmentof.Inbothbooks,thesesectionsbegin,“ThePresidentalsomovedquickly tocombat terrorismathome.”Theycontinue:

Less thanamonthafter the9/11attacks,Bushcreated theOfficeofHomeland Security, to be headed by Pennsylvania Governor TomRidge.Ridge took office amidst a newwave ofmysterious attacks.Anthraxspores,whichcanbedeadly if inhaled,beganturningup inletters....

—PathwaystothePresent

Less thanamonthafter the9/11attacks,Bushcreated theOfficeofHomeland Security, with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge incharge.

Ridge took office amidst a new wave of mysterious attacks.Anthraxspores,whichcanbedeadly if inhaled,beganturningup inletters....

—AHistoryoftheUnitedStates

Whatishappeninghere?

Dowe imagine thatBoorstinandKelleycribbed fromCayton,Perry,Reed,andWinkler? Daniel J. Boorstin was a famous historian, former Librarian ofCongress,andtheauthorofmorethantwentybooks.Accordingtohisobituaryin theManchesterGuardian, his “learninganddiligencewere legendary.”Buthewasinhiseighty-ninthandfinalyearwhenthistextbookwasbeingwritten.

Maybethefaultlieswithhiscoauthor.BrooksMatherKelleyformerlyservedasYaleUniversityarchivistandcuratorofhistoricalmanuscripts,sohemustknowaboutproperscholarshipandattribution.

Or maybe Cayton, Perry, Reed, and Winkler cribbed from Boorstin andKelley?Theyare less famous thanBoorstin,butallare tenuredprofessorsandholddoctoratesinhistory,soallhavebeenexposedtoproperscholarlyetiquette.One of them, Allan Winkler, “Distinguished Professor of History” at MiamiUniversity in Ohio, specializes in recent history, especially the history of thehomefrontduringWorldWar II.Somaybehewrote thepassages inquestionandBoorstinandMatherpilferedthem.

If these were real books, historians would hold their collective breaths,waitingtoseewhetherKelley(andBoorstin’sestate)suesCaytonetal.,orviceversa.These identicalpassagesare far longerandmore flagrant,afterall, thanthecopyingthatgotStephenAmbroseandDorisKearnsGoodwinintosomuchhotwater a few years ago.One ofAmbrose’s sins, for example,was quotingprimary sources as if he had found them, rather than double-quoting thembecausehehadreadtheminasecondarysource.Nothingsosubtleisgoingonhere.Forpageafterpage,topicaftertopic,thesetextbookssportparagraphsthatareinterchangeable.

IaskedKelleywhathethoughthadtakenplace.Hesaidhehadnothingtodowiththe2005revision:“DanBoorstindidthatone.”(Kelleyclaimedtohavehadmore todowith the“classicedition,”whichalsocarriesa2005copyright,hasthe same cover, lists for the same price, and appears to be the same book.) Iaskedwhowrote thematerial on the recent past. “They hired somebody,” hereplied. “I don’t remember theman’sname.Dan then lookedover it and, I’msure,rewroteitinhisinimitablefashion.”Whenhelearnedthatthepassagesarethe same as those in another history textbook, he was taken aback. “That’sterrible!” he exclaimed. “I wonder if they hired one of the same people whowrotethatbook.”Askedforhisreactiontotheduplication,Kelleyreplied,“I’mextremelydistressed.”48

AtfirstAllanWinklerclaimedauthorshipof thelastchapterofPathways tothePresent:“Iwrotemostofthat.Thentheeditorsplayedwithit.”AfterItoldhimthatparagraphafterparagraphare thesameornearly thesameas thoseinBoorstinandKelley,hehastenedtodenythathehadcopiedfromthem:“Ihaveneverevenopened theBoorstinandKelleybook.”He thenbackedawayfrom

the claim of authorship. “It’s possible that somebody in-house wrote that forbothbooks,whichwouldappallme.”Askedforhisreactiontotheduplication,Winklerreplied,“Ifindthatprofoundlydisturbing.Lord!”49

Thus, neither set of authors copied from the other. That’s because neitherwroteanything.PrenticeHallpublishedboth textbooks,andbothnewchapterswerewritten by a nameless person known only to its editorial staff. The tinydifferences between the two probably came about in the copyediting process.Prentice Hall’s bargain-basement thinking does draw back the curtain on thesordidprocessoftextbookconstruction,however.

IaskedWinklerwhathethoughtof thetreatmentof therecentpast thathadbeenpublishedunderhisname.“Well,letmegetitofftheshelf,”hereplied.Hethenadmittedthathehadnotreadit.NorhadKelleyreadthelastchapterofAHistory,andhehadalreadygivenuponhisclaimthatBoorstinhaddoneso.

Superficially,theseactsbyBoorstin,Kelly,Winkler,etal.,recallthosebusyundergraduateswhobuytermpapersofftheWeb,slaptheirnamesonthem,andhand them in as their own.Both sets of “authors” take credit for thework ofothers,whoremainnamelessbutdogetpaid.Akeydifference,however,isthatthecheatingstudentsusuallyatleastreadthematerial,eventhoughtheydidn’twriteit.Thesetextbookauthorshaveneverevenbotheredtoreadthewordsthatgooutovertheirnames.Boorstin,Kelley,andWinklermaybecreditingSaddamHusseinwithhavingnuclearweapons.TheymayhavemisidentifiedOsamabinLadenasaJewishrabbi.Ifso,they’llbethelasttoknow.

These passages are not mere revisions of earlier material that the putativeauthors actually wrote. This is brand-new history. Moreover, final chapterssurelyrankamongthemostimportantinthebooks.Theycoverimportant,hotlycontested,ongoingissues.UnliketheWarof1812,orevenWorldWarII,therecan be no doubt about their relevance to the present. If the people listed asauthorsofthesetextbooksneverwrotethesepassages,whatdidtheywrite?Andif they did not even read these passages, what did they read? Surely not thesmall and not-so-small changes in interpretations that have swept through thetreatmentofAmericanIndians,forexample,asaresultofthenewscholarshipofthepastthreedecades.

It’snotjustthesetwobooksthatsufferfromanonymouswriting.EditorstellmethatrecentchaptersofAmericanhistorytextbooksare“typically”writtenbyfreelance writers. Nor is it just the final chapters. Judith Conaway, who has

ghostwrittenelementary-leveltextbooksinseveralfields,wrote,“Itisabsolutelythe standard practice in the textbook publishing industry to assign ALL thewriting to freelancers.Then you rent a name to go on the cover.” SinceRise/Triumphof theAmericanNation byToddandCurti sold sowell in the1970sand 1980s, the publisher wanted to keep it in print. In 1994, having finallybecomeembarrassedbythefactthatToddwasdeadandCurtiwasinanursinghome,Holt,RinehartandWinstonmovedtheirnamesintothetitleandengagedPaul Boyer to “write” what was now called Todd and Curti’s The AmericanNation. Ironically, Boyer had become “Merle Curti Professor of History” atWisconsin.Askedifhesubstantiallyrewrotethebookatthatpoint,Boyerwouldnotsay. Instead,he replied,“I reallywould like toknowmoreofyourmotivebeforediscussingdetailsofmycareer.”I identifiedmyselfasamemberoftheOrganizationofAmericanHistoriansand theAmericanHistoricalAssociation,explainedthatIwastheauthorofLiesMyTeacherToldMe,andnotedthatLieswouldbecomingout inanewedition.AlthoughhehadheardofLies,hestillwould not reveal who had written Todd and Curti’s The American Nation,referringmetoaneditoratHolt.In1998“his”bookcameoutagain,nowtitledTheAmericanNation.In2003itwasagainrenamed,toHoltAmericanNation,which does carry a certain honesty, since the publisher, not the author, surelydoeswritemostofit.TotheNewYorkTimes,Boyerexcusedthepracticewiththequip,“TextbooksarehardlythesameastheIliadorBeowulf.” Interviewedby theTimes, BrooksMatherKelley said, “Frankly,many of these textbooks,unlikeours,werenotwrittenbytheauthorswhowereonceinvolvedwiththem.”His use of “unlike ours”was staggering, since I had just caughtBoorstin andhim red-handed.Moreover, two days later his claim that he andBoorstin hadwrittenearliereditionsoftheirbookwascontradictedbyJamesGoodwin,whorevealed that about fifteen years earlier, he had revised and written severalchaptersofit.“Ididitforthemoney,”hesaid,“tenthousanddollarsforafewmonthsofpart-timework.”50

Theeditorquotedattheheadofthechapterimpliesnooneistheloserfromthis practice, because the freelancers “pick things up pretty quickly, and in acoupleofdays,they’reupontheCivilWar.”Historianswhohavespentdecadesresearchingthatwarmaynotagreethatitcanbemasteredintwodays,however.Hiringneophytestand-instodoauthors’workmayhelpexplainthesometimesastonishingmistakesthattextbookscommit.Anotoriousexamplewastheclaimin a 1990-era textbook, “President Truman easily settled the KoreanWar by

dropping theatomicbomb.”51Truman’sactioncertainlycameasa surprise toDwight Eisenhower, who campaigned for the presidency in 1952 with theslogan,“Iwillgo toKorea.”Similarerrorsdothistory textbooks fromstart tofinish.BoorstinandKelleytellus,forinstance,thatonereasonColumbussailedtotheAmericasfromtheCanaryIslands,ratherthanfromSpain,wasthat“theCanarieswereonthesamelatitudeasJapan,soifhewentduewesthethoughthewouldarrivewherehewantedtobe.”ActuallySeville,Spain’sleadingportatthe time, lies precisely at themidpoint ofHonshu, Japan’s largest island. TheCanaries lie far to the south, as a glance at a globe reveals. To take anotherexample, The American Journey claims that “Maggie Lena” “was the firstAmericanwoman to serve as a bank president,” leaving outMaggieWalker’slast name. One of Journey’s three putative authors is James McPherson,specialistinCivilWarAfricanAmericanhistory.Hewouldneverhavewritten—orevenread—thatpassageandallowedsuchamistaketostand.

The anonymous author of the last chapter ofThe American Pageant didn’thave to be a specialist to avoid the following egregious error about the 2004election:

Onelectionday,Bushnaileddownadecisivevictory.Histhree-prongedstrategy of emphasizing taxes, terror, and moral values paid offhandsomely. He posted the first popular vote majority in more than adecade, 60,639,281 to Kerry’s 57,355,978, with a commandingadvantageintheElectoralCollege,286to252.

Commandingadvantage indeed!ThemereswitchofOhio’s20electoralvotes,whichKerryalmostwon,wouldhavegivenKerry272andthevictory,toBush’s266.Does not the author recall the suspense on election night, alongwith theclaims of voting irregularities in Ohio during the next week? Moreover, inpercentageterms,Bushgot51.4percentoftheBush-Kerrytotal,whilein1996Clinton got 54.7 percent of the Clinton-Dole total. To spin the election toproducea“handsome”mandatewherenoneoccurredmaybegoodpolitics,butit’sbadhistory.

Updatingdoesnotjustrequireaddinganewchapterattheend,tohandlethenewhappenings since thebook last cameout.New facts arediscoveredaboutolder events, fromnew information about the events of the 1990s all thewaybacktonewdiscoveriesinarchaeologythatinfluenceourunderstandingofthefirst people in our hemisphere. Throughout the book, the process of updating

also suffers from the absence of oversight—by the alleged authors or anyoneelse.ConsiderthesabotageofPanAmericanAirlinesflight103,whichexplodedoverLockerbie,Scotland,in1988.In1989,1992,and1995,BoorstinandKelleyhad sound company when they wrote “there were many indications that theIranianshadorderedthebombing.”Fortheirbooktomakethisclaiminits2005edition implies that the authors were not convinced by the conviction of aLibyan in 2001, missed Libya’s payment of more than two billion dollars tovictimsofthedisasterin2002,anddidnotcreditLibya’sadmissionofguiltin2003.52Ofcourse, theanonymousauthorsandupdaters,beinganonymous,donotrisktheirreputationsbysucherrors.

Evenauthorswhodowritetheirbookswriteonlythecorenarrative,whichisgradually becoming an ever smaller proportion of the whole. Authors havenothingtodowiththecountlessboxes,teachingaids,questions,photocaptions,and “activities” that now often take up more space than the narrative itself.Perhaps that is why this material is frequently so mindless. Consider thissuggestionafterthechapteraboutthecomingoftheCivilWarinHoltAmericanNation:“Homework:HaveeachstudentobtainandreadJohnBrown’sBodybyStephenVincentBenétandwritea two-paragraphresponse to thepoem.”Thisassignment is so absurd as to prompt the conclusion that no one is homeintellectuallyatHolt,RinehartandWinston.ThetaskdoesfollowanaccountofJohnBrown’s1859takeoverofthearmoryatHarpersFerry.ButJohnBrown’sBody is not even about that takeover. Rather, it is the poet’s evocation ofselected aspects of the Civil War and of the society that resulted from it.Moreover, the poem is nearly four hundred pages long. “Have each studentobtain and read” it, indeed—most adults have never read a four-hundred-pagepoem in their lives, and if one did, how does one respond to it in twoparagraphs?53

Other questions are mindlessly huge. The Americans, for example, asks:“How has location influenced the history of your city or town?” Now, that’squite a question.A PhD dissertationmightmake a good stab at answering it.Quite an assignment for someone just starting a course in American history.Nextitasks,“Howhavethecharacteristicsandconcernsofyourregionchangedoverthelastgeneration?”Again,quiteaquestion.Ifwethinkaboutansweringitfor the South, we realize how formidable the question is. Yet the South isAmerica’smost defined region.Todefine the “characteristics and concernsoftheMidwest” would be still harder, let alone assess how they have changed.

What could these authors have inmind?Nothing, I submit. Someone decidedthat the page would look better with questions on it; someone else suppliedthem;buttheyaren’tmeanttobeanswered.Unfortunately,questionsliketheseencourage students to conclude that idle speculation amounts to a form oflearning.

Whenquestionsaren’tmindless,oftentheyaremind-numbing.Severalbookshavetheannoyinghabitofendingeveryphotocaptionwithaquestion.ConsiderthisquestioninTheAmericanJourneyunderaphotoshowingHitlerataNazirally:“WhatgroupespeciallysufferedfromtheNazis?”Threeinchesabovethephoto, the text tells ofHitler’s “extremeanti-Semitism.” If “groups”hadbeenasked in the plural, the question becomes more interesting, with additionalpossible answers suchas theRompeople, socialists, homosexuals, andothers.AllJourney wants, however, is for students tomutter “Jews.”The Americansdotsitsmarginswithquestionsheaded“MainIdea.”Nexttoaparagraphtellingwhywomen organized theNationalOrganization forWomen, for example, isthequestion“WhatpromptedwomentoestablishNOW?”Allstudentsneedtodoisrewritetheparagraphintheirownhand,andlo!theyarestudyinghistory!

Evenwhen the question is interesting, too often the desired answer is self-evident,henceboring.HoltAmericanNationprovidesthequotationreprintedinChapter6fromtheChicagoTribunerespondingtoMississippi’s“BlackCodes”:“Themen of theNorthwill convert the State ofMississippi into a frog pondbeforetheywillallowsuchlawstodisgraceonefootofsoilinwhichthebonesofoursoldierssleepandoverwhichtheflagoffreedomwaves.”Thatquotationis arresting and important. Holt then asks: “Identifying Bias: How does thewriter reveal his opinion of the Black Codes?” Although not perfect, thatquestionmightleadstudentstodrawinterestingobservations.Thequoteshowsthe extent to which the war had become identified with the cause of blackfreedom, for example—at least among Republicans, the Tribune being animportant organ of the Republican Party. It then links the intense emotionalattachment to “our” war dead to the cause of antiracism. “Into a frog pond”deservesanalysis,too,asapieceofrhetoricthatatoncedisrespectsthestateofMississippiandproclaimsNorthernpowerover it.Theanswer in the teacher’sedition,however,makesclearthatnoactualthoughtisenvisioned:“BywritingthatnorthernmenwillturnMississippiintoafrogpondbeforeallowingthestateto impose the Black Codes.” This merely repeats the quotation, turning theassignmentintoanotherexerciseofroterepetition.

Althoughwecanhopetheauthorshadnothingtodowithsuchsillyteachingsuggestions, theirnamesareon thebooksand theyshouldbeheld responsibleforwhatisinsidetheircovers.

Ironically,once inawhile thematerialaddedbypublishers’clerksconflictswithandenhancesthebasenarrative.InAmericanJourney,someoneadded“MyLaiMassacre”anditsdatetothemap“TheVietnamWar,”eventhoughthetextnevermentionstheevent.Exactlywhatstudentsaretomakeofthismapnotationisunclear.

Ininterviewswithme,publishingexecutivesblamedadoptionboards,schooladministrators,orparents,whomtheyfeeltheyhavetoplease,forthedistortionsand lies of omission that mar U.S. history textbooks. Parents, whether blackmilitants or Texas conservatives, blame publishers. Teachers blameadministrators who make them use distasteful books or the publishers whoproduced them.But authors blame no one. They claim credit for their books.Several authors told me that they suffered no editorial interference. Indeed,authors of three different textbooks toldme that their editors never offered asinglecontent suggestion. “That book doesn’t have fiftywords in it thatwerechangedbytheeditor!”exclaimedoneauthor.“Theyweresorespectfulofmyjudgment,theywereobsequious,”saidanother.“Ikeptwaitingforthemtosayno,buttheyneverdid.”54

Ifauthorsclaimtohavewrittenthetextbooksastheywanted,thenmaybetheyare to blame for their books. Sometimes they don’t know any better. I askedJohnGarraty, author ofAmericanHistory,whyhe omitted the plague inNewEngland that devastated Indian societies before the Pilgrims came. “I didn’tknow about it” was his straightforward reply. To his credit, soon afterwordGarratylearnedabouttheColumbianExchangeandmadeitthefirstentryinhis1001ThingsEveryoneShouldKnowAboutAmericanHistory.55

Sometimes authors do know better. As previously mentioned, in After theFact,abookaimedatcollegehistorymajors,JamesDavidsonandMarkLytledo a splendid job telling of the Indian plagues, demonstrating that theyunderstand their geopolitical significance, their devastating impact on Indianculture and religion, and their effect on estimates of the precontact Indianpopulation. In After the Fact, looking down from the Olympian heights ofacademe,DavidsonandLytleevenwrite,“Textbookshavefinallybeguntotakenoteoftheselarge-scaleepidemics.”Meanwhile,theirownhighschoolhistory

textbooksleavethemout.56

Howarewe tounderstand thiskindofbehavior?Authorsknowthateven iftheirtextbookisgood,itwon’treallycounttowardtenureandpromotionatmostuniversities.“Realscholarsdon’twritetextbooks”isasayinginacademia.57Ifthe textbook is bad, the authorswon’t get chastisedby theprofessionbecauseprofessional historians do not read high school textbooks.58 The AmericanHistorical Review, Journal of American History, and Reviews in AmericanHistory do not review high school textbooks. Thus, the authors’ academicreputationsarenotreallyontheline.59

Adoptionboardsloominthetextbookauthors’mindstoadegree,especiallywhenpublishersbringthemup.Authorsrarelyhavepersonalknowledgeoftheadoptionprocess—Iamanunfortunateexception.Editorsmayinvokestudents’parentsaswellasadoptionboardsincautioningauthorsnottogiveoffense.“Iwantedatextthatcouldbeusedineverystate,”oneauthortoldme.Shereliedonherpublisherforguidanceaboutwhatwouldandwouldnotaccomplishthisaim.MarkLytle characterized his own textbook as “aMcDonald’s version ofhistory—ifithasanyflavor,peoplewon’tbuyit.”Hebasedthisconclusiononhispublisher’s“surveyofwhatthemarketwanted.”60

Ontheotherhand,publishersknowthat“students,parents, teacherswant tosee themselves represented in the texts,” as one editor said to me, andoccasionally influence authors to make their books less traditional. MichaelKammen tells of a publisher who tried to persuade the two authors of anAmerican history textbook to give more space to Native Americans. ThomasBailey’spublisherpressedhimtoincludemorewomenandAfricanAmericansinTheAmericanPageant.61

Regardlessofthedirectionoftheinput,publishersareincharge.“Theydidn’twant famous people, because we’d be more tractable,” Mark Lytle told me,explaining why a major publisher had sought out him and James Davidson,relativeunknowns.Twowidelypublishedauthorstoldmethatpublisherstoreuptextbookcontractswiththembecausetheydidn’tlikethepoliticalslantoftheirmanuscripts. “We have arguments,” one editor told me bluntly. “We usuallywin.”

Very different conditions apply to secondary works in history, where theintendedreadershiptypicallyincludesprofessionalhistorians.Authorsofbook-

length secondary works know that publishers and journal editors hireprofessionalhistorianstoevaluatemanuscripts,sotheywriteforotherhistoriansfrom the beginning.Writers also know that other historians will review theirmonographs after publication, and their reputationwill bemade or broken bythosereviewsinthehistoricaljournals.

With such different readerships, it is natural for secondary works andtextbooks to be very different from each other. Textbook authors need notconcern themselves unduly with what actually happened in history, sincepublishers use patriotism, rather than scholarship, to sell their books. Thisemphasisshouldhardlybesurprising:therequirementtotakeAmericanhistoryoriginatedaspartofanationalistflag-wavingcampaignearlyinthiscentury.62Publishersstartthepitchontheiroutsidecovers,wherenationalisttitlessuchasThe Challenge of Freedom and Land of Promise are paired with traditionalpatrioticicons:eagles,IndependenceHall,theStarsandStripes,andtheStatueofLiberty.FourofthesixnewbooksinmysampledisplaytheAmericanflagontheircovers;theothertwousered,white,andbluefortheirtitlesandauthors.63Publishers market the books as tools for helping students to “discover” our“common beliefs” and “appreciate our heritage.” No publisher tries to sell atextbookwiththeclaimthatitismoreaccuratethanitscompetitors.

Textbookauthors alsobear their student readers inmind, to adegree.Frommy own experience I know that imagining what one’s readers need is animportant part of the process of writing a history textbook. Some textbookauthorsarehighschoolteachers,butmostarecollegeprofessorswhoknowonlya few high school or junior high school students personally. Interviews withtextbookauthorsrevealedthattheirimaginingofwhatstudentsneedisastrangeprocess. Something about the enterprise of writing a high school Americanhistory textbook converts historians into patriots.One author toldme that shewas the single parent of an eleven-year-old girlwhen she startedworkonhertextbook. She “wanted to write a book that Samantha would be proud of.” Iempathizedwith thisdesireand toldofmyownsingleparentingofadaughterabout thesameage.Furtherconversationmadeclear,however, that thisauthordidnotsimplymeanabookherdaughterwouldrespectandenjoy.Rather,shewantedabook thatwouldmakeherdaughter feelgoodaboutAmerica, a verydifferentthing.64

Othertextbookauthorshavesharedsimilarcommentswithme.Theywantto

produce good citizens, by which they mean people who take pride in theircountry.Somehowauthorsfeeltheymuststrapontheburdenoftransmittinganddefending Western civilization. Sometimes there was almost a touch ofdesperationintheircomments—sortofanaprèsmoiledéluge.Authorscanfeelthat they get only one shot at these children; if they do not reach them now,America’s futuremight be jeopardized. In turn, this leads to a feeling of self-importance—that one is on the front line of our society, helping the UnitedStates continue to grow strong. Not only textbook authors feel this way:historiansandhistoryteacherscommonlycitetheirroleinbuildinggoodcitizensto justifywhat they do. In “A ProudWord forHistory,”AllanNevinswaxeseuphoricover“school texts that toldofPlymouthRock,ValleyForge,and theAlamo.”Helaudshistory’srole inmakinganationstrong.“Developing in theyoungsuchtraitsascharacter,morals,ethics,andgoodcitizenship,”accordingto Richard Gross, former president of the National Council for the SocialStudies,“arethereasonsforstudyinghistoryandthesocialsciences.”65WhenwewerewritingourMississippihistorymycoauthorsandIfeltthesameway—thatwemight improve our state and its citizens by imparting knowledge andchangingattitudesinitsnextgeneration.

WhentheauthorsofAmericanhistorytextbookshavetheirchancetoaddressthenextgenerationatlarge,however,eventhosewhointheirmonographsandprivate conversations are critical of some aspects of our society seem towantonly to maintain America rather than change it. One textbook author, CarolBerkin,beganherinterviewwithmebysaying,“Asahistorian,Iamafeministsocialist.”66Myjawdropped,becausehertextbookdisplaysnohintoffeminismorsocialism.Surely,a feministauthorwouldwritea textbook thatwouldhelpreaders understand why no woman has ever been president or even vicepresidentoftheUnitedStates.Surely,asocialistauthorwouldwriteatextbookthatwouldenablereaderstounderstandwhychildrenofworking-classfamiliesrarelybecomepresidentorvicepresident,themythicalAbrahamLincolntothecontrary.67

Iftextbooksareoverstuffed,overlong,oftenwrong,mindless,boring,andallalike,whydoteachersusethem?Inonesense, teachersareresponsibleforthemiseducationinourhistoryclassrooms.Afterall, thedistortionsandomissionsexposed in the first ten chapters of this book are lies our teachers tell us. Ifenough teachers complained about American history textbooks, wouldn’tpublishers change them? Teachers also play a substantial role in adopting the

textbooks: in most states, textbook rating committees are made up mainly ofteachers, fromwhompublishers have faced no groundswell of opposition.Onthe contrary, many teachers like the textbooks as they are. According toresearchers K. K. Wong and T. Loveless, most teachers believe that historytextbooksaregoodandgettingbetter.68

Could itbe that they justdon’tknowthe truth?Manyhistory teachersdon’tknowmuchhistory:anationalsurveyof257teachersin1990revealedthat13percenthadnevertakenasinglecollegehistorycourse,andonly40percentheldaBAorMA in history or a fieldwith “some history” in it, like sociology orpoliticalscience.69Furthermore,astudyofIndianateachersrevealedthatfewerthanone in five staycurrentby readingbooksorarticles inAmericanhistory.Anaudienceofhighschoolhistoryteachersata1992conferenceonChristopherColumbusandtheAgeofExploitationgaspedaloudtolearnthatpeoplebeforeColumbusknewtheworldtoberound.Theseteachersweremortifiedtorealizethatforyearstheyhadbeendisseminatingfalseinformation.Ofcourse,teacherscannotteachwhattheydonotknow.

Mostteachersdonotlikecontroversy.Astudysomeyearsagofoundthat92percentofteachersdidnotinitiatediscussionofcontroversialissues,89percentdidn’t discuss controversial issues when students brought them up, and 79percentdidn’tbelievetheyshould.Amongthetopicsthatteachersfeltchildrenwere interested in discussing but that most teachers believed should not bediscussed in the classroom were the Vietnam War, politics, race relations,nuclearwar,religion,andfamilyproblemssuchasdivorce.70

Many teachers are frightened of controversy because they have notexperienceditthemselvesinanacademicsettinganddonotknowhowtohandleit. “Most social studies teachers inU.S. schools are ill prepared by their ownschooling to deal with uncertainty,” according to Shirley Engle. “They are inover their heads theminute thatpat answersno longer suffice.” Inertia is alsobuilt into the system: many teachers teach as they were taught. Even manycollegehistoryprofessorswhowellknowthathistoryisfullofcontroversyanddispute become old-fashioned transmitters of knowledge in their ownclassrooms.71

Since textbooks employ a rhetoric of certainty, it is hard for teachers tointroduceeithercontroversyoruncertaintyintotheclassroomwithoutdeviatingfrom the usual standards of discourse. Teachers rarely say “I don’t know” in

class and rarely discuss how onemight then find the answer. “I don’t know”violatesanorm.Theteacher, likethetextbook, issupposed toknow.Students,fortheirpart,aresupposedtolearnwhatteachersandtextbookauthorsalreadyknow.72

It is hard for teachers to teach open-endedly. They are afraid not to be incontrol of the answer, afraid of losing their authority over the class.To avoidexposinggaps in theirknowledge, teachersallow their students tomake“verylittle use of the school’s extensive resources,” according to researcher LindaMcNeil, who completed three studies of high school social studies classesbetween 1975 and 1981.73 Who knows where inquiry might lead or how tomanage it? JohnGoodlad found that less than 1 percent of instructional timeinvolved class discussions requiring “reasoning or perhaps an opinion fromstudents.”74 Insteadofdiscussionand research, teachersemphasize“simplisticteacher-controlledinformation.”Teachers’“patternsofknowledgecontrolwere,accordingtotheirownstatementsintapedinterviews,rootedintheirdesireforclassroom control,” according to McNeil.75 They end up adopting the sameomniscienttoneastheirtextbooks.Asaresult,teacherspresentaboring,overlyorderedwayofthinking,muchlessinterestingthanthewaypeoplereallythink.Summarizing McNeil’s research, Albert Shanker, himself an advocate forteachers, noted that the same teachers who are “vital, broad-minded, andimmenselyknowledgeableinprivateconversations”nonethelesscomeacrossas“narrow,dull,andrigidintheclassroom.”76

DavidJennesshaspointedoutthatprofessionalhistoricalorganizationsforatleast a century have repeatedly exhorted teachers not to teach history as factmemorization.“Stirup themindsof thepupils,”cried theAmericanHistoricalAssociation in 1893; avoid stressing “dates, names, and specific events,”historiansurgedin1934;leadersoftheprofessionhavemadesimilarappealsinalmosteverydecadeinbetweenandsince.77Nevertheless,teacherscontinuetopresentfactoidsforstudentstomemorize.Liketextbookauthors,teacherscanbelazy. Teaching is stressful.Bad textbooksmake life easier. Theymake lessonplans easy toorganize.Moreover,wehave seenhowpublishers furnish lavishpackages that include videos for classroom viewing, teachers’ manuals withsuggestionsonhowtointroduceeachtopic,andexaminationsreadytoduplicateandgradablebymachine.Textbooksalsoofferteachersthesecurityofknowingthey are covering thewaterfront, so their studentswon’t be disadvantaged on

statewideornationwidestandardizedtests.

For all these reasons, national surveys have confirmed that teachers usetextbooksmore than70percent of the time.78Moreover,most teachers prefertextbooksthataresimilartothebookstheyarealreadyusing,abigreasonthatthe“inquirytextbook”movementnevercaughtoninthelate1970s.“Teachersoftenprefertheerrorstheyarefamiliarwith,”Tyson-Bernsteinevenclaims,“tounfamiliar but correct information”—another reason that errors get preservedandpassedontonewgenerations.79

Lazinessisnotexactlyafaircharge,however.Whenareteacherssupposedtofind time to do research so they can develop their own course outlines andreadings?They alreadywork a fifty-five-hourweek.Most teachers are far toobusy teaching, grading, policing, handing out announcements, advising,comforting, hall monitoring, cafeteria quieting, and then running their ownhouseholds to go off and research topics they do not even know to question.Afterhours,theyareoftenrequiredtosuperviseextracurricularactivities,tosaynothing of grading papers and planning lessons.80 During the academic yearmostschooldistrictsallowteachersjusttwotofourdaysof“in-servicetraining.”Summersoffertimetoretoolbutnomoney,andwecanhardlyexpectteachersto subsidize the rest of us by going two months with no income to learnAmericanhistoryontheirown.

Some of the foregoing pressures affect teachers of any subject. But certainadditional constraints affect teachers inAmerican history. Like the authors ofhistory textbooks, history teachers canget themselves into amind-setwhereinthey feel defensive about the United States, especially in front of minoritystudents. Like authors, teachers can feel that they are supposed to defend andendorseAmerica.EvenAfricanAmericanteachersmayfeelvaguelythreatenedbycriticismofAmerica,threatenedlesttheybeattacked,too.Teachersnaturallyidentify with the material they teach. Since the textbooks are defensivelyboosterish about America, teachers who use them run the risk of becomingdefensively boosterish, too. Compare the happier state of the English teacher,who can hardly teach, say, Langston Hughes’s mildly subversive poem“FreedomTrain”without becomingmildly subversive. Similarly, it is hard toteachHoltAmericanNationwithoutbecomingmildlyboring.

Socialstudiesandhistoryteachersoftengetlessrespectfromcolleaguesthanfaculty in other disciplines. When asked what subject might be dropped,

elementaryschool teachersmentionedsocialstudiesmoreoften thananyotheracademicarea.81 Especially in theMidwest and South, high school principalsoften assign history to coaches, who have to teach something, after all, sincethere aren’t enough physical education classes to go around. AssigningAmericanhistoryclassestoteachersforwhomhistoryliesoutsidetheirfieldofcompetence—which is the case for 60 percent of U.S. history teachers,accordingtoanationwidestudy—obviouslyimpliesthesubjectisnotimportantorthat“anyonecanteachit.”Historyteachersalsohavehigherclassloadsthanteachersofanyotheracademicsubject.82

Students, too, consider history singularly unimportant. According to recentresearchonstudentattitudestowardsocialstudies,“MoststudentsintheUnitedStates,atallgradelevels,foundsocialstudiestobeoneoftheleastinteresting,mostirrelevantsubjectsintheschoolcurriculum.”83Manyteacherssensewhatstudentsthinkoftheirsubjectmatter.Alltoomanyrespondbygivingupinside—nottryingtobecreative,makingonlyminimaldemands,simplystayingaheadoftheirstudentsinthebook.Students,inturn,respond“withminimalclassroomeffort,”andthecyclecontinues.84

Relyingon textbooksmakes it easier for students aswell as teachers toputforthminimal effort. Textbooks’ innumerable lists—ofmain ideas, key terms,people to remember, dates, skill activities, matching, fill in the blanks, andreview identifications—which appear to be the bane of students’ existence,actually have positive functions. These lists make the course content lookrigorous and factual, so teachers and students can imagine they are learningsomething. They make the teacher appear knowledgeable, whereas freerdiscussionmight expose gaps in his/her information or intelligence.And theygive students a sense of fairness about grading: performance on “objective”examsseekingrecallofspecific factoids iseasy tomeasure.Thus, lists reduceuncertainty by conveying to students exactly what they need to know.85Fragmenting history into unconnected “facts” also guarantees, however, thatstudentswillnotbeabletorelatemanyofthesetermstotheirownlivesandwillretainalmostnoneofthemafterthesix-weeks’gradingperiod.86

In some ways the two inquiry textbooks in my sample are better than thesixteen narrative textbooks.Both inquiry books,The American Adventure andDiscoveringAmericanHistory,suggestwaysstudentscanuseprimarymaterialswhile examining them for distortions. The American Adventure directly

challengesethnocentrisminits teachers’guide,atopicnevermentionedinanyoftheothertextbooksortheirsupplementaryteachingguides.Researchsuggeststhat the inquiry approach leads to higher student interest in contemporarypolitical issues. 87 However, inquiry textbooks require much more activeteaching.Classescan’tjustplowthroughthem.Teachersmustsupplementthemwithadditionalinformation,leaveoutpartsofthebook,choosewhichexercisestoassign,andworkinconcertwiththeirschoollibrarians.Perhapsitisbecauseinquiry textbooks do not rely on rote learning that teachers and schooladministrations soon abandoned them. The inquiry approach was too muchwork.88

If teachers seem locked into the traditional narrative textbooks, why don’tteachers teachagainst them, at least occasionally?Again, teaching against thebook is hard. We have already noted the logistical problems of time andworkload. Resources are also a problem. Where do teachers find a point ofleverage?Ifastatehistoricalmuseumoruniversityisnearby,thatcanhelp.Buthowdoteachersknowwhentheydonotknowsomething?Howdotheyknowwhentheirbookiswrongormisleading?Moreover,studentshavebeentrainedtobelievewhattheyreadinprint.Howcanteacherscompetewiththeexpertiseofestablishedauthorsbackedbypowerfulpublishers?

Teaching against a textbook can also be scary. Textbooks offer security.Teacherscanhidebehind themwhenprincipals,parents,or studentschallengethemtodefendtheirwork.Teachingagainstthetextbookmightbeconstruedascritical of the school system, supervisor, principal, or department head whoselectedit.Teacherscouldgetintroublefordoingthat.Orsotheyimagine.89

Astudentofminewhowaspractice-teachinginanelementaryschooldecidedto introduce her students to what she had learned from my course about thePilgrims, the plagues, and Thanksgiving. The professor of education whosupervised her field placement vetoed her plan. “Telling the kids thisinformation,goingagainst their traditions, is like telling themthere’snoSantaClaus.” He was also concerned that the information might “cause a bigcontroversywiththefamilies.”Withtheapprovaloftheclassroomteacher,mystudent persevered, however.While she received no parental complaints, it istrue that she risked being perceived as hostile or negative by some parents,administrators,andevenfellowteachers.

Teachersdogetfired,afterall.Ihaveinterviewedseveralhighschoolteachers

andlibrarianswhohavebeenfiredorthreatenedwithdismissalforminoractsofindependence such as making material available that some parents considercontroversial. Teachers have been fired for teaching Brave New World inBaltimore,OneFlewOver theCuckoo’sNest in Idaho, and almost everythingelseinbetween.90Knowingthis,manyteachersanticipatethatpowerfulforceswillpounceuponthemanddoubtthatanyonewillcometotheirdefense,sotheyrelaxintowhatKennethCarlsoncalledthe“securityofself-censorship.”91Iamconvinced, though, that most teachers enjoy substantial freedom in practice.“Mostteachershavelittlecontroloverschoolpolicyorcurriculum,”wroteTracyKidder in Among Schoolchildren, “but most have a great deal of autonomyinside their classrooms.” In Who Controls Our Schools? Michael W. Kirstagreed: “Teachers have in effect a pocket veto on what is taught. An oldtraditioninAmericanpublicschoolsisthatoncethedooroftheclassroomshutsnobodychecksonwhata teacheractuallydoes.”92Nonetheless, even teacherswhohavelittlerealcausetofearfortheirjobstypicallyavoidunnecessaryrisks.

Perhaps Ihavebeen toopessimistichereabout teachers.Everywhere Ihavetraveledtospeakabouttheproblemswithtextbooks,Ihaveencounteredteachershungryforaccuratehistoricalinformation.Ihavemetmanyimaginativeteacherswho make American history come alive—who bring in controversies andprimary-source material and challenge students to think. Despite these heroicexceptionsinschoolsalloverAmerica,however, themajorityofsocialstudiesandhistoryteachersarepartoftheproblem,notpartofthesolution.

Let us cast our net even wider. Are all of us involved? The myths in ourhistoryarenot limitedtoourschooling,afterall.Thesecultural lieshavebeenwovenintothefabricofourentiresociety.Fromtheflat-earthadvertisementsonColumbusDayweekendtotheracistdistortionofReconstructioninGoneWiththeWind,oursocietyliestoitselfaboutitspast.Questioningtheseliescanseemanti-American.Textbooksmayreflecttheseliesonlybecausewewantthemto.Textbooksmayalsoavoidcontroversybecausewewantthemto:atleasthalfoftherespondentsinnationalpublicopinionpollsroutinelyagreethat“booksthatcontaindangerousideasshouldbebannedfrompublicschoollibraries.”93Andwhen theNationalAssessment for Educational Progress sent its social studiesassessment instruments to lay reviewers “to help insure that [they] would beacceptable to the general public,” the public replied, “references to specificminority groups should be eliminated whenever possible”; “extreme care”shouldbeusedinwordinganyreferencestotheFBI,thepresident,laborunions,

andsomeotherorganizations;and“exerciseswhichshownationalheroesinanuncomplimentaryfashionthoughfactuallyaccurateareoffensive.”94

John Williamson, the president of a major textbook publishing company,employedthislinetodefendpublishers:“Inthethirties,thetreatmentoffemalesandofblackpeopleclearlymirrored theattitudesof society.All femaleswereportrayedinhomemakerroles....Blackswerenotportrayedatall.”Williamsonwentontoadmitthatrecentimprovementsinthetreatmentofwomenandblackshavenotbeenowedtopublishers,“muchaswewouldlikethecredit.”Asinthepast, “textbooks mirror our society and contain what that society considersacceptable.”Williamson concluded that all this was as it should be—parents,teachers, and members of the community should have the right to pressurepublisherstopresenthistoryastheywantitpresented.95

Williamson has a point. However, when publishers hide behind “society,”their argument invokes a chicken-and-egg problematic, for if textbooks variedmore, pressure groups in society would have more alternatives for which tolobby. Moreover, Williamson has conceded the major point: that historytextbooksstandinaverydifferentrelationshipto thedisciplineofhistorythanmosttextbooksdototheirrespectivefields.“Society”determineswhatgoesintohistorytextbooks.Bycontrast,themathematicsprofessiondetermineswhatgoesinto math textbooks and, creationist pressure notwithstanding, the biologyprofession determines what goes into biology textbooks. To be sure,mathematics and biology textbooks are products of the same complexorganizations anddelicate adoptionprocedures asAmericanhistory textbooks.Tobesure,mathandbiologybooksalsoerr.Butonlyabouthistoryandsocialstudiesdowritersactuallyask,“Cantextbookshavescholarlyintegrity?”96Onlyinhistoryisaccuracysopolitical.

ConsidertheexampleofblacksoldiersintheCivilWar.Eveninthe1930sthefactsabouttheircontributionwereplainforalltoseeintheprimarysourcesandeven the textbooks of the CivilWar and Reconstruction eras. Depression-eratextbooks omitted those facts, not because they were unknown but becauseincluding importantactsbyAfricanAmericansdidnot“mirror theattitudesof[white] society” during the nadir of race relations. Thus, to understand howtextbooksinthe1930spresentedtheCivilWar,wedonotlookatthehistoryofthe 1860s, but at the society of the 1930s. Likewise, to understand howtextbooks today present theCivilWar, the Pilgrims, or Columbus,we do not

lookatthe1860s,1620s,or1490s,butatourtime.Whatdistortionsofhistorydoesoursocietycause?Wemustnotfoolourselvesthattheprocessofdistortinghistory has magically stopped. We must not congratulate ourselves that oursociety now treats everyone fairly andmanifests attitudes that allow accurateinterpretations of the past. We must not pretend that, unlike all previousgenerations, we write true history. Authors of high school history textbooksoftendon’teventry,aswehaveseen.Whenparentsandteachersdonotdemandfrompublishersandschoolsthesameeffort topresentaccuratehistorythatweexpectinotherdisciplines,webecomepartoftheproblem.

Forthatmatter,manyhistorytextbookspublishedinthepresentarenotreallyproducts of our time at all. Chapter 5 told of the nadir of American racerelations,between1890and1940.Inthatperiod,notonlydidweslidebackwardinracerelations,wealsodevelopedadeeplybiasedunderstandingofwhatwasthen our recent past—Reconstruction (1866-77), the confused period thatfollowed (1877-90), and the nadir itself. Chapter 6 showed how John Brownwent insane after 1890, but Brown’s sanity was not the only casualty of thenadir. Interpretationsconcoctedduring thenadirstillaffectwhat textbookssaytoday about theGrant administration,WoodrowWilson, and evenChristopherColumbus.Inthenadir,AfricanAmericansseemedso“obviously”inferiorthatmostwhitescouldnot imagine thatPresidentGrant, the“Stalwarts,”andmostRepublican officeholders in the South had really cared about racial equality.Logically, it followed that they must have had some other motivation—mostlikely,greedorpower.Therefore,atextbooklikeTheAmericanPageantin2006emphasizescorruptionandminimizesidealismtodiscreditRepublicanbehaviorinthe1870sand1880s.Howcanthenadirstilldistorta textbookpublishedin2006?Foronething,Pageant’sinterpretationofGrantwasnotwrittenin2006.It dates to 1956, long before the civil rightsmovement had any influence onAmericanhistorytextbooks.Interpretationsin1956werestillbasedonideassetinthenadir,andPageant’sauthor,ThomasBailey,earnedhisPhDin1927, intheheartofthatperiod.InterpretationsofColumbusinthe1980sderivedfromthecelebrationsof1892;Chapter2showedhownewtextbookswereinfluencedbythemorecomplexremembrancesof1992.Thuswhenabookiswritten—or,rather, when its interpretation of an event was set in our culture—determineswhatiswritten.

Some people feel that we should sanitize history to protect students fromunpleasantries,at leastuntil theyareeighteenorso.Childrenhave togrowup

soonenoughasitis,thesepeoplesay;letthemenjoychildhood.Whyconfrontouryoungpeoplewith issues even adults cannot resolve?Mustwe tell all thegrislydetailsaboutwhatColumbusdidonHaiti, forexample, tofifthgraders?97 Sissela Bokwrote a whole book about, andmostly against, lying; but sheseemstoagreethatlyingtochildrenisokayandcomparesittoshelteringthemfromharshweather.98

Certainly age-graded censorship is the one form of censorship that almosteveryone believes is appropriate: fifth graders should not see violentpornography, for instance. Some fifth or even twelfth graders who encounterillustrations of Spaniards cutting off Indians’ hands or Indians committingsuicidemighthavenightmaresaboutColumbus.Withholdingpornographyisnota precise analogy towhitewashing history, however.Whenwe fail to presentstudentswiththetruthabout,say,Columbus,weenduppresentingalieinstead—atleasta lieofseriousomission.Idoubt thatshieldingchildrenfromhorrorandviolenceisreallythecauseoftextbookomissionsanddistortions.Booksdoinclude violence, after all, so long as it isn’t by “us.” For instance,AmericanHistorydescribesJohnBrown’sactionsatPottawatomie,Kansas,in1856:

WhenBrown learnedof the [Lawrence]attack,he ledapartyof sevenmen. . . . In the dead of night they entered the cabins of threeunsuspectingfamilies.Fornoapparentreasontheymurderedfivepeople.Theysplitopen their skullswithheavy, razor-sharpswords.Theyevencutoffthehandofoneoftheirvictims.

TellingofskullssplitopenandprovidingminutiaeliketheheftandsharpnessoftheswordspromptustofeelrevulsiontowardBrown.Certainlytheauthordoesnotprovidethesedetailstoshieldstudentsfromunpleasantries.

Iftextbooksaregoingtoincludeseveredhands,thoseoftheArawakscutoffbyColumbusaremuchmorehistoricallysignificant.Columbus’sseveringsweresystematicandhelpeddepopulateHaiti.AmericanHistory,havingomittedtheseatrocities,cannotclaimtopresentPottawatomieevenhandedly.

Violenceaside,whataboutshieldingchildrenfromotheruntowardrealitiesofour society? How should social studies classes teach young people about thepolice, for instance? Should the approach be Officer Friendly? Or shouldchildren receive aMarxist interpretation of how the power structure uses thepoliceasitsfirstlineofcontrolinurbanghettoes?Doestheapproachwechoosedependonwhetherweteachinthesuburbsortheinnercity?Ifamorecomplex

analysisofthepoliceismoreusefulthanOfficerFriendlyforinner-citychildren,doesthatmeanweshouldteachaboutslaveryinadifferentwayinthesuburbsthanwewouldintheinnercity?

In 1992, Los Angeles exploded in a violent race riot, triggered by a whitesuburban jury’s acquittal of four police officers who had been videotapedbeating ablack traffic offender,RodneyKing.Almost every child inAmericasawthismostfamousofallhomevideotapes.Therefore,almosteverychild inAmericalearnedthatOfficerFriendlyisnotthewholestory.Wedonotprotectchildren from controversy by offering only an Officer Friendly analysis inschool.Allwedoismakeschoolirrelevanttothemajorissuesoftheday.Rocksongs bought by thirteen-year-olds deal with AIDS, nuclear war, and globalwarming.Rap songs discuss racism, sexism, druguse—andAmericanhistory.Wecanbesurethatourchildrenalreadyknowaboutandthinkabouttheseandother issues,whetherwe like itornot. Indeed,attemptsbyparents topreservesomenonexistentchildhoodinnocencethroughavoidancearelikelytoheightenratherthanreduceanxiety.99Lyingandomissionarenottherightways.Thereisawaytoteachtruthtoachildatanyagelevel.

Because history ismore personal than geologyor evenAmerican literature,moreabout“us,”thereisanadditionalreasonnottopresentithonestly:don’twewant our children to be optimists? Maybe textbooks that emphasize howwonderful,fair,andprogressiveoursocietyhasbeengivesomestudentsabasisforidealism.Itmaybeempoweringforchildrentobelievethatsimplybylivingweallcontributetoaconstantlyimprovingsociety.Maybelater,whenstudentsgrowupandlearnmore,theywillbemotivatedtochangethesystemtomakeitresembletheideal.MaybestressingfairnessasabasicAmericanvalueprovidesafulcrumfromwhichstudentscancriticizesocietywhentheydiscover,perhapsin college history courses, how it has often been unfair. This all may be aninstance of Emily Dickinson’s couplet “The Truth must dazzle gradually/Oreverymanbeblind.”100

SincefewerthanoneAmericaninsixevertakesanAmericanhistorycourseafter leavinghigh school, it isnot clear justwhen thenextgenerationwillgetdazzled by the truth in American history. Another problem with this line ofthinking is that the truthmay then dazzle studentswith the sudden realizationthat their teachershavebeenlyingtothem.Astudentofminewroteofhavingbeen“taughtthestoryofGeorgeWashingtonreceivingahatchetforhisbirthday

andproceedingtochopdownhisfather’sfavoritecherrytree.”Toherhorrorthisstudentlaterdiscoveredthat“astoryIhadheldsacredinmymemoryforsolonghadbeenalie.”Sheendedup“feelingbitterandbetrayedbymyearlierteacherswhohadtolietobuildupGeorgeWashington’simage,causingmetoquestionallthatIhadpreviouslylearned.”Thisstudent’salienationpalesbesidesthatofAfrican Americans when they confront another truth about the FoundingFathers:“WhenIfirst learnedthatWashingtonandJeffersonhadslaves,Iwasdevastated,”historianMarkLloydtoldme.“Ididn’twanttohaveanythingmoreto dowith them.”101 SellingWashington as a hero toNativeAmericanswilleventuallyfounderonasimilarrockwhentheylearnwhathedidtotheIroquois.

Itishardtobelievethatadultskeepchildrenignorantinordertopreservetheiridealism.Morelikely,adultskeepchildrenignorantsotheywon’tbe idealistic.Manyadults fearchildrenandworry that respect forauthority isall thatkeepsthemfromrunningamok.Sotheyteachthemtorespectauthoritieswhomadultsthemselvesdonotrespect. In the late1970s,surveyresearchersgaveparentsaseries of statements and asked whether they believed them and wanted theirchildren to believe them.One statement stood out: “People in authority knowbest.”Parentsrepliedintheseproportions:

13percent—“believeandwantchildrentobelieve”

56percent—“havedoubtsbutstillwanttoteachtochildren”

30percent—“don’tbelieveanddon’twanttopassontochildren”

Thus,56percentofparentswantedtheirchildrennottodoubtauthorityfigures,eventhoughtheparentsthemselvesdoubted.102

Some adults simply do not trust children to think. For several decadessociologists have documented Americans’ distrust of the next generation.Parentsmayfeelunderminedwhenchildrengettoolsofinformationandinquirynot available to adults and use them inways that seem to threaten adult-heldvalues. Many parents want children to concentrate on the three R’s, not onmulticultural history.103 Shirley Engle has described “a strident minority [ofteachersandparents]whodonotreallybelieveindemocracyanddonotreallybelievethatkidsshouldbetaughttothink.”104Perhapsadults’biggestreasonforlyingisthattheyfearourhistory—fearthatitisn’tsowonderfulandthatifchildrenwere to learnwhathas reallygoneon, theywould loseall respect forour society. Thus, when Edward Ruzzo tried in 1964 to cover upWarren G.

Harding’sembarrassing love letters toamarriedwoman,heused the rationale“that anything damaging to the image of an American President should besuppressedtoprotecttheyoungergeneration.”AsJudgeRuzzoputit,therearetoomanyjuveniledelinquentsasitis.105

Ironically,onlypeoplewhothemselveshavebeenraisedonshallowfeel-goodhistory could harbor such doubts.Hardingmay not have beenmuch of a rolemodel, but other Americans—Tom Paine, Thoreau, Lincoln, Helen HuntJackson, Martin Luther King, and, yes, John Brown, Helen Keller, andWoodrowWilson, too—are still celebrated by lovers of freedom everywhere.Yetpublishers,authors,teachers,andparentsseemafraidtoexposechildrentothe blazing idealism of these leaders at their best. Today many aspects ofAmericanlife,fromthepremisesofourlegalsystemtoelementsofourpopularculture, inspire other societies. If Russia can abandon boosterish history, as itseemstohavedone,surelyAmericacan,too.106“Wedonotneedabodyguardof lies,” points out Paul Gagnon. “We can afford to present ourselves in thetotalityofouracts.”107

TextbookauthorsseemnottoshareGagnon’sconfidence,however.Thereisacertaincontradictioninthelogicofthosewhowritenationalisttextbooks.Ontheonehand, theydescribeacountrywithoutrepression,withoutrealconflict.Ontheotherhand,theyobviouslybelievethatweneedtolietostudentstoinstillinthemloveofcountry.Butifthecountryissowonderful,whymustwelie?

Ironically, our lying only diminishes us. Bernice Reagon, founder of thesinginggroupSweetHoneyintheRock,haspointedoutthatothercountriesareimpressedwhenwesendspokespeopleabroadwho, likeherself,arewilling tocriticize the United States. Surely, this is part of what democracy is about.Surely, in a democracy a historian’s duty is to tell the truth. Surely, in ademocracystudentsneedtodevelopinformedreasonstocriticizeaswellastakepride in their country. Maybe somewhere along the line we gave up ondemocracy?

Lying tochildren is a slippery slope.Oncewehave started slidingdown it,how andwhen dowe stop?Who decideswhen to lie?Which lies to tell? Towhatagegroup?Assoonasweloosentheanchoroffact,ofhistoricalevidence,ourhistorytextboatisfreetoblowhereandthere,pointingfirstinonedirection,theninanother.IfweobscureoromitfactsbecausetheymakeColumbuslookbad,whynotomitthosethatmaketheUnitedStateslookbad?OrtheMormon

Church?OrthestateofMississippi?Thisisthepoliticizationofhistory.Howdowe decide what to teach in an American history course once authors havedecided not to value the truth? If our history courses aren’t based on factanyway, why not tell one story to whites, another to blacks? Isn’t Scott,Foresman already doing something like that when it puts out a “Lone Star”editionofLandofPromise,tailoringthefactsofhistorytosuit(white)Texans?

PhilosopherMartinHeideggeroncedefinedtruthas“thatwhichmakesapeoplecertain, clear, and strong,” and publishers of American history textbooksapparentlyintendtodojustthat,avoidingtopicsthatsuperficiallymightseemtodivideAmericans.Beforeweabandontheold“correspondencetofact”senseoftruthinfavorofHeidegger’smoreusefuldefinition,however,wemaywanttorecall that he gave it in the service of Adolf Hitler. Moreover, we need toconsider the meaning of a people. Does a people mean only EuropeanAmericans?PerhapsopenlyfacingtopicsthatseemdivisivemightactuallyunifyAmericansacross racial, ethnic, and other lines.108 After all, if the textbooksaren’t true, they leave uswith no grounds for defending the courses based onthemwhenstudentschargethatAmericanhistoryisawasteoftime.WhyshouldchildrenbelievewhattheylearninAmericanhistoryiftheirtextbooksarefullofdistortionsandlies?Whyshouldtheybothertolearnit?

Luckily,asthenextchaptertells,theydon’t.

13.

WHATISTHERESULTOFTEACHINGHISTORYLIKETHIS?

William JenningsBryan: “I do not think about thingsthatIdon’tthinkabout.”ClarenceDarrow:“Doyoueverthinkaboutthingsyoudothinkabout?”

—SCOPESTRIALTRANSCRIPT1

Learning social studies is, tono small extent,whetherin elementary school or the university, learning to bestupid.

—JULESHENRY2

Yeah, I cut class, I got a D ’Cause history meantnothin’tome.

—JUNGLEBROTHERS3

Thetruthshallmakeusfree.Thetruthshallmakeusfree.Thetruthshallmakeusfreesomeday.Oh,deepinmyheart,Idobelieve,Thetruthshallmakeusfreesomeday.

—VERSEOF“WESHALLOVERCOME”

ALLOVERAMERICA,highschoolstudentssitinsocialstudiesandAmericanhistoryclasses,lookattheirtextbooks,writeanswerstothequestionsattheendofeachchapter,andtakequizzesandexaminationsthattestfactualrecall.WhenIwassubjectedtothisregimen,Ineverdefinedanyofthetermsattheendofthechapteruntil thesixthweekofeachsix-weekgradingperiod.Thenthe teacherandIwouldnegotiatewhatproportionofthetermsIhadtodefinecorrectlytoget an A- (usually something like 85 percent) and I would madly write outdefinitionsthroughthelasttwodaysofclass.Threeyearslater,whenmysistertookAmericanhistory,shedevelopedamoreeffectivetechnique.Shehandedintheworkontime,writingrealdefinitionstothefirsttwoandlasttwoterms,butfor the thirtyor forty in themiddle she free-associatedwhatevernonsense shewanted.“Hawley-SmootTariff:Ihavenoidea,Mr.DeMoulin,”wasoneentry.“Blue Eagle: FDR’s pet bird who got very sad when he died” was another.TodaystudentsusetheInternet:“AtmyschoolwedividedupthelistandthenpostedourpartontheInternet.Thenyoucoulddownloadtheterms,changethestyle, print them out, and hand them in.” Educational theorists call such acts“day-to-day resistance”—a phrase that comes from theorizing about slavery—but I did not know that then. I am still envious that I never thought of suchmarvelouslabor-savingploys.4

Of course, fooling the teacher is of little consequence. Quite possibly mysister’steacherevenknewoftheruseandjokedaboutitwithhiscolleagues,thewaymasterschuckledthattheirslavesweresostupidtheyhadtobetoldeveryevening to bring in the hoes or they would leave them out in the night dew.Somesocialstudiesandhistoryteacherstrytowinstudentcooperationbytellingthem,when introducing a topic, not toworry, theywon’t have to learnmuchabout it. Students happily acquiesce.5 Students also invest a great deal ofcreative energy in getting teachers to waste time and relax requirements.6Teachers acquiesce partly because, aswithmuch day-to-day resistance duringslavery, yielding does not really threaten the system. Day-to-day schoolresistance also provides students a form of psychic distance, a sense thatalthough the system may have commanded their pens, it has not won realcooperationfromtheirminds.

How could it?Whowants to learn uselessminutiae? Every chapter ofThe

AmericanJourney,forexample,endswithtwotosixpagesof“AssessmentandActivities,”mostlystressing twigs.Forexample, the finalchapterhasa“TimeLineActivity”thatasksstudentsto“placethefollowingeventsinchronologicalorder.”

•Serbs,Croats,andBosnianMuslimssignpeaceagreementtoendcivilwar•SovietUniondissolves•BillClintoniselectedtofirsttermaspresident• Geraldine Ferraro is first woman from a major party to run for vicepresident

•IraqinvadesKuwait•SandraDayO’ConnornamedtoSupremeCourt•RonaldReaganisreelectedpresident

Idefyreaderstoputtheseseveneventsinthecorrectorderwithoutlookingthemup.CertainlyIcan’tdo it,andIbetJoyceAppleby,AlanBrinkley,andJamesMcPherson,whosenamesareonthecoverofthebook,can’teither.Eveniftheycan, what have they accomplished? There is no important causal or logicalconnectionamongmostoftheevents,sothereisnoreasontorememberwhichcamefirst.Thisactivitymerelyasksstudentstomemorizetheorderofunrelatedoccurrences.Eventhoughsomeitemsseemconnected—O’ConnorandReagan,forexample—oncloserexaminationitisnotenoughtoknowthatheappointedher;onemustalsorememberwhetherhedidsoinhisfirstorsecondterm.

Studyafterstudyshowsthatstudentssuccessfullyresist learning“facts”likethese.7Indeed,theyresistalltoowell.Whentwo-thirdsofAmericanseventeen-year-oldscannotplacetheCivilWarintherighthalf-century,or22percentofmystudents reply that theVietnamWarwas foughtbetweenNorthandSouthKorea, we must salute young people for more than mere ignorance.8 This isresistance raised to a high level. Students are simply not learning even thosedetailsofAmericanhistorythateducatedcitizensshouldknow.Stilllessdotheylearnwhatcaused themajordevelopments inourpast.Therefore, they cannotapplylessonsfromthepasttocurrentissues.

Unfortunately, students are left with no resources to understand, accept, orrebuthistorical referentsused inargumentsbycandidates foroffice, sociologyprofessors,ornewspaperjournalists.Ifknowledgeispower,ignorancecannotbebliss.

Emotionisthegluethatcauseshistorytostick.Werememberwherewewere

whenweheardof theattackon theWorldTradeCenterbecause itaffectedusemotionally.Americanhistoryisaheartrendingsubject.Whenstudentsreadrealvoicesfromourpast,theemotionsdonotfailtomovethem.RecallLasCasas’spassionate denunciations of the Spanish treatment of Indians: “What wecommittedintheIndiesstandsoutamongthemostunpardonableoffensesevercommitted against God and mankind.” Consider the famous final words ofWilliamJenningsBryantothe1896Democraticnationalconvention:“Youshallnot press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall notcrucifymankinduponacrossofgold.”OrHelenKeller’sattackontheBrooklynEagle:“Sociallyblindanddeaf, itdefendsan intolerablesystem.”OrFranklinD.Roosevelt’swordsinthedepression,assuringuswehad“nothingtofearbutfear itself.” Events and images also call forth strong feelings. The saga ofElizabeth Blackwell in medical school, the liberation of Nazi death campinmatesbyAmerican(andRussianandBritish)soldiers,theultimatesuccessofJonasSalkinfindingavaccinethatwouldkillpolio—thesearestirringstories.As textbookcriticMrs.W.K.Haralsonwrites,“There isnoway theglowing,throbbing events of history can be presented fairly, accurately, and factuallywithoutinvolvingemotion.”9

Earlier chapters have shown, however, thatAmerican history textbooks andcoursesareneitherdispassionatenorpassionate.Alltextbookauthorsandmanyteachersseemnot tohave thoughtdeeplyabout justwhat inourpastmightbeworthy of passion or even serious contemplation. No real emotion seeps intothese books, not even real pride.10 Instead, heroic exceptions to the contrary,most American history courses and textbooks operate in a gray emotionallandscape of pious duty in which the United States has a good history, sostudying it is good for students. “They don’t think of history as drama,” oneteachertoldme.“Theyalltellmetheyhatehistory,becauseit’sdeadfacts,andboring.”

Another way to cause history to stick is to present it so that it touchesstudents’ lives. To show students how racism affects African Americans, ateacher in Iowa discriminated by eye color among members of her all-whiteclassofthirdgradersfortwodays.ThefilmAClassDividedshowshowvividlythesestudentsrememberedthelessonfifteenyearslater.11Incontrast,materialfromU.S.historytextbooksisrarelyretainedforfifteenweeksaftertheendoftheschoolyear.Bystressingthedistantpast,textbooksdiscouragestudentsfromseeking to learn history from their families or community, which again

disconnectsschoolfromtheotherpartsofstudents’lives.

“Children, like most adults, do not readily retain isolated, incoherent, andmeaninglessdata,”claimtwoCanadianeducators.12Surely theyare right, andsincetextbooksprovidealmostnocausalskeleton,surelythatlackofcoherencehelps toexplainwhystudentsforgetmostof themassofdetail they“learn” intheirhistorycourses.Notallstudentsforgetitequally,however.Casteminoritychildren—NativeAmericans,AfricanAmericans, andHispanics—doworse inall subjects, compared to white or Asian American children, but the gap islargest in social studies. That is because the way American history is taughtparticularlyalienatesstudentsofcolorandchildrenfromimpoverishedfamilies.Feel-goodhistoryforaffluentwhitemalesinevitablyamountstofeel-badhistoryfor everyone else. A student ofmine, whowas practice-teaching in Swanton,Vermont, a townwith a considerableAmerican Indian population, noticed anAbenaki fifth grader obviously tuning out when he brought up the subject ofThanksgiving.Talkingwiththechildbroughtforththefollowingreaction:“Myfather toldme the real truthabout thatdayandnot to listen toanywhitemanscum likeyou!”YetThanksgivingseems reasonablybenigncompared to, say,ColumbusDay.Throughouttheschoolyear,inathousandlittleways,Americanhistory offends many students. Unlike the Abenaki youngster, most have-notstudents do not consciously take offense and do not rebel but are nonethelesssubtlyputoff.Ithurtschildren’sself-imagetoswallowwhattheirhistorybooksteach about the exceptional fairness of America. Black students considerAmerican history, as usually taught, “white” and assimilative, so they resistlearningit.Thisexplainswhyresearchshowsa largerperformancedifferentialbetweenpoorandrichstudents,orblackandwhitestudents, inhistory than inotherschoolsubjects.13Girlsalsodislikesocial studiesandhistoryevenmorethanboys,probablybecausewomenandwomen’sconcernsandperceptionsstillgounderrepresentedinhistoryclasses.14

Afrocentric history arose partly in response to this problem. Arthur M.SchlesingerJr.,denouncedAfrocentrismas“psychotherapy”forblacks—aone-sided misguided attempt to make African Americans feel good aboutthemselves.15Unfortunately, theEurocentrichistoryinourtextbooksamountsto psychotherapy for whites. Since historians like Schlesinger have notaddressedEurocentrism,theydonotcomeintothediscussionwithcleanhands.To be sure, the answer to Eurocentric textbooks is not one-sided Afrocentrichistory, the kind that has Africans inventing everything good and whites

inventingslaveryandoppression.Surely,wedonotreallywantagenerationofAfricanAmericansraisedonantiwhiteAfrocentrichistory,butjustassurely,wecannot afford another generation of white Americans raised on complacentcelebratoryEurocentrichistory.Eveniftheydon’tlearnmuchhistoryfromtheirtextbooks, students are affected by the book’s slant. EducatorMartha Toppinfound unanimous agreement with this proposition among ninety high schoolstudents:“IfAfricahadhadahistoryworthlearningabout,wewouldhavehaditlastyearinWesternCivilization.”16ThemessagethatEurocentrichistorysendsto non-European Americans is: your ancestors have not done much ofimportance.ItiseasyforEuropeanAmericansandnon-EuropeanAmericanstotakeastepfurtherandconcludethatnon-EuropeanAmericansarenotimportanttoday.

From the beginning, when textbooks call Columbus’s 1492 voyage “amiracle”andproclaim,“SoonthegratefulcaptainwadesashoreandgivesthankstoGod,”theymaketheChristiandeityGodandputHim[sic]onthewhiteside.Omitting the Arawaks’ perspective on Haiti continues the process of“otherizing”nonwhites in this first diorama fromourhistory. If the “we” in atextbook includedAmerican Indians,AfricanAmericans,Latinos,women,andallsocialclasses,thebookwouldreaddifferently,justaswhitestalkdifferently(andmorehumanely)inthepresenceofpeopleofcolor.Surelyitispossibletowrite accurate multicultural history that spreads the discomfort around, ratherthan distorting history to help only affluent white children feel comfortableabout theirpast.Maybewecanevenwriteand teachanAmericanhistory thatchildrenofthenonelitewouldwanttostudy.

Equally as worrisome is the impact of American history courses on whiteaffluent children. This grave result can best be shown by what I call the“Vietnam exercise.” Throughout the Vietnam War, pollsters were constantlyaskingtheAmericanpeoplewhethertheywantedtobringourtroopshome.Atfirst,onlyasmallfractionofAmericansfavoredwithdrawal.Towardtheendofthewar,alargemajoritywantedustopullout.

NotonlydidGallup,Roper,theNationalOpinionResearchCenter,andotherorganizations ask Americans about the war, they also usually inquired aboutbackgroundvariables—sex,education,region,andthelike—sotheycouldfindout which kinds of people weremost hawkish (pro-war), whichmost dovish.Over tenyears Ihaveaskedmore thana thousandcollegeundergraduates andseveral hundred others their beliefs aboutwhat kind of adults, by educational

level,supportedthewarinVietnam.IaskaudiencestofilloutTable1,tryingtoreplicatetheresultsoftheJanuary1971nationalGallupsurveyonthewar.ByJanuary1971,asItellaudiences,thenationalmoodwasoverwhelminglydove:73percentfavoredwithdrawal.(Iexcluded“don’tknows.”)

TABLE1

InJanuary1971theGallupPollasked:“AproposalhasbeenmadeinCongresstorequiretheU.S.governmenttobringhomeallU.S.troopsbeforetheendofthis year. Would you like to have your congressman vote for or against thisproposal?”

Estimatetheresults,byeducation,byfillingoutthistable:

Most recent high school graduates are not able even to construct a simpletable or interpret a graph. Accordingly, I teach audiences how the tablemustbalance—how, ifgradeschool-educatedadults, for instance,weremoredovishthanothers, hence supportedwithdrawal bymore than73percent, someothergroupmustbe lessdovish than73percent for theentirepopulation tobalanceoutat73percentdoves.Ifyouwishtobeanactivereader,youmightfilloutthetableyourselfbeforereadingfurther.

Byanoverwhelmingmargin—almost10to1—audiencesbelievethatcollege-educatedpersonsweremoredovish.Table2showsatypicalresponse.

TABLE2

I thenaskaudiences toassume that their tablesarecorrect—that the resultsofthesurveycorrespondtowhattheyguessed—andtostateatleasttworeasonablehypothesestoexplaintheseresults.Theirmostcommonresponses:

Educatedpeoplearemoreinformedandcritical,hencemoreabletosiftthroughmisinformationandconclude that theVietnamWarwasnot inourbestinterests,politicallyormorally.

Educatedpeople aremore tolerant.Therewere elements of racismandethnocentrisminourconductofthewar;educatedpeoplearelesslikelytoacceptsuchprejudice.

Less-educated people, being of lower occupational status, were morelikely to be employed in awar-related industry or in the armed forcesthemselves,hencehadself-interestinbeingpro-war.

There is nothing surprising here.Most people feel that schooling is a goodthing and enables us to sift facts, weigh evidence, and think rationally. Aneducatedpeoplehasbeensaidtobeabulwarkofdemocracy.

However, the truth is quite different. Educated people disproportionatelysupported theVietnamWar.Table3 shows the actual outcomeof the January1971poll:

TABLE3

Theseresultssurpriseevensomeprofessionalsocialscientists.Twiceashigha proportion of college-educated adults, 40 percent,were hawks, compared toonly 20 percent of adultswith grade school educations.And this pollwas noisolatedphenomenon.Similarresultswereregisteredagainandagain,insurveysbyHarris,NORC,andothers.Backin1965,whenonly24percentofthenationagreedthattheUnitedStates“madeamistake”insendingtroopstoVietnam,28percent of the grade school-educated felt so.Later,when less than half of thecollege-educated adults favored pullout, among the grade school-educated 61percent did. Throughout our long involvement in Southeast Asia, on issuesrelated to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, or Laos, the grade school-educatedwerealwaysthemostdovish,thecollege-educatedthemosthawkish.

TodaymostAmericansagreethattheVietnamWarwasamistake,politicallyand morally; so do most political analysts, including such men as RobertMcNamara and Clark Clifford, whowaged thewar.17 Ifwe concurwith thisnow conventional wisdom, then we must concede that the more educated apersonwas,themorelikelys/hewastobewrongaboutthewar.

WhydideducatedAmericanssupportthewar?Whenmyaudienceslearnthateducated people were more hawkish, they scurry about concocting newexplanations. Since they are still locked into their presumption that educatedpeoplearemoreintelligentandhavemoregoodwillthanthelesseducated,theirtheorieshavetostraintoexplainwhyless-educatedAmericanswereright.Themostpopularrevampedtheoryassertsthatsinceworking-classyoungmenborethe real cost of the war, “naturally” they and their families opposed it. Thisexplanationseemsreasonable,foritdoescredittheworkingclasswithopposingthewar andwith a certain brute rationality.But it reduces the thinking of the

workingclass toacrudepersonalcost-benefit analysis, implicitlydenying thatthe less educatedmight take society as awhole into consideration. Thus, thishypothesis diminishes the position of the working class—which was morecorrect than that of the educated, after all—to a mere reflex based on self-interest. It is alsowrong.Human nature doesn’twork thatway.Research hasshownthatpeopleofwhatevereducationallevelwhoexpecttogotowartendtosupportthatwar,becausepeoplerarelydon’tbelieveinsomethingtheyplantodo.Working-classyoungmenwhoenlistedor lookedforward tobeingdraftedcould not easily influence their destinies to avoid Vietnam, but they couldchange their attitudes about the war to be more positive. Thus, cognitivedissonancehelpsexplainwhyyoungmenofdraftagesupported thewarmorethanoldermen,andwhymensupportedthewarmorethanwomen.Whileless-educated families with sons in the Vietnam conflict often formed pockets ofsupport for the war, such pockets were exceptions to the dovishness thatpervadedtheless-educatedsegmentsofourpopulace.18

BynowmyaudiencesarekeentolearnwhyeducatedAmericansweremorehawkish.Twosocialprocesses,eachtiedtoschooling,canaccountforeducatedAmericans’ support of theVietnamWar. The first can be summarized by thetermallegiance.Educatedadultstendtobesuccessfulandearnhighincomes—partly because schooling leads to better jobs and higher incomes, but mainlybecausehighparentalincomesleadtomoreeducationfortheiroffspring.Also,parents transmit affluence and education directly to their children. SuccessfulAmericansdonotusuallylaytheirsuccessat theirparents’doorstep,however.They usually explain their accomplishments as owing to their own individualcharacteristics,sotheyseeAmericansocietyasmeritocratic.Theyachievedtheirown success; other people must be getting their just desserts. Believing thatAmerican society is open to individual input, the educatedwell-to-do tend toagreewithsociety’sdecisionsandfeel theyhadahandinformingthem.Theyidentify more with our society and its policies. We can use the term vestedinteresthere,solongaswerealizewearereferringtoanideologicalinterestorneed, a need to come to terms with the privilege with which one has beenblessed, not simple economic self-interest. In this sense, educated successfulpeoplehave avested interest in believing that the society that helped thembeeducated and successful is fair. As a result, those in the upper third of oureducationalandincomestructurearemorelikelytoshowallegiancetosociety,whilethoseinthelowerthirdaremorelikelytobecriticalofit.

The other process causing educated adults to bemore likely to support theVietnamWar can be summarized under the rubric socialization. Sociologistshave long agreed that schools are important socializing agents in our society.Socializinginthiscontextdoesnotmeanhobnobbingaroundapunchbowlbutrefers to the process of learning and internalizing the basic social rules—language, norms, etiquette—necessary for an individual to function in society.Socialization isnotprimarilycognitive.Wearenotpersuadedrationallynot topeeinthelivingroom;wearerequirednotto.Wetheninternalizeandobeythisrule even when no authority figure lurks to enforce it. Teachers may try toconvince themselves that education’smain function is to promote inquiry, noticonography, but in fact the socialization function of schooling remainsdominant at least through high school and hardly disappears in college.Educationassocializationtellspeoplewhattothinkandhowtoactandrequiresthemtoconform.Educationassocializationinfluencesstudentssimplytoacceptthe rightness of our society. American history textbooks overtly tell us to beproud of America. Themore schooling, the more socialization, and the morelikelytheindividualwillconcludethatAmericaisgood.

Boththeallegianceandsocializationprocessescausetheeducatedtobelievethat what America does is right. Public opinion polls show the nonthinkingresults.Inlatespring1966,justbeforetheUnitedStatesbeganbombingHanoiandHaiphonginNorthVietnam,Americanssplit50-50astowhetherweshouldbomb these targets.After thebombingbegan,85percent favored thebombingwhileonly15percentopposed.Thesuddenshiftwastheresult,notthecause,ofthe government’s decision to bomb. The same allegiance and socializationprocessesoperatedagainwhenpolicychangedintheoppositedirection.In1968,war sentiment was waning; but 51 percent of Americans opposed a bombinghalt,partlybecausetheUnitedStateswasstillbombingNorthVietnam.Amonthlater,afterPresidentJohnsonannouncedabombinghalt,71percentfavoredthehalt. Thus, 23 percent of our citizens changed their minds within a month,mirroring the shift in government policy. This swaying of thought by policyaffects attitudes on issues ranging from our space program to environmentalpolicyandshowstheso-called“silentmajority”tobeanunthinkingmajorityaswell.Educatedpeopleareoverrepresentedamongthesestrawsinthewind.19

We like to think of education as a mix of thoughtful learning processes.Allegiance and socialization, however, are intrinsic to the role of schooling inoursocietyoranyhierarchicalsociety.SocialistleaderssuchasFidelCastroand

MaoTse-tungvastlyextendedschoolinginCubaandChinainpartbecausetheyknew that an educated people is a socialized populace and a bulwark ofallegiance. Educationworks the sameway here: it encourages students not tothink about society but merely to trust that it is good. To the degree thatAmericanhistoryinparticulariscelebratory,itoffersnowaytounderstandanyproblem—suchastheVietnamWar,poverty,inequality,internationalhavesandhave-nots,environmentaldegradation,orchangingsexroles—thathashistoricalroots.Therefore,wemightexpectthatthemoretraditionalschoolinginhistorythat Americans have, the less they will understand Vietnam or any otherhistoricallybasedproblem.ThisiswhyeducatedpeopleweremorehawkishontheVietnamWar.

SomepeoplehavesuggestedthattheVietnamWarwasidiosyncratic.Forsixlong years, they point out, it was a Republican war, and Republicans are onaveragemoreeducated thanDemocrats; that iswhymoreeducatedAmericanswere hawks. Such thinking founders on several grounds. First,more than anyother war in our history, Vietnam was a bipartisan war. John Kennedy,Democrat,sentinthefirstsoldiers;LyndonJohnson,Democrat,sentinthemost.Second, more-educated Americans were pro-war when those Democraticadministrationswagedit,comparedtoless-educatedAmericans.Finally,notjustthe VietnamWar shows more support by the educated. About the IraqWar,surveysbythePewTrustfoundthesamepattern.InAugust2004,forexample,two-thirdsofallAmericanswhograduatedfromcollegefavoredkeepingtroopsinIraq“longenoughtobringstability,”while61percentwithlessthanahighschooldegreefavored“aquickpullout.”20

Table2 supplies an additional example of nonthinking by the educated andaffluent: theyarewrongaboutwhosupportedthewar.Bya9to1margin, thehundredsofeducatedpeoplewhohavefilledoutTable1believedthateducatedAmericansweremoredovish.Thus,theVietnamexercisesuggeststwoerrorsbythe elite. The first error that educated people made was being excessivelyhawkishbackin1966,1968,or1971.TheseconderrortheymadewasinfillingoutTable1.

Why have my audiences been so wrong in remembering or deducing whoopposed theVietnamWar?One reason is that Americans like to believe thatschooling is a good thing. Most Americans tend automatically to equateeducatedwithinformedortolerant.21Traditionalpurveyorsofsocialstudiesand

Americanhistoryseizeuponprecisely thisbelief torationalize theirenterprise,claimingthathistorycoursesleadtoamoreenlightenedcitizenry.RespondentstomyVietnamexercisewhothrashaboutclaimingthatitworkedonlyforthatwar or only because less-educated respondents feared having to fight are stilltrying topreserve theirbelief in themantra thateducationmakesuswise.TheVietnamexercisesuggeststheoppositeismorelikelytrue.

Audiences would not be so easily fooled if they would only recall thateducatedpeoplewereandaremorelikelytobeRepublicans,whilehighschooldropouts are more likely to be Democrats. Hawkish right-wing Republicans,includingthecoresupportersofBarryGoldwaterin1964,ofRonaldReaganin1980,andofgroupsliketheJohnBirchSociety,comedisproportionatelyfromthemosteducatedandaffluentsegmentsofoursociety,particularlydentistsandphysicians. So we should not be surprised that education correlates withhawkishness. At the other end of the social-status spectrum, although mostAfrican Americans, like most whites, initially supported U.S. intervention inVietnam, blackswere alwaysmore questioning andmore dovish thanwhites,and African American leaders—Muhammad Ali,Martin Luther King Jr., andMalcolmX—wereprominentamongtheearlyopponentsofthewar.22

American history textbooks help perpetrate the archetype of the blindlypatriotic hard hat by omitting or understating progressive elements in theworkingclass.TextbooksdonotrevealthatCIOunionsandsomeworking-classfraternalassociationswereopen toallwhenmanychambersofcommerceandcountryclubswerestillwhite-only.Fewtextbookstelloforganizedlabor’srolein the civil rights movement, including the 1963 March on Washington.Nevertheless, many members of my audiences are aware that educatedAmericansare likely tobeRepublicans,hard-linersondefense,andright-wingextremists. Some members of my audiences know about Goldwater voters,MuhammadAli’sinductionrefusal,Birchersandeducation,orlaborunionsandthewar—informationthatwouldhavehelpedthemfillintheblanksinTable1correctly. Somehow, though, they never think to apply such knowledge.Mostpeople fill out the table in a daze without ever using what they know. Theireducationandtheirpositioninsocietycausethemnottothink.23

Suchnonthinkingoccursmostcommonlywhensocietyisthesubject.“OneofthemajordutiesofanAmericancitizenistoanalyzeissuesandinterpreteventsintelligently,”Discovering American History exhorts students. Our textbooks

failmiserably at this task.TheVietnam exercise shows howbad the situationreallyis.Sociologyprofessorsareamazedanddepressedatthelevelofthinkingabout society displayed each fall, especially by white upper-middle-classstudents in their first-year classes. These students cannot use the past toilluminatethepresentandhavenoinklingofcausationinhistory,sotheycannotthinkcoherentlyaboutsociallife.ExtendingtheterminologyofJulesHenry,wemight use “social stupidity” to describe the illogical intellectual process andconclusionsthatresult.

Social stupidity continues in the twenty-first century. In 2005, for example,thePewResearchCenterfoundthat62percentofRepublicansagreedwiththestatement, “Poor people today have it easy because they can get governmentbenefitswithoutdoinganythinginreturn.”Twenty-sevenpercentofDemocratsalsoagreed.Suchresponsescanonlycomefrompeoplewhohaveneitherhadaconversationwithapoorpersonnorimaginedtheireconomicandsocialreality—yetsomehowimaginetheyknowenoughtoholdanopinion.Educatedpeoplearemorelikelytoventuresuchill-informedopinions.24

Educationdoesnothavethisimpactinotherareasofstudy.Peoplewhohavetaken more mathematics courses are more proficient at math than those whohavenot.ThesameholdstrueforEnglish,foreignlanguages,andalmosteveryothersubject.Onlyinhistoryisstupiditytheresultofmore,notless,schooling.Whydoeducatedpeopleoftendisplayparticularlynonsensicalreasoningaboutthe socialworld? For some, it is in their ideological interest.Members of theupper- and upper-middle classes are comforted by a view of society thatemphasizesschoolingas thesolution to intolerance,poverty,evenwar.Sucharosyviewof education and its effects lets themavoid considering the need tomakemajorchangesinotherinstitutions.Tothedegreethatthisviewpermeatesour society, students automatically think well of education and expect theeducatedtohaveseenthroughtheVietnamWar.

Moreover, thinkingwell of education reinforces the ideologywemight callAmerican individualism. It leaves intact the archetypal image of a societymarkedbyoratleaststrivingtowardequalityofopportunity.Yetpreciselytotheextent that students believe that equality of opportunity exists, they areencouragedtoblametheuneducatedforbeingpoor,justasmyaudiencesblamethemforbeinghawksonthewarinVietnam.AmericanswhoarenotpoorfindAmericanindividualismasatisfyingideology,foritexplainstheirsuccessinlifeby laying it at their own doorstep. This enables them to feel proud of their

success, even if it is modest, rather than somehow ashamed of it. Creditingsuccess to their position in social structure threatens those good feelings. It ismuch more gratifying to believe that their educational attainments andoccupationalsuccessesresultfromambitionandhardwork—thattheirprivilegehas been earned. To a considerable degree, working-class and lower-classAmericans also adopt this prevailing ethic about society and schooling.Oftenworking-classadultsindead-endjobsblamethemselves,focusingontheirownearlierfailuretoexcelinschool,andfeeltheyareinferiorinsomebasicway.25

Students also have short-term reasons for accepting what teachers andtextbooks tell them about the social world in their history and social studiesclasses,ofcourse.Theyaregoingtobetestedonit.Itisinthestudents’interestjusttolearnthematerial.Arguingtakesmoreenergy,doesn’thelpone’sgrade,and even violates classroom norms. Moreover, there is a feeling ofaccomplishment derived from learning something, even something as uselessandmindlessas theanswers to the identificationquestions thatoccupythelasttwopagesofeachchapterinmosthistorytextbooks.Studentscanfeelfrustratedbytheambiguityofrealhistory,thedebatesamonghistorians,orthechallengeofapplyingideasfromthepasttotheirownlives.Theymayresistchangesinthecurriculum,especiallyiftheseinvolvemoreworkorworklessclearlystructuredthan simply “doing the terms.” After years of rote education, students canbecomehabituated to it and inexperiencedand ineffectualatanyotherkindoflearning.26

In the long run, however, “learning” history this way is not really satisfying.Mosthistorytextbooksandmanyhighschoolhistoryteachersgivestudentsnoreasontoloveorappreciatethesubject.Theabysmalratingsthatstudentsgivetotheirhistorycoursesprovideawarningflag,27andwecannotrespondmerelybyexhortingstudentstolikehistorymore.Butallthisdoesnotmeanthesorrystateof learning inmost history classrooms cannot be changed. Students will startlearninghistorywhentheyseethepointofdoingso,whenitseemsinterestingandimportanttothem,andwhentheybelievehistorymightrelatetotheirlivesand futures. Students will start finding history interesting when their teachersandtextbooksstoplyingtothem.

AFTERWORD

THEFUTURELIESAHEAD—ANDWHATTODOABOUTTHEM

Onedoesnotcollectfactshedoesnotneed,hangontothem,andthen stumble across the propitiousmoment to use them.One isfirst perplexed by a problem and then makes use of facts toachieveasolution.

—CHARLESSELLERS1

Once you have learned how to ask questions—relevant andappropriateandsubstantialquestions—youhavelearnedhowtolearnandnoonecankeepyoufromlearningwhateveryouwantorneedtoknow.

—NEILPOSTMANANDCHARLESWEINGARTNER2

Donottrytosatisfyyourvanitybyteachingagreatmanythings.Awaken people’s curiosity. It is enough to openminds; do notoverloadthem.

—ANATOLEFRANCE3

The future of mankind lies waiting for those who will come tounderstand their lives and take up their responsibilities to alllivingthings.

—VINEDELORIAJR.4

IFTHEAUTHORSOFAmerican history textbooks took notice of the pointsmadeinthefirstelevenchaptersofthisbook,thentextbookswouldbefarlesslikely to present, and teachers to teach, distorted and indefensibly incompleteaccountsofourpast.LiesMyTeacherToldMeisitselfincomplete,however.Itsays little about Hispanic history, for example. Yet our textbooks are soAnglocentric that they might be considered Protestant history.5 What aboutwomen’shistoryandthehistoryofgenderinAmerica,twodifferentbutrelatedtopics?Liesmentions both subjects from time to time butmakes no thoroughcritiqueofhowtextbookspresentwomen’shistoryandgenderissues.6Andwhataboutthenextlie?Thenexthistoricalmarker,commemorativestatue,museumexhibit,featurefilmsetintheAmericanpast,televisionminiseries,orhistoricalnovelwillprobablypassonmoremisinformation.Attheleast,itwillpresentitstopicincompletelyandpartially.Whatistobedoneaboutthesefuturelies?

The answer is not to expand Lies My Teacher Told Me to cover everydistortionanderrorinhistoryastraditionallytaught,tosaynothingofthefutureliesyet tobedeveloped.That approachwouldmakeme thearbitrator—Iwhosurelystillunknowinglyacceptallmannerofhoary legendsashistorical fact.7Instead, the answer is for all of us to become, in Postman andWeingartner’svulgar term, “crap detectors”8—independent learners who can sift througharguments and evidence and make reasoned judgments. Then we will havelearnedhowtolearn,asPostmanandWeingartnerputit,andneitheraone-sidedtextbooknoraone-sidedcritiqueoftextbookswillbeabletoconfuseus.Tosucceed,schoolsmusthelpuslearnhowtoaskquestionsaboutoursociety

anditshistoryandhowtofigureoutanswersforourselves.AtthiscrucialtaskmostAmericanhistorytextbooksandcoursesfailmiserably.Partof theproblemiswithform.Because they try tocoversomany things,

textbooks, at least as currently incarnated,cannot effectivelyacquaint studentswith issues and controversies and thereby with historical argument, with itsattendantskillsofusinglogicandmarshalingevidencetopersuade.Mentioningis part of theproblem.Evenwhen textbooksdiscredit themyths that clogourhistorical arteries, students don’t retain the tiny rebuttals in their historytextbooks. 9 They forget the untoward fact that contradicts the myth, for itdoesn’t fit with the powerful archetype. History textbooks and teachers mustmake special efforts and take enough time to teach effectively against these

archetypes.MirceaEliadehasreferredto“theinabilityofcollectivememorytoretainhistoricaleventsexcept insofaras it transformsthemintoarchetypes.”10Truth,toberetained,mustbegiventhesamemythicsignificancethatwehavegivenourlies.Forthisreason,Ifindmyselftongue-tiedwhenteachersaskwhattextbookI

recommend.Perhaps no traditional textbook can bewritten thatwill empowerratherthanboreuswithhistory.What,then,istobedone?Theportraitoflyingpaintedinthelasttwochaptersasaverticallyintegrated

industry, includingtextbookboards,publishers,authors, teachers,students,andthepublic,mayappearbleak.Itfollows,however,thatinterventioncanoccuratanypointinthecycle.Thenextfewparagraphsaredirectedparticularlytowardteachers,whocaninterveneevenintheabsenceoftransformedtextbooks.Thoseofusnotintheclassroomcanplayaroleinchanginghowhistoryistaughtbysupportingteacherswhoputinnovativeapproachesintopractice.

Throughout theUnited States, roadsidemarkers,monuments, forts, ships, andmuseumsdistort history.MybookLiesAcrossAmerica critiqued one hundredsuchsites.Thismarker,whichIcritiquedinthefirsteditionofLiesMyTeacherToldMe, inspired that book. Like many Civil War monuments and roadsidemarkersacrosstheSouth,itmisrepresentedSouthernersasunitedinsupportoftheConfederacy.Inreality, in1863,support fromblackresidents insouthwestMississippi—and from some whites as well—enabled Grant to abandon hissupplylinesandattackVicksburgfromthesouthandeast.Despitethisroadsidemarker’swords, “the people”Grant’s forces encounteredweremostlyAfrican

Americanswho responded to “the blueclad invaders” by supplying themwithfood,showingthemthebestroadstoJackson,andtellingthemexactlywheretheConfederateswere.

By2000, perhaps because of this book, themarker had been removed.TheMississippi Department of Archives and History does not admit to knowingwhat happened to it, but it no longer stands in southwest Mississippi. Amarvelousteachingdevicewouldbeforaclasstoexamineroadsidemarkersandmonuments in their own community, deciding which is least accurate. Thenstudents could propose a corrective marker to stand next to the biasedcommemoration; theymight evenhelp raisemoney to erect it. In the process,theymight stumble upon someof the forces that influencehistoricalmemory,especiallywhenitisonthelandscape.Thefirstcriticalchangemustbeintheform:wemustintroducefewertopics

andexaminethemmorethoroughly.Thereisnowaytogetstudentstoexploreandbringprimaryandsecondarysourcestobearonthethousandsoftopicsthatnowclutterhistorytextbooks.RatherthanhavingstudentsmemorizethenamesAmerigoVespucci,GiovanniVerrazano,PoncedeLeon,HernandodeSoto,etc.,andaphrasetellingwhateachallegedlydid,teacherscanhelpstudentsfocusonthe larger picture—the effects ofColumbus’s 1493 expedition uponHaiti andSpain,andthenonalltheAmericas,Europe,theIslamicworld,andAfrica.SomanydetailsconnectwithmajorissuessuchasthisthatIsuspectstudentswillcomeawayrememberingmoreparticulars than if theyhadmerelyregurgitatedfactoids. Certainly, students will recall the projects they worked on and theissues theyworked through themselves.Many educators have alreadyput intoeffect teachingmethods that deviate from the deadening “learn the textbook”routineandprovidemodelsforotherteachers.11Covering fewer topics will enable classes to delve into historical

controversies.Doingso is anabsolute requirement if studentsare to learn thathistory is not just answers. The answers one gets depend partly upon thequestionsoneasks,andthequestionsoneasksdependpartlyuponone’spurposeandone’s place in the social structure.Perhapsnot everyone in the classroomwill come to the same conclusion. Teachers need to put themselves in thepositionthatforstudentstodisagreewiththeirinterpretationisokay,solongasstudentsbackuptheirdisagreementwithserioushistoricalwork:argumentationbasedon evidence.People have a right to their ownopinions, but not to theirown facts.Evidencemustbe located, not created, andopinionsnotbackedby

evidence cannot begivenmuchweight.Studentswho researchboth sideswilldiscover which issues and questions facts will resolve, and which differencesinvolve basic values and assumptions. The students’ positions must then berespected.Thisdoesnotimplythatteachersshouldconcedethefloororaccedeto the now fashionable opinion that all points of view are equally appropriateandnoneistobe“privileged”withthelabel“true.”12Teachers do not have to know everything to facilitate independent student

learning. They can act as informed reference librarians, directing children tobooks, maps, and people who can answer their questions about history.Resources already exist that can help teachers teach history creatively, usingprimarymaterials.13Perhapsthebestresourcesarerightathand.Studentscaninterviewtheirown

familymembers,diversepeopleinthecommunity,leadersoflocalinstitutions,andoldercitizens.14Somehistoryclasseshavecompiledoralhistoriesofhowthe depression affected their town or how desegregation affected their school.Students in a Mississippi high school published a book, Minds Stayed onFreedom, about thecivil rightsmovement in theircommunity.15Students in aMassachusetts school “became” historical figures and published their work.16For students to create knowledge is exciting and empowering, even if theproductmerelygetsplacedin theschool library.Studentsmightalsosuggestanewhistoricalmarkerfortheirschoolorcommunity.Oftenthemostimportantevents go unrecorded on the landscape, while markers commemorate thenineteenth-centurysiteof theFirstPresbyterianChurch.Whateventsatahighschool were important enough to be noted on a marker? Which graduates“should”becommemorated?Whichmadehistory,andisabroaderdefinitionof“making history” needed? Do the names of local streets or buildings honorpeople whose acts we are now trying to rectify? Mississippi’s Ross BarnettReservoir, for example, pays tribute to the racist governor who tried to keepAfrican Americans out of the University of Mississippi. Who should behonored? Why? How? Raising these questions leads students to importantissues;iftheiranswersarecontroversial,somuchthebetter.Teachinghistorybackwardfromthepresentalsogripsstudents’attention.The

teacherpresentscurrentstatisticsonhighschoolseniors’lifechances,analyzedby race, sex, social class, and region—their prospects for various levels ofeducational achievement, divorce, incarceration, death by violence; their lifeexpectancy, frequency of voting, etc. Then students are challenged to discuss

eventsandprocessesinthepastthatcausethesedifferences.Teachers can also encourage their students to critique their textbook. Each

studentcanpickonatopics/hethinksisbadlyhandled,ortheentireclasscanworktogetheronacommonproblem.Chapter5toldofanIllinoisteacherwhoupsethersixthgradersbytellingthemthatmostpresidentsbeforeLincolnwereslaveowners.Afterherstudentsconvinced themselves thatshewasright, theywereoutragedwith their textbook,whichdevotedmanypages toWashington,Jefferson,Madison, Jackson, and the rest without a word about their owningslaves.Theywoundupsendingalettertotheputativeauthorandthepublisher.Theauthornever replied,but someoneat thepublisher sent abland reply thatthankedthemforproviding“usefulfeedbackonourproduct,”assuredthem“wearealwaysstrivingtoimproveourproduct,”andconcludedbypointingoutthatthe textbook included severalpageson thecivil rightsmovement. “Whatdoesthis have to do with our critique?” exclaimed the students. Presumably theanswertotheirquestionwas“It’s‘black,’isn’tit?!”Suchanencounteramountstoawin-winsituation.Ifthestudentsreceiveanintelligentreplythattakestheirpointseriously,thentheyhavehelpedtoimprovethebookinitsnextedition.IftheygetaboilerplatereplyliketheseIllinoissixthgraders,thentheyrealizenooneisathomeintellectuallyinthispublishingenterprise,sotheyhadbetterreadcriticallyfromhereon.Evenifteachersdonotchallengetextbookdoctrine,studentsandtherestofus

are potential sources of change. African American students have activelypressured several urban school systems for new history curricula. Two whitesixth-gradegirlsinSpringfield,Illinois,whodidaNationalHistoryDayprojecton the 1908 riot that tried to make that town an all-white “sundown town,”followedtheirprojectupbyspurringthecitytocreatea“raceriotwalkingtour”as apology and remembrance. Two Native American high school studentsspurred thestateofMinnesota toeliminate thewordsquaw,aderogatory termforfemaleAmericanIndians,asaformalnameonthelandscape.AndallacrossAmerica, confronted with teachers who still simply teach from the textbook,students have challenged themwith ideas fromLiesMyTeacherToldMe.Asone student put it: “I’ve been using your book to hecklemy teacher from thebackoftheroom.”Whether dealingwith bad textbooks,watchinghistoricalmovies, or visiting

museum exhibits, students—and the rest of us—must learn how to deal withsources.Thisprocessentailsputtingfivequestionstoeachwork.17First, when and why was it written (or painted, etc.)? Locate the intended

audience in the social structure. Consider what the speaker was trying toaccomplish with them. This is part of what sociologists call the sociology ofknowledgeapproach.Englishprofessorscallitcontextualization:learningaboutthesocialcontextofthetext.Aswehaveseen,historianscallithistoriography:studyingthewritingofhistory.Historiography—theconceptandtheterm—canbetaught tostudentsasyoungasfourthgrade,and ithelpsmake themcriticalreadersandcriticalthinkers.18Asecondquestion,alsopartofhistoriography, is toaskwhoseviewpoint is

presented. Where is the speaker, writer, etc., located in the social structure?What interests, material or ideological, does the statement serve? Whoseviewpointsareomitted?Studentsmightthenattempttorewritethestoryfromadifferentviewpoint,thuslearningthathistoryisinevitablypartial.Third,istheaccountbelievable?Doeseachactinggroupbehavereasonably—

as we might, given the same situation and socialization? This approach alsorequires examining the work for internal contradictions. Does it cohere? Dosome of its assertions contradict others? If textbooks emphasize the UnitedStates as a generally helpful presence inLatinAmerica, for example, howdotheyexplainanti-Yankeesentimentintheregion?Fourth, is the account backed up by other sources? Or do other authors

contradict it? This question sends us to the secondary historical and socialscienceliterature.Evenacursoryencounterwithresearchonsocialclassinothercountries, for instance, is enough to refute the glowing textbook accounts ofAmericaasalandofunparalleledopportunity.Finally,afterreadingthewordsorseeingtheimage,howisonesupposedto

feel about the America that has been presented? This analysis also includesexaminingtheauthors’choiceofwordsandimages.“Mostofthewordsweuseinhistoryandeverydayspeecharelikementaldepthcharges,”JamesAxtellhaswritten. “As they descend [through our consciousness] and detonate, theirresonant power is unleashed, showering our understanding with fragments ofaccumulatedmeaningandassociation.”19Readerswhokeepthesefivequestionsinmindwillhavelearnedhowtolearn

history.Teachersandstudentsarenottheonlyfulcrumsforchange.Newfactorsmake

transformedtextbookspossible.InCalifornia,Texas,andotherstates,right-wingconservatives still influence textbook adoptions, but so now do many others.Beginningin1985,forinstance,Texasforcedsomepublisherstotreatevolutionmore honestly, avoid such stereotypical terms as go on the warpath, when

referring to Native Americans, and add white before Southerners whereappropriate. 20 The ensuing standoffs between black nationalists, feminists,right-wingers,FirstAmendmentgroups,etc.,allowauthorsandpublishersnewroomtomaneuver.Consumers of education—students, teachers, parents, and interested citizens

—are beginning to demand textbooks with real flavor, history that can evenupset the stomach.According toMichaelWallace,Americans are ready for it.People generally “are angry at having been conned and are curious to knowmore,” he claims. “Witness the triumph ofRoots in a culture once seeminglymiredinthepietiesofGoneWiththeWind.”21Forthatmatter,thesuccessofthefirsteditionofLiesMyTeacherToldMeprovidesadditionalevidence.It is about time. For history is central to our ongoing understanding of

ourselvesandoursociety.WeneedtoproduceAmericansofallsocial-classandracialbackgroundsandofbothgenderswhocommandthepowerofhistory—theability to use one’s understanding of the past to inspire and legitimize one’sactions in the present. Then the past will seriously inform Americans asindividuals and as a nation, instead of serving as a source of weary clichés.Productsof successfulAmericanhistorycoursesknowbasic social factsabouttheUnitedStatesandunderstandthehistoricalprocessesthathaveshapedthesefacts.Theycanlocatethemselvesinthesocialstructure,andtheyknowsomeofthe societal and ideological forces that have influenced their lives. SuchAmericansarereadytobecomecitizens,becausetheyunderstandhowtoeffectchangeinoursociety.Theyknowhowtocheckouthistoricalassertionsandaresuspicious of archetypal “truths.” They can rebut the charge that history isirrelevant, because they realize ways that the past influences the present,includingtheirownpresent.Thomas Jefferson surely had it right when he urged the teaching of politicalhistory so thatAmericansmight learn“how to judge for themselveswhatwillsecure or endanger their freedom.”22 Citizens who are their own historians,willingtoidentifyliesanddistortionsandabletousesourcestodeterminewhatreally went on in the past, become a formidable force for democracy. HughTrevor-Roper,thedeanofBritishhistorians,haswritten,“Anationthathaslostsight of its history, or is discouraged from the study of it by the desiccatingprofessionalism [or unprofessionalism!] of its historians, is intellectually andperhapspoliticallyamputated.Butthathistorymustbetruehistoryinthefullest

sense.”After the eleven years of research andwriting that went into the firsteditionofthisbook,23andthirteenmoreyearsofstudysince,myownquesttoknowwhattrulyhappenedinourAmericanpasthasonlybegun.Afterreadingallthisway,sohasyours.Bonvoyagetousboth!

NOTES

INTRODUCTIONTOTHESECONDEDITION

1Student,emailviaAOL.com,1996.

2TomiEvans,email,10/2005.

3ViaErikBailey,e-mail,11/2005.

4DudleyLewis,“TeachingtheTruth,”SanFranciscoExaminer&Chronicle,11/26/1995.LewiswasthefirstcommentatortopairHowardZinn’sPeople’sHistoryandLies.Hewasfarfromthelast.Ourbooksareverydifferent,partlybecauseourpoliticsdiffer,butweareequallycriticalofthesmugboringtextbooksthatstilldominateAmericanhistoryonthehighschoollevel.

5MaryMackey,“Don’tKnowMuchAboutHistory...,”SanFranciscoChronicle,2/12/1995.

6“Joan”atindependentreader.com(1995);websitehassincechangedhands.

7Othershavedonebetter,butthey’redead!

8Severalreadershavetakenmetotaskforincludingalmostnothingaboutwomen’shistory.Tobesure,intheAfterwordItookmyselftotaskforthisomissionandexplaineditbynotingthatthejobhadalreadybeendone.Anotetothatchapterdirectsreaderstosixdifferentcritiquesofhistorytextbooks’treatmentofwomen;Icouldnotbringmyselftodoagainwhatothershaddonesowell.Imustadmit,however,thatIhaveyettomeetasinglepersonwhoreadoneofthesecritiquesbecauseofmysuggestion,soperhapsIshouldhaveaddressedthetopicmyself.

9WhenIdidthisonapanelwithHerbertKohlandHowardZinninBoston,Zinnsuggested,“MaybeyoushouldhavecalledyourbookLies70PercentofMyTeachersToldMe.”

10Please,beforeyouquit,buyatleastonebookfromtheclub!

11Politewouldbenice,though.

INTRODUCTION:SOMETHINGHASGONEVERYWRONG

1Billings,whoserealnamewasHenryWheelerShaw,coinedthisphraseprobablybetween1850and1885.

2JamesBaldwin,“ATalktoTeachers,”SaturdayReview,12/21/1963,reprintedinRickSimonsonandScottWalker,eds.,Multi-culturalLiteracy(St.Paul,MN:GraywolfPress,1988),11.

3Gen.PetroG.Grigorenko,quotedinRobertSlusser,“HistoryandtheDemocraticOpposition,”inRudolfL.Tökés,ed.,DissentintheUSSR(Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,1975),329-53.

4Iusethetermhistoryasencompassingsocialstudies,asdomostresearchersandstudents.Whenthedistinctionisimportant,Iwillmakeit.RobertReinhold,Harrispoll,reportedinNewYorkTimes,7/3/1971,andquotedinHerbertAptheker,TheUnfoldingDrama(NewYork:International,1978),146;TerryBorton,TheWeeklyReaderNationalSurveyonEducation(Middletown,CT:FieldPublications,1985),14,16;MarkSchug,RobertTodd,andR.Beery,“WhyKidsDon’tLikeSocialStudies,”SocialEducation48(May1984):382-87;AlbertShanker,“The‘Efficient’DiplomaMill,”paidcolumninNewYorkTimes,2/14/1988;JoanM.ShaughnessyandThomasM.Haladyna,“ResearchonStudentAttitudesTowardSocialStudies,”SocialEducation49(November1985):692-95.Nationalgradeaveragesin1992ACTAssessmentResults,SummaryReport,Mississippi(IowaCity:ACT,1993),7.

5DianeRavitchandChesterE.FinnJr.,WhatDoOur17-Year-OldsKnow?(NewYork:HarperandRow,1987);NationalGeographicSociety,Geography:AnInternationalGallupSurvey(Washington,D.C.:NationalGeographicSociety,1988).SincethefirsteditionofLiesMyTeacherToldMe,thesestudiescontinuetocomeout.RecentexamplesincludeElizabethMcPike,EducationforDemocracy(Washington,D.C.:AlbertShankerInstitute,2000);astudyof556studentsatfifty-fiveelitecollegesanduniversitiescommissionedbytheAmericanCouncilofTrusteesandAlumni,summarizedbytheAssociatedPress—“StudentsIgnorantofHistory,”USAToday,6/29/2000;the2001NationalAssessmentofEducationalProgressinHistory,summarizedbyDianeRavitch,“ShouldWeBeAlarmedbytheResultsoftheLatestU.S.HistoryTest?(Yes),”

HistoryNewsNetwork,hnn.us/articles/1526.html,10/19/2003;SheldonM.Stern,EffectiveStateStandardsforU.S.History(Washington,D.C.:ThomasB.FordhamInstitute,2003);andJoeWilliams,“Duh!81%ofkidsfailtest,”NewYorkDailyNews,nydailynews.com/front/story/308139p263646c.html,5/10/2005.Inadditiontopointingoutthatgraduatesknowlittlehistory,McPikealsoclaimstheyarenotnationalistenough,havingbeentaughttoomanybadthingsaboutourpast.Idisagree.

6JamesGreen,“EveryoneHis/HerOwnHistorian?”RadicalHistoriansNewsletter80(5/99):3,reviewingandquotingRoyRosenzweigandDavidThelen,ThePresenceofthePast(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,1998).

7RichardL.Sawyer,“CollegeStudentProfiles:NormsfortheACTAssessment,1980-81”(IowaCity:ACT,1980).SawyerfindslargerdifferencesbyraceandincomeinsocialstudiesthaninEnglish,mathematics,andthenaturalsciences.

8YearsagoMillsdiscernedthatAmericansfeelaneedtolocatethemselvesinthesocialstructureinordertounderstandtheforcesthatshapetheirsocietyandthemselves.SeeC.WrightMills,TheSociologicalImagination(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1959),3-20.

9PaulGoldstein,ChangingtheAmericanSchoolbook(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1978).Goldsteinsaystextbooksaretheorganizingprincipleformorethan75percentofclassroomtime.Inhistory,theproportionisevenhigher.

10Oneofthe“newnew”books,WeAmericans,alsohasancientantecedentsbutchangedauthorsandwasradicallyrevisedaround1990.

11———,“AskanAlum,”VermontQuarterly(Fall2005):53.

12RavitchandFinn,WhatDoOur17-Year-OldsKnow?49.

13MelGabler’sright-wingtextbookcriticsandIconcurthattextbooksareboring.Mrs.W.KelleyHaralsonwrites,“Thecensoringofemotionalismfromhistorytextsduringthelasthalfcenturyhasresultedinhistorytextbookswhichareboringtostudents.”“Objections[toTheAmericanAdventure]”(Longview,TX:EducationalResearchAnalysts,n.d.),4.Wepartcompanyinourproposedsolutions,however,fortheonlyemotionthatGablerandhisalliesseemtowanttoaddispride.

14“It’saGreatCountry,”sungwithpridebyahighschoolchoirfromWebster

Groves,Missouri,inaCBSNewsvideo,SixteeninWebsterGroves(NY:CarouselFilms,1966).

15IntheaftermathoftheVietnamWar,HarcourtBracerenamedthislastoneTriumphoftheAmericanNation.ThisistheRamboapproachtohistory:wemayhavelostthewarinSoutheastAsia,butwe’llwinitonthebookjackets!

16JamesAxtell,“Europeans,Indians,andtheAgeofDiscoveryinAmericanHistoryTextbooks,”AmericanHistoricalReview92(1987):627.EssayssuchasAxtell’s,whichreviewcollege-leveltextbooks,rarelyappearinhistoryjournals.Almostneverarehighschooltextbooksreviewed.

17Twelvewereinmyfirstsampleforthefirsteditionofthisbook,sixinmysecond,forthisrevision.Twobooks,DiscoveringAmericanHistoryandTheAmericanAdventure,are“inquirytextbooks,”composedofmaps,illustrations,andextractsfromprimarysourcessuchasdiariesandlaws,allwoventogetherbyanoverarchingnarrative.Brieflypopularinthemid-1970s,thesebooksweremeanttoinvitestudentsto“do”historythemselves.TheAmericanWay,LandofPromise,TheUnitedStates—AHistoryoftheRepublic,AmericanHistory,andTheAmericanTraditionaretraditionalhighschoolnarrativehistorytextbooksinmyearliersample.AmericanAdventures,LifeandLiberty,andTheChallengeofFreedom,alsoinmyoriginalsample,wereintendedforjuniorhighstudentsbutwereoftenusedby“slow”seniorhighclasses.TriumphoftheAmericanNationandTheAmericanPageantwereoftenusedin“advancedplacement”highschoolhistorycourses.ThenewersixbooksincludedadescendantofTriumphoftheAmericanNationretitledHoltAmericanNation,thenewestPageant,AHistoryoftheUnitedStatesbyDanielBoorstinandBrooksMatherKelley,TheAmericans,nowlistingGeraldDanzerandfourotherauthors,PathwaystothePresent,listingfourauthors,andaseventh-gradebook,TheAmericanJourney,whichIincludedbecauseaMcGraw-Hillrepresentativeurgedmeto,impressedwiththethreeoutstandinghistorianslistedasitsauthors.Salesfiguresaretradesecrets,butthefivecurrenthighschooltextbooksIexaminedareprobablythebiggestsellersandprobablyaccountformorethanthree-fourthsofallAmericanhistorytextbooksales.

CHAPTER1:HANDICAPPEDBYHISTORY:THEPROCESSOFHERO-MAKING

1JamesBaldwin,“ATalktoTeachers,”SaturdayReview,12/21/1963,reprintedinRickSimonsonandScottWalker,eds.,Multi-culturalLiteracy(St.Paul,MN:GraywolfPress,1988),9.

2W.E.B.DuBois,BlackReconstruction(Cleveland:WorldMeridian,1964[1935]),722.

3CharlesV.Willie,quotedinDavidJ.Garrow,BearingtheCross(NewYork:WilliamMorrow,1986),625.

4Thephrase,ofcourse,referstohisfather’swealthandSenateseat.

5HelenKeller(NewYork:McGraw-HillFilms,1969).

6HelenKeller,“Onward,Comrades,”addressattheRandSchoolofSocialScience,NewYork,12/31/1920,reprintedinPhilipS.Foner,ed.,HelenKeller:HerSocialistYears(NewYork:InternationalPublishers,1967),107.

7QuotedinJonathanKozol,TheNightIsDarkandIAmFarfromHome(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1990[1975]),101.

8Foner,ed.,HelenKeller:HerSocialistYears,26.

9JosephP.Lash,HelenandTeacher(NewYork:Delacorte,1980),454;DennisWepman,HelenKeller(NewYork:ChelseaHouse,1987),69;Foner,ed.,HelenKeller:HerSocialistYears,17-18.TheUnitedStatesdidnotallowFlynntoreceivetheletter.

10JonathanKozolbroughtthissuppressiontomyattentioninanaddressattheUniversityofWyomingin1975.Nazi leaders also knew about her radicalism: in 1933 they burned Keller’s

booksbecauseoftheirsocialistcontentandbannedherfromtheirlibraries.Weoverlook her socialist content, thus learning nomore than the German publicabout her ideas. See IrvingWallace, DavidWallechinsky, andAmyWallace,Significa(NewYork:Dutton,1983),1-2.

11N.GordonLevinJr.,WoodrowWilsonandWorldPolitics:America’sResponsetoWarandRevolution(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1968),

67.EverettM.Dirksen,“UseofU.S.ArmedForcesinForeignCountries,”CongressionalRecord,June23,1969,16840-43.

12RobertJ.Maddox,TheUnknownWarwithRussia(SanRafael,CA:PresidioPress,1977),137.

13HansSchmidt,TheUnitedStatesOccupationofHaiti,1915-1934(NewBrunswick,NJ:RutgersUniversityPress,1971),86.

14Ibid.,66,74.

15WalterKarp,ThePoliticsofWar(NewYork:HarperandRow,1979),158-67.

16PieroGleijesus,“TheOtherAmericas,”WashingtonPostBookWorld,12/27/1992,5.

17“ReportsUnlawfulKillingofHaitiansbyOurMarines,”NewYorkTimes,10/14/1920,1ff.AlsoseeSchmidt,TheUnitedStatesOccupationofHaiti.

18AddressesofPresidentWilson.66thCongress,SenateDocument120(Washington,D.C.:GovernmentPrintingOffice,1919),133.

19JeanLacouture,HoChiMinh(NewYork:RandomHouse,1968),24,265.

20RayfordW.Logan,TheBetrayaloftheNegro(NewYork:Collier,1965[1954]),360-70;NancyJ.Weiss,“WilsonDrawstheColorLine,”inArthurMann,ed.,TheProgressiveEra(Hinsdale,IL:Dryden,1975),144;HarveyWasserman,AmericaBornandReborn(NewYork:Macmillan,1983),131;KathleenWolgemuth,“WoodrowWilsonandFederalSegregation,”JournalofNegroHistory44(1959):158-73;andMortonSosna,“TheSouthintheSaddle,”WisconsinMagazineofHistory54(Fall1970):30-49.

21ColoredAdvisoryCommitteeoftheRepublicanNationalCommittee,“AddresstotheColoredVoters,”October6,1916,reprintedinHerbertAptheker,ed.,ADocumentaryHistoryoftheNegroPeopleintheUnitedStates,1910-1932(Secaucus,NJ:Citadel,1973),140;NancyWeiss,“TheNegroandtheNewFreedom,”PoliticalScienceQuarterly84,1(March1969):66;TheodoreKornweibelJr.,“SeeingRed”:FederalCampaignsAgainstBlackMilitancy,1919-1925(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1998).

22WynC.Wade,TheFieryCross(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1987),115-51.

23Ibid.,135-37.

24Ibid.,138.

25LeroneBennett,Jr.,BeforetheMayflower(Baltimore:Penguin,1966[1962]),292-94.Bennettcountstwenty-sixmajorraceriotsin1919alone,includingriotsinOmaha;Knoxville;Longview,Texas;Chicago;PhillipsCounty,Arkansas;andWashington,D.C.AlsoseeHerbertShapiro,WhiteViolenceandBlackResponse(Amherst:UniversityofMassachusettsPress,1988),123-54.

26AddressesofPresidentWilson,108-99.

27WilliamBruceWheelerandSusanD.Becker,DiscoveringtheAmericanPast,vol.2(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1990),127.

28RonaldSchaffer,AmericansintheGreatWar(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1991),quotedinGarryWills,“ThePresbyterianNietzsche,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,1/16/1992,6.

29Karp,ThePoliticsofWar,326-28;CharlesD.Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1990),109.Ironically,afterthewarWilsonagreedwithDebsonthepowerofeconomicinterests:“Isthereanymanhere...whodoesnotknowthattheseedofwarinthemodernworldisindustrialandcommercialrivalry?”(speechinSaintLouis,9/5/1919;AddressesofPresidentWilson,41).

30Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,109.

31Ibid.AmeringerpointsoutthatWilson’sattacksoncivillibertieshadbecomeapoliticalliabilityandAttorneyGeneralPalmerapatheticjokebythefallof1920.

32Theseventh-gradetextbookAmericanJourneydoestellofherintwoplaces,eachtimesaying“accordingtopopularlegend.”

33MichaelH.Frisch,ASharedAuthority(Albany:StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,1990),39-47.

34InArthurM.Schlesinger’s1962pollofseventy-five“leadinghistorians,”Wilsoncameinfourth,aheadofThomasJefferson(KennethS.Davis,“NotSoCommonMan,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,December4,1986,29).Eighthundredandforty-sixprofessorsofAmericanhistoryratedWilsonsixth,after

FDRandthefourgentlemenalreadyonMountRushmore(RobertK.MurrayandTimBlessing,“ThePresidentialPerformanceStudy,”JournalofAmericanHistory70[December1983]:535-55).SeealsoGeorgeHornby,ed.,GreatAmericanaScrapBook(NewYork:Crown,1985),121.

35ThomasA.Bailey,ProbingAmerica’sPast,vol.2(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1973),575.

36MichaelKammen,MysticChordsofMemory(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),701.

37QuotedinMarjoryKline,“SocialInfluencesinTextbookPublishing,”inEducationalForum48,no.2(1984):230.

38BessiePierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1926),332.

39CharlesDickens,AmericanNotes,Chapter3,inTheCompleteWorksofCharlesDickens,dickens-literature.com/American_Notes/3.html,11/2006;ElisabethGitler,TheImprisonedGuest(NewYork:Farrar,Straus,&Giroux,2001);“LauraDeweyBridgman”atWikipedia,11/2006;HelenKeller,Midstream:MyLaterLife(NewYork:Greenwood,1968[1929]),156.

40Levin,WoodrowWilsonandWorldPolitics,1.SinceWilson’swastheonlyDemocraticadministrationinthefirstthirdofthetwentiethcentury,itwasnaturalthatmanyofFranklinRoosevelt’sstatesmen,includingFDRhimself,hadreceivedtheirforeignpolicyexperienceunderWilson.

41QuotedinKozol,TheNightIsDarkandIAmFarfromHome,101.

42Kammen,MysticChordsofMemory,639.

43SeealsoArthurLevine,WhenDreamsandHeroesDied(SanFrancisco:Jossey-Bass,1980),andFrisch,ASharedAuthority.

44QuotedinClaudiaBushman,“AmericaDiscoversColumbus”(CostaMesa,CA:AmericanStudiesAssociationAnnualMeeting,1992),9.

CHAPTER2:1493:THETRUEIMPORTANCEOFCHRISTOPHERCOLUMBUS

1KirkpatrickSale,TheConquestofParadise(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1990),5.

2SamuelD.Marble,BeforeColumbus(Cranbury,NJ:Barnes,1989),25.

3BartolomédeLasCasas,HistoryoftheIndies,translatedbyAndréeM.Collard(NewYork:HarperandRow,1971),289.

4DavidQuinn,EnglandandtheDiscoveryofAmerica,1481-1620(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1974),5-105;RobertBlow,AbroadinAmerica(NewYork:Continuum,1990),17;JackForbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans(Oxford:BasilBlackwell,1988),20.

5AngusCalder,RevolutionaryEmpire(NewYork:Dutton,1981),5.

6A.H.Lybyer,“TheOttomanTurksandtheRoutesofOrientalTrade,”EnglishHistoricalReview30,no.120(10/1915):577-88.TurkeymayhaveshutoutPortugueseandSpanishmerchantsfromthetradeforatime,however,owingtowarfarebetweenTurkeyandSpain/Portugal.

7Ibid.

8WilliamH.McNeill,TheAgeofGunpowderEmpires(Washington,D.C.:AmericanHistoricalAssociation,1989).

9SometextbooksusethetermNativeAmericans,someuseAmericanIndians,andsomeuseboth.Sinceabout1975someNativeAmericanshaverejectedthetermAmericanIndian.Others,includingtheAmericanIndianMovement,havechosentostickwithit.BecauseNativepeopleusebothterms,sowillI.

10LettertothekingandqueenofSpain,7/1503,inSelectLettersofChristopherColumbus,translatedandeditedbyR.H.Major(NewYork:Corinth,1961[1847]),196.

11ColumbusrenamedtheislandnowoccupiedbyHaitiandtheDominicanRepublicHispaniola,“LittleSpain.”IcalltheislandHaitibecause,asaterm,HispaniolaislesswellknownbythepublicthanHaiti,andbecauseHaitiwastheaboriginalterm,althoughconfusionremainsastowhetherHaitireferredto

theentireislandorthehighlands.SeeLasCasas,HistoryoftheIndies,44.

12MicheledeCuneo,1495letterreferringto1/20/1494,quotedinSale,ConquestofParadise,143.

13TheRequirementhasbeenwidelyreprinted.Thistranslationisfrom“500YearsofIndigenousandPopularResistanceCampaign”(np:GuatemalaCommitteeforPeasantUnity,1990).

14AlfredW.Crosby,EcologicalImperialism:TheBiologicalExpansionofEurope,900-1900(NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1976),71-93.

15bellhooksmakesthispointin“Columbus:GonebutNotForgotten,”Z,December1992,26.

16Sale,TheConquestofParadise,71-72.

17ConstanceIrwin,FairGodsandStoneFaces(NewYork:St.Martin’s,1963),193-211,217,241;CyrusGordon,BeforeColumbus(NewYork:Crown,1971),119-25;GeoffreyAsheetal.,TheQuestforAmerica(London:PallMall,1971),78-79.

18RichardEaton,IslamicHistoryasGlobalHistory(Washington,D.C.:AmericanHistoricalAssociation,1990),17;oncaravel,SmithsonianInstitution“SeedsofChange”exhibit(Washington,D.C.:NationalMuseumofNaturalHistory,1991).

19TheAmericanAdventurepointsout“themagneticcompasshadcomefromChina,”and“fromtheArabscameaninstrumentcalledtheastrolabe.”HoltAmericanNationcreditstheChineseforthecompassandthePersiansorIndiansforthelateensail.Otherwise,alleighteentextbookspresentthePortugueseachievementsasunprecedented.

20StephenC.Jett,“Diffusionvs.IndependentDevelopment,”inCarrollRileyetal.,eds.,ManAcrosstheSea(Austin:UniversityofTexasPress,1971),7.

21Anentry-levellistofsourcesfortheseallegedpredecessorsofColumbusbeginswiththeenormousbibliographybyJohnL.SorensonandMartinH.Raish,Pre-ColumbianContactwiththeAmericasAcrosstheOceans(Provo,UT:ResearchPress,1990),hereafter“SorensonandRaish.”Seealso:For Indonesia: Stephen C. Jett. “The Development and Distribution of the

Blowgun,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Davis:University ofCalifornia,December 1970). Similarmanufacture of paper: Paul

Tolstoy,“PaperRoute,”NaturalHistory,6/1991,6-14;andFeatsandWisdomoftheAncients(Alexandria,VA:Time-Life,1990),122.AlsoseeCarrollRileyetal.,eds.,ManAcrosstheSea,especiallythearticlebyJett,andSorensonandRaish,entriesH255,M109,andS57.For Japanese: Betty J. Meggers, “Did Japanese Fishermen Really Reach

Ecuador 5000YearsAgo?”EarlyMan 2 (1980): 15-19, andAshe et al.,TheQuestforAmerica,239-59.AlsoseeFeatsandWisdomoftheAncients,124.ForCrees,Navajos,andInuits:WilliamFitzhugh,“CrossroadsofContinents:

Review and Prospect,” in William Fitzhugh and V. Chaussonet, eds.,Proceedings of the Crossroads Symposium (Washington, D.C.: SmithsonianInstitution Press, 1988). See also Ian Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive ofReincarnation(Charlottesville:UniversityofVirginiaPress,1974),218-19.ForChinese:JosephNeedhamandLuGwei-Djen,Trans-PacificEchoesand

Resonances(Singapore:WorldScientific,1985).AlsoseeFeatsandWisdomoftheAncients,121;Stevenson,TwentyCasesSuggestiveofReincarnation ,218-19; Irwin, Fair Gods and Stone Faces, 249-51; Paul Shao, The Origins ofAncient American Culture (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1983); andSorensonandRaish,entriesL228,231,238-41etal.For Afro-Phoenicians: Alexander von Wuthenau, The Art of Terracotta

Pottery in Pre-Columbian Central and South America (New York: Crown,1970), andUnexpected Faces in Ancient America (NewYork: Crown, 1975).AlsoseeIvanVanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus(NewYork:RandomHouse,1976);ThorHeyerdahl,“TheBeardedGodsSpeak,”inAsheetal.,TheQuestforAmerica,199-238;FeatsandWisdomoftheAncients,123;Irwin,FairGods and Stone Faces, 67-71, 89-96, 122-45, 176-86; J. A. Rogers, 100AmazingFactsAbout theNegro (St.Petersburg,FL:HelgaRogers,1970),21-22; andSorenson andRaish, entries J13-17,G71 et al.KennethFeder attacksVanSertima’sevidenceinFrauds,Myths,andMysteries(MountainView,CA:Mayfield,1990),75-77.ForCelts:BarryFell,AmericaB.C.(NewYork:Quadrangle,1976),andBarry

Fell,SagaAmerica(NewYork:TimesBooks,1980).ForIrish:Asheetal.,TheQuestforAmerica,24-48.Asheconcludesthatthe

evidenceforIrishvoyagesisweak.ForNorse:ErikWahlgren,TheVikingsandAmerica(NewYork:Thamesand

Hudson,1986).ForWestAfricans:Marble,BeforeColumbus,22-25.SeealsoVanSertima,

They Came Before Columbus; Arthur E. Morgan, Nowhere Was Somewhere

(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1946),198;MichaelAndersonBradley,DawnVoyage(Toronto:SummerHillPress,1987);PatheDiagne,“DuCentenaire de la Decouverte du Nouveau Monde par Bakari II, en 1312, etChristopherColomb, en1492” (Dakar: privately printed, 1990); andSorensonandRaish,entryH344.For Polynesians: Heather Whipps, “Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians

Found Americas Before Columbus,” Live Science website, 6/4/2007,livescience.com/history/070604_polynesian_chicken.html.For Portuguese:Marble,BeforeColumbus, 25. See alsoVan Sertima,They

CameBeforeColumbus:Morgan,NowhereWasSomewhere ,197;Asheetal.,TheQuestforAmerica,265-66;Quinn,EnglandandtheDiscoveryofAmerica,41-43, 85-86; andH. Y. Oldham, “A Pre-ColumbianDiscovery of America,”GeographicalJournal3(1895):221-33.ForBasques:Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,20.For Bristol fishers: Quinn, England and the Discovery of America, 5-105.

Also see A. A. Ruddock, “John Day of Bristol,”Geographical Journal 132(1966):225-33;Blow,Abroad inAmerica, 17;G.R.Crone,TheDiscoveryofAmerica (New York: Weybright and Talley, 1960), 157-58; and Carl Sauer,Sixteenth-Century North America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCaliforniaPress,1971),6.

22CharlesH.Hapgood,MapsoftheAncientSeaKings(NewYork:Chilton,1966).HapgoodarguesfortheTurkishmap,whichhebelievescontainsdetailsunknowntoEuropeanexplorersin1513,hencecouldnotbefraudulent.CurrentAnthropology21,no.1(February1980)containsargumentsforandagainstcoinsasevidenceofRomanvisits.

23Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,7-14;WilliamFitzhugh,personalcommunication,November16,1993;VanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus,Chapter12.SeealsoAliceB.Kehoe,“SmallBoatsUpontheNorthAtlantic,”inRileyetal.,ManAcrosstheSea,276.

24JamesWestDavidsonandMarkH.Lytle,AftertheFact(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1992).

25Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,19.MorganLlywelyn,“TheNorseDiscoveryoftheNewWorld,”EarlyMan2,no.4(1980):3-6;MarshallMcKusickandErikWahlgren,“VikinginAmerica—FactandFiction,”EarlyMan2,no.4(1980):7-9.Unlikemostauthorities,Sale,TheConquestof

Paradise,374,isunsurethatColumbusreachedIceland.TheNorsefindingswereknowninEurope,accordingtoJamesDuff,TheTruthaboutColumbus(London:Jarrolds,1937),9-13.

26VanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus,30.SeealsoIrwin,FairGodsandStoneFaces,126.

27VonWuthenau,TheArtofTerracottaPotteryinPre-ColumbianCentralandSouthAmerica,50.

28JoseMariaMelgarquotedinJacquesSoustelle,TheOlmecs(GardenCity:Doubleday,1984),9.GabrielHaslip-Viera,BernardOrtizdeMontellano,andWarrenBarboursummarizethecaseagainstAfricancontactin“RobbingNativeAmericanCultures,”CurrentAnthropology38#3(6/1997),419-31.

29Note21includesproandconsourcesforAfro-Phoeniciancontact.

30QuotedbyJanCarew,FulcrumsofChange(Trenton,NJ:AfricaWorldPress,1988),13.

31Forexample,“AcknowledgeYourOwnHistory”byJungleBrothers.

32PhoeniciansandEgyptiansdidnotkeeptrackof“races”intoday’stermsandranged(astheydotoday)fromlighttodark.

33Acontroversyragesoverwhatimpacttheseallegednewcomershad.OlderEurocentrictheoriescreditedwhitevisitorstotheAmericaswiththeideasthatledtoOlmecandMayancivilizations.PierreHonore,InQuestoftheWhiteGod(NewYork:Putnam,1964),isalateexample.AfewauthorsbelievetheblackvisitorstobethesourceofmanyOlmecskillsandideas.SeeIrvingWallace,DavidWallechinsky,andAmyWallace,Significa(NewYork:Dutton,1983),58.MostMesoamericanistsbelievetheOlmecsdevelopedentirelyontheirown.Foranearlystatementofthiscriticism,seeGregoryMason,ColumbusCameLate(NewYork:Century,1931).AfourthviewholdsthattheAfro-PhoeniciancontactmighthavetriggeredafloweringofOlmecsociety.Thisviewretainsthepotentialforgeniusinbothhemispheres.

34Adventureisan“inquirytextbook,”composedofmaps,illustrations,andextractsfromprimarysourcessuchasdiariesandlaws,linkedbynarrativepassages.Questionsofthissortarethebaneofinquirybooks.Wrestlingwiththemwouldrequireabundantlibrarymaterials,curriculartime,andteachingsavvy.

35Marble,BeforeColumbus,25.

36DeSoto’sonlygeopoliticalsignificancewassmallpox,whichheleftamongtheIndians,andwhichlefttheirpopulationsmuchreducedevenbythetimeLaSallefloateddowntheMississippi140yearslater.AmongthebooksIreviewedonlyLifeandLibertymentionsthisplague,givingitjustfivewords.

37AfterIpublishedthisimaginedclassroomexchangeinTheTruthAboutColumbus(NewYork:NewPress,1992),IreadanaccountoftheAfricanAmericannovelistIshmaelReed’sbringingupsimilarmaterial,learnedfromthehistorianJ.A.Rogers,inhisfourth-gradehistoryclass.Histeacherdismissedhisideasin“alengthyoutburst,”Reedreports.See“TheForbiddenBooksofYouth,”NewYorkTimesBookReview,June6,1993,26-28.

38Diagne,“DuCentenairedelaDecouverteduNouveauMondeparBakariII,en1312,etChristopherColomb,en1492,”2-3;VanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus,6.Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,13-14,citesLasCasasasevidencethatColumbusknewofAmericantradefromWestAfrica.

39VanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus,21,26.RegardingAfricandiseasesintheAmericas,seeSorensonandRaish,entryH344,andRichardHoeppli,“ParasiticDiseasesinAfricaandtheWesternHemisphere,”inActaTropica,Supplementum10(Basel:VerlagfürRechtundGesellschaft,n.d.),54-59.Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,cautionsthatblackandNegromightbemisleadingterms,forEuropeansoftenappliedthemtoanydarkpersonoflowstatus.ForbesbelievesthatBalboasawblacks,butthinkstheseblacksmighthavecomesomehowfromHaiti.SinceAfricanslaveswerebroughttoHaitionlyin1505,theywouldhavehadtoescapefromHaititoPanamawithIndiansinordertohaveprecededBalboa,whoarrivedinPanamain1510.RegardingblackoraltraditioninMexico,seeGonzaloAguirreBeltran,LapoblaciónnegradeMéxico(MexicoCity:FondodeCulturaEconómica,1989);andJohnG.Jackson,Man,God,andCivilization(NewHydePark,NY:UniversityBooks,1972),283.

40Rileyetal.,ManAcrosstheSea,especiallyAliceB.Kehoe,“SmallBoatsupontheNorthAtlantic,”275-92.EvenMarcStengelleavesoutBrendanfromhislivelyandsympatheticsummary,“TheDiffusionistsHaveLanded,”AtlanticMonthly,1/2000,35-48.

41ThethreesmallfragmentsofknowledgeaboutColumbus’sbackgroundaredescribedinLorenzoCamusso,TheVoyagesofColumbus(NewYork:Dorset,

1991),9-10.SeealsoSale,TheConquestofParadise,51-52.

42LasCasas,HistoryoftheIndies,21.

43Sale,TheConquestofParadise,23-26.

44Ibid.,344;J.B.Russell,InventingtheFlatEarth(NewYork:Praeger,1991).

45By2003thedescendanttextbookHoltAmericanNationdroppedthemutinyaltogether.

46Sale,TheConquestofParadise,171,185,204-14,362;JohnHebert,ed.,1492:AnOngoingVoyage(Washington,D.C.:LibraryofCongress,1992),100.

47HansKoning,Columbus,HisEnterprise(NewYork:MonthlyReviewPress,1976),39-40;Sale,TheConquestofParadise,238.

48PietroBarozzi,“NavigationandShipsintheAgeofColumbus,”ItalianJournal5,no.4(1990):38-41.

49SamuelEliotMorison,TheGreatExplorers(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1978),397-98.ElsewhereMorisongivestalkofrevoltabitmorecredence,butKoning,Columbus,HisEnterprise,50,pooh-poohsthemutiny.Thebestsourceforthetrip,Columbus’sjournal,nowlostbutsummarizedbyBartolomédeLasCasas,offersthisaccount:“Here[10/10]themencouldbearnomoreandcomplainedofthelengthofthevoyage.ButtheAdmiralencouragedtheminthebestwayhecould,givingthemhopeoftheadvantagetheymightgainfromit[riches].Headdedthathowevermuchtheymightcomplain,havingcomesofar,hehadnothingtodobutgototheIndies,andhewouldgoonuntilhefoundthem.”Sale,TheConquestofParadise,60,believesthestoryhaslittlehistoricalcredibility.Indeed,byOctober9,theywerefollowinglargeflocksofbirds,whichtheybelieved(correctly)wouldtakethemtowardland,makinganOctober10mutinythreatquiteunlikely.

50BillBigelow,“OnceUponaGenocide...,”inRethinkingSchools5,no.1(October-November1990):7-8.

51SalvadordeMadariaga,ChristopherColumbus(NewYork:FrederickUngar,1967[1940]),203-4.

52TheJournalofChristopherColumbus,translatedbyCecilJane(NewYork:Bonanza,1989),171.

53Ibid.,23.

54TheLogofChristopherColumbus’sFirstVoyagetoAmericaintheYear1492,ascopiedoutinbriefbyLasCasas(Hamden,CT:Linnet,1989),unpaginated.

55Sale,TheConquestofParadise,122.

56PhilipKlass,“Wells,Welles,andtheMartians,”NewYorkTimesBookReview,October30,1988.Ironically,inWells’sstory,thealiensarefinallydoneinbymicrobes,while,inreality,diseasewipedouttheNatives.“Amazontribefaces‘annihilation’,”BBC,5/17/2005,news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/2/hi/americas/4554221.stm,11/2006.

57QuotedinMichaelPaiewonsky,TheConquestofEden,1493-1515(Chicago:Academy,1991),109.IhaveslightlymodifiedthetranslationbasedonatranslationinJuanFriedeandBenjaminKeen,BartolomédeLasCasasinHistory(DeKalb:NorthernIllinoisPress,1971),312.

58Sale,TheConquestofParadise,153-54.

59Cuneo,quotedinSale,TheConquestofParadise,138.SeealsoHowardZinn,APeople’sHistoryoftheUnitedStates(NewYork:HarperandRow,1980),4.

601496letter,quotedinEricWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,(Port-of-Spain,Trinidad:PNM,1963),1:57.

61FerdinandColumbus,TheLifeoftheAdmiralChristopherColumbus(NewBrunswick,NJ:RutgersUniversityPress,1959),149-50.

62MariaNorlander-Martinez,“ChristopherColumbus:TheMan,theMyth,andtheSlaveTrade,”AdventuresoftheIncredibleLibrarian,4/1990,17;TroyFloyd,TheColumbusDynastyintheCaribbean(Albuquerque:UniversityofNewMexicoPress,1973),29.

63Onebook,TheAmericans,doesmuchbetter.Itincludesthequotationaboutsubjugatingtheislandwithfiftymen,quotesLasCasas,andtellsthestoryofthe1493voyageandthesubjugationoftheNativesthatfollowed.

64JamesAxtell,“Europeans,Indians,andtheAgeofDiscoveryinAmericanHistoryTextbooks,”AmericanHistoricalReview92(1987):621-32;Sale,TheConquestofParadise,156.

65DeCordobaletterinWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,1:94.

66Smallpox,usuallythebigkiller,probablydidnotappearontheislanduntilafter1516.

67BenjaminKeen,“BlackLegend,”inTheChristopherColumbusEncyclopedia(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1991).LasCasascitedbySale,TheConquestofParadise,160-61.SeealsoAlfredW.CrosbyJr.,TheColumbianExchange:BiologicalandCulturalConsequencesof1492(Westport,CT:Greenwood,1972),45.

68RegardingIsabella,seeJ.LeitchWrightJr.,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew(NewYork:FreePress,1981),128;Forbes,BlackAfricansandNativeAmericans,28;Morison,TheGreatExplorers,78.WarrenLowes,IndianGiver(Penticton,BritishColumbia:Theytus,1986),32,saysLabradormeans“placetogetcheaplabor.”RegardingtheNatchez,seeJamesW.LoewenandCharlesSallis,Mississippi:ConflictandChange(NewYork:Pantheon,1980),40.

69LetterbyMicheledeCuneoquotedinPaiewonsky,TheConquestofEden,50.

70LetterbyColumbusquotedinWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,1:36-37.

71RonaldSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands:TheOriginsofAmericanRacism(Boston:Little,Brown,1978),131,alsoquotingandparaphrasingPeterMartyr,DeOrbeNovo(1516).

72LasCasas,HistoryoftheIndies,quotedinWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,1:67.SeealsoSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands,131,alsoquotingandparaphrasingLasCasas.

73Norlander-Martinez,“ChristopherColumbus:TheMan,theMyth,andtheSlaveTrade,”17;Sale,TheConquestofParadise,156;Sanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands,169;EduardoGaleano,MemoryofFire(NewYork:Pantheon,1988),72;Floyd,TheColumbusDynastyintheCaribbean,75,222.DiegoColumbuswasalmostkilledinthisrevolt,accordingtoJ.A.Rogers,YourHistory(Baltimore:BlackClassicPress,1983[1940]),71.NicholasdeOvandomayhaveimportedAfricansasslavesevenbefore1505.

74ThisturnofphraseisBillBigelow’s.

75Officialstatement,June8,1989,quotedinFiveHundred(magazineoftheColumbusQuincentenaryJubileeCommission),10/1989,9.

76JeffreyHart,“DiscoveringColumbus,”NationalReview,10/15/1990,56-57.

77Sale,TheConquestofParadise,129.

78QuotedinSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands,290.

79Koning,Columbus,HisEnterprise,86.

80MarcelDunan,ed.,LarousseEncyclopediaofModernHistory(NewYork:Crescent,1987),40.

81Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,11-12.SeealsoCalder,RevolutionaryEmpire,13-14;Dunan,ed.,LarousseEncyclopediaofModernHistory,40,67;Crone,DiscoveryofAmerica,184.

82Morgan,NowhereWasSomewhere;Marble,BeforeColumbus,73-75;Calder,RevolutionaryEmpire,13.Lowes,IndianGiver,82,regardingMontaigne.AlsoSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands,208-9.ThedirectinfluenceoftheanthropologistL.H.MorganonMarxandEngelsisdescribedbyBruceJohansen,ForgottenFounders:HowtheAmericanIndianHelpedShapeDemocracy(Cambridge,MA:HarvardCommonPress,1982),122-23.Sale,TheConquestofParadise.SeealsoCrone,DiscoveryofAmerica,184.

83QuotedbyPeterFarb,Man’sRisetoCivilization(NewYork:Avon,1969),296.TheTempestshowsShakespeare’sownfascination:hemodeleditsNativecharacter,Caliban,aftertheCaribIndians,whowerecannibals,accordingtowhattheArawakshadtoldColumbus.

84Forthatmatter,Europeisn’tacontinent,unlessthewordisdefinedEurocentrically!Europeisapeninsula;thedivisionbetweenEuropeandAsiaisarbitrary,unlikethedivisionsbetweenothercontinents.

85LeonFestinger,ATheoryofCognitiveDissonance(Evanston,IL:Row,Peterson,1957).

86Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,124-25andChapter5;WilliamLanger,“AmericanFoodsandEurope’sPopulationGrowth,1750-1850,”JournalofSocialHistory8(winter1975):51-66;JackWeatherford,IndianGivers(NewYork:Fawcett,1988),65-71;“SeedsofChange”exhibit(Washington,D.C.:NationalMuseumofNaturalHistory,1991).

87Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,124-25;Lowes,IndianGiver,59-60;Weatherford,IndianGivers,65-71;BoyceRensberger,“DidSyphilisSailto

EuropewithColumbusandHisCrew?”BurlingtonFreePress,7/31/1992,3D.

88SeealsoWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,1:xxxi.KarlMarxandFredrichEngels,“CommunistManifesto,”inRobertC.Tucker,ed.,TheMarx-EngelsReader(NewYork:Norton,1978),474.Weatherford,IndianGivers,43,58,arguesthatlong-stapleAmericancotton,moreusefulformakingcloththanOldWorldvarieties,promptedtheindustrialrevolution;healsoconsiderstheearlyproductionofcoinsinBoliviaandsugarintheCaribbeantoamounttoproto-factoriesthatspurredtheindustrialrevolutioninEurope.

89Weatherford,IndianGivers,12,15-17.Dunan,ed.,LarousseEncyclopediaofModernHistory,69,andSale,TheConquestofParadise,236,regardinginflation.MarxandEngels,“CommunistManifesto.”

90HermanJ.ViolaandCarolynMargolis,eds.,SeedsofChange(Washington,D.C.:SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1991),186-207.

91MichaelWallace,“ThePoliticsofPublicHistory,”inJoBlatti,ed.,PastMeetsPresent(Washington,D.C.:SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1987),41-42.SeealsoGarryWills,“Goodbye,Columbus,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,November22,1990,6-10.Interestingly,inresponsetotheColumbusquincentenarytheUnitedNationsvotedtodeclarethe1990s“theDecadetoEradicateColonialism.”OnlytheUnitedStatesdissented.EvenSpainandotherWesternEuropeanformercolonialpowersabstainedoutofrespectforthenewglobalreality.SeeJohnYewell,“ToGrowingNumbers,ColumbusNoHero,”St.PaulPioneerPress,10/11/1990.

92Johnsonv.M’Intosh;seeRobertK.Faulkner,TheJurisprudenceofJohnMarshall(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1968),53;andBruceA.Wagman,“AdvancingTribalSovereignImmunityasaPathwaytoPower,”UniversityofSanFranciscoLawReview27,no.2(Winter1993):419-20.

93RoyPreiswerkandDominiquePerrot,EthnocentrismandHistory(NewYork:NOK,1988),245-46.

94ColumbusquotedinSale,TheConquestofParadise,116;seealso201.

95JohnBurns,“CanadaTriestoMakeRestitutiontoItsOwn,”NewYorkTimes,9/1/1988.

96VirgilVogel,ThisCountryWasOurs(NewYork:HarperandRow,1972),38,reCartier.Weatherford,IndianGivers,30,reDrake.RegardingLewisand

Clark,onetextbook,AmericanHistory,givesfullcredittotheirIndianguides.RomeoB.Garrett,FamousFirstFactsAbouttheNegro(NewYork:Arno,1972),68-69,reHensonasfirstatPole.SomeclaimPeary’sexpeditionneverreachedthePole;ifitdid,wecannotnowdeterminewhichpersondidsofirst.Interestingly,PearyandHensonbothfatheredsonsduringtheexpedition.In1987thesemen,noweightyyearsold,participatedinareunionwithPeary’sandHenson’s“legitimate”descendants.Forthefirsttime,themen’smothers’roleintheexpeditionwasrecognized.See“Discoverers’SonsArriveforReunion,”BurlingtonFreePress,5/1/1987;alsoSusanA.Kaplan’sintroductiontoMatthewHenson,ABlackExplorerattheNorthPole(Lincoln:UniversityofNebraskaPress,1989).AgoodshortaccountofHensonappearsinWallace,Wallechinsky,andWallace,Significa,17-18.ForaviewofhowPearytookadvantageoftheInuits,includingachargeof“scientificcriminality,”seeMichaelT.Kaufman,“AMuseum’sEskimoSkeletonsandItsOwn,”NewYorkTimes,8/21/1993,1,24.

97Sale,TheConquestofParadise,238.

98LasCasas,oralhistorycollectedfromTainos,inWilliams,DocumentsofWestIndianHistory,1:17,92-93.

99LasCasasquotedinJ.H.Elliot,TheOldWorldandtheNew(NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1970),48;LasCasas,HistoryoftheIndies,289;JohnWilford,TheMysteriousHistoryofColumbus(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),40.LasCasasisjustlycriticizedforsuggestingthatAfricanslavesbebroughtintoreplaceIndianslaves.However,herecantedthisproposalandconcluded“thatblackslaverywasasunjustasIndianslavery”(HistoryoftheIndies,257).

CHAPTER3:THETRUTHABOUTTHEFIRSTTHANKSGIVING

1MichaelDorris,“WhyI’mNotThankfulforThanksgiving”(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildrenBulletin9,no.7,1978):7.

2FrancisJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica:Indians,Colonialism,andtheCantofConquest(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1975),15.

3HowardSimpson,InvisibleArmies:TheImpactofDiseaseonAmericanHistory(Indianapolis:Bobbs-Merrill,1980),2.

4Col.ThomasAspinwall,quotedinJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,175.

5KathleenTeltsch,“ScholarsandDescendantsUncoverHiddenLegacyofJewsinSouthwest,”NewYorkTimes,11/11/1990,A30;“HiddenJewsoftheSouthwest,”Groundrock(Spring1992).

6AlfredW.CrosbyJr.,TheColumbianExchange:BiologicalandCulturalConsequencesof1492(Westport,CT:Greenwood,1972),83.Ourcowboyculture’sSpanishoriginexplainswhyitissosimilartothegauchotraditionofArgentina.

7ThenewPageanthasalsoincreaseditstreatmentofSpanishrule.

8JamesAxtell,“Europeans,Indians,andtheAgeofDiscoveryinAmericanHistoryTextbooks,”AmericanHistoricalReview92(1987):630.

9Thepassageisbasicallyaccurate,althoughthewinterof1620-21wasnotparticularlyharshandprobablydidnotsurprisetheBritish,andIndiansdidnotassistthemuntilspring.

10WilliamLanger,“TheBlackDeath,”ScientificAmerican,February1964.

11Ibid.;seealsoWilliamH.McNeill,PlaguesandPeoples(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1976),166-85.

12WilliamH.McNeill,“DiseaseinHistory,”lectureattheUniversityofVermont,10/18/1988.Iusemicrobeandlatergermintheirlargermeaning,includingviralaswellasbacterialpathogens.

13Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,34.Althoughpeopledogetpneumoniaor

otherillnessesafterexposuretotheelements,theydonotgetsickfromthecoldbutinthecold,becausetheirbodilydefensesareweakened.Pneumoniaandotherpathogensdonotlurkinicylakesandsnowyhillsidesbutdwellonandwithinus,whereitiswarm.

14PeterFarb,Man’sRisetoCivilization(NewYork:Avon,1969),42-43;HubbertMcCullochSchnurrenberger,DiseasesTransmittedfromAnimalstoMan(Springfield,IL:CharlesC.Thomas,1975);seealsoAlfredW.CrosbyJr.,EcologicalImperialism:TheBiologicalExpansionofEurope,900-1900(NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1976),31.Andeansdidhavellamas;theAndesmaybetoohighandcoldtopromotediseaseamongllamasorpeople,however,asisimpliedbythefactthatEuropeanandAfricanepidemicsafter1492werelessdevastatingtherethanelsewhere.

15McNeill,“DiseaseinHistory”;Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,37;HenryDobyns,TheirNumberBecomeThinned(Knoxville:UniversityofTennesseePress,1983).

16Crosby,EcologicalImperialism,38-39,arguesthatsmallpoxepidemicscanrepeatedlywipeoutmostofthepopulationamongsuchgroupseachtimetheyrecur,perhapseverygeneration.

17McNeill,PlaguesandPeoples,201.

18GregoryMason,ColumbusCameLate(NewYork:Century,1931),269-70.

19Farb,Man’sRisetoCivilization,268.SeealsoJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,86;Crosby,EcologicalImperialism,210.

20FeenieZiner,Squanto(Hamden,CT:LinnetBooks,1988),141.SeealsoJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,48-52;RobertLoebJr.,MeettheRealPilgrims(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1979),23,87;andWarrenLowes,IndianGiver(Penticton,BritishColumbia:Theytus,1986),51.Itwasn’tonlythePilgrims:QueenIsabellaboastedthatshetookonlytwobathsinherlife,atbirthandbeforehermarriage,accordingtoJayStuller,“Cleanliness,”Smithsonian21(February1991):126-35.

21Simpson,InvisibleArmies,2;Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,37.

22NealSalisbury,“RedPuritans:The‘PrayingIndians’ofMassachusettsBayandJohnEliot,”inBruceA.GlasrudandAlanM.Smith,eds.,RaceRelationsinBritishNorthAmerica,1607-1783(Chicago:Nelson-Hall,1982),44;andNeal

Salisbury,“Squanto:LastofthePatuxets,”inDavidSweetandGaryNash,eds.,StruggleandSurvivalinColonialAmerica(BerkeleyandLosAngeles:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1981),231-37.Dobynsagreesthatthe1617plaguewasbubonicbutbelievesitsweptuptheAtlanticsea-boardallthewayfromFlorida;seeTheirNumberBecomeThinned.WilliamBradford,OfPlimothPlantation,renderedbyValerianPaget(NewYork:McBride,1909),258,impliesthattheIndiansknewthatsmallpoxwasnottheepidemicthatlaidwastetothemin1617,forindescribinga1634outbreakofsmallpox,Bradfordstated,“Theyfearitworsethantheplague.”WilliamCronon,ChangesintheLand(NewYork:HillandWang,1983),87,votesforchickenpox.

23ExcludingotherplaguesintheAmericas,ofcourse.CushmanisquotedinCharlesM.SegalandDavidC.Stineback,Puritans,Indians,andManifestDestiny(NewYork:Putnam’s,1977),54-55.

24Simpson,InvisibleArmies,6.

25QuotedinIbid.,7.

26Cushman,quotedinSegalandStineback,Puritans,Indians,andManifestDestiny,54-55;WilliamS.Willis,“DivisionandRule:Red,White,andBlackintheSoutheast,”inLeonardDinnersteinandKennethJackson,eds.,AmericanVistas,1607-1877(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1975),66.

27Particularlytheremnantsoftheonce-hostileMassachusetts,reducedinnumberfrom4,500to750,converted,accordingtoJamesAxtell,TheEuropeanandtheIndian(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1981),252,370;seealsoJamesW.DavidsonandMarkH.Lytle,AftertheFact(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1992),iii.

28Bradford,OfPlimothPlantation,93;cf.PeterHulme,ColonialEncounters(London:Methuen,1986),147-48.

29JohnWinthroptoSimondsD’Ewes,7/21/1634,PublicationsoftheColonialSocietyofMassachusetts1900-02,7(12/1905)71,atbooks.google.com/books.

30KarenOrdahlKupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians(London:J.M.Dent,1980),186;cf.Simpson,InvisibleArmies,8.

31TeeLoftinSnell,America’sBeginnings(Washington,D.C.:NationalGeographic,1974),73,77.

32Crosby,EcologicalImperialism,50-51.

33Ibid.,202-15.

34Simpson,InvisibleArmies,35.

35Dobyns,TheirNumberBecomeThinned.

36DavidQuummen,“ColumbusandSubmuloc,”Outside,June1990,31-34.Cf.Crosby,TheColumbianExchange,49;McNeill,PlaguesandPeoples,205-7.

37JamesBrooke,“ForanAmazonIndianTribe,CivilizationBringsMostlyDiseaseandDeath,”NewYorkTimes,12/24/1989.ViolentuprootingofNativeculturescontinuesaswell;seeAmnestyInternational,HumanRightsViolationsAgainsttheIndigenousPeoplesoftheAmericas(NewYork:AmnestyInternational,1992).CharlesDarwin,VoyageoftheBeagle,quotedinCrosby,EcologicalImperialism,vii.AsDarwinknew,thesamesadprocesseshaverecurredwhereverEuropeans,Asians,orAfricansencounteredisolatedpeoples,fromAustraliatoEasterIsland,HawaiitoSiberia.Thus,forexample,thepopulationoftheMarquesanIslandsintheSouthPacificsankfromonehundredthousandatfirstcontacttotwenty-fivehundredin1955.SeeThorHeyerdahl,Aku-Aku(Chicago:RandMcNally,1958),352.

38Langer,“TheBlackDeath,”5;seealsoMcNeill,PlaguesandPeoples.

39Farb,Man’sRisetoCivilization,294-95.

40ColinMcEvedy,ThePenguinAtlasofNorthAmericanHistory(NewYork:Viking,1988),3.McEvedyisaclinicalpsychiatrist.

41Jennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,16.

42Bradford,OfPlimothPlantation,258.

43Hurtado,IndianSurvivalontheCaliforniaFrontier(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1988),1.

44SourcesestimatingprecontactpopulationsinthisrangeincludeP.M.Ashburn,TheRanksofDeath(Philadelphia:Porcupine,1980[1947]);WoodrowBorah,“TheHistoricalDemographyofAboriginalandColonialAmerica,”inWilliamDenevan,ed.,TheNativePopulationoftheAmericasin1492(Madison:UniversityofWisconsinPress,1976),13-34;SherburneCookandWoodrowBorah,EssaysinPopulationHistory:MexicoandtheCaribbean,vol.1(BerkeleyandLosAngeles:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1971);Crosby,TheColumbianExchange;JaredDiamond,“TheArrowofDisease,”Discover,

October1992,64-73;Dobyns,TheirNumberBecomeThinned,42;Jennings,InvasionofAmerica,16-30;Simpson,InvisibleArmies;DavidStannard,AmericanHolocaust(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1992),11-24;andRussellThornton,AmericanIndianHolocaustandSurvival:APopulationHistorySince1492(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1987)and“TheNativeAmericanHolocaust,”WindsofChange4,no.4(Autumn1989):23-28.Forareviewofthepopulationliterature,seeMelissaMeyerandRussellThornton,“IndiansandtheNumbersGame,”inColinCalloway,ed.,NewDirectionsinAmericanIndianHistory(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1988),Ch.1.

45AparagraphinTheAmericanPageantdoestellofthe90percenttollthroughoutthehemispherebutleavesoutanymentionoftheplagueatPlymouth.

46QuotedinZiner,Squanto,147.

47J.W.Barber,InterestingEventsintheHistoryoftheUnitedStates(NewHaven:Barber,1829),30.Barberdoesnotcitetheauthorityhequotes.

48Eventhough“Virginia”thenincludedmostofNewJersey,theMayflowernonethelesslandedhundredsofmilesnortheast.Historianswhosupportthe“onpurpose”theoryincludeGeorgeF.Willison,SaintsandStrangers(NewYork:ReynalandHitchcock,1945);LincolnKinnicutt,“TheSettlementatPlymouthContemplatedBefore1620,”PublicationsoftheAmericanHistoricalAssociation(1920):211-21;andNealSalisbury,ManitouandProvidence(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1982),109,270.LeonClarkHills,HistoryandGenealogyoftheMayflowerPlanters(Baltimore:GenealogicalPubl.Co.,1975),andFrancisR.Stoddard,TheTruthaboutthePilgrims(NewYork:SocietyofMayflowerDescendants,1952),19-20,supportthe“Dutchbribe”theory,basedonprimarysourcematerialbyNathanialMorton.HistoriansatPlimothPlantationsupportthetheoriesofpiloterrororstorm.

49Ziner,Squanto,147;Kinnicutt,“TheSettlementatPlymouthContemplatedBefore1620”;AlmonW.Lauber,IndianSlaveryinColonialTimesWithinthePresentLimitsoftheUnitedStates(Williamstown,MA:CornerHouse,1970[1913]),156-59;Stoddard,TheTruthaboutthePilgrims,16.

50TheMayflowersailedsouthforhalfaday,untilencountering“dangerousshoals,”accordingtoseveralofourtextbooks.ThenthecaptainandthePilgrimleadershipinsistedonreturningtoProvincetownandeventuallyNewPlymouth.

ConspiracytheoriststakethistobeacharadetodissuadethemajorityfrominsistingonVirginia.SeeWillison,SaintsandStrangers,145,466;Kinnicutt,“TheSettlementatPlymouthContemplatedBefore1620”;andSalisbury,ManitouandProvidence,109,270.

51Willison,SaintsandStrangers,421-22.

52SpeechinSiouxFalls,9/8/1919,inAddressesofPresidentWilson,(Washington,D.C.:GovernmentPrintingOffice,1919),86.

53T.H.Breen,“RightMan,WrongPlace,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,11/20/1986,50.

54WrittenbyRobertBeverleyin1705andquotedinWesleyFrankCraven,TheLegendoftheFoundingFathers(Westport,CT:Greenwood,1983[1956]),5-8.

55Axtell,TheEuropeanandtheIndian,292-95.

56J.LeitchWrightJr.,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew(NewYork:FreePress,1981),78.

57Kupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians,173;JamesTruslowAdams,TheMarchofDemocracy(NewYork:Scribner’s,1933),1:12.

58IencounteredmostofthesestudentsinNewEngland,butmanyofthemcamefromsuburbsofPhiladelphia,Washington,D.C.,andNewJersey.IsuspectthatrepliesfromtherestoftheUnitedStateswouldbesimilar,exceptperhapstheFarWest.

59GaryNash,Red,White,andBlack(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1974),139,describesthesameprocessinPennsylvania.

60EmmanuelAlthamletterquotedinSydneyV.James,ed.,ThreeVisitorstoEarlyPlymouth(Plymouth:PlimothPlantation,1963),29.

61CouldtherebeafairytaleparalleltothisPilgrimincident?LikeGoldilocks,thePilgrimsbroke-and-entered,trespassed,vandalized,andstole,andlikeGoldilocks,educatorsforgivethembecausetheyareAryan.TheGoldilockstalemakeshervictimslessthanhuman,andtheshadowywayourhistoriesrepresentIndiansmakesthePilgrims’victimsalsolessthanhuman.MythankstoToniCadeBambaraforthisanalysisofGoldilocks.

62Kupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians,125.

63AllfivehadnamesotherthanSquantoorTisquantum,butIndianssometimes

wentbydifferentnamesindifferenttribes.Squanto’sbiographer,FeenieZiner,believeshewasoneofthefive.FerdinandoGorgesstatedin1658thatSquantowasamongthoseabductedin1605andlivedwithhiminEnglandforthreeyears,whichconvincedKinnicutt(“TheSettlementatPlymouthContemplatedBefore1620,”212-13)butnothistoriansatPlimothPlantationorNealSalisbury(ManitouandProvidence,265-66),althoughSalisburyseemsmorepositivein“Squanto:LastofthePatuxets.”SeealsoLauber,IndianSlaveryinColonialTimes,156-59.

64Simpson,InvisibleArmies,6.

65Onetextbook,thelatesteditionofBoorstinandKelley,doessummarizetheenslavementandthedestructionofSquanto’svillage.

66WilliamBradford,OfPlimothPlantation,99.Seealso,interalia,Salisbury,“Squanto:LastofthePatuxets,”228-46.

67RobertMoore,Stereotypes,Distortions,andOmissionsinU.S.HistoryTextbooks(NewYork:CIBC,1977),19.

68RobertM.Bartlett,ThePilgrimWay(Philadelphia:PilgrimPress,1971),265;andLoeb,MeettheRealPilgrims,65.

69CharlesHudsonetal.,“TheTristandeLunaExpeditions,1559-61,”inJeraldT.MilanichandSusanMilbrath,eds.,FirstEncounters(Gainesville:UniversityofFloridaPress,1989),119-34,suppliesavividillustrationofEuropeandependenceonIndiansforfood.Theytellofthelittle-knownsecondSpanishexpedition(afterdeSoto)intowhatisnowthesoutheasternUnitedStates.BecausetheIndiansretreatedfromthemandburnedtheirowncrops,theEuropeansalmoststarved.

70BessieL.Pierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1926),113-14.SeealsoAliceB.Kehoe,“‘Infourteenhundredandninetytwo,Columbussailed...’:ThePrimacyoftheNationalMythinU.S.Schools,”inPeterStoneandRobertMacKenzie,eds.,TheExcludedPast(London:UnwinHyman,1990),207.

71MirceaEliade,MythandReality(NewYork:HarperandRow,1963),18-19.

72RobertN.Bellah,“CivilReligioninAmerica,”Daedalus(Winter1967):1-21.SeeHughBrogan,ThePelicanHistoryoftheU.S.A.(Harmondsworth,England:Penguin,1986),37,regardingPlymouthRock.SeealsoMichael

Kammen,MysticChordsofMemory(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),207-10.

73ValerianPaget,introductiontoBradford’sHistoryofthePlymouthSettlement,1608-1650(NewYork:McBride,1909),xvii.

74Dorris,“WhyI’mNotThankfulforThanksgiving,”9.Theadditionismine,intheinterestofaccuracy.

75PlimothPlantation,“TheAmericanThanksgivingTradition,orHowThanksgivingStolethePilgrims”(Plymouth,MA:n.d.,photocopy);Stoddard,TheTruthaboutthePilgrims,13.JeremyD.Bangs,“ThanksgivingontheNet:RoastBullwithCranberrySaucePart1,”SocietyofMayflowerDescendantsintheCommonwealthofPennsylvaniaWebpage,sail1620.org/discover_feature_thanksgiving_on_the_net_roast_bull_with_cranberry_sauce_part_l.shtml1/2007.

76ReginaldHorsman,RaceandManifestDestiny(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1981),5.

77ArleneHirshfelderandJaneCaliff,“CelebrationorMourning?It’sAllinthePointofView”(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildrenBulletin10,no.6,1979),9.

78FrankJames,“FrankJames’Speech”(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildrenBulletin10,no.6,1979),13.

79Willison,SaintsandStrangers;Salisbury,ManitouandProvidence,114-17;Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,220.Salisbury,ManitouandProvidence,120-25,tellsofthemilitaristicandcoercivenatureofPlymouth’sdealingswiththeIndians,however,rightfromthefirst.

CHAPTER4:REDEYES

1JamesAxtell,“Europeans,Indians,andtheAgeofDiscoveryinAmericanHistoryTextbooks,”AmericanHistoricalReview92(1987):629-30.

2FrancisJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1975),vii.

3FriedrichNietzsche,BeyondGoodandEvil(NewYork:MacMillan,1907),86.

4RupertCosto,“ThereIsNotOneIndianChildWhoHasNotComeHomeinShameandTears,”inMiriamWasserman,DemystifyingSchool(NewYork:Praeger,1974),192-93.

5ThomasBailey,“TheMythmakersofAmericanHistory,”JournalofAmericanHistory(1968):18.

6QuotedinCalvinMartin,ed.,TheAmericanIndianandtheProblemofHistory(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1987),102.

7Axtell,“Europeans,Indians,andtheAgeofDiscovery,”621-32.

8SolTax,forewordtoVirgilVogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs(NewYork:HarperandRow,1972),xxii.

9TheexceptionsarePathwaystothePresent,justoneandahalfpagesof1,088or0.1percent;DiscoveringAmericanHistory,2of831or0.2percent;TheAmericanPageant(1991),4of1,077or0.4percent;Pageant(2006),4of1,162or0.3percent;andBoorstinandKelley,4of1,056or0.2percent.MyeditiontoPathwaystothePresent,whilecoveringAmericanhistoryfromthebeginning,emphasizesthemodernera;anothereditionmighttreatAmericanIndianculturesatgreaterlength.

10Iwillusethetermstribeandnationinterchangeably,becausesomeNativeAmericanleadersarguethatnationisaEuropeanconstruct,implyingmoreemphasisonthestatethantheyfeelappliestomostIndiansocieties.Asexplainedinthepreviouschapter,IalsouseNativeAmericanandAmericanIndiansynonymously.ThetextbooksIsurveyedalsowalkthislinguisticminefield.Interestingly,thosethatuseNativeAmericanarenotnecessarilymore

up-to-dateintheirinterpretations.IcallNativeindividualsbytheirNativenames,afterintroducingthembytheirNativenamesandthenamesmorefamiliartonon-Nativereaders.

11RobinMcKie,“DiamondsTellTaleofCometThatKilledOfftheCave-men,”TheObserver,5/20/2007;observer.guardian.co.uk/,5/20/2007.

12Althoughrefusingtogiveuptheusual“knowsall”textbooktone,oneotherbook,TheUnitedStates—AHistoryoftheRepublicbyJamesDavidsonandMarkLytle,doestellofcontroversyanduncertaintyinarchaeology.

13JohnN.Wilford,“NewMexicoCaveYieldsCluestoEarlyMan,”NewYorkTimes,May5,1991,describesresearchbyRichardMacNeishsuggesting35,000BPthere.DavidStannard,AmericanHolocaust(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1992),10,suggests32,000to70,000BP.SharonBegleyoffersausefulpopularsummaryin“TheFirstAmericans,”inNewsweek’sspecialissueWhenWorldsCollide(Fall/Winter1991),15-20.Cf.AndrewMurr,“WhoGotHereFirst?”Newsweek,11/15/99;MarcStengel,“TheDiffusionistsHaveLanded,”AtlanticMonthly1/1/2000,35-48,theatlantic.com/issues/2000/01/001stengel.htm;SteveOlson,“TheGeneticArchaeologyofRace,”AtlanticMonthly,4/2001,70-71;andSteveOlson,“FirstAmericansMoreDiversethanOnceThought,StudyFinds,”WashingtonPost,7/31/2001.

14AccordingtoRobertF.Spencer,JesseD.Jenningsetal.,TheNativeAmericans(NewYork:HarperandRow,1977),8,mostarchaeologistsbelieveinthesmall-gene-pooltheory.

15SincepeoplearrivedinAustralialongbefore12,000BPandcouldnothavewalkedthere,wecannotbesurethatIndiansdidnotgetherebyboat.Archaeologyrevealsnoboatsfromthisera,butthentheywouldnothavebeenbuiltfromstoneorhavelastedinwood.

16AmericanJourneyevensuggests“thattheInuitwerethelastmigrantstocrossthelandbridgeintoNorthAmerica.”Presumably,thesefamedkayakerscarriedtheirboatsontheirshoulders!

17Tobesure,whenlowersealevelprovidedanisthmusacrosstheBeringStrait,NorthandSouthAmericawerenottotallysurroundedbywater,sothereisnoreasonthatthefirstsettlers—orBoorstin,Kelley,orGarraty—shouldhaveconcludedthattheywere.InanagethataccordscontinentstatustoEurope,

however,whichisfarfromsurroundedbywater,thisisanitpickandnotthepointourauthorsweremaking.

18Again,absenceofevidenceisnotevidenceofabsence.NotnearlyenougharchaeologyhasbeendoneinAlaskaorCanada,andalmostnoneinthenow-floodedcoastalroutesthatmighthavebeenmostauspiciousforearlyhumanmigration.

19LlamasweretheonlydraftanimalintheAmericas,andDiamondexplainswhytheywerenotreallysuitable.

20DíazquotedinSourcesinAmericanHistory(Orlando,FL:HarcourtBraceJovanovich,1986).PopulationfromRobertF.SpencerandJesseD.Jennings,TheNativeAmericans,480.

21QuotedinCostoandHenry,TextbooksandtheAmericanIndian.

22InTheCunningofHistory(NewYork:Harper,1987),91,aruminationontheNaziholocaust,RichardL.Rubensteinemphasizesthat“theHolocaustbearswitnesstotheadvanceofcivilization.”

23ChristmasisanexampleofsyncretisminEuropeanculture,combiningelementsfromtheJewishreligion,liketheideaofaMessiah,andNorthernEuropean“pagan”observances,likethewintersolsticeandtheemphasisonplantsthataregreeninwinter(holly,ivy,evergreentree,mistletoe).CorncultureamongtheIroquoisandotherEasternnationsisanexampleofsyncretisminAmericanculture,combiningcornfromMexicoandPeruwithideasalreadypresentintheNortheast.

24PerttiPelto,TheSnowmobileRevolution(MenloPark,CA:Cummings,1973).

25FredAnderson,reviewofTheSkulkingWayofWar,JournalofAmericanHistory79,no.3(December1992):1134.

26RobertUtley,TheIndianFrontieroftheAmericanWest(Albuquerque:UniversityofNewMexicoPress,1984),12.

27ThisadmixtureofpeoplesinNativesocietiesmakesithardtoidentifyphysicaltypesonreservationstoday.“Creek”or“Lumbee”iscultural,notphysical.J.LeitchWrightJr.,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew(NewYork:FreePress,1981),230.MorepowerfulcentralizedgovernmentswerealsoforceduponindigenouspeoplebyEuropeanpowerssotheywouldhaveconflictpartners

withwhomtodeal.

28GaryNash,Red,White,andBlack(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1974),257;JamesAxtell,TheEuropeanandtheIndian(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1981),257.

29OnIreland,seeAllenBarton,CommunitiesinDisaster(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1970),11-12.Thelarge-scalenationsinMexicoandPeru,likenationsinEurope,wagedlarge-scalewar.InsomeareaswithinthepresentUnitedStates,notablytheNorthwest,tribalwarfarewassometimesbrutalbeforeEuropeaninfluence.

30Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,138;PatriciaGalloway,“ChoctawFactionalismandCivilWar,1746-1750,”JournalofMississippiHistory44,no.4(11/1982):289-327;JosephL.Peyser,“TheChickasawWarsof1736and1740,”JournalofMississippiHistory44,no.1(1/1982):1-25.

31SixofeighteenbooksmentionthatsurvivorsofthePequotWarorKingPhilip’sWarweresoldintoslavery,buttheytreatthisasanisolatedincidentanddonototherwisementiontheIndianslavetrade.

32Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,33,130.

33PeterN.CarrollandDavidNoble,TheFreeandtheUnfree(NewYork:Penguin,1988),57.

34AlmonW.Lauber,IndianSlaveryinColonialTimesWithinthePresentLimitsoftheUnitedStates(Williamstown,MA:CornerHouse,1970[1913]),110.

35Lauber,IndianSlaveryinColonialTimes,106.Nash,Red,White,andBlack,113,119,offerssomewhatdifferentfigures:5,300whites,presumablyincludingindentures;2,900blacks;and1,400Indians.

36J.A.Rogers,YourHistory(Baltimore:BlackClassicPress,1983[1940]),78.SeealsoFrederickW.Hodge,ed.,HandbookoftheIndians(BureauofAmericanEthnologyBulletin,vol.30,part2)(Washington,D.C.:GovernmentPrintingOffice,1906),216.

37OnCalifornia,seeAlbertHurtado,IndianSurvivalontheCaliforniaFrontier(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1988),75.OntheSouthwest,seeJackForbes,TheIndianinAmerica’sPast(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1964),94-95.Cf.AlanGallay,TheIndianSlaveTrade(NewHaven:Yale

UniversityPress,2002).

38Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,81-83.

39HenryDobyns,TheirNumberBecomeThinned(Knoxville:UniversityofTennesseePress,1983),332.Healsopointsoutthattheplagues,bykillingexpertsandreducingnumbersgenerally,thusdecreasingthedivisionoflabor,playedaroleinde-skillingNatives.SeealsoNash,Red,White,andBlack,97;Jennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,41,87;AnthonyF.C.Wallace,TheDeathandRebirthoftheSeneca(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1970),24-25;NealSalisbury,ManitouandProvidence(NewYork:Oxford,1982),56-57.

40Utley,TheIndianFrontieroftheAmericanWest,21.WasichuinLakotaisalsotranslatedas“fatgrabber,”onewhoisgreedy(WendyRose,“ForSome,It’saTimeofMourning,”TheNewWorld[SmithsonianQuincentenaryPublication],no.1[Spring1990]:4).TheCherokeewordforwhitemansimilarlytranslatesas“peoplegreedilygraspingforland,”accordingtoRayFaddeninaprivatecommunication,November25,1993.

41TheAmericansdoesmentionthatEuropeans“needtoborrowfromthepeoplestheysoughttodominate,”butgivesnaryanexample.

42D.W.Meinig,“AGeographicalTransectoftheAtlanticWorld,ca.1750,”inEugeneGenoveseandLeonardHochberg,eds.,GeographicPerspectivesinHistory(Oxford:BasilBlackwell,1989),197;PatriciaNelsonLimerick,“TheCaseofthePrematureDeparture:TheTrans-MississippiWestandAmericanHistoryTextbooks,”JournalofAmericanHistory78,no.4(3/1992):1381.ThetextbookviewcanbecontrastedwiththatshowninthefeaturemovieKoyaanisqatsii,whichisfilmedfromaHopiviewpointandportrayswesterncanyonsserenelybutisdisquietedbythecanyonsofNewYorkCity.

43RonaldSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands:TheOriginsofAmericanRacism(Boston:Little,Brown,1978),373-74.

44HelenH.Tanner,“TheGlaizein1792:ACompositeIndianCommunity,”Ethnohistory25,no.1(Winter1978):15-39.

45Hurtado,IndianSurvivalontheCaliforniaFrontier,47-49.

46Nash,Red,White,andBlack,60.

47QuotedinPeterFarb,Man’sRisetoCivilization(NewYork:Dutton,1978),313.

48BenjaminFranklin,quotedinBruceJohansen,ForgottenFounders:HowtheAmericanIndianHelpedShapeDemocracy(Cambridge,MA:HarvardCommonPress,1982),92-93.Farb,Man’sRisetoCivilization,313;FrederickTurner,BeyondGeography(NewYork:Viking,1980),244;Nash,Red,White,andBlack,317-18;andJamesAxtell,“TheWhiteIndians”inTheInvasionWithin(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1985),302-27,agreethatmanymorewhitesbecameIndianthanviceversa.

49Turner,BeyondGeography,241;KarenOrdahlKupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians(London:J.M.Dent,1980),156.SeealsoAxtell,“TheWhiteIndians,”andTheEuropeanandtheIndian,160-76.

50FranklinquotedinJoseBarreiro,ed.,IndianRootsofAmericanDemocracy(Ithaca,NY:CornellUniversityAmericanIndianProgram,1988),43;Vogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs,257-59.NotallIndiansocietieswereequalitarian:theNatchezinMississippiandtheAztecsinMexicoshowedarigidhierarchy.

51CadwalladerColdenquotedinVogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs,259.

52AlvinJosephy,Jr.,TheIndianHeritageofAmerica(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1973),35;WilliamBrandon,NewWorldsforOld(Athens:OhioUniversityPress,1986),3-26;MicheldeMontaigne,“OnCannibals,”inThomasChristensenandCarolChristensen,eds.,TheDiscoveryofAmericaandOtherMyths(SanFrancisco:ChronicleBooks,1992),110-15.

53QuotedinBruceJohansenandRobertoMaestas,Wasichu:TheContinuingIndianWars(NewYork:MonthlyReviewPress,1979),35.

54JackWeatherford,IndianGivers(NewYork:Fawcett,1988),Ch.8;Johansen,ForgottenFounders;Barreiro,ed.,IndianRootsofAmericanDemocracy,29-31.SeealsoBruceA.Burton,“Squanto’sLegacy:TheOriginoftheTownMeeting,”NortheastIndianQuarterly6,no.4(Winter1989):4-9;DonaldA.GrindeJr.,“IroquoianPoliticalConceptandtheGenesisofAmericanGovernment,”NortheastIndianQuarterly6,no.4(Winter1989):10-21;andRobertW.Venables,“TheFoundingFathers,”NortheastIndianQuarterly6,no.4(Winter1989):30-55.Whilethiswaspartlyflattery,inthisandotherdocumentsofthattime,CongressrepeatedlyusedsymbolsandideasfromtheIroquoisLeague.NotonlyFranklinbutalsoThomasJeffersonandThomasPaineknewandrespectedIndianpoliticalphilosophyandorganization.Nevertheless,ElizabethTookerdeniesthisinfluencein“TheU.S.ConstitutionandtheIroquoisLeague,”Ethnohistory35,no.4(Fall1988):305-36.Butsee

“Commentary”onTookerinEthnohistory37,no.3(Summer1990).InTheDisunitingofAmerica(NewYork:Norton,1992),127,ArthurSchlesingerJr.,makestheEurocentricclaimthatEuropewas“alsothesource—theuniquesource—ofthoseliberatingideasofindividualliberty...,”butheoffersnoevidence,onlyassertion,forthisclaim.ApparentlyhedoesnotknowofEurope’sastonishmentnotonlyatNativeAmericanlibertybutalsoatreligiousfreedominChinaandTurkey.MarcoPoloreportedthatofallthefabulousthingshesawduringhistwenty-seven-yeartripto“Cathay,”noneamazedhimmorethanitsreligiousfreedom:Jews,Christians,Muslims,andBuddhistsworshippedfreelyandparticipatedincivilsocietywithouthandicap.WhenSpainexpelleditsJewsin1492,Turkeytooktheminandallowedthemtoworship.

55JohnMohawk,“TheIndianWayIsaThinkingTradition,”inBarreiro,ed.,IndianRootsofAmericanDemocracy,16.

56JamesAxtell,“TheIndianinAmericanHistory,theColonialPeriod,”inTheImpactofIndianHistoryontheTeachingofUnitedStatesHistory(Chicago:NewberryLibrary,1984),20-23;Barreiro,ed.,IndianRootsofAmericanDemocracy,40-41;BernardSheehan,“TheIdeologyoftheRevolutionandtheAmericanIndian,”inFrancisJennings,ed.,TheAmericanIndianandtheAmericanRevolution(Chicago:NewberryLibrary,1983),12-23;andStewartHolbrook,DreamersoftheAmericanDream(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1957),137-45,regardingNewYorkState.

57Weatherford,IndianGivers,Ch.6.

58Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,264.

59AlfredCrosbyJr.,“DemographicsandEcology”(paperpresentedatSmithsonianInstitutionSeminar,Washington,D.C.:September1990),4.AndeanIndianspracticedtheonlyagricultureknowntoproducemoretopsoilthanitdepleted.WehaveyettounlockallthesecretsofMexicanandGuatemalanagriculture,whichseemtohavecombinedfloatinggardens,canals,andfisheries.

60Vogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs,268.

61Ibid.,266-67.

62FaithDavisRuffins,colloquiumattheNationalMuseumofAmericanHistory(Washington,D.C.:April25,1991),regardingpatentmedicineimages.

SeealsothetreatmentofAmericanIndianMedicinebyVirgilJ.Vogel(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1990).BruceJohansen,ForgottenFounders,117;WarrenLowes,IndianGiver(Penticton,BritishColumbia:TheytusBooks,1986),51;WilliamB.Newell,“ContributionsoftheAmericanIndiantoModernCivilization,”AkwesasneNotes(LateSpring1987):14-15;LewisHanke,TheSpanishStruggleforJusticeintheConquestofAmerica(Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,1949),90,regardingpoliticalandideologicalinfluences.

63CostoandHenry,TextbooksandtheAmericanIndian,22.

64VineDeloria,anAmericanIndianwriter,doesthisinGodIsRed(Golden,CO:NorthAmericanPress,1992[1973]).

65InCalvinMartin,ed.,TheAmericanIndianandtheProblemofHistory(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1987),21.

66QuotedinLeeClarkMitchell,WitnessestoaVanishingAmerica(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress,1981),260.SeealsoRichardDrinnon,FacingWest(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1980),539.

67JamesMerrell,TheIndians’NewWorld(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1989),193-95.

68Drinnon,FacingWest,xvii-xix.Inhiswell-knownnovelRabbitBoss(NewYork:Vintage,1989[1973]),whichtellsoftheWashoIndiansofCaliforniainthenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies,ThomasSanchezsuppliesavividportrayalofwhathappenstoapeopledeniedequalrightsbeforethelaw.

69DavidHorowitz,TheFirstFrontier(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1978),14;StephenAron,“LessonsinConquest(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversity,1993,typescript),15;WileySword,PresidentWashington’sIndianWar(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1985),191-97.AnexceptionisLandofPromise,whichoffersasubheading,“150YearsofWarfare,”precedingacompetenttreatmentofIndianwarsingeneralandKingPhilip’sWarinparticular.

70Jennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,146.

71FromtheinsidejacketofMissouri!(NewYork:Bantam,1984).RosswasthepennameofNoelB.Gerson,whowrote325inall.

72JoeFeagin,RacialandEthnicRelations(EnglewoodCliffs:NJ:Prentice-

Hall,1984),181.JohnD.Unruh,ThePlainsIndians(Urbana:UniversityofIllinoisPress,1979).

73QuotedinKupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians,185.SeealsoJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,220.

74Bradford,OfPlimothPlantation,renderedbyValerianPaget(NewYork:McBride,1909),284-87.UnderhillquotedinJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,223,andSegalandStineback,Puritans,Indians,andManifestDestiny,106.IndiansquicklyadjustedtoEuropeanwarfareandraisedtheirlevelofviolenceaccordingly.ThePequotswerenotquitedestroyed;afewstillliveonandnearatinyreservationofafewacresinConnecticut,wheretheyownahugecasino.

75PeterA.Thomas,“CulturalChangeontheSouthernNewEnglandFrontier,1630-1655,”inFitzhugh,ed.,CulturesinContact,155.

76Nash,Red,White,andBlack,126.ButseeJennings’slowerfigures,TheInvasionofAmerica,324.

77Tomakethisclaim,Iincludeliveslostonbothsides,sinceWampanoagsandNarragansettsarenowU.S.citizens.Includingonlycolonialdeaths,KingPhilip’sWarwasneverthelessmoredeadlythantheFrenchandIndianWar,theWarof1812,ortheSpanish-AmericanWar.SeealsoStephenSaundersWebb,asparaphrasedbyPaulineMaier,“SecondThoughtsonOurFirstCentury,”NewYorkTimesBookReview,8/7/1985.

78Weatherford,IndianGivers,225.

79JanCarew,FulcrumsofChange(Trenton,NJ:AfricaWorldPress,1988),55.CarolynStefanco-Schill,“GualeIndianRevolt,”SouthernExposure12,no.6(11/1984):4-9.

80DorothyV.Jones,LicenseforEmpire(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1982),125.

81ThenovelOklaHannalibyR.A.Lafferty(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1972),136-42,186-89,treatstheCivilWarwithinIndianTerritory.

82IrvingWallace,DavidWallechinsky,andAmyWallace,Significa(NewYork:Dutton,1983),326.Cf.JamesW.Loewen,LiesAcrossAmerica(NewYork:NewPress,1999),385-89.

83Eventoday,thisremainstrue:peoplehavetherighttohunt,fish,andwalk

acrossprivateruralland,unlessitisposted,andpostingdevelopedrelativelyrecently.

84CarletonBeals,AmericanEarth(Philadelphia:Lippincott,1939),327-30;StevenHahn,“Hunting,Fishing,andForaging,”RadicalHistoryReview26(1982):37-64;PeterA.Thomas,“CulturalChangeontheSouthernNewEnglandFrontier,1630-1655,”inFitzhugh,ed.,CulturesinContact,151.

85See,forexample,PierreBerton,TheInvasionofCanada,1812-1813(Toronto:McClellandandStewart,1980),27.ThesevenbattlesdonotincludeTippecanoe,whichpredatedaformaldeclarationofwaragainstEngland.

86ThetransformedcharacterofourIndianwarsafter1815wasrevealedbythenextwarintheNorthwest,theBlackHawkWarof1832.AlthoughitnearlydestroyedtheSacandFoxnations,itwasinsignificantcomparedtothebattlesinthattheaterduringtheWarof1812.SeealsoBrianDippie,TheVanishingAmerican(Middletown,CT:WesleyanUniversityPress,1982),7-8.

87Johansen,ForgottenFounders,118.SeealsoFrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980),90-93.

88Before1815,accordingtoWilliamClark(ofLewisandClarkfame),“thetribesnearestoursettlementswereaformidableandterribleenemy;sincethentheirpowerhasbeenbroken...andthemselvessunkintoobjectsofpity.”QuotedinDippie,TheVanishingAmerican,7-9.

89FergusM.Bordewich,reviewofDavidRoberts’sOnceTheyMovedLiketheWind,inSmithsonian,3/1994,128.

90CarletonBeals,AmericanEarth,63-64.SeealsoReginaldHorsman,RaceandManifestDestiny(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1981),1,3,190-95.

91Kupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians,188;andDippie,TheVanishingAmerican,7-9.

92Nash,Red,White,andBlack,63;Jennings,EmpireofFortune,63;Horsman,RaceandManifestDestiny,32-36.Cf.LeonFestinger,ATheoryofCognitiveDissonance(Evanston,IL:Row,Peterson,1957).

93WilliamGilmoreSimmsquotedinMitchell,WitnessestoaVanishingAmerica,255.SeealsoVogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs,286.FrancisA.Walker,messagetohisdepartment,1871.

94JohnToland,AdolfHitler(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1976),702.

95EdwardH.Carr,WhatIsHistory?(NewYork:RandomHouse,1961),167.

96GordonCraig,“HistoryasaHumanisticDiscipline,”inPaulGagnon,ed.,HistoricalLiteracy(NewYork:Macmillan,1989),134.

97Jennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,144.

98RonaldSatz,AmericanIndianPolicyintheJacksonianEra(Lincoln:UniversityofNebraskaPress,1975),143.

99FrancisDrakeseemstohavehadsomethinglikethisinmindforBritishNorthAmericain1573,butheneverbroughthisplanstofruition.SeeSanders,LostTribesandPromisedLands,218-19.

100Overtime,LumbeesandSeminolesbecamemoreracist.Lumbeeskeptanearby“blacker”triracialgroupoutoftheirschools;Seminolesomitted“blackSeminoles”fromtheirpresentationoftribalhistoryattheNationalMuseumoftheAmericanIndian.

101J.F.Fausz,“PatternsofAnglo-IndianAggressionandAccommodationAlongtheMid-AtlanticCoast,1584-1634,”inWilliamFitzhugh,ed.,CulturesinContact(Washington,D.C.:SmithsonianInstitution,1985),234-35;AdolphDialandDavidEliades,TheOnlyLandIKnow(SanFrancisco:IndianHistorianPress,1975),2-13.SeealsoTurner,BeyondGeography,241-42.ChallengeofFreedomdoestellaboutthelikelihoodthatdescendantsofthelostcolonycanbefoundtodayamongtheLumbee.PeterHulme,ColonialEncounters(London:Methuen,1986),143,agreesthatthelostcolonyprobablybecameCroatoanIndians.HoltAmericanNationdoessuggestthattheLostColonymighthavebeenabsorbedintoanearbyAmericanIndiantribebutdoesnototherwisetreatpossiblebi-ortriracialsocieties.

102RobertBeverly,TheHistoryandPresentStateofVirginia(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1947[1705]),38.

103Lauber,IndianSlaveryinColonialTimes;LonnTaylor,“AmericanEncounters,”(addressattheSmithsonianInstitution,Washington,D.C.,4/29/1993).

104Thomas,“CulturalChangeontheSouthernNewEnglandFrontier,1630-1655,”inFitzhugh,ed.,CulturesinContact,141.IntheirveryfirstyearsinVirginia,theBritishencouragedintermarriagetopromoteallianceswithnearby

Indians,evenofferingabribetoanywhiteVirginianwhowouldmarryanIndian,butthisofferlastedbriefly,andfewcoloniststookadvantageofit.

105Wright,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew,235;Nash,Red,White,andBlack;Axtell,“TheWhiteIndians.”

106FrancisJennings,EmpireofFortune(NewYork:Norton,1988),479.SeealsoCharlesJ.Kappler,IndianTreaties1778-1883(NewYork:Interland,1972[1904]),5.

107Satz,AmericanIndianPolicyintheJacksonianEra,216-18.

108Pearce,TheSavagesofAmerica.

109S.BlanckeandC.J.P.SlowTurtle,“TheTeachingofthePastoftheNativePeoplesofNorthAmericainU.S.Schools,”inPeterStoneandRobertMacKenzie,eds.,TheExcludedPast(London:UnwinHyman,1990),123.

110ReginaldHorsman,“AmericanIndianPolicyandtheOriginsofManifestDestiny,”inFrancisPrucha,ed.,TheIndianinAmericanHistory(NewYork:Holt,RinehartandWinston,1971),22.

111Drinnon,FacingWest,85.

112Nash,Red,White,andBlack,285.Cf.EvonVogt,“AcculturationofAmericanIndians,”inPrucha,ed.,TheIndianinAmericanHistory,99-107;andAxtell,TheEuropeanandtheIndian,168.

113Hurtado,IndianSurvivalontheCaliforniaFrontier,122.

114ChiefSeattle,“OurPeopleAreEbbingAway,”inWayneMoquinwithCharlesVanDoren,GreatDocumentsinAmericanIndianHistory(NewYork:Praeger,1973),80-83.Today’sManhattanitewhosummersinVermontwouldsurelyunderstandIndianpatternsofmovement.

115RuellenOttery,“TreatmentofNativeAmericansUndertheJurisdictionofthePlymouthColony”(Johnson,VT,1984,typescript),8-9;Jennings,TheInvasionofAmerica,144-45.AldenVaughan,NewEnglandFrontier(NewYork:Norton,1979),claimsIndiansdidfineinNewEnglandcourts,althoughhisbookhasbeenattackedbythenewscholarship.

116DavidA.Nichols,LincolnandtheIndians(Columbia:UniversityofMissouriPress,1978),189-90.

117InmuttooyahlatlatquotedinRobertC.Baron,ed.,SoulofAmerica(Golden,

CO:Fulcrum,1989),289.

118Farb,Man’sRisetoCivilization,317.

119CharlesM.SegalandDavidC.Stineback,Puritans,Indians,andManifestDestiny(NewYork:Putnam,1977),48.Turner,BeyondGeography,215-16,alsosaysIndian-whiterelationsandwhites’“unjustifiedandblasphemous”landclaims,inWilliams’sview,werethekeycauseofhisbanishment.

120Prucha,ed.,TheIndianinAmericanHistory,7.

121Satz,AmericanIndianPolicyintheJacksonianEra,25.

122BlanckeandSlowTurtle,“TheTeachingofthePastoftheNativePeoplesofNorthAmericainU.S.Schools,”121.

123ThispointisimpliedbyDeanA.Crawford,DavidL.Peterson,andVirgilWurr,“WhyTheyRemainIndians,”inVogel,ed.,ThisCountryWasOurs,282-84.SeealsoRobertBerkhover,TheWhiteMan’sIndian(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1978),192-93.

124ChristopherVecsey,“EnvisionOurselvesDarkly,ImagineOurselvesRichly,”inMartin,ed.,TheAmericanIndianandtheProblemofHistory,126.JenningsmakesasimilarargumentinTheAmbiguousIroquoisEmpire(NewYork:Norton,1984),482.

CHAPTER5:“GONEWITHTHEWIND”:THEINVISIBILITYOFRACISMINAMERICANHISTORY

TEXTBOOKS

1MayaAngelou,“OnthePulseofMorning,”poemwrittenfortheClintoninauguration,January20,1993.

2KenBurns,“MysticChordsofMemory”(speechdeliveredattheUniversityofVermont,Burlington,September12,1991).

3W.E.B.DuBois,BlackReconstruction(Cleveland:WorldMeridian,1964[1935]),722.

4WarrenBeckandMylesClowers,UnderstandingAmericanHistoryThroughFiction(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1975),1:ix.

5HerbertAptheker,EssaysintheHistoryoftheAmericanNegro(NewYork:International,1964[1945]),17;IrvingJ.Sloan,BlacksinAmerica,1492-1970(DobbsFerry,NY:Oceana,1971),1.BlackswerealsoprobablyamongtheSpanishslavemasters,accordingtoJ.A.Rogers,YourHistory(Baltimore:BlackClassicPress,1983[1940]),73.IfollowmyusageinChapter2,buttheSpanishcalledHaiti“SantoDomingo.”

6Twonewtextbooks—TheAmericansandPathwaystothePresent—structuretheiraccountsofearlyAmericaasathree-wayencounteramongthesecultureareas,whichmakesforeffectivepedagogyandaccuratehistory.However,theyneverdeveloptheideaofthree-wayracerelations.

7FilibusterinformationinJohnandClaireWhitecomb,OhSayCanYouSee?(NewYork:Morrow,1987),116.OnRepublicans,seeRichardH.Sewell,BallotsforFreedom(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1976),292.Onparties,seeThomasByrneEdsall,ChainReaction(NewYork:Norton,1991),and“WillieHorton’sMessage,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,2/13/1992,7-11.

8Minstrelsywasanimportantmassentertainmentfrom1850to1930andthedominantformfromabout1875toWorldWarI.GoneWiththeWindwasthelargestgrossingfilmeverinconstantdollars.Whenfirstshownontelevision,italsowonthehighestratingsaccordedanentertainmentprogramuptothattime.Admittedly,itisfirstaromance,butitslargersocialsettingisprimarilyabout

race.Time,2/14/1977,tellsofthepopularityofRoots.ForgeneraldiscussionsofblackstereotypinginmassmediaseeMichaelRogin,“MakingAmericaHome,”JournalofAmericanHistory79,no.3(12/1992):1071-73;DonaldJ.Bogle,Toms,Coons,Mulattoes,Mammies,andBucks(NewYork:Bantam,1974);andJamesW.Loewen,“BlackImageinWhiteVermont:TheOrigin,Meaning,andAbolitionofKakeWalk,”inRobertV.Daniels,ed.,BicentennialHistoryoftheUniversityofVermont(Boston:UniversityPressofNewEngland,1991).An early draft of this paragraph cited racial content I remembered from the

firstfull-lengthanimatedmovie,Fantasia.WhenIrentedthevideotocheckmymemory, I found no race relations. Then I learned from Ariel Dorfman (TheEmpire’s Old Clothes [New York: Pantheon, 1983], 120) that the Disneycompanyhadeliminatedallthesegmentscontainingracialstereotypesfromthevideorerelease.

91993exhibition:“TheCottonGinandItsBittersweetHarvest”attheOldStateCapitolMuseuminJackson,MS.

10TheAlamoandtheSeminoleswillbediscussedlaterinthechapter.TheforemostreasonwhywhiteMissouriansdrovetheMormonsoutofMissouriintoIllinoisinthe1830swasthesuspicionthattheywerenot“sound”onslavery.Indeed,theywerenot:MormonsadmittedblackmalestothepriesthoodandinvitedfreeNegroestojointheminMissouri.Inresponsetothispressure,MormonsnotonlyfledMissouributchangedtheirattitudesandpoliciestoresemblethoseofmostwhiteAmericansinthe1840s,concludingthatblackswereinferiorandshouldnotbecomefullmembers.Theydidnotreversethispolicyuntil1978.SeeRayWestJr.,KingdomoftheSaints(NewYork:Viking,1957),45-49,88;ForrestG.Wood,TheArroganceofFaith(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1990),96-97;andNewellBringhurst,Saints,Slaves,andBlacks(Westport,CT:Greenwood,1981).

11StudsTerkel,Race:HowBlacksandWhitesThinkandFeelAbouttheAmericanObsession(NewYork:NewPress,1992).

12SamuelEliotMorisonandHenrySteeleCommager,TheGrowthoftheAmericanRepublic(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1950),521.InAndrewRooneyandPerryWolf’sfilmBlackHistory:Lost,StolenorStrayed?(SantaMonica,CA:BFA,1968),BillCosbypointsoutthatthistextbookwaswrittenbytwonorthernPulitzerPrize-winninghistorians.

13NancyBauer’sTheAmericanWaysayslittleaboutslaveryasexperiencedby

slaves,butshedoesmentionslaverevoltsandtheundergroundrailroad.DiscoveringAmericanHistorytellsaboutslavery,usingprimarysources,buttheseareallbywhitesandcontainlittleaboutslaveryfromtheslaves’pointofview.Consideringthemanyslavenarratives,itissurprisingthatDiscoveringexcludesblacksources.There is nothing “cutting edge” in any of the books’ coverage of slavery.

Twentyyearsagohistoriansdevelopedthe“slavecommunity”interpretationtoemphasize how African Americans experienced the institution; no textbookshows any familiarity with that school. Nor do any authors describe thecontroversiesamongcompetingslavery“schools.”Foracompactdiscussionoftheseinterpretations,seeJamesW.Loewen,“SlaveNarrativesandSociology,”Contemporary Sociology 11, no. 4 (7/1982): 380-84, reviewing works byBlassingame,Escott,Genovese,Gutman,andRawick.

14Whetherslaverywasprofitableinthenineteenthcenturyspurredaminorhistoricaltempestafewyearsback.AlthoughiterodedSouthernsoil,andalthoughtheSoutherneconomygrewincreasinglydependentontheNorth,evidenceindicatesplantersdidfindslaveryprofitable.See,interalia,HerbertAptheker,AndWhyNotEveryMan?(NewYork:International,1961),191-92.

15JamesCurrie,reviewofTheSouthandPoliticsofSlavery,JournalofMississippiHistory41(1979):389;seealsoWilliamCooper,Jr.,TheSouthandthePoliticsofSlavery,1828-56(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress,1978).

16RogerThompson,“Slavery,Sectionalism,andSecession,”AustralianJournalofAmericanStudies1,no.2(7/1981):3,5;WilliamR.Brock,PartiesandPoliticalConscience(Millwood,NY:KTOPress,1979).

17JosephR.Conlin,ed.,MorrowBookofQuotationsinAmericanHistory(NewYork:Morrow,1984),38.

18FrankOwsley,ahistorianwithConfederatesympathies,championedreasonsforwarotherthanslavery.Whenitwasfought,however,virtuallyeveryone,includingAbrahamLincoln,OliverWendellHolmes,andUlyssesS.GrantontheUnionsideandJeffersonDavisandAlexanderH.Stephens,presidentandvicepresidentoftheConfederacy,thoughtthewarwascausedbyslavery.SeeDanielAaron,TheUnwrittenWar(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1973),28,180.

19Pageantdoessupplyashortquotefromthisdocument,butitissovaguethat

fewreaderswillunderstandit.

20BessieL.Pierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1926),66-70.NorwastheNorthagreatincubatorofprogressivetextbooksinthosedecades.

21FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980),tellshowhistorytextbookschangedtheirtreatmentofslaveryandReconstructioninthe1970s.HillelBlackdescribestheformerinfluenceofwhitesegregationistSouthernersandthenewblackinfluenceinNorthernurbanschooldistricts,resultingfromthecivilrightsandBlackPowermovements,inTheAmericanSchoolbook(NewYork:Morrow,1967),Chapter8.“LiberatingOurPast,”SouthernExposure,11/1984,2-3,tellsoftheinfluenceofthecivilrightsmovement.Thenewtreatmentsofslaveryareclosertomostofthosewrittenatthetimeandtotheprimarysources.

22InterviewsatWilliamsburg;Sloan,BlacksinAmerica,1492-1970,2;HowardZinn,ThePoliticsofHistory(Boston:Beacon,1970),67.

23HortonisquotedbyRobertMooreinStereotypes,Distortions,andOmissionsinU.S.HistoryTextbooks(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildren,1977),17.

24BeforeFreedomCame,whichwasalsoabook,editedbyE.D.C.CampbellJr.(Richmond,VA:MuseumoftheConfederacy,1991).

25QuotedinFelixOkoye,TheAmericanImageofAfrica:MythandReality(Buffalo:BlackAcademyPress,1971),37.HereMontesquieupresagesFestinger’sideaofcognitivedissonance.SeeLeonFestinger,ATheoryofCognitiveDissonance(Evanston,IL:Row,Peterson,1957).

26Okoye,TheAmericanImageofAfrica.

27MargaretMitchell,GoneWiththeWind(NewYork:Avon,1964[1936]),645.

28Inreportingthesurvey,ajournalistaddeddryly,“TheBiblealsorankedhigh.”

29Ialsosearchedunderwhiteracism,whitesupremacy,andvariousotherheadings,tonoavail.

30OnEcuador,seeIvanVanSertima,TheyCameBeforeColumbus(NewYork:

RandomHouse,1976),30.Onblacks’influenceamongtheSeminoles,seeDanielF.Littlefield,Jr.,AfricansandCreeks(Westport,CT:Greenwood,1979).OnElliot’sIowaeye-colorexperiment,seethePBSFrontlinedocumentary,AClassDivided(video,YaleUniversityFilms.Alexandria,Virginia:PBS,1986).OntheArctic,see“Discoverers’SonsArriveforReunion,”BurlingtonFreePress,May1,1987;SusanA.Kaplan,introductiontoMatthewHenson,ABlackExplorerattheNorthPole(Lincoln:UniversityofNebraskaPress,1989);andIrvingWallace,DavidWallechinsky,andAmyWallace,Significa(NewYork:Dutton,1983),17-18.NotethatTheAmericanAdventureblithelyassumesassimilationtowhitesocietyasthegoal.

31Thatracismhasvariedisaproblemforblackrhetorswhoseektomakeitalwaystheoverwhelmingforceofhistory,which,ofcourse,reducesourabilitytorecognizeotherfactors.

32JamesW.LoewenandCharlesSallis,Mississippi:ConflictandChange(NewYork:Pantheon,1980),141.

33FitzGerald,AmericaRevised,158.MatthewDowneymakesthesamepointin“SpeakingofTextbooks:PuttingPressureonthePublishers,”HistoryTeacher14(1980):68.

34DavidLowenthal,ThePastIsaForeignCountry(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1988),343.

35RichardR.Beeman,PatrickHenry(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1974),182;HenryquotedinJ.FranklinJameson,TheAmericanRevolutionConsideredasaSocialMovement(Boston:BeaconPress,1965),23.

36TheAmericanAdventure,aninquirytextbookpartlyassembledfromprimarysources,includesmoreoftheletterfromwhichthequotedsentencewasdrawn.Henrywentontowrite,“Letustransmittoourdescendants,togetherwithourslaves,apityfortheirunhappylot,andanabhorrenceofslavery.”Hisbiographer,RichardR.Beeman,treatsHenry’sviewofslaverydrily:“Ifitwasnothypocrisy,thenitwasatleastself-deceptiononagrandscale.”SeePatrickHenry(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1974),97.

37PaulFinkelman,“JeffersonandSlavery,”inPeterS.Onuf,ed.,JeffersonianLegacies(Charlottesville:UniversityPressofVirginia,1993),181-221,isanextensiveanalysisofJefferson’sslaveholdingandthedifferenceitmadeonhisthought.

38PaulFinkelman,“TreasonAgainsttheHopesoftheWorld:ThomasJeffersonandtheProblemofSlavery”(Washington,D.C.:NationalMuseumofAmericanHistorycolloquium,March23,1993);RogerKennedy,Mr.Lincoln’sAncientEgypt(Washington,D.C.:NationalMuseumofAmericanHistory,1991,typescript),93;RonaldTakaki,ADifferentMirror(Boston:Little,Brown,1993),69.WilliamW.FreehlingalsotreatsJefferson’sambivalenceaboutslaveryinTheRoadtoDisunion(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1990),123-31,136.

39PatronizingcomplimentslikethisaresurelyintendedtowooAfricanAmericanandliberalwhitemembersoftextbookadoptioncommittees.OrperhapspublishersimaginethatsuchpraisehelpswhitestudentsthinklessbadlyofAfricanAmericanstoday.ShowinghowtheRevolutiondecreasedwhiteracismwouldbemorelegitimatehistorically,however,andprobablymorerelevanttoreducingbigotrytoday.

40BruceGlasrudandAlanSmith,RaceRelationsinBritishNorthAmerica,1607-1783(Chicago:Nelson-Hall,1982),330.

41GeorgeImlay,quotedinOkoye,TheAmericanImageofAfrica,55.SeealsoGlasrudandSmith,RaceRelationsinBritishNorthAmerica,278-330.

42Aptheker,EssaysintheHistoryoftheAmericanNegro,76.

43QuotedinJameson,TheAmericanRevolutionConsideredasaSocialMovement,23.

44RegardingtheimpactoftheRevolutiononslavery,seeGlasrudandSmith,RaceRelationsinBritishNorthAmerica,278;RichardH.Sewell,BallotsforFreedom(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1976),3;DwightDumond,Antislavery(NewYork:Norton,1966[1961]),27-34;ArthurZilversmit,TheFirstEmancipation(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1967);andPaulFinkelman,AnImperfectUnion(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1981).VirginiadatafromFinkelman,“JeffersonandSlavery,”187.

45Finkelman,“TreasonAgainsttheHopesoftheWorld.”

46DavidWalker,quotedinOkoye,TheAmericanImageofAfrica,45-46.EvenasheattackedJefferson,WalkeralsoquotedwithapprovalfromtheDeclarationofIndependence.

47OnceherealizedNapoleonwasseriousaboutoccupying“Louisiana,”

JeffersondidrevisehistilttowardFrancetoaneutralposition.SeeJohnChesterMiller,TheWolfbytheEars(NewYork:FreePress,1977),134-37.

48PieroGleijesus“TheLimitsofSympathy,”JournalofLatinAmericanStudies24,no.3(October1992):486,500;RogerKennedy,OrdersfromFrance(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1989),140-45,152-57.

49Gleijesus,“TheLimitsofSympathy,”504;theOstendManifestoquotedinDumond,Antislavery,361.SeealsoRobertMay,TheSouthernDreamofaCaribbeanEmpire,1854-1861(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress,1973).

50HenrySterks,TheFreeNegroinAntebellumLouisiana(Rutherford,NJ:FairleighDickensonUniversityPress,1972),301-4.

51WilliamS.Willis,“DivisionandRule:Red,White,andBlackintheSoutheast,”inLeonardDinnersteinandKennethJackson,eds.,AmericanVistas,1607-1877(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1975),61-64;seealsoLittlefield,AfricansandCreeks,10-100,andThedaPerdue,“RedandBlackintheSouthernAppalachians,”SouthernExposure12,no.6(November1984):19.

52Sloan,BlacksinAmerica,9;Littlefield,AfricansandCreeks,72-80.

53WilliamC.Sturtevant,“CreekIntoSeminole,”inEleanorBurkeLeacockandNancyO.Lurie,eds.,NorthAmericanIndiansinHistoricalPerspective(ProspectHeights,IL:Waveland,1988[1971]),92-128.

54J.LeitchWrightJr.,TheOnlyLandTheyKnew(NewYork:FreePress,1981),277;WilliamLorenKatz,Teachers’GuidetoAmericanNegroHistory(Chicago:Quadrangle,1971),34,63.SeealsoScottThybony,“AgainstAllOdds,BlackSeminoleWonTheirFreedom,”SmithsonianMagazine22,no.5(8/1991):90-100;andLittlefield,AfricansandCreeks,85-90.

55ReginaldHorsman,“AmericanIndianPolicyandtheOriginsofManifestDestiny,”inFrancisPrucha,ed.,TheIndianinAmericanHistory(NewYork:Holt,RinehartandWinston,1971),28.AlmosteverytextbookmentionsslaveryasanissueinTexas,butmostburyitwithinother“rights”MexicansdeniedAnglos.OnfreeblacksseeMoore,Stereotypes,Distortions,andOmissionsinU.S.HistoryTextbooks,24.ReadersmayalsoenjoyabrillianthistoricalnovelbyR.A.Lafferty,OklaHannali(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1972),100,whichdeclares:“howeveritbefalsified(andthefalsificationremainsoneoftheclassicthings),therewasonlyoneissuethere:slavery.”

56ThomasDavidSchoonover,DollarsOverDominion(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress,1978),41,78.

57PatriciaN.Limerick,TheLegacyofConquest(NewYork:Norton,1987),92-93.

58ThedebateswerealsothefirsteventsinAmericanpubliclifetobetranscribedverbatim,allowingmuchfullerandmoreaccuratenewscoverage.

59Amazingly,thetwoinquirytextsglossoverthedebates.TheAmericanAdventureincludesonlyaparagraphofquestions,DiscoveringAmericanHistoryonlyaparagraphofdescriptiveprose(thoughitdoesquotefromLincoln’s“HouseDivided”speech).Whentreatingactions,inquirytextscanhaveadifficulttimeincorporatingprimarysources,whichbynatureareusuallywordsratherthandeeds.Heretheactionconsistsofwords—yetthetextbooksignorethem!

60PaulM.Angle,CreatedEqual?TheCompleteLincoln-DouglasDebatesof1858(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1958).SeealsoGustaveKoerner,Memoirs,2:58-60,quotedinAngle,TheAmericanReader(NewYork:RandMcNally,1958),297.

61Angle,CreatedEqual?22-23.

62QuotedinPaulD.Escott,SlaveryRemembered(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1979),153.

63TheexceptionsareTheAmericanPageant,TheAmericanWay,andDiscoveringAmericanHistory.AmericanPageantisapatchjobbyDavidKennedyonThomasBailey’soriginal,whichdatesto1956!WhereBaileyembracedMargaretMitchell—“Themoonlight-and-magnoliaOldSouthofantebellumdayshadgonewiththewind”—after“days”Kennedyadds“largelyimaginaryinanycase.”Despitesuchnewmaterial,theresultisstilladatedandracistinterpretationof“ReconstructionbytheSword,”emphasizingits“drasticlegislation”andcompletelydownplayingtheconsiderableacceptanceRepublicanpolicieswonamongmanySouthernwhites.TheAmericanWaypaints“Radical”Republicansasopportunistswho“sentnorthernerstotheSouthtomakesuretheBlacksrememberedtovoteforthepartythatfreedthem.”(Blacksneedednosuchaid,ofcourse;manyvotedRepublicanthroughthe1950s!)TheAmericanWayalsoclaimsthat“TheRadicalsfeltthatitwasnotenoughtogiveBlacksthesamerightsasWhites,”sothey“managedtopassthe

FourteenthAmendment”—butthatamendmentgaveblacksexactlythesamerightsaswhites!Inall,AmericanWay’streatmentisamateurish.EvensparseristhecoverageinDiscoveringAmericanHistory,aninquirytext:itdevotesjusttwopagestoallofCongressionalReconstruction,andmostofthatspaceisusedtoreprintthetextsoftheFourteenthandFifteenthAmendments.DiscoveringAmericanHistoryistheonlytexttoavoidthetermscarpetbaggerandscalawag,butthenagainitavoidsReconstructionalmostentirely.

64PerhapsBauerwasinfluencedbyMargaretMitchell’sportraitofAfricanAmericanswholazedaboutassoonasslaveryendedandwhitesupervisionrelaxed.Writingsandrecollectionsbynewlyfreedpeopleoffernosupportforthisportrait,however.SeeEscott,SlaveryRemembered,whichoffersvaluableinformationaboutReconstructionremembered.Seealsostudiesofindividuallocalesandstatewideanalyses,suchasRobertaSueAlexander,NorthCarolinaFacestheFreedmen(Durham:DukeUniversityPress,1985).

65GeorgeC.Rable,ButThereWasNoPeace(Athens:UniversityofGeorgiaPress,1984),1.

66MorganKousser,“TheVotingRightsActandtheTwoReconstructions”(Washington,D.C.:BrookingsInstitution,October19,1990);DuBois,BlackReconstruction,681.

67EricFoner,Reconstruction(NewYork:Harper&Row,1988),asreviewedbyC.VannWoodwardin“UnfinishedBusiness,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,5/12/1988,referringtostatisticsgatheredbyAlbionW.Tourgée.SeealsoAlexander,NorthCarolinaFacestheFreedmen.

68Gen.O.O.HowardquotedinRobertMoore,Reconstruction:ThePromiseandBetrayalofDemocracy(NewYork:CIBC,1983),17.

69GunnarMyrdal,AnAmericanDilemma(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1964[1944]),lxxv-lxxvi.

70RayfordW.Logan,TheBetrayaloftheNegro(NewYork:Macmillan,1970[1954]).SeealsoFoner,Reconstruction,604.

71FitzGerald,AmericaRevised,157.

72InMinorityEducationandCaste(NewYork:AcademicPress,1978),anthropologistJohnOgbuusesstigmatoexplainwhymembersofoppressedminoritiestypicallyfarebetteroutsidetheirhomesocieties.

73MichaelL.Cooper,PlayingAmerica’sGame(NewYork:Lodestar,1993),10;GordonMorgan,“EmancipationBowl”(Fayetteville:UniversityofArkansasDepartmentofSociology,n.d.,typescript).

74RobertAzugandStephenMaizlish,eds.,NewPerspectivesonRaceandSlaveryinAmerica(Lexington:UniversityPressofKentucky,1986),118-21,125;LoewenandSallis,Mississippi:ConflictandChange,241.

75Wallace,Wallechinsky,andWallace,Significa,26-27,“ManintheZoo.”

76Ontheculturalmeaningofminstrelsy,seeRobertToll,BlackingUp(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1974),57,andtheintroductiontoIkeSimond,OldSlack’sReminiscenceandPocketHistoryoftheColoredProfession(BowlingGreen,OH:PopularPress,1974),xxv;JosephBoskin,Sambo(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1986),129;Myrdal,AnAmericanDilemma,989;andLoewen,“BlackImageinWhiteVermont.”

77ForCleveland,seeStanleyHirshson,FarewelltotheBloodyShirt(Chicago:Quadrangle,1968),239-45.ForDemocrats,seeKousser,“TheVotingRightsActandtheTwoReconstructions,”12.ForHardingseeWynCraigWade,TheFieryCross(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1987),165.Harding’sinductionmerelyshowedthelegitimacyoftheKKK;hisadministrationwasnotasracistasWilson’s,althoughitdidnotundoWilson’ssegregativepolicies.ForRicev.GongLum,seeJamesW.Loewen,TheMississippiChinese:BetweenBlackandWhite(ProspectHeights,IL:WavelandPress,1988),66-68.ForTulsa,seeWallace,Wallechinsky,andWallace,Significa,60-61.AsIwaswritingthischapterin1992,LosAngeleseruptedinwhatmanyreporterscalled“theworstraceriotofthecentury.”Perhaps,havingbeenweanedonourhistorytextbooks,theydidn’tknowofthesavageriotsofthenadir.

78SeeJamesW.Loewen,SundownTowns:AHiddenDimensionofAmericanRacism(NewYork:NewPress,2005),especiallyCh.3.

79Americanswhodidnotexperiencesegregation,whichendedintheSouthinabout1970,mayconsiderthesewordsmelodramatic.Americanhistorytextbooksdonothelptoday’sstudentsfeeltherealityoftheperiod.Pleaseseethelastfieldstudyofsegregation,Loewen,TheMississippiChinese,45-48,51,and131-34.

80InTheMississippiChinese,48,IshowthatblackeconomicsuccessinitselfaffrontedwhiteSouthernersandwashardtomaintainwithoutlegalrights.

81SeeStanleyLieberson,APieceofthePie:BlacksandWhiteImmigrantsSince1880(Berkeley:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1980).HerbertGutmaninTheBlackFamilyinSlaveryandFreedom(NewYork:Vintage,1977)notesthatblackfamilyinstabilitycannotbetracedbacktoslaveryorReconstruction.EdmundS.Morganin“Negrophobia,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,6/16/1988,27-29,summarizingresearchbyRogerLane,reportsthatinPhiladelphiabythe1890s,blacksturnedtocriminaloccupationsatmuchhigherratesthanwhitesowingtotheirexclusionfromvirtuallyallindustrialoccupations.SeealsoVernonBurton,InMyFather’sHouseAreManyMansions(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1985).On“tangleofpathology,”seeLeeRainwater,ed.,TheMoynihanReportandthePoliticsofControversy(Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1967).

82“RacialDivisionTakingRootinYoungAmerica,PeopleforFinds,”PeoplefortheAmericanWayForum2,no.1(3/1992):1.

83RichardCohen,“GenerationofBigots,”WashingtonPost,7/23/1993;Marttila&Kiley,Inc.,HighlightsfromanAnti-DefamationLeagueSurveyonRacialAttitudesinAmerica(NewYork:Anti-DefamationLeague,1993),21.

CHAPTER6:JOHNBROWNANDABRAHAMLINCOLN:THEINVISIBILITYOFANTIRACISMINAMERICAN

HISTORYTEXTBOOKS

1FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980),151.

2JohnBrownquotedbyHenryDavidThoreauin“APleaforCaptainJohnBrown,”inRichardScheidenhelm,ed.,TheResponsetoJohnBrown(Belmont,CA:Wadsworth,1972),58.

3Ibid.,57.

4SaidtoRev.M.D.ConwayandRev.WilliamHenryChanningandquotedinCarlSandburg,AbrahamLincoln(NewYork:Harcourt,BraceandWorld,1954),315.

5FitzGerald,AmericaRevised,151.PaulGagnonpointsoutthattextbookssimilarlyunderplaytheworldwideimpactoftheAmericanRevolutioninDemocracy’sHalf-ToldStory(NewYork:AmericanFederationofTeachers,1989),46-47.

6ManytextbookauthorsdodescribetheactsofWilliamLloydGarrison,TheodoreWeld,andsometimesotherabolitionists,butwithouttheirwordsandideasandwithoutmuchsympathy.Blackabolitionists—SojournerTruth,HarrietTubman,andFrederickDouglass—emergewithmorelife.AmericanAdventuresisexceptionalinitswarmandextendedtreatmentofThaddeusStevens,andDiscoveringAmericanHistory,aninquirytext,quotesenoughGarrisonthatstudentscangetasenseoftheman’sposition.

7SaraRobinson,Kansas:ItsInteriorandExteriorLife,Ch.16,“TheAttackuponLawrence,”kancoll.org/books/robinson/r_chap16.htm;MarvinStottelmire,“JohnBrown:MadmanorMartyr?”BrownQuarterly3,no.3(Winter2000),brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/03-3/03-3a.htm#cap1,9/2006;LouisA.DeCaro,Jr.,JohnBrown—TheCostofFreedom(NewYork:International,2007),41-42.

8Slaveswhorefusedtotakepartwereleftalone.

9HannahGeffertandJeanLibby,“RegionalInvolvementinJohnBrown’sRaidonHarpersFerry,”inT.M.McCarthyandJ.Stauffer,eds.,ProphetsofProtest

(NewYork:NewPress,2006),173-75;JeanLibby,ed.,JohnBrownMysteries(Missoula,MT:PictorialHistoriesPublishing,1999),16-21,25,29-35.

10Ofcourse,WisewantedtofindBrownsanesohecouldhanghim,justasBrown’sdefenderswantedtoarguehiminsanesohecouldbespared.ThebestevidenceastoBrown’sstateofmindisprovidedbyhisownletters,statements,andinterviews,whichshownotraceofinsanity.SeealsothediscussionbyStephenB.Oates,ToPurgeThisLandWithBlood(NewYork:HarperandRow,1970),329-34.Wise’s“MessagetotheVirginiaLegislature,December5,1859,”isreprintedinScheidenhelm,ed.,TheResponsetoJohnBrown,132-53;hisevaluationofBrownisonpage143.WiseisadditionallyquotedbyHenryDavidThoreauin“APleaforCaptainJohnBrown,”onpage51ofsame.

11AsBrownpointedoutinhislastspeechincourt,each“joinedmeofhisownaccord.”Thiswastrueevenofhissons.

12LettertoJudgeDanielR.Tilden,11/28/1959,quotedinBarrieStavis,JohnBrown:TheSwordandtheWord(NewYork:A.S.Barnes,1970),164.

13JohnBrown,“LastWordsinCourt,”inScheidenhelm,ed.,TheResponsetoJohnBrown,36-37.

14Thoreau,“APleaforCaptainJohnBrown,”inScheidenhelm,ed.,TheResponsetoJohnBrown,53.

15GeorgeTempletonStrongquotedinDanielAaron,TheUnwrittenWar(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1973),24.

16LetterquotedinWilliamJ.Schafer,ed.,TheTrumanNelsonReader(Amherst:UniversityofMassachusettsPress,1989),250.

17Stavis,JohnBrown:TheSwordandtheWord,14,167;RichardWarchandJonathanFanton,eds.,JohnBrown(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1973),142.

18Themelodythusmadeafullcircle,becauseitbeganastheMethodisthymn,“SayBrothers,WillYouMeetonCanaan’sHappyShore.”LeonLitwackdescribestheBostonsceneinBeenintheStormSoLong(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1979),77-78.Hollywoodfinallyportrayedthe54thMassachusettsinGloryin1990.

19JohnSpencerBassett,AShortHistoryoftheUnitedStates(NewYork:Macmillan,1923),502.

20ThetreatmentofHarpersFerryinthecurrentHoltAmericanNationfinallygetsbeyondthislanguageanddoesnotquestionBrown’ssanity.

21SeeBenjaminQuarles,TheBlackAbolitionists(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1969),244.

22PathwayssimplynevermentionsthatBrownwasreligious.

23SeeOates,ToPurgeThisLandWithBlood,forafullaccountofBrown’sacts.

24TheAmericanPageantcomestheclosest,withsubstantialtreatmentofreligionsassocialinstitutionsandsomediscussionoftheirideas.Otherwise,IagreewithRobertBryan’sassessment,History,Pseudo-History,Anti-History:HowPublicSchoolTextbooksTreatReligion(Washington,D.C.:Learn,Inc.,1984),3,thatafterthePilgrims,ChristianityhasnohistoricalpresenceinAmericanhistorytextbooks.SeealsoPaulGagnon,Democracy’sUntoldStory:WhatWorldHistoryTextbooksNeglect(Washington,D.C.:AmericanFederationofTeachers,1987);CharlesC.Haynes,ReligioninAmericanHistory(Alexandria,VA:AssociationforSupervisionandCurriculumDevelopment,1990);andWilliamF.Jasper,“America’sTextbooksAreCensoredinFavoroftheLeft,”inLisaOrr,ed.,Censorship:OpposingViewpoints(SanDiego:Greenhaven,1990),154-59.

25Right-wingtextbookcriticsarerightlyincensedbythis;asoneofMelGabler’sreviewersputit,criticizingLifeandLiberty,“Obviously,thePublishersarenotthreatenedbyadmittingtheArapahowerereligious—sowhynotthenotable[non-Indian]Americanspastandpresent?”(untitledcritiquebyDeborahL.Brezina[n.p.,typescriptdistributedbyMelGabler’sEducationalResearchAnalysts,1993],7).Unfortunately,Gabler’sreviewerswantonlypositivethingssaidaboutreligion,andmainlyabouttheirreligion,Christianity;thustheyattackanothertextbookformentioningthatBenjaminFranklinwasaDeist.

26PaulM.Angle,CreatedEqual?TheCompleteLincoln-DouglasDebatesof1858(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1958),41.

27TheneweditionofTheAmericanPageantincludesawell-chosenparagraphinwhichLincolnagreeswithDouglasthatwhitesshouldbesuperiorsocially,butarguesthatblacksshouldhaveequalrights.

28RichardCurrent,TheLincolnNobodyKnows(Westport,CT:GreenwoodPress,1980[1958]),216.

29RichardH.Sewell,AHouseDivided(Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,1988),74-75.

30AmericanAdventuresandAmericanHistoryquotefromLincoln’slettertoAlbertHodges,April4,1864.SeeHerbertAptheker,AndWhyNotEveryMan?(NewYork:International,1961),249,fortheentiretext.

31See,forexample,JehutiEl-MaliAmen-Ra,ShatteringtheMythoftheManWhoFreedtheSlaves(SilverSpring,MD:FourthDynastyPublishing,1990),21.Amen-Ra,an“Afrikan”nationalistfromBaltimore,editsLincoln’sletterjustastextbookauthorsdo,todiscredithim.

32Proposedbytheborderstates,thiscompromisewouldhavereversedDredScottandrestoredtheMissouriCompromiselinewhileguaranteeingslaveryforeversouthofit.LincolncouldnotabidethelatterideaandinstructedRepublicancongressmennottosupportit.WithoutRepublicansupport,itnarrowlyfailedinbothhouses.SeveralnewtextbooksdoprovideLincoln’soppositiontotheCrittendenCompromise.

33V.J.Voegeli,FreebutNotEqual(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1967),62-63,128-50.

34Pageantprovidesablowupofthelasthalfofthelastsentence,whichthereforecanbemadeout,withdifficulty.

35LaterthatyearhewouldestablishThanksgivingDay,toidentifyanothersetofFoundingFatherswiththeUnitedStates.

36LestthisanalysismakesLincolnappeartooethnocentric,notethatsomeEuropeans,includingTocqueville,andmanyAmericansinthenineteenthcenturybelievedthattheUnitedStatesindeedexemplifiedthefuture.SeeAbbottGleason,“RepublicofHumbug,”AmericanQuarterly44,no.1(3/1992):1-20;andG.D.Lillibridge,BeaconofFreedom(Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,1955).

37QuotedinM.HirshGoldberg,TheBookofLies(NewYork:Morrow,1990),79-80.

38Intellectualsstilldebateitsimplicationsforourpresentage.See,interalia,ClarenceThomas,“TheModernCivilRightsMovement”(Winston-Salem,NC:TheTocquevilleForum,4/18/1988);GarryWills,LincolnatGettysburg(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1992);RobertLowellasdescribedinAllanNevins,

ed.,LincolnandtheGettysburgAddress(Urbana:UniversityofIllinoisPress,1964),88-89;RobertBellah,“CivilReligioninAmerica,”Daedalus(Winter1967):1-21;WillmooreKendall,“Equality:CommitmentorIdeal?”IntercollegiateReview(Fall1989):25-33;andHarryV.Jaffa,“InventingtheGettysburgAddress,”IntercollegiateReview(Fall1992):51-56.

39TriumphoftheAmericanNationdoesasktwoquestionsbutburiestheminsidetwopagesof“ReviewingImportantTerms,”“PracticingCriticalThinkingSkills,”andsoonattheendoftheunit.

40Withthesamereasoning,PaulGagnonagreesthat“alltextsshouldreprintthe[SecondInaugural]initsentirety”inDemocracy’sHalf-ToldStory,70-71.

41Cf.Voegeli,FreebutNotEqual,138.

42PathwaystothePresentdoesincludeadifferentsentencethatmentionsslavery.

43LyricsquotedinJamesM.McPherson,BattleCryofFreedom(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1988),vi.

44SeeCarletonBeals,WarWithinaWar(Philadelphia:Chilton,1965),145-50.

45QuotedinJamesM.McPherson,“Wartime,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,March12,1990,33.Blacksoldierscaused“arevolutioninthinking”intheUnionarmy,accordingtoLitwack,BeenintheStormSoLong,100.

46TheAmericanAdventure,ChallengeofFreedom,DiscoveringAmericanHistory,andLifeandLibertytreatthetopicofblacksoldiersparticularlywell.

47AparticularlyastutereadermightbeabletoinferthatresultfromthetreatmentinTheAmericanJourney.

48BillEvanspointsout(personalcommunication,12/1993)thatanotherfactorencouragingborder-stateabolitionismwastheabsencefromthepollsofsomeslaverysympathizersfightingintheConfederateArmy.

49AsquotedbyMcPherson,BattleCryofFreedom,688(hisellipses).

50HughL.Keenleyside,CanadaandtheUnitedStates(NewYork:Knopf,1952),115;Aptheker,EssaysintheHistoryoftheAmericanNegro,159;CharlesSumner,speech,6/1/1865.

51OnlyTheAmericanAdventure,aninquirytext,includesthisquote.TheAmericanPageantincludesanequallytellingpassagebyabolitionistJames

RussellLowellontheSouth’sreasonsforseceding.Otherwise,althoughmisinformationontheSouth’sraisond’etreisrampantthroughouttheUnitedStatesandcouldbecounteredbythisquote,notextincludesit.SeeMcPherson,BattleCryofFreedom,649;ReidMitchell,“TheCreationofConfederateLoyalties,”inRobertAzugandStephenMaizlish,eds.,NewPerspectivesonRaceandSlaveryinAmerica(Lexington:UniversityPressofKentucky,1986),101-2.

52PaulEscott,AfterSecession(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress,1978),254.

53JamesW.LoewenandCharlesSallis,eds.,Mississippi:ConflictandChange(NewYork:Pantheon,1980),129-31;Beals,WarWithinaWar;Mitchell,“TheCreationofConfederateLoyalties,”93-108.

54Beals,WarWithinaWar,12,142;seealsoStavis,JohnBrown:TheSwordandtheWord,100-101.

55JohnCimprichandRobertC.MainfortJr.,“TheFortPillowMassacre:AStatisticalNote,”JournalofAmericanHistory,76#2(12/89),832-37;BrianS.Wills,ABattlefromtheStart(NY:Harper,1993),77-78,178,186-93,215;DavidNdilei,ExtinguishtheFlamesofRacialPrejudice(Gainesville,FL:I.E.F.Publications,1996),40,91,131,157-58;JohnL.Jordan,“WasThereaMassacreatFortPillow?”TennesseeHistoricalQuarterly,6(1947);NathanBedfordForrest,4/15/64dispatch,fromWaroftheRebellion:OfficialRecords,v.32pt.1(DC:GPO,1891),609-10;RichardNelsonCurrent,Lincoln’sLoyalists(NY:OxfordUniversityPress,1992),139-43;RichardL.Fuchs,AnUnerringFire:TheMassacreatFortPillow(Rutherford,NJ:FairleighDickinsonUniversityPress,1994),23,116-17,144-46;JamesMcPherson,BattleCryofFreedom(NY:OxfordUniversityPress,1988),565-66,793-95;McPherson,TheNegro’sCivilWar(NY:Pantheon,1965),186-7;JosephT.Glatthaar,ForgedinBattle:TheCivilWarAllianceofBlackSoldiersandWhiteOfficers(NY:FreePress,1990),133-34.

56Escott,AfterSecession,198;McPherson,BattleCryofFreedom,833-35;Beals,WarWithinaWar,147.

57Stavis,JohnBrown:TheSwordandtheWord,101-2;seealsoMcPherson,BattleCryofFreedom,832-38;JosephT.Glatthaar,TheMarchtotheSeaandBeyond(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniversityPress,1995).Untilthelastyearofthewar,UniondesertionrateswerealmostashighasConfederate,but

UniondesertersalmostneverjoinedtheConfederatearmy.

58Beals,WarWithinaWar,73.SeealsoGaborBoritt,ed.,WhytheConfederacyLost(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1992).

59Oneoldbookfrommyoriginalsample,TheAmericanAdventure,quotedoriginalsourcesontheevolutionofUnionwaraimsandasked,“Howwouldsuchattitudesaffecttheconductandoutcomeofthewar?”

60AmericanHistory,itsauthorapparentlyunfamiliarwiththeliteratureaboutdivisionwithintheSouth,evenclaimsasanadvantagefortheConfederatesthat“theirwholewayoflife[was]atstake.Thisaddedtotheirdeterminationandhelpedmakeupfortheshortageofmenandsupplies.”Ofcourse,ideaswerenotthesolecauseofUnionvictory.ManytextbooksmentiontheNorth’sconsiderableadvantagesinpopulation,industry,andrailroads.SometextbooksnotethenavalblockadeoftheSouth,coupledwiththeregion’sinadequateinternaltransportation.SeveralrecognizethattheUnion’sgovernmentandfinancingwerealreadyinplace.Ontheotherhand,sometextbookspointoutthattheConfederateshadtheadvantageoffightingontheirhometurfwithshortersupplylines;afewnotethattheyalsohadinitialsympathyfromthegovernmentsofBritainandFrance.Beyondthesefactors,idiosyncraticconsiderations—whathistoriansliketocallhistoricalcontingency—wereatwork.TheSouthhadbettergeneralsatfirst.LincolnwasafarbetterpresidentthanDavis.McClellanwasindecisive.TwooftheSouth’smostcapablegenerals,AlbertSidneyJohnstonandStonewallJackson,werekilledearlyinthewar.Certainofficersdidordidnotbringtheirtroopstobearintimeincertainbattles.Lee’splansatAntietamfellintoUnionhands.Andsoon.Thus,therewasnoinevitabilitytotheoutcome,andIdonotclaimthattextbookserrbynotsayingthattheUnionwonforideologicalreasons.IdosuggestthatsinceAmericanhistorytextbooksrarelydiscusscausationatall,theyareunlikelytotreatcausesoftheUnionvictoryverywell,and,indeed,fivetextbooksgivenoreasons!Sincetextbooksdiscussideasevenlessoften,theyareunlikelytotreatideasascausesintheCivilWar.TheAmericanAdventuredoessowithintelligence.

61DavidLowenthal,ThePastIsaForeignCountry(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1988),345;seealsoPeterNovick,ThatNobleDream(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1988),74-80.

62BessieL.Pierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnited

States(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1926),146-70;seealsoLowenthal,ThePastIsaForeignCountry,345;JohnS.Mosby,lettertoSamChapman,7/4/1907,atGilderLehrmanInstituteofAmericanHistory,gilderlehrman.org/collection/docs_current.html.

63MichaelKammen,MysticChordsofMemory(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),118.

64MarkHaltonoffersaninterestingdiscussionoftheresurgenceoftheConfederateflaginthe1950sanditssymbolicoppositiontothecivilrightsmovementin“TimetoFurltheConfederateFlag,”ChristianCentury105,no.17(5/18/1988):494-96.“EmbattledEmblem,”anexhibitattheMuseumoftheConfederacyonthehistoryoftheArmyofNorthernVirginiaflagfromReconstructiontothe1990s,similarlycreditsitsresurgencetowhiteoppositiontocivilrights.ThewhiteSouthisslowlygivingupitsidentificationwiththeConfederacy.In1983eventheUniversityofMississippi,onceacitadelofresistancetoracialchange,droppedtheConfederateflagasitsofficialemblem.In2001,GeorgiaremovedtheConfederateflagfromitsstateflag,andin2004voterssupportedthenewdesign.

65CarlSandburg,AbrahamLincoln:TheWarYears(NewYork:Harcourt,Brace,1939),4:347-49.

66LoewenandSallis,eds.,Mississippi:ConflictandChange,145-47.JohnHopeFranklinsuggestedrenaming“PresidentialReconstruction”“ConfederateReconstruction.”

67AmericanSocialHistoryProject,WhoBuiltAmerica?(NewYork:Pantheon,1989),482.

68EricFoner,Reconstruction(NewYork:HarperandRow,1988),267.

69EdmoniaHighgatequotedinRobertMoore,Reconstruction:ThePromiseandBetrayalofDemocracy(NewYork:CIBC,1983),17.

70Theexception,DiscoveringAmericanHistory,doesn’tmentionSouthernRepublicansatallandhardlycoversReconstruction.

71WilliamC.Harris,“AReconsiderationoftheMississippiScalawag,”JournalofMississippiHistory37,no.1(2/1970):11-13.

72Ibid.,3-42;C.VannWoodward,“UnfinishedBusiness,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,May12,1988.

73Again,DiscoveringAmericanHistoryistheexceptionbecauseitdoesn’tmentionSouthernRepublicansatallandhardlycoversReconstruction.Ironically,mostNorthernwhiteswhowentsouthforeconomicgainwereDemocrats.

74Theeditors,“LiberatingOurPast,”SouthernExposure12,no.6(11/1984):2.

75SeeLaWandaCoxandJohnCox,“NegroSuffrageandRepublicanPolitics:TheProblemofMotivationinReconstructionHistoriography,”JournalofSouthernHistory33(August1967):317-26;RichardCurry,ed.,Radicalism,Racism,andPartyRealignment(Baltimore:JohnsHopkinsUniversityPress,1969).

76McPherson,BattleCryofFreedom,853.ThepopulationoftheUnionwastwenty-twomillion.In“TheReconstructionofAbrahamLincoln,”Ch.5ofDavidMiddletonandDerekEdwards,eds.,CollectiveRemembering(London:Sage,1991),BarrySchwartzanalyzesthefuneralasacrucialstepinLincoln’siconolatry.

77Sandburg,AbrahamLincoln:TheWarYears,4:296,373-80;JohnT.MorseJr.,ed.,TheDiaryofGideonWelles(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1911),2:288-90.

78AmongwhiterespondentsLincolnusuallycomesinfirstinopinionpollsasthe“greatestpresident”or“greatestAmerican,”partlybecausewhiteslikesuchpersonaltraitsashishumanitarianism,populisttouch,andempathy,accordingtoBarrySchwartzin“AbrahamLincolnintheBlackCommunityofMemory”(Washington,D.C.:NationalMuseumofAmericanHistorycolloquium,8/24/1993).

79“TheLessonoftheHour,”inWarchandFanton,JohnBrown,108.

80Imustnoteanimportantexception:AmericanAdventures,whichisaimedatyoungeror“slower”readers,devotestwoofitstwo-tothree-pagechapterstoabolitionistsWilliamLloydGarrisonandThaddeusStevensandpresentsthemwithunusualflair.

81OnBrownandHoChiMinh,seeTrumanNelson,TheTrumanNelsonReader(Amherst:UniversityofMassachusettsPress,1989),285;onSouthAfricaandNorthernIreland,seePeterMaas,“GenerationsofTorment,”NewYorkTimesMagazine,6/10/1988,32;1988PBSdocumentary,WeShall

Overcome.

CHAPTER7:THELANDOFOPPORTUNITY

1AbrahamLincolnquotedinCarlSandburg,AbrahamLincoln(NewYork:Harcourt,Brace,1954),271.

2HelenKeller,Midstream:MyLaterLife(NewYork:Greenwood,1968[1929]),156.

3KwameNkrumah,Consciencism(NewYork:MonthlyReviewPress,1964),63.

4Similarly,CynthiaS.SunalandPerryD.Phillipstellhowtheirstudentsagedsixtoeighteen“seemedunabletoexplaininequalities.”See“RuralStudents’DevelopmentoftheConceptionofEconomicInequality”(NewOrleans:AmericanEducationalResearchAssociation,1988,abstract,ERICED299069).

5Tworecentbooksdomentiontheairtrafficcontrollers’strikebrokenbyPresidentReagan,butaspartoftheReaganpresidencyratherthanlaborhistory.

6JeanAnyon,“IdeologyandUnitedStatesHistoryTextbooks,”HarvardEducationalReview49,no.3(8/1979):373.Anyonclaimsthathighschoolhistorytextbooksalwaysconcentrateon“thesamethreestrikes”:the1877railroadstrike,1892Homesteadsteelstrike,and1894Pullmanstrike.Eachwas“especiallyviolent,”shewrites,andlaborlostallthree;hencetoemphasizethemis“tocastdoubtonstrikingasavalidcourseofaction.”However,iftextbooksemphasizedsuccessfulstrikes,Anyoncouldthenchargethemwithminimizingtheseriousnessofthestrugglelaborfaced.Conversely,someappallinglyviolentinstancesofclassconflictgounmentionedbymosttextbooks.

7GregoryMantsios,“ClassinAmerica:MythsandRealities,”inPaulaS.Rothernberg,ed.,RacismandSexism:AnIntegratedStudy(NewYork:St.Martin’s,1988),56.The2003HoltAmericanNationdoestreat“TheNewWorkingClass”around1900andinothererascontainssomediscussionofpoverty.

8Ibid.,60;KevinPhillips,ThePoliticsofRichandPoor(NewYork:RandomHouse,1990);RobertHeilbroner,“LiftingtheSilentDepression,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,10/24/1991,6;andSylviaNasar,“TheRichGetRicher,”NewYorkTimes,8/16/1992.StephenJ.Rose,SocialStratificationintheUnited

States(NewYork:NewPress,2007),isaposterbookthatshowsgraphicallytheshrinkageofthemiddleclassbetween1979and2004.

9“IncomeDisparitySinceWorldWarII—TheGiniIndex,”in“Ginicoefficient,”en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient,9/2006.

10JereBrophyandThomasGoodsummarizesomeofthevastliteratureonsocialclass,teacherexpectation,andtrackinginTeacher-StudentRelationships(NewYork:Holt,1974),esp.7-171.RayRistobservedsimilartrackinganddifferentialteacherexpectationbysocialclasswithinfirst-gradeclassesinblackschools,assummarizedinEdselEricksonetal.,“TheEducabilityofDominantGroups,”PhiDeltaKappan(December1972):320.DaleHarveyandGeraldSlatinshowedthatteacherswillinglycategorizechildrenbysocialclassonthebasisofphotographsandholdhigherexpectationsformiddle-andupper-classchildren;see“TheRelationshipBetweenChild’sSESandTeacherExpectations,”SocialForces54,no.1(1975):140-59.SeealsoRichardH.DeLone,SmallFutures(NewYork:HarcourtBraceJovanovich,1979).

11SizerquotedinWalterKarp,“WhyJohnnyCan’tThink,”Harper’s,6/1985,73.

12RebaPage,“TheLower-TrackStudents’ViewofCurriculum,”(Washington,D.C.:AmericanEducationResearchAssociation,1987).

13WoodrowWilsonquotedinLewisH.Lapham,“Notebook,”Harper’s,7/1991,10.

14ThedifferenceisdramaticallydocumentedinthefilmHealthCare:YourMoneyorYourLife(NewYork:DowntownCommunityTVCenter,c.1977),whichcomparestwopubliclyfundedneighboringhospitalsinNewYorkCity,onecaringmostlyforpoorpeople,theotherforamoreaffluentclientele.

15Surveydatafromabout1979reportedinSidneyVerbaandGaryOrren,EqualityinAmerica(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1985),72-75.Othersurveys,beforeandafter,reportsimilarresults.

16LindaMcNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”inMichaelW.AppleandLoisWeis,eds.,IdeologyandPracticeinSchooling(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1983),116.

17EdwardPessen,TheLogCabinMyth(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1984).

18AugustHollingsheadandFrederickC.Redlich,SocialClassandMentalIllness(NewYork:Wiley,1958),6.Traditionalsexroles,herefavoringwomen,causedthedeathrateamongmentobemuchhigherinallclasses.

19LawrenceM.BaskirandWilliamStrauss,ChanceandCircumstance(NewYork:RandomHouse,1986).

20RichardSennettandJonathanCobb,TheHiddenInjuriesofClass(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1972).

21Citingonlyliteraturefromthe1970s,see,interalia,JoelSpring,EducationandtheRiseoftheCorporateState(Boston:Beacon,1972);RayRist,TheUrbanSchool:AFactoryforFailure(Cambridge:MITPress,1973);SamuelBowlesandHerbertGintis,SchoolinginCapitalistAmerica(NewYork:BasicBooks,1976);JoelSpring,TheSortingMachine(NewYork:DavidMcKay,1976);JamesRosenbaum,MakingInequality(NewYork:Wiley,1976);PaulWillis,LearningtoLabor(Farnborough,Eng.:SaxonHouse,TeakfieldLtd.,1977);andJeromeKarabelandA.H.Halsey,eds.,PowerandIdeologyinEducation(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1977).

22JonathanKozol,SavageInequalities(NewYork:Crown,1991).

23TheinquirytextbookTheAmericanAdventurecomesclosesttoanalyzingeducationandsocialclassamongtheeighteenbooksIsurveyed.

24Cowan’sworkisdescribedandquotedinHerbertGutman,PowerandCulture(NewYork:Pantheon,1987),396-97.

25Gutman,PowerandCulture,386-90.

26WilliamMiller,“AmericanHistoriansandtheBusinessElite,”inMiller,ed.,MeninBusiness(NewYork:HarperandRow,1962),326-28,summarizinghisownresearchandworkbyReinhardBendixandF.W.Howton.SeealsoDavidMontgomery,BeyondEquality(NewYork:Vintage,1967),15.Someotherstudiesshowedmarginallyhigherproportions,notmateriallydifferent,exceptforscatteredpocketsofopportunity,includingPaterson,NJ.

27VerbaandOrren,EqualityinAmerica,10.SeealsoPaulGagnon,Democracy’sHalf-ToldStory(NewYork:AmericanFederationofTeachers,1989),84-85;“IncomeDisparitySinceWorldWarII,”opcit.

28Mantsios,“ClassinAmerica,”59;IsaacShapiroandRobertGreenstein,TheWideningGulf(Washington,D.C.:CenteronBudgetandPolicyPriorities,

1999).

29“Index,”Harper’s,May1990,19,citingdatafromtheUnitedAutomobileWorkers;JeanneSahadi,“CEOPay:SkyHighGetsEvenHigher,”CNNMoney.com,8/30/2005;money/cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_pay/.

30“Index,”Harper’s,January1993,19,citingtheOrganizationforEconomicCooperationandDevelopment.

31DavidTyackandElisabethHansot,“ConflictandConsensusinAmericanPublicEducation,”Daedalus110,no.2(Summer1981):11-12.

32JeffreyWilliamsonandLindert,AmericanInequality:AMacroeconomicHistory(NewYork:AcademicPress,1980),Chapter3.SeymourMartinLipset,TheFirstNewNation(NewYork:BasicBooks,1963),324-26,holdsthatwealthwaslessequalinGreatBritain,althoughincomewasnot.

33TheAmericanPageant(2006)standsoutbynotingthat“manynationsboastedmoreequitabledistributionsofwealth.”Thisbookalsorevealsthat“thegapbetweenrichandpoorevenwidenedsomewhatinthe1980s.”Unfortunately,TheAmericanPageantalsosaysthat80percentoftheworkforceinthe1990sworkedinwhite-collarjobs,doubletheactualproportion.

34WalterDeanBurnham,“TheChangingShapeoftheAmericanPoliticalUniversity,”AmericanPoliticalScienceReview59(1965):23-25.

35BarrySchwartz,“TheReconstructionofAbrahamLincoln,”inDavidMiddletonandDerekEdwards,eds.,CollectiveRemembering(London:Sage,1991).

36WilliamsonandLindert,AmericanInequality,41-42,49-51;RobertE.Gallman,“TrendsintheSizeDistributionofWealthintheNineteenthCentury,”inLeeSoltow,ed.,SixPapersontheSizeDistributionofWealthandIncome(NewYork:NationalBureauofEconomicResearch,1969),6-7.

37LeeSoltow,DistributionofWealthandIncomeintheUnitedStatesin1798(Pittsburgh:UniversityofPittsburghPress,1989),252;StephanThernstrom,TheOtherBostonians(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1973),Chapters5,9.

38SeeAlanMacrobert,“TheUnfairnessofItAll,”VermontVanguardPress,September30,1984,12-13;AlfieKohn,YouKnowWhatTheySay...(NewYork:HarperCollins,1990),38-39;Heilbroner,“LiftingtheSilentDepression,”

6;SheldonDanzigerandPeterGottschalk,UnevenTides(NewYork:Sage,1993).

39Mantsios,“ClassinAmerica,”56.

40DeborahL.Brezina,“CritiqueofLifeandLiberty”(np,n.d.,typescript,distributedbyMelGabler’sEducationalResearchAnalysts,1993),2.

41FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1979),108-9.

42DavidTyackandElisabethHansot,“ConflictandConsensusinAmericanPublicEducation,”Daedalus110,no.2(Summer1981):1-25,foundthateconomicinequalityistypicallyjustifiedbythetwinnotionsofmeritocracyandequalityofopportunity.

43FitzGerald,AmericaRevised,109.TheGablersandtheiralliesrepeatedlymakethesamecriticism;seeBrezina,“CritiqueofLifeandLiberty,”2.

44McNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”125.

45Aparagraphtitled“APermanentClassofPoorWorkers”inTheAmericanWayandanotherinTheAmericanPageantareexceptions.

46SurveydatafromVerbaandOrren,EqualityinAmerica,72-75.

CHAPTER8:WATCHINGBIGBROTHER:WHATTEXTBOOKSTEACHABOUTTHEFEDERAL

GOVERNMENT

1SaidregardingthewritingofthehistoryoftheMexicanWar;quotedbyEdwardPessen,“JQA...,”intheOrganizationofAmericanHistoriansnewsletter,2/1988.

2LyricsfromTomPaxton’s“That’sWhatILearnedinSchool,”CherryLaneMusicPublishingCo.,Inc.,allrightsreserved,usedbypermission,copyright1962,1990.

3“AnInterviewwithBillMoyers,”inFacingHistoryandOurselvesNews,c.1991,4.

4MalcolmXquotedinGilNoble’sfilmElHajjMalikelShabazz(MalcolmX)(Carlsbad,CA:CRMFilms,1965).

5PaulGagnon,“WhyStudyHistory?”Atlantic,11/1988,63.

6Unfortunately,theinquirytextbookshavegoneoutofprint.

7GeorgeKennanquotedinSheilaD.Collins,“FromtheBottomUpandtheOutsideIn,”CALCReport15,no.3(3/1990):9-10.

8FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980),129.

9QuotedinJamesOliverRobertson,AmericanMyth,AmericanReality(NewYork:HillandWang,1980),272.

10BessieL.Pierce,CivicAttitudesinAmericanSchoolTextbooks(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1930),110-11.

11RuthLegerSivard,WorldMilitaryandSocialExpenditures,1985(Washington,D.C.:WorldPriorities,1985),35-37;CurtTarnoffandLarryNowels,“ForeignAid:AnIntroductoryOverviewofU.S.ProgramsandPolicy,”Washington,D.C.,LibraryofCongressCongressionalResearchService,2004;DavidWallechinsky“IsAmericaStillNo.1?”Parade(1/14/2007)4.Moreover,mostforeignaidgoestojustfourorfivecountries,alwaysincludingIsraelandEgypt,andismoremilitarythansocialoreducationalinnature.

12Interviewswithhigh-levelmanagersofmultinationalcorporationsinLarryAdelman’svideo,ControllingInterest:TheWorldoftheMultinationalCorporation(SanFrancisco:CaliforniaNewsreel,1978),showtheirinfluenceparticularlyoverU.S.policyinChile.

13WiththeendofcommunisminEasternEurope,SecondWorldnolongerhasitsoldmeaning.ThirdWorldwasalwaysethnocentric,implyingourworldwasfirst.BecausetermslikeLDCs—lessdevelopedcountries—raiseproblemsoftheirown,andsinceThirdWorldwasthetermusedintheperiod,Iwilluseithere.

14RobertReichquotedinRobertHeilbroner,“TheWorstIsYettoCome,”NewYorkTimes,2/14/1993,25.

15“CorporateCrimeandAbuse,”CenterforCorporatePolicywebsite,corporatepolicy.org/issues/FCPA.htm,1/2007;“KuwaitofAfrica?”60Minutes,7/18/2004,CBSNewswebsite,cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/14/60minutes;KatyShaw,“MakingaKilling:Corporations,ConflictandPovertyinEquatorialGuinea,”WaronWantannualconference2005,WaronWantwebsite,waronwant.org/download.php?id=299,10/2006;EduardoCue,“DictatorandDiplomat,”U.S.News&WorldReport,9/17/2006,usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060917/25oil.htm,1/2006;JohnVidal,“OilRich,DirtPoor,”TheGuardian,8/26/2004,guardian.co.uk/print/0,,5001814-114321,00.html,1/2007;JustinBlum,“U.S.OilFirmsEntwinedinEquatorialGuineaDeals,”WashingtonPost,9/7/2004,washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1101-2004Sep6...,1/2007.

16BarryWeisberg,BeyondRepair(Boston:BeaconPress,1971),79.AlliedurgingandWilson’santicommunismmayhavebeenlargerfactors.

17Gen.SmedleyD.Butler,quotedinaNewYorkTimesinterview,8/21/1931,reprintedinJosephR.Conlin,ed.,TheMorrowBookofQuotationsinAmericanHistory(NewYork:Morrow,1984),58.

18JohnA.Hobson,quotedinLloydC.Gardner,SafeforDemocracy(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1984),11.

19JonathanKwitny,EndlessEnemies(NewYork:CongdonandWeed,1984),178.

20CharlesHarrissIIIandLouisSadler,TheBorderandtheRevolution(SilverCity,NM:High-LonesomeBooks,1988),Chapter1.

21LewisH.Lapham,America’sCenturySeriesTranscript(SanFrancisco:KQED,1989),48;GregGrandin,“YourAmericanismandMine:AmericanismandAnti-AmericanismintheAmericas,”AmericanHistoricalReviewForum,10/2006,historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/111.4/grandin.html(11/2006),1.

22Kwitny,EndlessEnemies,389.AndrewKopkindalsomakesthispointin“One-and-a-Half(Strangled)CheersfortheUSSR,”VillageVoice,2/4/1980.

23AccordingtoevidencefromtheChurchCommitteeoftheU.S.Senate,summarizedinSatishKumar,TheCIAandtheThirdWorld(NewDelhi:Vikas,1981),86-90,AllenDulles,directoroftheCIA,instructedtheCIAinZairethat“removal”ofLumumba“shouldbeahighpriorityofourcovertaction.”CIAheadquartersthensenttoxicsubstancestoitsoperativesinZairewithwhichtoassassinateLumumbawhilehewasinUNcustody.CharlesAmeringerdescribesPresidentEisenhower’sindirectorderingofLumumba’sassassinationon8/18/1960,inU.S.ForeignIntelligence(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1990),291.Intheend,Congolese,notCIAagents,killedLumumbaafterheleftUNcustody,soalthoughtheCIAapprovedofthemurder,hadbeentryingtoaccomplishititself,andhadpriorknowledgeoftheplantotransferLumumbatothesitewherehewouldbekilled,theUnitedStatescoulddenyanydirectinvolvementinhisdemise.SeealsoEllenRayetal.,eds.,DirtyWork2(Secaucus,NJ:LyleStuart,1979),15-19,185-92,and202-11;VictorMarchettiandJohnD.Marks,TheCIAandtheCultofIntelligence(NewYork:Dell,1974),131-32;andKevinReilly,TheWestandtheWorld(NewYork:HarperandRow,1989),412-15.

24HoltAmericanNationdoessaythattheUnitedStateswantedto“remove”Castro.

25PierreSalinger,“GapsintheCubanMissileCrisisStory,”NewYorkTimes,2/5/1989.SeealsoLapham,America’sCenturySeriesTranscript,51;Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,285-95;RhodriJeffreys-Jones,TheCIAandAmericanDemocracy(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1989),131-40.

26PhilipAgeeandLouisWolf,DirtyWork(Secaucus,NJ:LyleStuart,1978),270-71.LeeHarveyOswald,Kennedy’sallegedassassin,mayonlycoincidentallyhavetriedtogotoCuba.Wedonotknow;distrustoftheofficialWarrenCommissionexplanationfuelsspeculationtothisday.ManyAmericansfoundOliverStone’sfilmJFKpersuasive,eventhoughtheconspiracyitconcoctsseemstoincludeVicePresidentJohnson,thePentagonbrass,theCIA,

themilitary-industrialcomplex,theMafia,andtheMormonTabernacleChoir.Textbooksbearsomeresponsibilityforthepublicgullibility,becausetheydoapoorjobofdiscussingKennedy’smurder.Half-blindlytrusttheWarrenCommissionconclusionthatOswaldwastheloneandidiosyncraticallymotivatedkiller.TheotherscastdoubtontheWarrenCommissionbutleavecompletelyvaguewhoelsemighthavebeeninvolved.AccordingtohistorianJeffreys-Jones,TheCIAandAmericanDemocracy,140,AttorneyGeneralRobertKennedydidnotwantthepublictoknowaboutJFK’sOperationMongooseorcontractswiththeMafia;secrecyonthesepointshelpedmaketheWarrenreportincompleteaboutbothCastroandtheMafia.LBJthoughtCastroprobablyhadJFKkilledinretaliationforJFK’sattemptsonhislife,butnotextbookraisesthepossibility.SeeNathanMiller,SpyingforAmerica(NewYork:Paragon,1989),375.In1978theHouseSelectCommitteeonAssassinationsconcludedtheMafiaprobablydidit,sincebothOswaldandhisslayer,JackRuby,hadmobties,butnotextbookraisesthepossibility.SeeG.R.Blakey,“MurderedbytheMob?”WashingtonPost,11/7/1993.

27ChristopherCerfandVictorNavasky,TheExpertsSpeak(NewYork:Pantheon,1984),145;Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,261-64.

28Kissinger,quotedinThomasG.Paterson,J.G.Clifford,andK.J.Hagen,AmericanForeignPolicy:AHistorySince1900(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1983),589.

29MythankstoDavidShimanforsomeoftheideasandwordingoftheseparagraphsonChile,partsofwhichoriginallyappearedas“U.S.intheThirdWorld:ChallengingtheTextbookMyth,”byDavidShimanandJamesW.Loewen,Chapter11ofT.M.Thomasetal.,eds.,GlobalImagesofPeace:TransformingtheWarSystem(Kottayam,India:PrakasamPublications,1985),reprintedinthiscountryasGlobalImagesofPeaceandEducation(AnnArbor:Prakken,1987).Davidalsosuggestedtheterminternationalgoodguyandthebook’stitle.

30Gagnon,“WhyStudyHistory?”60.

31GeorgeW.Ball,“JFK’sBigMoment,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,2/13/1992,16-20;Jeffreys-Jones,TheCIAandAmericanDemocracy,131;Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,250,268.

32RonaldKessler,InsidetheCIA(NewYork:PocketBooks,1992),41;seealsoGeorgeW.Ball,“JFK’sBigMoment,”16;MarchettiandMarks,TheCIAand

theCultofIntelligence,350-54.

33RobertF.Smith,TheUnitedStatesandRevolutionaryNationalisminMexico,1916-1932(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1972),xiii;seealsoAmeringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,268.

34RobertLeckie,TheWarsofAmerica(NewYork:HarperandRow,1968),12.

35NicolasShumway,“SomeonetoBeStoppedinChile,”NewYorkTimesBookReview,5/9/1993,19;OversightofU.S.GovernmentIntelligenceFunctions:HearingsBeforetheCommitteeonGovernmentOperations,U.S.Senate,94thCongress,SecondSession(Washington,D.C.:U.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice,1976).

36ThomasW.Lippman,“138ReportedMissinginU.S.SpyFlights,”WashingtonPost,March5,1993;ThomasPowers,“NotesfromUnderground,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,6/21/2001,51.

37MarkDanner,“HowtheForeignPolicyMachineBrokeDown,”NewYorkTimesMagazine,3/7/1993,33-34.

38HelenKeller,lettertoNewYorkCall,November10,1919,inPhilipS.Foner,ed.,HelenKeller:HerSocialistYears(NewYork:InternationalPublishers,1967),100.

39Onebook,LifeandLiberty,overblamesNixon,statingintwodifferentplaces,“EvidenceuncoveredlatershowedthatNixondidknowabouttheburglarybeforeithappened.”Noevidencehasyetshownthis.

40RichardRubenstein,TheCunningofHistory(NewYork:Harper&Row,1987),82.

41PeterKornbluh,“BackIntotheLoop,”WashingtonPost,8/22/1993,C2;FritzSchwartz,UncheckedandUnbalanced(NewYork:NewPress,2007).

42TheodoreDrapermakesthispointin“AmericanHubris:FromTrumantothePersianGulf,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,7/16/1987,40-48.

43KennethO’Reilly,“RacialMatters”(NewYork:FreePress,1989),9,12-13,17,and96-99;Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,109.

44O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”43,126,144,and355;DavidJ.Garrow,TheFBIandMartinLutherKingJr.(NewYork:Penguin,1981),125-26,161-64;TaylorBranch,PartingtheWaters(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1988),861;

Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,322-23;FrankJ.Donner,TheAgeofSurveillance(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1980),214-19;AthanTheoharisandJohnStuartCox,TheBoss(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1988),354-57.Themedia,inthosedaysrespectingabarrierbetweenprivateandpubliclives,generallyrefusedtousethematerial.

45Ameringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,323;Branch,PartingtheWaters,835-65;O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”140,186;Garrow,TheFBIandMartinLutherKingJr.,130-31;Donner,TheAgeofSurveillance,217.

46Branch,PartingtheWaters,692.

47O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”357.

48JamesW.LoewenandCharlesSallis,eds.,Mississippi:ConflictandChange(NewYork:Pantheon,1980),265-83.

49O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”186.

50Ibid.,256;ArlieSchardt,“CivilRights:TooMuch,TooLate,”inPatWattersandStephenGillers,InvestigatingtheFBI(NewYork:Ballantine,1973),167-79.

51AdamHochschild,“HisLifeasaPanther,”NewYorkTimesBookReview,January31,1993;O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”302-16;Donner,TheAgeofSurveillance,220-32.

52Donner,TheAgeofSurveillance,220.

53ThisRaoul,lastnameapparentlyMaora,isnottobeconflatedwiththe“Raoul”whomastermindedtheentireassassination,accordingtoRay,butwhocannotbefoundandwaslikelyfictitious.

54Donner,TheAgeofSurveillance,214-19;JohnEdgintonandJohnSergeant,“TheMurderofMartinLutherKingJr.,”CovertActionInformationBulletin,no.34(Summer1990):21-27;TheoharisandCox,TheBoss,439.SeealsoAmeringer,U.S.ForeignIntelligence,322;JohnElliff,“AspectsofFederalCivilRightsEnforcement,”inLawinAmericanHistory,vol.5ofPerspectivesinAmericanHistory(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1971),643-47.

55O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”336-37.DivisionadministratorstoneddowntheJacksonagents,remindingthemtofocusontheTougalooPoliticalActionCommittee,“sinceTougalooCollege,perse,isnotacounterintelligencetarget.”

SeealsoDonner,TheAgeofSurveillance,219-20.DonnersaystheFBIforcedthedeparturefromMississippiofMuhammadKenyatta,aprominentblacknationalistinJackson.Ininternalmemos,FBIagentstookcreditforsettingupKenyattaonthechargeofattemptingtostealatelevisionsetfromTougalooCollege.Actually,Kenyattahastenedhisowndeparturebygettingcaughtwhiledoingjustthat.

56O’Reilly,“RacialMatters,”337.

57RossGelbspan,Break-ins,DeathThreats,andtheFBI(Boston:SouthEndPress,1991).

58DannyGlover’sFreedomSong,althoughmoreaccurate,isalmostunknown.

59SethCaginandPhilipDray,WeAreNotAfraid(NewYork:BantamBooks,1991),describesthemurdersandtheFBI’sreluctantbuteventuallyeffectivepolicework.

60ArthurSchlesingerJr.,quotedinBranch,PartingtheWaters,918-19.

61SeeBeverlyKraft,“SomeLackKnowledgeAboutEvers,”JacksonClarionLedger,January20,1994,1A.

62Toadegree,BoorstinandKelleyalsoprovidethisanalysis,buttheiroveralltreatmentismuddledandmightleadstudentstoconcludetheveryopposite.

63PatrickFerguson,“PromotingPoliticalParticipation:Teachers’AttitudesandInstructionalPractices”(SanFrancisco:AmericanEducationalResearchAssociation,1989).

64CritiquebyJamesF.Delong(Hoover,AL:1986,typescript,distributedbyMelGabler’sEducationalResearchAnalysts,1993).

65DonaldBarr,WhoPushedHumptyDumpty?DilemmasinAmericanEducationToday(NewYork:Atheneum,1972),308;LewisLapham,PretensionstoEmpire(NewYork:NewPress,2006),24.

66MichiganStateBoardofEducation,1982-83MichiganSocialStudiesTextbookReport(Lansing,MI:MichiganStateBoardofEducation,1984).

67Rubenstein,TheCunningofHistory,80-82;ClarenceLusane,PipeDreamBlues(Boston:SouthEndPress,1991),4,116-22,and200-201.

CHAPTER9:SEENOEVIL:CHOOSINGNOTTOLOOKATTHEWARINVIETNAM

1GeorgeSwiers,quotedinWilliamApplemanWilliamsetal.,eds.,AmericainVietnam(NewYork:Norton,1989),ix.

2MartinLutherKingJr.,“BeyondVietnam”(NewYork:RiversideChurchsermon,4/4/1967).

3Gen.WilliamC.WestmorelandquotedatBrainyQuote,brainyquote.com,5/2007;Antiwar,antiwar.com/quotes.php,5/2007;andelsewhere.

4FrederickDouglassquotedoninsidecoverofRobertMoore,Reconstruction:ThePromiseandBetrayalofDemocracy(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildren,1983).

5Studentignoranceisnoaccident.AccordingtothehistorianMichaelKammen,writinginMysticChordsofMemory(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),661-62,PresidentFordwantedustoforgetVietnam.PresidentReaganslashedtheNationalArchivesbudgetandkeptdocuments“secret”longer,tointerferewithourproducingandknowingthehistoryoftherecentpast.InASharedAuthority(Albany:StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,1990),16-18,MichaelFrischcitesanastoundingclassroomincidentinwhichastudentthinkstheUnitedStateswontheVietnamWar.Inaninterestinganalysis,hearguesagainstmerefailureofhermemoryandagreeswithKammenthatourpoliticalleaders,presumablyinfluencingourpopularculture,habituallyrefertoaneedtoputthewar“behindus”toavoiddiscussingit.

6Indeed,oneinquirytextbook,DiscoveringAmericanHistory,giveslessthantwopagestotheentirewar.ButDiscoveringAmericanHistoryfocusesitscoverageoncausesandresults,preciselywhatthetraditionalnarrativetextbooksbotch,andthusprovidesamorecoherentandmemorableaccountofthewarthanthemuchlongeraccountsinotherbooks.

7LewisH.Lapham’sanalysisoftheimportanceof“asequenceofbrutalimages”reinforcestheforegoing.Hedescribesjustthree,includingthefirst,third,andseventhofthoseIlist.SeeAmerica’sCenturySeriesTranscript(SanFrancisco:KQED,1989),57-58.

8PageantalsoincludesaconfusingimageofanAmericanpunchingaVietnamese,probablytokeephimoffahelicopterevacuatingSouthVietnam.

9HagopianspecificallyreferstothenakednapalmedgirlandtheMyLaimassacrevictimsandcitesanotherstudentofphotojournalismwhoaddsthemonk’simmolationandthepolicechief’sshootingoftheVietcongsuspect.See“VietnamVeteransandtheRighttothePast”(Baltimore:AmericanStudiesAssociation,1991),14.

10MichaelDelliCarpini,“VietnamandthePress,”125-56,inD.MichaelShafer,ed.,TheLegacy(Boston:Beacon,1990),142.

11“TheMassacreatMylai,”Life,December5,1969,36-42;Kammen,MysticChordsofMemory,647;JamesDavidsonandMarkLytle,AftertheFact(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1992),2:379-82.

12Gen.WilliamC.Westmoreland,quotedinMurrayKempton,“HeartofDarkness,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,11/24/1988,26.

13HoltdoesshowGIsretreatingfromaCambodianvillagethatisinflames,butthephotodoesnotindicatewhoburnedthevillage.

14JohnKerry,“WinterSoldierInvestigation,”testimonytoU.S.SenateForeignRelationsCommittee,4/1971,reprintedinWilliamsetal.,eds.,AmericainVietnam,295.In2006,newsstoriesconfirmedthatMyLaistoodforaclassofcrimes.See“DeclassifiedPapersShowU.S.AtrocitiesinVietnamWentFarBeyondMyLai,”LosAngelesTimes,(8/6/06),atHistoryNewsNetwork,hnn.us/roundup/entries/28956.html.

15DavidsonandLytle,AftertheFact,2:356-83,quotefrom2:371.

16DavidsoncontinuestochurnoutAmericanhistories,withandwithoutLytle.Hismostrecenteffort,TheAmericanNation,appearedin2005;Idonotreviewitherebecauseitismarketedprimarilytomiddleschools.ItcontinueshispolicyofnevermentioningMyLaioranythinglikeit.AftertheFactthusstandsasitsownrebukeofthelevelofscholarlyresponsibilityinthenewbook.

17WeAmericansdoessupplytwoothersentencesbyKingthatmentionthesacrificesblacksoldiersweremakinginVietnamwhiletheycouldnotenjoyequalrightsathome.

18Onetextbook,TheChallengeofFreedom,doesofferthisratherpallidparaphraseoftheBenTrequote:“Otherdovesbelievedthatthewarwas

harmingSouthVietnam.Thesepeoplesaidthattherewasnotmuchsenseindestroyingthecountrytosaveitfromcommunism.”

19JohnKerrytestimonyreprintedinWilliamsetal.,eds.,AmericainVietnam,295.

20GeorgeW.ChilcoatshowshowthesongsoftheVietnamWarera—from“WhereHaveAlltheFlowersGone?”and“GivePeaceaChance”ontheantiwarsidetothepro-war“OkiefromMuskogee”and“BalladoftheGreenBerets”—providestudentswithafascinatingintroductiontoitsissuesin“TheImagesofVietnam:APopularMusicApproach,”SocialEducation49(1985):601-3.

21FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980),126.

22In“FallingDominoes,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,10/27/1983,19,TheodoreDraperpointsoutthatunderthisrhetoric,thesize,location,andimportanceofthecountryandoftheactualthreatfacingitoruswasbesidethepoint,forsuchanargumentwouldrationalizeinterventionanywhereintheworld.

23SeeRichardDrinnon,FacingWest(Minneapolis:UniversityofMinnesotaPress,1980),andRichardSlotkin,RegenerationThroughViolence(Middletown,CT:WesleyanUniversityPress,1973).

24JohnFosterDulles,quotedinWilliamsetal.,eds.,AmericainVietnam,167.

25FrancesFitzGerald,FireintheLake(Boston:Atlantic-Little,Brown,1972),offersinsightintowhytheUnitedStatesintervened;StanleyKarnow,Vietnam(NewYork:Viking,1983),describeshowtheescalationoccurred.

26LindaMcNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”inMichaelW.AppleandLoisWeis,eds.,IdeologyandPracticeinSchooling(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1983),116,126-27;seealsoDavidJenness,MakingSenseofSocialStudies(NewYork:Macmillan,1990),270-75;andJimDeFrongo,“HowSociologistsCanHelpPreventWar”(Storrs,CT:n.d.,typescript).TheVietnamWarissimilarlyminimizedinthemuseumaircraftcarrierIntrepidinNewYorkCity.Themuseum’sfilmandslideshowssimplyomitIntrepid’sroleinthatwar.Accordingtotheboardofretiredadmiralsthatvetsthemuseum’sinterpretiveprogramsbyorderofthenavy,Vietnamistoo“political.”SeeJamesW.Loewen,LiesAcrossAmerica(NewYork:NewPress,1999),404-7.

27Karnow,Vietnam,365-76.

28Galluppoll,November1986;Roperpoll,8/1984.

29SeeDickCluster,ed.,TheyShouldHaveServedThatCupofCoffee(Boston:SouthEndPress,1979),149-79;JohnDumbrellandDavidRyan,VietnaminIraq(Taylor&Francis,2006);RobertBrigham,IsIraqAnotherVietnam?(Washington,D.C.:PublicAffairs,2006).

30Kissinger’sclaimisperversefortworeasons.First,henegotiatedourpulloutandknowsfullwellthatallheachievedwasaface-saving“decentinterval”betweenthatpulloutandthefinalVietnameseoffensive.Second,“staythecourse”forwhom?HealsoknowsthattheparadeofgeneralsinchargeoftheSouthVietnam“government”offerednomeaningfulleaderorideologytotheVietnamesepeople.

31Kammen,MysticChordsofMemory,639.

CHAPTER10:DOWNTHEMEMORYHOLE:THEDISAPPEARANCEOFTHERECENTPAST

1QuotedbyDanielBarenboim,“Germans,Jews,andMusic,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,3/29/2001,50.

2Goering,quotedbyU.S.ArmyCapt.GustaveGilbertinNurembergDiary(Cambridge,MA:DaCapo,1995[1947?]);cf.pinkfreud-ga,“Answer,”7/26/2003,atanswers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=235519,5/2007.

31972presidentialproclamationtostrengthentheFreedomofInformationAct,quotedinTimWeiner,“TheColdWarFreezerKeepsHistoriansOut,”NewYorkTimes,May23,1993.

4JohnMbiti,AfricanReligionsandPhilosophy(Oxford:Heinemann,1990).

5Iusedthequalifiernarrativetextbooksinthepreviousparagraphbecausetheexaminationrevealedastrikingdifferencebetweenthetwo“inquiry”textbooksandnarrativebooks.DiscoveringAmericanHistoryandTheAmericanAdventure,whichconsistlargelyofmaps,illustrations,andextractsfromprimarysources,donotdownplaythesasha.Indeed,theirattentiontotherecentpastreflectstheirauthors’intentionofmakinghistoryrelevanttocurrenteventsandissues.Therefore,despitethefactthatbothofthebookswerepublishedbeforethe1970sended,theygivemorespacetothe1960sand1970sthandothesixteennarrativetextbooks.Unfortunately,inquirytextbookshavelongsincegoneoutoffavorandprint;sofarasIknow,noneremainsonthemarket.

6Iput2007inquotationmarksbecausepublisherslieontheircopyrightpage;Iownedthe“2007”booksinceearly2006,anditcontainsnoinformationmorerecentthanmid-2005.

7TracyKidder,AmongSchoolchildren(NewYork:HarperPerennial,1990).

8GordonLevinJr.,WoodrowWilsonandWorldPolitics:America’sResponsetoWarandRevolution(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1968),260.Cf.ArthurS.Link,untitledessayinJ.J.HuthmacherandW.I.Susman,eds.,Wilson’sDiplomacy:AnInternationalSymposium(Cambridge:Schenkman,1973),9.

9EricFonerprovidesacapsuleaccountofthechangesinReconstructionhistoriographyinReconstruction(NewYork:Harper&Row,1988),xix-xxiiiand609-11.

10LeonFestinger,ATheoryofCognitiveDissonance(Evanston,IL:Row,Peterson,1957).

11Well,Ididn’tinterviewanyrecenthistory-makers.

12TheAmericanJourneywenttopressbeforetheterroristsstruck.

13WarrenBass,astaffmemberofthe9/11Commission,summarizedbinLadenin“Incendiary,”WashingtonPostBookWorld,1/14/2007.

14GeorgeW.Bush,“AddresstoJointSessionofCongress,”9/20/2001,whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010920-8.html.

15MitchFrank,UnderstandingSeptember11th(NewYork:Viking,2002),16;MitchFrank,“RestoringtheWorldTradeCenter,”AmericanHeritage,2/2005,9.

16Theirconstructiondidrelyupon“thecooperationofmen,”butthensodoesanylarge-scaleenterprise,includingtheterrorists’attack.

17Frank,“RestoringtheWorldTradeCenter,”2/2005,9.

18JamesFallows’sAtlanticarticlesaresummarizedinhisBlindintoBaghdad(NewYork:RandomHouseVintage,2006);MichaelScheuerisquotedinJasonBurke,“WilltheRealal-QaidaPleaseStandUp?”TheGuardian,3/11/2006,books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1726185,00.html(May2007);Pentagonreport,11/2004,quotedinThomShanker,“U.S.FailingtoPersuadeMuslims,PanelSays,”InternationalHeraldTribune,11/25/2004.

19DianeRavitch,ChesterFinn,etal.,AConsumer’sGuidetoHighSchoolHistoryTextbooks(Washington,D.C.:ThomasB.FordhamInstitute,2004).

20AnthonyLappéandStephenMarshall,TrueLies(NewYork:PenguinPlume,2004),125-26;GeraldD.McKnight,“HowtheWarrenCommissionFailedtheNationandWhy,”excerptedonHistoryNewsNetwork,11/28/05,hnn.us/articles/16615.html;JohnKing,“ArmingIraqandthePathtoWar,”U.N.ObserverandInternationalReport,3/31/2003,unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=815&blz=1.

21R.ScottAppleby,“HistoryintheFundamentalistImagination,”Journalof

AmericanHistory,9/2002,511.

22FederationofAmericanScientists,“NuclearWeapons,”fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke/,1/2007.

23GeraldPosner,WhyAmericaSlept(NewYork:RandomHouse,2003),121,152,157,169;LappéandMarshall,TrueLies,52-53.

24SomeobserversthinktheTalibanmayonlyhavebeenstalling.

25MahmoodMamdani,“GoodMuslim,BadMuslim,”inEricHershbergandKevinMoore,eds.,CriticalViewsofSeptember11(NewYork:NewPress,2002),52;SeymourHersh,ChainofCommand(NewYork:HarperPerennial,2005),151.

26ThereisadarkersidetoourworkinAfghanistan.TheCIAlargelyfinancedthewaragainsttheUSSRthroughthedrugtrade,asithaditswarsinNicaraguaandSoutheastAsia.ThispromptedAfghanistanandneighboringpartsofPakistantobecometheworld’slargestproducersofheroinandopium.FollowingprinciplesintheKoran,theTalibanin2000largelyendedAfghanistan’sdrugproduction.Today,underthegovernmentweinstalledin2002,themostimportantcropinAfghanistanisagaintheopiumpoppy.Also,theUnitedStateshasimprisonedhundredsofalleged“enemycombatants”fromthewarinAfghanistanforyearsnow,andmaysimplyholdthemuntiltheydie,withouttrialandevenwithoutlettingthemseefamilymembersorlegalcounsel.ThisispreciselythebehaviorwelamentwhenThirdWorldcountriesdoittoourcitizens.

27CheneyandBush,quotedinStaughtonLyndandCarlMirra,“IAmaRevisionistHistorian,”HistoryNewsNetwork,hnn.us/articles/22700.html.31306

28ColinBrownandAndyMcSmith,“Diplomat’sSuppressedDocumentLaysBaretheLiesBehindIraqWar,”TheIndependent,12/15/2006,news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2076137.

29CarlM.Cannon,“UntruthandConsequences,”Atlantic,1/2007theatlantic.com/doc/200701/cannon-lying,1/2007;EricAlterman,“Liar,‘Liar,’”Nation,12/11/2006,9.

30LappéandMarshall,TrueLies,146.

31DavidE.Sanger,“BushAideSaysUS,NotUN,WillRebuildIraq,”New

YorkTimes,4/5/2003;“Houston:WeHaveaProblem,”CorpWatch,2004,corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11322,2/2007;FrancesFoxPiven,TheWaratHome(NewYork:NewPress,2006),17-18.

32LappéandMarshall,TrueLies,120;cf.LindaMcQuaig,“Iraq’sOil,”ZNet9/27/2004,atnetscape.com/viewstory/2006/10/21/iraqs-oil,10/2006.

33“WesternCompaniesMayGet75%ofIraqiOilProfits,”DowJonesNewswires,1/8/2007,MarketWatchwebsite,marketwatch.com/news/story/western-companies-may-get-75/story.

34MichaelBillig,BanalNationalism(London:Sage,1995),1.

35SeeTheMemoryHole,thememoryhole.org/war/no-saddam-qaeda.htm2/2007,fortranscriptof1/31/2003pressconference,andThinkProgress,thinkprogress.org/2006/08/21/bush-on-911/,2/2007,forvideoofBushsaying“nothing”inresponsetoquestionaskingwhatevidencelinkedSeptember11andIraq.Laterthe9/11Commissionfound“noevidenceofanoperationallinkbetweenIraqandAlQaeda,”accordingtoSeymourHersh,ChainofCommand(NewYork:HarperPerennial,2005),210-11.SeealsoLyndandMirra,“IAmaRevisionistHistorian.”

36AmyGershkoffandShanaKushner,“ShapingPublicOpinion:The9/11-IraqConnectionintheBushAdministration’sRhetoric,”PerspectivesonPolitics3no.3(9/2005),525.

37Fallows,BlindIntoBaghdad,155-63;cf.ThomasE.Ricks,Fiasco(NewYork:Penguin,2006),andNancyTrejosandK.I.Ibrahim,“ACalltoHussein-EraSoldiers,”WashingtonPost,12/17/2006.

38Fallows,BlindIntoBaghdad,146;Bushquoted,167.

39NationalSecurityArchiveElectronicBriefingBookNo.207,gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB207/index.htm,12/2007;IvanEland,“DoesU.S.InterventionOverseasBreedTerrorism?TheHistoricalRecord”(Washington,D.C.:CatoInstitute,1998);WalterPincus,“BeforeWar,CIAWarnedofNegativeOutcomes,”WashingtonPost,6/3/2007.

CHAPTER11:PROGRESSISOURMOSTIMPORTANTPRODUCT

1SenatorAlbertJ.Beveridge,speechintheU.S.Senate,January9,1900,CongressionalRecord,56thCongress33(Washington,D.C.:U.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice,1900).

2FrancesFitzGerald,FireintheLake(Boston:Atlantic-Little,Brown,1972),8.

3E.J.Mishan,TheEconomicGrowthDebate(London:GeorgeAllenandUnwin,1977),12.

4VineDeloriaJr.,GodIsRed(NewYork:Dell,1983[1973]),290.

5Twonewtextbooks,PathwaystothePresentandBoorstinandKelley,endnotwithabangbutawhimper—thesamewhimper:

InMay2003,Bushsignedanothertaxcutintolaw,thisonefor$350billion.ThePresident insisted that this“boldpackageof tax relief”wouldaddamillionjobsinthefirstyearandboostthestockmarket.Criticschargedthatthetaxcutswouldcreatehugebudgetdeficitsfarintothefuture.

—Pathways

However,inMay2003Bushsignedanothertaxcutintolaw,thisonefor$350billion.ThePresident insisted that theboldpackageof taxreliefwouldaddjobsandboostthestockmarket.Criticschargedthatthetaxcutsmightcreatehugedeficitsformanyyearsintothefuture.

—BoorstinandKelley

Chapter 12 explains how neither of these passages was written by the listedauthors, but by a clerk or freelancer hired by the publisher. Apparently thisperson,entrustedwithendingbothbooks,wasnotpaidenoughtoproducearealending,sothechaptersimplystopsafterthislastdetail.

6ThomasJeffersonquotedinRobertNisbet,HistoryoftheIdeaofProgress(NewYork:BasicBooks,1980),198.

7JulesHenry,CultureAgainstMan(NewYork:RandomHouse,1963),16-17.CrawfordYoungquotesIndianleaderJawaharlalNehruandsociologistOrlandoPatterson,pointingoutthatThirdWorldcountriesalsoboughtintoprogress.See“IdeasofProgressintheThirdWorld,”inGabrielAlmondetal.,eds.,ProgressandItsDiscontents(BerkeleyandLosAngeles:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1982),83.

8AccordingtotheAdvertisingCouncil’scitizenshipmanual,GoodCitizen,quotedinStuartLittle,“TheFreedomTrain”(Bloomington:IndianaUniversity,c.1990,typescript),11.

9EdwardH.Carr,WhatIsHistory?(NewYork:RandomHouse,1961),158,166;seealsoAlmondetal.,eds.,ProgressandItsDiscontents,xi.SomeAmericanshaveacontraryneedtobelieveoursocietyhasbeen,onbalance,acursetohumankind.Suchthinkinghasalternativepsychologicalandculturalpayoffs,allowingbelieverstoimaginethemselveswiser,“lefter,”ormorecriticalthantheirpeers.

10Carr,WhatIsHistory?,116;L.S.Stavrianos,GlobalRift(NewYork:Morrow,1981),38.InWhyAreTheyLyingtoOurChildren?(NewYork:SteinandDay,1984),124,HerbertLondonarguesthatthegapbetweenrichandpoornationsisnotwidening.Seealso:CliffDuRand,“Mexico-U.S.Migration:WeFly,TheyWalk,”talkatMorganStateUniversity,11/16/2005,atWorldProutAssemblywebsite,worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/01/mexicous_migrat.html,11/2006;GiovanniArrighi,“TheAfricanCrisis,”NewLeftReview15,5/2002,newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2387,11/2006.

11Mishan,TheEconomicGrowthDebate,116.

12Almondetal.,eds.,ProgressandItsDiscontents,xi.

13TheReaganandBushadministrationsstillmaintainedthroughthe1980sthattherewasnopopulationcrisis,evenintheThirdWorld,becauselargerpopulationscreatedmoreopportunityforcapitalistdevelopment.Thesestatementswereintendedtoappealtoantiabortiongroupsathome,however,notasseriousanalysesofthesocialstructuresofdisadvantagednations,whoseleadersridiculedtheAmericanposition.

14DonellaH.Meadows,“ALookattheFuture,”inRobinClarke,ed.,NotesfortheFuture(NewYork:UniverseBooks,1976),63;DonellaH.Meadows,correspondence,11/15/1993.

15GeneralSocialSurvey,“Ifyouweretoconsideryourlifeingeneralthesedays,howhappyorunhappywouldyousayyouare,onthewhole....”webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/GSS/,11/2006.

16DonellaH.Meadowsetal.,TheLimitstoGrowth(NewYork:UniverseBooks,1972,2ded.,1974).

17RobertL.Heilbroner,AnInquiryintotheHumanProspect(NewYork:Norton,1974),13.

18Nisbet,HistoryoftheIdeaofProgress,8.

19OswaldSpengler,TheDeclineoftheWest(NewYork:ModernLibrary,1965).

20ColinTurnbull,TheHumanCycle(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1983),21.

21StephenJayGould,Hen’sTeethandHorse’sToes(NewYork:Norton,1983).

22Oilimportsin1980were63percentgreaterthanin1973,accordingtotheStatisticalAbstractoftheUnitedStates:1993(Washington,D.C.:BureauoftheCensus,1993).

23MikeFeinsilberandWilliamB.Mead,AmericanAverages(GardenCity,NY:Doubleday,1980),277;seealsoMatthewWald,“After20Years,America’sFootIsStillontheGas,”NewYorkTimes,10/17/1993.

24Mishan,TheEconomicGrowthDebate,53.SeealsoWarrenJohnson,TheFutureIsNotWhatItUsedtoBe(NewYork:Dodd,Mead,1985),22-24.

25SeeGarrettHardin,“TheTragedyoftheCommons,”Science162(1968):1243-48;andGarrettHardinandJohnBaden,eds.,ManagingtheCommons(SanFrancisco:W.H.Freeman,1977).

26B.D.AyresJr.,“HardTimesforChesapeake’sOysterHarvest,”NewYorkTimes,October15,1993;DavidE.Pitt,“U.N.TalksCombatThreattoFishery,”NewYorkTimes,7/25/1993;Pitt,“DespiteGaps,DataLeaveLittleDoubtThatFishAreinPeril,”NewYorkTimes,August3,1993;ElizabethWeise,“90%oftheOcean’sEdibleSpeciesMayBeGoneBy2048,StudyFinds,”USAToday,

11/3/2006;JulietEilperin,“U.S.AttemptingtoReshapeFishingRules,”WashingtonPost,October8,2006;ChesapeakeResearchConsortium.“ManagedFisheriesoftheChesapeakeBay,”chesapeake.org/FEP-ManagedFisheries.pdf,11/2006.

27NoelPerrin,“WhoNeedstheWorldWhenYouHaveCable?”NewYorkTimesBookReview,April26,1992.

28NaturalHistoryMuseum:“SeedsofChange”(exhibit,SmithsonianInstitution,Washington,D.C.,1992);RichardA.Falk,ThisEndangeredPlanet(NewYork:RandomHouse,1971),139;JaredDiamond,talkatPoliticsandProse(Washington,D.C.)1/18/2006.

29SeeBarryWeisberg,BeyondRepair(Boston:Beacon,1971),9.

30“SpermCountsDropOver50Years,”FactsonFile52,no.2706(10/1/1992):743(1);MichaelCastleman,“TheSpermCrisis,”MotherEarthNews,no.83(9/1983):176-77.Thebestguessastothecauseofthesperm-countdropmaybedisposablediapersthataretootightandoverheatthetesticles.See,interalia,AndreaBraslavsky,“CouldDisposableDiapersLeadtoInfertility?”atAT&TWorldnet,dailynews.att.net,9/28/2000.That’sarelief!

31JoelAchenbach,“TheTempest,”WashingtonPostMagazine,5/28/2006,24.

32Heilbroner,AnInquiryintotheHumanProspect,133.

33DavidDonald,quotedbyPaulGagnon,“WhyStudyHistory?”Atlantic,11/1988,46.

34EdwardO.Wilson,“IsHumanitySuicidal?”NewYorkTimesMagazine,5/30/1993,24-29.

35ClydeHaberman,“SouthKoreaGoesfromWastelandtoWoodland,”NewYorkTimes,7/7/1985,6E.

36London,WhyAreTheyLyingtoOurChildren?53.LondonmustnothavereadtheendingsofAmericanhistorytextbooks!

37JohnTierney,“BettingthePlanet,”NewYorkTimesMagazine,12/2/1990,52-53,75-81.

38JaneNewittmakesthispointinTheTreatmentofLimits-to-GrowthIssuesinU.S.HighSchoolTextbooks(Croton-on-Hudson,NY:HudsonInstitute,1982),13.Shealsocriticizedtextbooksforbiasinfavorofthelimits-to-growthsideof

thedebate,whichIcannotconfirm;thetextbooksIexamineddonotreallytreatenvironmentalissuesasaseriousmatter.

39FayeRice,“WhoScoresBestontheEnvironment?”Fortune(7/26/1993):122.SeealsoDebraChasnoff’sfilmonGeneralElectric,DeadlyDeception(Boston:Infact,1990).GeneralElectric’snewercorporatemantrais“WeBringGoodThingstoLife.”

40MikeTidwell,talkatPoliticsandProse(Washington,D.C.):8/30/2006;BillMcKibben,“HowClosetoCatastrophe?”NewYorkReviewofBooks,11/16/2006.

41JulietEilperin,“GrowingAcidityofOceansMayKillCorals,”WashingtonPost,7/5/2006.

42“TheRedList,”iucnredlist.org,asreportedbySamCage,“16,000SpeciesSaidtoFaceExtinction”AssociatedPress,05/01/2006,cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp;JeremyRifkin,“TheRisksofTooMuchCity,”WashingtonPost,12/17/2006;WilliamBurrandJeffreyKimball,eds.,“NixonWhiteHouseConsideredNuclearOptionsAgainstNorthVietnam,DeclassifiedDocumentsReveal,”NationalSecurityArchiveElectronicBriefingBookNo.195,gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB195/index.htm(7/31/2006).

43Mishan,TheEconomicGrowthDebate,Ch.8.

44OntheMayans,seeAllenChen,“UnravelingAnotherMayanMystery,”Discover,6/1987,40-49;fortheCanaries,seeAlfredW.CrosbyJr.,EcologicalImperialism(NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,1986),80,94-97.

45AlfredW.CrosbyJr.,“DemographicsandEcology,”1990,typescript,citingLasCasas;JohnVarnerandJeanetteVarner,DogsoftheConquest(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1983),19-20;SpanishletterquotedinKirkpatrickSale,TheConquestofParadise(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1990),165.

46GreggEasterbrook,replytolettersabouthis“SomeConvenientTruths,”AtlanticMonthly,11/2006,21;GretelEhrlich,“LastDaysoftheIceHunters?”NationalGeographic,1/2006,80,84;EugeneLinden,“WhyYouCan’tIgnoretheChangingClimate,”Parade,6/25/2006,4.

47TheAmericansincludesatwo-pagesection,“TheConservation

Controversy,”buriedonpages1122-23inthemidstofatwo-pagetreatmentofamishmashoftopicsafterthelastchapterofthebook.Itseemsfairtopredictthatnostudentwilleverreachthissection.

48LeroneBennett,BlackPowerU.S.A.(Baltimore:Penguin,1969),345-46.

49ButseeJonathanKozol,SavageInequalities(NewYork:Crown,1991),3.

50PeterFarb,Man’sRisetoCivilization(NewYork:Avon,1969),49-50.

51VerrazanoquotedinNealSalisbury,ManitouandProvidence(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1982),26.

52QuotedinRussellThornton,AmericanIndianHolocaustandSurvival(Norman:UniversityofOklahomaPress,1987),39.

53KarenOrdahlKupperman,SettlingwiththeIndians(London:J.M.Dent,1980),58.

54Psalm90,verse10.SeealsoS.BoydEatonetal.,ThePaleolithicPrescription(NewYork:HarperandRow,1988);andMarshallSahlins,StoneAgeEconomics(Chicago:AldineandAtherton,1972).Therearestatisticalissueshere,onebeingthataveragelifeexpectancyatbirth

canbequitelowif40percentofallnewbornsdieintheirfirstyear,soabettermeasure is life expectancy at age one or age ten. Measuring life expectancybefore European and African diseases is also not easy when those diseasesaccompanied and even antedated first contact.On the other hand, informationfromarchaeologysummarizedbyJaredDiamondin“TheWorstMistakeintheHistory of the Human Race,” Discover, 5/1987, 64-66, suggests the earlyEuropean settlers quoted above may have been too optimistic in theirassessmentsofIndianlongevity.

55WilliamA.Haviland,“CleansingYoungMinds,orWhatShouldWeBeDoingintheIntroductoryCoursetoAnthropology?”(paperpresentedattheannualmeetingoftheAmericanAnthropologyAssociation,NewOrleans,1990),3.

56Specialinstrumentsweredevelopedfortheoperation,andthewholethingwasdonenotonlyagainsttheforcesofnaturebutalsouphill,againsttheforceofgravity.WemightcontrastLasCasas’sdescriptionofbirthingonHaitibeforethearrivalofEuropeans:“Pregnantwomenworktothelastminuteandgivebirthalmostpainlessly;upthenextday,theybatheintheriverandareasclean

andhealthyasbeforegivingbirth.”(HistoryoftheIndies[NewYork:HarperandRow,1971],64).

57“Harper’sIndex,”Harper’s,2/1993,15,citingRossLabs.Manyhospitalsstillseparatemothersandinfantsexceptforfeedingtime,eventhoughscientificstudies—whichseemtobetheonlypointofleverageforchangingbirthingpractices—showthatrandomlyselectedneonatalsraisedwithmoreparentalcontacthavehigherIQs.SeeFeinsilberandMead,AmericanAverages,227-28.

58PhilipD.Curtin,TheRiseandFallofthePlantationComplex(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1990),esp.35,givesaninterestinganalysisoftheriseofthenation-stateasanecessaryresponsetothemilitarymightofneighboringnation-states.Curtinarguesthatinotherwaysnation-stateswerenotnecessarilyadvantageousfortheircitizens.Iftheneedtocontrolnuclearweaponsleadstoaneraofrelativepeaceinthenextcentury,thatmayremoveaprimaryreasonforthepowerofthenation-state.

59RuthBond,“IntheOzone,aChildShallLeadThem,”NewYorkTimes,1/10,/1993.

60DanielEvanWeiss,TheGreatDivide(NewYork:Poseidon,1991),136.

61NationalAssociationofSecretariesofStateNewMillenniumSurvey,1999,stateofthevote.org/New%20Mill%20Survey%20Update.pdf,12/2006.

62SeeCatherineCornbleth,GenevaGay,andK.G.Dueck,“PluralismandUnity,”inHowardMehlingerandO.L.Davis,eds.,TheSocialStudies(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress/NSSEYearbook,1981),174.

63E.J.Mishan,Pornography,Psychedelics,andTechnology(London:GeorgeAllenandUnwin,1980),25,150-51.SeealsoJonathanKozol,TheNightIsDarkandIAmFarfromHome(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1975),40.

CHAPTER12:WHYISHISTORYTAUGHTLIKETHIS?

1HerbertButterfield,quotedinStephenVaughn,ed.,TheVitalPast(Athens:UniversityofGeorgiaPress,1985),222.

2MarcFerro,TheUseandAbuseofHistory(Boston:RoutledgeandKeganPaul,1981),225.

3QuotedinJoanDelFattore,WhatJohnnyShouldn’tRead(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1992),120.

4BrooksMatherKelley,interview,7/2006.

5Textbookeditor,interview,7/2006.

6TheAmericanAdventurehasfewerthanonenoteperchapter.DiscoveringAmericanHistoryhasnofootnotesbutdoesfurnishmarginalnotesgivingsourcesforitslongerquotations.

7RobertMoore,Stereotypes,DistortionsandOmissionsinU.S.HistoryTextbooks(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildren,1977);FrancesFitzGerald,AmericaRevised(NewYork:Vintage,1980);GeraldHorne,ed.,ThinkingandRethinkingU.S.History(NewYork:CouncilonInterracialBooksforChildren,1988);DianeRavitchandChesterE.FinnJr.,WhatDoOur17-Year-OldsKnow?(NewYork:HarperandRow,1987),whichdidnotsingleouttextbooksbuthadharshwordsforwhatstudentsdon’tknowabouthistory;HarrietTyson-Bernstein,AConspiracyofGoodIntentions:American’sTextbookFiasco(Washington,D.C.:CouncilforBasicEducation,1988);PaulGagnon,Democracy’sHalf-ToldStory(NewYork:AmericanFederationofTeachers,1989);ChesterE.FinnJr.andDianeRavitch,TheMad,MadWorldofTextbookAdoption(WashingtonD.C.:ThomasB.FordhamInstitute,2004).OthercriticshavelambastedU.S.historytextbooksfromspecializedviewpoints;forinstance,the1982-83MichiganSocialStudiesTextbookReport(Lansing:MichiganStateBoardofEducation,1984)foundseventextbooksdeficientintheirtreatmentofCanadian-U.S.relations.On the other hand,O. L.Davis Jr., et al., reviewed fifteen junior high and

sixteenhighschoolhistorytextbooksinLookingatHistory(Washington,D.C.:PeoplefortheAmericanWay,1986).“Mostofthethirty-onetextsweregood,”they concluded; “somewere excellent.”NathanGlazer andReedUeda’s brief

examinationofsixtextbooks,EthnicGroupsinHistoryTextbooks(Washington,D.C.:EthicsandPublicPolicyCenter,1983),offersamixedevaluationofpraiseandblame.SodoesGilbertSewall’sstudyofeleventextbooks,fouronthehighschool level, American History Textbooks: An Assessment of Quality (NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityTeachersCollege,1987).

8QuotedinBessieL.Pierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1926),329-30.

9ShirleyEngleandAnnaOchoa,“ACurriculumforDemocraticCitizenship,”SocialEducation(11/1986):515.

10PeterNovick,ThatNobleDream(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1988),172-73.

11ArthurSchlesingerJr.,TheAgeofJackson(Boston:Little,Brown,1945);JamesO’Brien,personalcommunication,11/12/1993.

12Teacher-trainingprogramsnowoftenassignLiesMyTeacherToldMe;partlyasaresultoftheensuingdiscussions,Americanhistoryinhighschoolsisbeginningtobebettertaught.

13Ferro,TheUseandAbuseofHistory,225.

14GeorgeOrwell,1984(NewYork:Harcourt,Brace,1949),35.

15WilliamL.GriffenandJohnMarciano,TeachingtheVietnamWar(Montclair,NJ:Allanheld,Osmun,1979),163-72.

16ThesewritersincludeMichaelApple,StanleyAronowitz,KathleenBennett,SamuelBowles,MartinCarnoy,HerbertGintis,HenryGiroux,MargaretLeCompte,CarolinePersell,JoelSpring,KathleenWeiler,andmanyothers.

17JonathanKozol,TheNightIsDarkandIAmFarfromHome(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1990[1975]),99.

18ThePoliticsofEducation(SouthHadley,MA:BerginandGarvey,1985),102.

19HenryGiroux,Ideology,Culture,andtheProcessofSchooling(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1981),47.Likesomeothercriticaltheorists,Girouxgoesontospecificallydisclaimintentionality:“Thisisnotmeanttoimplyaconsciousconspiracyonthepartofan‘invisible’rulingelite.”Exceptfortheaccuratebutvagueclaimthattheupperclasssetstherhetoricoftheage,whichtricklesdowntoinfluencehowweallthinkaboutthepast,thesetheoristsneverquitespecifyhowtheupperclassinfluenceswhatgetstaughtinaruralclassroominAmericanhistory,forexample.Inthepagesthatfollow,Isuggestmorespecificforcesthatmaybeatwork.

20DavidTyackandElisabethHansot,“ConflictandConsensusinAmerican

PublicEducation,”Daedalus110,no.2(Summer1981):1,12.

21HenryM.Levin,“EducationalReform:ItsMeaning?”inMartinCarnoyandHenryM.Levin,TheLimitsofEducationalReform(NewYork:McKay,1976),24.

22WalterKarp,“WhyJohnnyCan’tThink,”Harper’s,6/1985,73.

23Amongmanysourcesonthepowerelite,seeC.WrightMills,ThePowerElite(NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress,1956);BethMintzandMichaelSchwartz,ThePowerStructureofAmericanBusiness(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1985);G.WilliamDomhoff,WhoRulesAmericaNow?(NewYork:Simon&Schuster,1986);andLaurieDavid,“ScienceàlaJoeCamel,”WashingtonPost,11/26/2006.

24RobertHeilbroner,“Who’sRunningThisShow?”NewYorkReviewofBooks,1/4/1968,18-21.

25E.D.C.CampbellJr.,ed.,BeforeFreedomCame(Richmond,VA:MuseumoftheConfederacy,1991).

26IusesubversiveinthesenseofNeilPostmanandCharlesWeingartner,TeachingasaSubversiveActivity(NewYork:Delacorte,1969).ConspiratorialMarxistsmightclaimthattherich,havingdeniedathoughtfulpresentationofAmericanhistorytomostAmericans,wantitfortheirownchildren.MoresophisticatedMarxistsknowthatfalseconsciousness,ofwhichfalsehistoryisakeyingredient,isequallyimportantforthosewhorunsociety:upper-classchildren,nolessthansonsanddaughtersoftheworkingclass,needtobelievethatoursocietyisjustandprogressive.Morelikelyexplanationsforthemildlysubversivehistoryteachinginprepschoolsmaybethatmostprepschoolteachersgraduatedfromprepschoolsandeliteprivatecollegesandaresimplyreplicatingtheteachingstyletheyexperienced.Also,prepschoolsaremorelikelytohirehistorymajorsratherthaneducationmajors,resultinginteacherswhoarebetterpreparedandfeelmorecomfortableexploringissuesinhistorywiththeirstudents.Moreover,thesmallersizeofprepschoolclasses—sometimesasfewasfivetotenpupils—facilitatesindividualresearchonissuesandprojects,whilepublichighschoolclassesrangefromtwenty-fivetofortystudents,accordingtoKarp,“WhyJohnnyCan’tThink,”70,72,citingErnestL.Boyer’sHighSchool.

27LeeH.Ehman,“TheAmericanSchoolinthePoliticalSocializationProcess,”

ReviewofEducationalResearch50,no.1(Spring1980):99-119.InthefirsteditionofLies,Ipointedoutthatvotingistheoneformofcitizenshipthatthetextbookspushed,yetvotinginAmericawasdown,especiallyamongrecenthighschoolgraduates,andIsuggestedthatthesanctimonioustingethatsocialstudiesandhistorycoursesgivetocitizenshipmayhelpexplainwhy.Recently,votingbyyoungpeople(agedeighteentotwenty-four)rosefromfewerthan17percentin1986to24percent(agedeighteentotwenty-nine)in2006.Althoughmorethanthree-fourthsstilldonotvote,theincreaseisheartening.Idon’tholdthemodestimprovementsinhistorytextbooksresponsibleforit.

28RogerFarrandMichaelA.Tulleyofferanoverviewofadoptionproceduresin“DoAdoptionCommitteesPerpetuateMediocreTextbooks?”PhiDeltaKappan,March1985,467-71.Californiaadoptsstatewideonlyforgrades1-8.However,ithasstatewideguidelinesfortextsinthehighergrades.GilbertSewall,SocialStudiesReview,no.5(Summer1990):2,saysCaliforniacontrols11percentofthe$1.7billiontextbookmarket.(Inanearliercopyofthisnewsletter,no.1:4,Sewallsetsalowerfigure,10.2percent,forCalifornia,butsaysthetopfouradoptionstates—California,Texas,Florida,andNorthCarolina—togethermakeupmorethanafourthofthemarketandexert“enormousleverage”onpublishers.)MichaelW.Kirst,WhoControlsOurSchools?(NewYork:Freeman,1984),115-20,describesCaliforniaadoptionanditsandTexas’sinfluenceonnationaltexts.SeealsoMichaelW.Apple,“TheCultureandCommerceoftheTextbook,”inMichaelW.AppleandLindaK.Christian-Smith,eds.,ThePoliticsoftheTextbook(NewYork:Routledge,1991),Ch.2.

29Forfullertreatments,seeJ.DanMarshall,“WithaLittleHelpfromSomeFriends:Publishers,Protesters,andTexasTextbookDecisions,”inAppleandChristian-Smith,eds.,ThePoliticsoftheTextbook,Ch.4;JoanDelFattore,WhatJohnnyShouldn’tRead;andMichaelW.Apple,“ThePoliticalEconomyofTextPublishing,”EducationalTheory34,no.4(Fall1984):307-19.

30In1994Iwrotetwodozen,butpublisherconsolidationhasnarrowedtheoptions.

31FarrandTulley,“DoAdoptionCommitteesPerpetuateMediocreTextbooks?”470;Marshall,“WithaLittleHelpfromSomeFriends,”62;HarrietTyson-Bernstein,“RemarkstotheAERATextbookSIG”(SanFrancisco,March1989),10;HarrietTyson-BernsteinandArthurWoodward,“NineteenthCenturyPoliciesforTwenty-firstCenturyPractice,”inPhilipAltbachetal.,eds.,

TextbooksinAmericanSociety(Albany:StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,1991),94-97;interviewswithpublishingexecutives;AP-USHISTdiscussionlist(ap-ushist@lyrics.collegeboard.com),12/2006.

32Tyson-Bernstein,“RemarkstotheAERATextbookSIG,”5.

33LynneCheney,TyrannicalMachines(Washington,D.C.:NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,1990),12.

34Okay,it’sajoke,butrecalltherightanswerfromCh.4:November,1811,atTippecanoe.

35ThomasA.Bailey,TheAmericanPageantRevisited:RecollectionsofaStanfordHistorian(Stanford,CA:HooverInstitutionPress,1982),192.

36QuotedinPierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates,39.

37Marshall,“WithaLittleHelpfromSomeFriends,”66.

38PerhapssomeonesomewherehasproducedanunusualtextbookforgeneralAmericanhistory.TheclosestIknowisHowardZinn’sPeople’sHistoryoftheUnitedStates(NewYork:HarperandRow,1980),sometimescalledananti-textbook.Forothersuggestions,seenotestotheAfterword.

39Ironically,theclosestthingsto“niche”bookspublishersnowproducearetheseparateeditionsoftheirtextbookpackagesthatsomestillputoutforTexastoaccommodateitshighlypoliticizedadoptionpressures.Loewenv.Turnipseedoffersaprecedentthatmighthelpminorityplaintiffsopenmarketsinbig-cityschooldistrictsundermajoritycontrol,ifalternativetextbooksexisted.ThepowerofTexasisparallelto“TheMythoftheSouthernBoxOffice,”describedbyThomasR.CrippsinJ.C.CurtisandL.J.Gould,eds.,TheBlackExperienceinAmerica(Austin:UniversityofTexasPress,1970),116-44.FordecadesHollywoodproducerswereafraidtooffendSouthernmovie-theaterowners,who,theythought,controlledone-thirdofthemarket.However,inrecentyearsthesituationinTexashasimproved,astoldintheAfterword.

40RobertDarnton,“TheGoodOldDays,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,5/16/1991,47.

41HillelBlack,TheAmericanSchoolbook(NewYork:Morrow,1967),49-52.

42Genocidemaybetooharshaterm.TheSpanish,whoprofitedfromIndian

laboronHaiti,didn’twanttowipeouttheArawaks.ManyIndiansdiedfromdiseasesthattheSpanishintroducedunknowingly,likemalaria,andfromfamineresultingfromSpanishdisruptionofIndiangardeningpractices.Diseaseandforcedfaminehavebeenfactorsinothergenocides,however.In“DeconstructingtheColumbusMyth,”inJohnYewelletal.,eds.,ConfrontingColumbus(Jefferson,NC:McFarland,1992),149-58,WardChurchillarguesthatEuropeans’treatmentofIndianscanbecomparedwiththeNaziHolocaustagainstJewsandGypsies.WorkingslavestotheirdeathswastypicalatAuschwitzandinthegoldminesinHaiti.

43BarbaraGamarekian,“GrantsRejected;ScholarsGrumble,”NewYorkTimes,April10,1991;KarenJ.Winkler,“HumanitiesAgencyCaughtinControversyOverColumbusGrants,”ChronicleofHigherEducation,3/13/1991,A8.

44RobertReinhold,“ClassStruggle,”NewYorkTimesMagazine,9/29/1991,26-29ff.

45RobertBernstein,conversation,1973.

46Black,TheAmericanSchoolbook,39.

47HarrietTyson-Bernstein,“TheAcademy’sContributiontotheImpoverishmentofAmerica’sTextbooks,”PhiDeltaKappan70,no.3(11/1988):197;ScriptorPseudonymous,“TheGhostBehindtheClassroomDoor,”Today’sEducation,4/1978,41-45,anaccountbyapersonwhohasnevertaughtaclassorearnedahistorydegree,yetwritestextbooksandancillarymaterialinhistoryandmanyothersubjects;interview,McGraw-Hilleditor,7/2006.

48BrooksMatherKelley,interview,7/2006;cf.DianaSchemo,“SchoolbooksAreGivenF’sInOriginality,”NewYorkTimes,7/13/2006.

49AllanM.Winkler,interview,7/2006.

50JudithConaway,interview,7/2006;textbookeditor,interview,7/2006;PaulBoyer,briefinterview,7/2006;Schemo,“SchoolbooksAreGivenF’sInOriginality”;JamesGoodman,“TheMysteryoftheEchoingTextbooks,”NewYorkTimes,7/7/2006.Ironically,Boyer’scomparisonisinapt:textbooksarethesameasTheIliadorBeowulfinthatnooneknowsforsurewhowrotethem.

51M.P.,“TexasSchoolbookMassacre:5200ErrorsFoundin10HistoryBooks,”PublishersWeekly,3/2/1992,11.Notall5,200wereerrors,andmany

errorsweretrivialorarguable.

52SomeobserversdothinkLibyasimplypaiduptoendtheepisodeandresumenormalrelationswithWesternnations,butthisisaminorityposition,andIdoubtthatBoorstinandKelleymeanttotakeit.Cf.,“PanAmFlight103,”Wikipedia,en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103,10/2006.

53Momentarily,IconcludedthatthehirelingdeepinthebowelsofHoltwhoproposedthispreposterousprojecthadheardofbutneverseenBenét’sepicpoemandimaginedittobeapagelong,likemanyotherpoems.Butno,thetitleisitalicized,notquoted,asbefitsabook-lengthpoem,notashorterone.

54Interviews,12/1987.GilbertSewall,“SocialStudiesTextbooks:AViewfromthePublishers,”SocialStudiesReview,no.5(Summer1990):14,takesadarkerviewofpublisherinfluence:“Schoolbookauthorshavelittleornocontrolovertheirproduct.”FrancesFitzGeraldsuggestsIamwrongtobelievethetextbooks’authors;certainlytheauthorsmightbeashamedtoconfesstoeditorialinterferenceiftheyhadsuccumbedtoit.Laterinhisinterviewwithme,onetextbookauthordetailedseveraleditorialsuggestions,contradictinghisearlierstatement.Wecanconclude,however,thattheseauthorsunquestionablyjudgedtheirrelationshipwiththeirpublishersharmonious.

55JohnGarraty,interview,11/1987.Garraty,tohiscredit,soonafterwardlearnedaboutwhatAlfredW.CrosbyJr.calls“TheColumbianexchange”andmadeitthefirstentryinhis1001ThingsEveryoneShouldKnowAboutAmericanHistory(NewYork:Doubleday,1989),3.

56JamesDavidsonandMarkLytle,AftertheFact(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1992),106-11.AHistoryoftheRepublicdoesmentiononeincident,smallpoxinMexicoCity,insentencefragmentssotinythatthementiondoesnotevengetintotheindex.

57Tyson-Bernstein,“TheAcademy’sContributiontotheImpoverishmentofAmerica’sTextbooks,”194,and“RemarkstotheAERATextbookSIG,”9;ThomasBailey,seniorwriterofoneofthetextbooksinmysample,wrotethatasuccessfulbook,whichTheAmericanPageantsurelyhasbeen,“wouldactuallyhurtmewithsomeofmypeers”(TheAmericanPageantRevisited,180).Myhomeinstitution,theUniversityofVermont,separates“scholarship”fromwhatitcalls“pedagogicalworks”anddiscountsthelatter.SeeBlack,TheAmericanSchoolbook,39;Sewall,“SocialStudiesTextbooks:AViewfromthePublishers,”14;andMatthewDowney,“SpeakingofTextbooks,”inDavid

ElliottandArthurWoodward,eds.,TextbooksandSchoolingintheUnitedStates(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPressNSSEYearbook,1981).

58TheAmericanHistoricalReview,theprincipaljournaloftheAmericanHistoricalAssociation;SocialEducation,theprincipaljournaloftheNationalCouncilfortheSocialStudies;andReviewsinAmericanHistorydonotreviewhighschooltextbooks.Inwhatitconsidersamajorinnovation,TheJournalofAmericanHistoryrecentlybegantoreviewcollegetextbooks.Mostotherhistoryjournalshavenopolicyaboutreviewingtextbooks,butIcouldlocateonlyonereviewofanyofthetwelvebooksherestudied,inTheHistoryTeacher.

59Manyauthorsdonotgetmuchcreditforwritingtextbooksevenfromtheirownpublishers.InScott,Foresman’sadvertisementsforLandofPromise,onecannotmakeouttheauthors’nameswithoutamagnifyingglass.PrenticeHall’sadsforTheUnitedStates—AHistoryoftheRepublicnevermentiontheauthorsatall.Sometimesauthors’namesarenotevenlistedonthebookcovers.Forauthorswhodidn’twrite“their”textbooks,thislackofcreditorblameisperfectlyfair.

60MarkLytleinterview,11/1993.

61MichaelKammen,MysticChordsofMemory(NewYork:AlfredA.Knopf,1991),258-59;Bailey,TheAmericanPageantRevisited,192-95.

62Pierce,PublicOpinionandtheTeachingofHistoryintheUnitedStates,6,10-11,and56-62.

63Thetwoinquirytextstakeadifferenttack.DiscoveringAmericanHistoryoffersacollageofoldphotographs.Whileclearlycelebratingourpast,withprominentimagesofAbrahamLincolnandothergreatleaders,itsarrangementalsosuggeststhatphotographscanbematerialsofhistoryandthusimpliesaninquiryapproach.TheAmericanAdventuregoespartway,showingblack-and-whitephotographsofLincoln,Indianhouses,andotherbuildingsandfaces.However,agraphicdesignermerelyarrangedthemtolookgoodandsurroundedthemwiththered,white,andblue.

64What’swrongwiththat,somemightask.Thenextchapter,whichdescribestheeffectsonstudentsofthiskindofhistory,suggestsoneanswer.

65SeeVaughn,ed.,TheVitalPast,46,241.

66CarolBerkin,interview,10/1987.

67EdwardPessen,TheLogCabinMyth(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,1984),claimsthatLincoln’sfamilywasatleastasprosperousashisneighborswhenhewasgrowingup.

68KennethWongandTomLoveless,“ThePoliticsofTextbooksPolicy,”inAltbach,TextbooksinAmericanSociety,33-34.MaryHaas,ateachereducator,alsotoldme,“Wehavebeengiventhekindsoftextbooksthatteacherswant.”

69CharlotteCrabtreeandDavidO’Shea,“Teachers’AcademicPreparationinHistory,”NationalCenterforHistoryintheSchoolsNewsletter1,no.3(11/1991):4,10.

70ReportedinBlack,TheAmericanSchoolbook,91-95.SeealsoJackL.NelsonandWilliamB.Stanley,“AcademicFreedom:FiftyYearsStandingStill,”SocialEducation49(1985):663.

71ShirleyEngle,“LateNightThoughtsAbouttheNewSocialStudies,”SocialEducation50,no.1(1/1986):20-22.JohnGoodladagreesin“AStudyofSchooling,”PhiDeltaKappan,March1983,reprintedinJamesW.Noll,ed.,TakingSides:ClashingViewsonControversialEducationalIssues(Guilford,CT:Dushkin,1989),145.

72SeymourB.Sarason,TheCultureoftheSchoolandtheProblemofChange(Boston:AllynandBacon,1971),180-87.

73LindaMcNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”inMichaelW.AppleandLoisWeis,eds.,IdeologyandPracticeinSchooling(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1983),116.

74Goodlad,“AStudyofSchooling,”145-47.

75McNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”115-16.Highschoolteachershavesomereasontofearconflictandlossofcontrol.Withinanyclassroom,teachersdohavetoestablishauthority.Howcantheythenquestionauthority?Studentsinconflict—withtheirteacher,eachother,ortheirtextbook—canseemoutofcontrol.Appearancesmaydeceive,however:normsofconductdogovernmoststudentbehavior,evenwhenthatbehaviorlookschaotictononstudents.Thus,teachersusuallyhavemorecontrolinclassroomsthantheyrealize.Nonetheless,classescangooutofcontrol,anditisunderstandablethatteacherswanttomanagetheirsituations.

76AlbertShanker,“TheEfficientDiplomaMill,”advertisementinNewYork

Times,2/14/1988.

77Admonitionsfrom1893and1934quotedbyDavidJenness,MakingSenseofSocialStudies(NewYork:Macmillan,1990),262.SeealsoGagnon,Democracy’sHalf-ToldStory,17-19.

78PaulGoldstein,ChangingtheAmericanSchoolbook(Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1978).Inhistory,theproportionisevenhigher.SeeKirst,WhoControlsOurSchools?115.J.Y.ColeandT.G.Sticht,eds.,TheTextbookinAmericanSociety(Washington,D.C.:LibraryofCongress,1981),9,holdthattextbooksandsimilarinstructionalmaterialstructure95percentto100percentofclassroominstructionand90percentofhomeworktime.MatthewDowneyandLindaLevstikquestiontheconventionalwisdomthattextbooksdominatehistoryinstruction,however,holdingthatlittlereadingofanykindtakesplace.See“TeachingandLearningHistory:TheResearchBase,”SocialEducation52,no.9(September1988):336-41,esp.337.Thispessimisticfindingoffersonlyironicencouragement,however,anddoesnotsquarewithinformationfrommystudents,mostofwhomreportthattheirhighschoolhistoryclassesspentmuchtimedoingthesamethingsthatminedid,likeansweringtheboringexercisesattheendsofeachchapter.

79Tyson-Bernstein,“RemarkstotheAERATextbookSIG,”10.Herassessmentmaybetooharsh:inmyexperienceteachersareanxiousnottospreadoutrightmisinformation.Mostteachersworkhardtolearnandpassoncorrectinformation,butthen,thesearetheteacherswhoattendworkshops,notarandomsample.

80TracyKidder,AmongSchoolchildren(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,1989),evokesthenearlyimpossiblejobteachersdo.SeealsoJohnGoodlad,APlaceCalledSchool(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1983).

81MarkSchug,“WhyTeachSocialStudies?”TheSocialStudies80,no.2(3/1989):74.Hissamplewasunfortunatelyonlytwenty-nineteachers.

82CrabtreeandO’Shea,“Teachers’AcademicPreparationinHistory,”4,10.Someoftheseteachersmajoredinasocialscience,however,whichisusefulpreparationforteachingAmericanhistory.CrabtreeandO’SheaalsoreportthatoneintwelvehistoryteachershasaBAinphysicaleducation;probablymostofthesearecoaches.SeealsoRobertA.Rutter,“ProfileoftheProfession,”SocialEducation,no.58(4/1986):253.

83JoanM.ShaughnessyandThomasM.Haladyna,“ResearchonStudentAttitudesTowardSocialStudies,”SocialEducation49(November1985):692-95.SeeMarkSchugetal.,“WhyKidsDon’tLikeSocialStudies,”SocialEducation48(5/1984):382-87;andGoodlad,“AStudyofSchooling.”

84McNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”117.

85Ibid.,124;Jenness,MakingSenseofSocialStudies,264-65,291.

86Soteacherscouldn’tfallbackontheselists,weeliminatedallquestionsattheendsofchaptersfromMississippi:ConflictandChange.

87PatrickFerguson,“PromotingPoliticalParticipation:Teachers’AttitudesandInstructionalPractices”(SanFrancisco:AmericanEducationalResearchAssociation,1989),4-5.ThenewPageantdoesuseEurocentricinsideaninterestingboxeddiscussionofvariousscholars’viewsofEurope’sinfluenceontheUnitedStates.

88Intworespects,theinquirybooksstandout:theyprovideprimarysourcesandgivemuchfullertreatmenttotherecentpast.Inquirytextbooksinmysamplecommittedtheirshareoferrorsoffactandinterpretation,however.Jennessfaultsthesetextbooksforfailingtoseethatexpertiseisrequiredinordertoreasonappropriatelyaboutsomecontroversies(MakingSenseofSocialStudies,292).Incasuallyassigningquestionsrequiringweeksofresearchforathoughtfulanswer,inquirytextbooksvergeonbeinganti-intellectual,becausetheyimplytheydon’treallyexpectsuchthoroughnessfromstudentsorteachers.

89Insomestates,teacherscanbeheldaccountableforteachingtheconceptsthatareintheadoptedtextbooks.SeeSueDueitt,“TextbooksandtheMilitary,”inColeandSticht,eds.,TheTextbookinAmericanSociety,36.

90RobertM.O’Neil,ClassroomsintheCrossfire(Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress,1981),9-12,23.Everyyear,PeoplefortheAmericanWaydocumentswhatitcallsAttacksontheFreedomtoLearninanannualbythattitle(Washington,D.C.:PeoplefortheAmericanWay,1993andprioryears).JonathanKozoltellsofhisownfiringinBostonforteachingpoetrybyLangstonHughesinDeathatanEarlyAge(NewYork:NewAmericanLibrary,1985).

91Carlson,“AcademicFreedominHardTimes,”430.

92Kidder,AmongSchoolchildren,52;Kirst,WhoControlsOurSchools?135;LindaLevstik,“TheResearchBaseforCurriculumChoice:AResponse,”Social

Education,no.54(11/1990):443.

93See,interalia,Galluppoll,10/1987,reportedinStamford,CT,Advocate,12/26/1987,1.

94JeanFair,ed.,NationalAssessmentandSocialStudiesEvaluation(Washington,D.C.:NationalCouncilfortheSocialStudies,1975),35.

95JohnWilliamsonquotedinColeandSticht,eds.,TheTextbookinAmericanSociety,39.

96RaymondEnglish,“CanSocialStudiesTextbooksHaveScholarlyIntegrity?”SocialEducation50,no.1(1/1986):46-48.

97DonaldBarr,WhoPushedHumptyDumpty?DilemmasinAmericanEducationToday(NewYork:Atheneum,1972),316-17,tellshowpublishershaveeventamedthestoryofthethreelittlepigs,sonowpiggiesnumberoneandnumbertwodon’tdiebutsomehowrunfasterthanthewolffromtheirsmashedhousestothethirdpiggie’ssuburbanbrickranch.

98SisselaBok,Lying(NewYork:Pantheon,1978),24.Bokadmits,however,thatwhilepeopleweightheadvantagesoflyingina“nuancedway”whentheyimagine“themselvesinthepositionofchoosingwhetherornottodeceive,”everyonewants“toavoidbeingdeceivedbyothersasmuchaspossible.”TheBostonChildren’sMuseumtookadifferentandmorehonesttackinanexhibitondeath;see“ChildrenLearnThat‘DyingIsn’taVacation,’”NewYorkTimes,8/26/1984.Forotherdiscussionsofpresentingcontroversialmaterialtochildren,seeBlack,TheAmericanSchoolbook,91-95;KirstenLundberg,“AddressingaChild’sFearsaboutLifeintheNuclearAge,”BostonGlobe,3/9/1986;andBettyReardan,JohnAnthonyScott,andSamTotten,“NuclearWeapons:Concepts,IssuesandControversies,”SocialEducation47(11/1983):473-522.

99SeeNatalieGittelson,“TheFearThatHauntsOurChildren,”McCall’s,5/1982,77etpassim,andDavidS.GreenwaldandStevenJ.Zeitlin,NoReasontoTalkAboutIt:FamiliesConfronttheNuclearTaboo(NewYork:Norton,1986).

100SeeEdwardA.Wynne,“TheCaseforCensorshiptoProtecttheYoung,”inIssuesinEducation(Winter1985).

101MarkLloyd,interview,1991.

102Yankelovich,Skelly,andWhite,reportedin“A‘NewBreed’Emerges,”

FamilyWeekly,1/1/1978.

103Inanastoundingretreatfromhistory,ArthurSchlesingerJr.,agrees:“Iwillbesatisfiedifwecanteachchildrentoread,write,andcalculate,”in“TowardaDivisiveDiversity,”WallStreetJournal,6/25/1991.

104Engle,“LateNightThoughtsAbouttheNewSocialStudies,”20.

105FrancisRussell,TheShadowofBloomingGrove(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1968),656.

106PaulGagnon,“WhyStudyHistory?”Atlantic(11/1988),51.

107PaulGagnon,Democracy’sUntoldStory(Washington,D.C.:AmericanFederationofTeachers,1987),19.

108Heidegger,quotedinNoamChomsky,TheNoamChomskyReader(NewYork:Pantheon,1987),60.

CHAPTER13:WHATISTHERESULTOFTEACHINGHISTORYLIKETHIS?

1Scopestrialtranscript,excerptat“Day7”atlaw.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/day7.htm,9/2006.

2JulesHenry,CultureAgainstMan(NewYork:RandomHouse,1963),287.

3JungleBrothers,“AcknowledgeYourOwnHistory,”c.1989.ThisAfricanAmericanrapgroupcallshistoryHISstory,meaning“theMan’s.”

4GregMurry,e-mail,2/2001.

5LindaMcNeil,“DefensiveTeachingandClassroomControl,”inMichaelW.AppleandLoisWeis,eds.,IdeologyandPracticeinSchooling(Philadelphia:TempleUniversityPress,1983),128-41.

6RobertB.Everhart,“ClassroomManagement,”inAppleandWeis,eds.,IdeologyandPracticeinSchooling,Ch.7.

7Probablythemostimportantstudiesdecryingwhathighschoolgraduatesdon’tknowabouthistoryandgeographyarebyDianeRavitchandChesterE.FinnJr.,WhatDoOur17-Year-OldsKnow?(NewYork:HarperandRow,1987),andtheNationalGeographicSociety,Geography:AnInternationalGallupSurvey(Washington,D.C.:NationalGeographicSociety,1988).SeealsoAllenBragdon,CanYouPassTheseTests?(NewYork:HarperandRow,1987),129-40,comparing1976and1943results.TheNationalAssessmentofEducationalProgressalsodecriedU.S.highschoolseniors’knowledgeofAmericanhistoryin1994and2001.In2006,however,theysawabitofprogress:theproportionscoring“Advanced”and“Proficient”increasedintwelveyearsfrom12percentto14percent.“U.S.History2006”atnces.ed.govtnationsreportcard/pdf/main2006/2007474_l.pdf.

8RavitchandFinn,WhatDoOur17-Year-OldsKnow?49.

9W.K.Haralson,“Objections[toTheAmericanAdventure]”(Longview,TX:n.d.,typescript,distributedbyMelGabler’sEducationalResearchAnalysts,1993),4.

10JohnGoodlad,APlaceCalledSchool(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1983),

arguesthat“affect—eitherpositiveornegative—wasvirtuallyabsent”fromtheclassroomsheandhisassociatesstudied.Flatistheadjectiveheappliestowhatwenton.

11Washington,D.C.:PBSFrontlinevideo,1985.

12A.B.HodgettsandPaulGallagher,TeachingCanadaforthe’80s(Toronto:OntarioInstituteforStudiesinEducation,1978),20.

13JohnOgbu,“RacialStratificationandEducation,”inGailE.Thomas,ed.,U.S.RaceRelationsinthe1980sand1990s(NewYork:Hemisphere,1990),27-30.SeealsoHerbertKohl,“IWon’tLearnfromYou!”inIWon’tLearnfromYouandOtherThoughtsonCreativeMaladjustment(NewYork:NewPress,1994),1-32.NationalAssessmentofEducationalProgress,Report1:1969-1970Science(Washington,D.C.:NAEP,1970),showsonlysmallblack/nonblackdifferencesinscience.JeanFair,ed.,NationalAssessmentandSocialStudiesEvaluation(Washington,D.C.:NationalCouncilfortheSocialStudies,1975),56,63-64,77-82,showslargeblack/nonblackdifferencesinsocialstudies.RichardL.Sawyer,CollegeStudentProfiles:NormsfortheACTAssessment,1980-81(IowaCity:ACT,1980),givesnormsinfouracademicareas,English,math,socialstudies,andnaturalsciences,byincome,race,andsoon.

14JeffreyFouts,“FemaleStudents,WomenTeachers,andPerceptionsoftheSocialStudiesClassroom,”SocialEducation54(11/1990):418-20.

15ArthurM.SchlesingerJr.,“WhenEthnicStudiesAreUn-American,”SocialStudiesReview,no.5(Summer1990):11-13.

16MarthaToppin,“IKnowWho’sGoingwithMe,”SocialEducation44(10/1980):458.

17OnClifford,seeTomWicker,“AnUnwinnableWar,”NewYorkTimes,6/12/1991;onMcNamara,seeJonathanMirsky,“ReconsideringVietnam,”NewYorkReviewofBooks,10/10/1991,44.TheGalluppoll,11/1986,found71percentagreement(excluding“don’tknows”)that“theVietnamWarwasmorethanamistake:itwasfundamentallywrongandimmoral.”InAugust1984,theRoperorganizationasked“whetherwhatthiscountrydidwastherightthingorthewrongthing—orsomewhereinbetween:fightingthewarinVietnam.”Sixty-fivepercentsaid“wrongthing”;since17percentanswered“somewhereinbetween”and5percentdidn’tknow,83percentofpersonsmakingachoicecalleditwrong.ForsuchproportionsoftheU.S.publicinthe1980stosaythat

theVietnamWarwaswrong,consideringthattheUnitedStatesfoughtitandPresidentsReaganandBushstilldefendedit,showsstrongoppositionandindependenceofthought.

18WilliamL.LunchandPeterW.Sprelich,“AmericanPublicOpinionandtheWarinVietnam,”WesternPoliticalQuarterly32(1979):33-34.LeonFestinger,ATheoryofCognitiveDissonance(Evanston,IL:Row,Peterson,1957).Festinger’stheoryalsoexplainswhymalecollegestudentsduringWorldWarII,whoknewtheyweregoingtofight,weremorepro-warthanskilledelectriciansandwelders,whoknewtheyweregoingtobedeferredtoworkinwarindustries.Bothgroupswerebringingtheiropinionsintolinewiththeiranticipatedfutureactions,whichtheycouldnoteasilychange.

19JohnMueller,PresidentsandPublicOpinion(NewYork:Wiley,1973),70-74;HarrispollreportedinBostonGlobe,7/14/1969,onsupportfortheApolloprogram;seealsoSamuelP.Huntington,TheCommonDefense,235-39.

20“ForeignPolicyAttitudesNowDrivenby9/11andIraq,”PewTrustsurvey,8/18/2004,pewtrusts.org/ideas/ideas,10/2006.

21Collegestudentsparticularlyhavethisreasontoerr,fortheyhave“chosen”(undertheinfluenceoftheirparentsandtheirclassposition)togetcollegeeducations.Inlinewiththeprinciplesofcognitivedissonance,theyarelikelytoagreethatpeoplebenefitfrombeingincollegeandconcludethateducationleadstotoleranceandwisdom.ManyAmericansseeschoolingasapanaceaforracialinequality,environmentalproblems,orpoverty.

22RichardF.Hamilton,RestrainingMyths(BeverlyHills:Sage,1975),118,159;LunchandSprelich,“AmericanPublicOpinionandtheWarinVietnam,”35-36.

23TheAmericanTraditionencouragesthiswrongthinkingbyincludingaphotographofhard-hatcounter-demonstratorssupportingNixononVietnam.“Whocomprisedthe‘silentmajority’?”Traditionasks,implyingthatworking-classAmericansdid.LandofPromisesimilarlyclaimsthatabacklashamonglesseducatedpeopleagainst“studentswhowereleadingthepeacemovement”allowedNixontocontinuethewar.

24PewResearchCenterspokespersonsummarizinginformationfrom2005survey,phoneinterview,5/7/2007.

25RichardSennettandJonathanCobb,HiddenInjuriesofClass(NewYork:

AlfredA.Knopf,1972).

26SeeErichFromm,EscapefromFreedom(NewYork:FarrarandRinehart,1941).

27RobertReinhold,Harrispoll,reportedinNewYorkTimes,7/3/1971,quotedinHerbertAptheker,TheUnfoldingDrama(NewYork:International,1978),146;TerryBorton,TheWeeklyReaderNationalSurveyonEducation(Middletown,CT:FieldPublications,1985),14,16;JoanM.ShaughnessyandThomasM.Haladyna,“ResearchonStudentAttitudesTowardSocialStudies,”SocialEducation49(11/1985):692-95;MarkSchug,RobertTodd,andR.Beery,“WhyKidsDon’tLikeSocialStudies,”SocialEducation48(5/1984):382-87.

AFTERWORD:THEFUTURELIESAHEAD—ANDWHATTODOABOUTTHEM

1CharlesSellers,“IsHistoryontheWayOutoftheSchoolsandDoHistoriansCare?”SocialEducation33(5/1969),511,paraphrasingS.SamuelShermis.

2NeilPostmanandCharlesWeingartner,TeachingasaSubversiveActivity(NewYork:Delacorte,1969),23.

3AnatoleFrancequotedinFreemanTilden,InterpretingOurHeritage(ChapelHill:UniversityofNorthCarolinaPress,1967),v.

4VineDeloriaJr.,GodIsRed(NewYork:Dell,1973)301.

5Indeed,duringthefirstfivedecadesofthetwentiethcentury,CatholicschoolstaughtAmericanhistoryfromCatholicbooks—textbookswrittenespeciallytoemphasizeFatherJuniperoSerra,forinstance,thepriestwhohelpedfoundthemissionsysteminCaliforniaintheeighteenthcentury.

6OnereasonIdidnotdevoteachaptertothesetopicsisthatothershaverepeatedlydonethejob,amongthemMaryKayTetreault,“IntegratingWomen’sHistory:TheCaseofUnitedStatesHistoryHighSchoolTextbooks,”TheHistoryTeacher19(2/1986):211-62;GlenBlankenship,“HowtoTestaTextbookforSexism,”SocialEducation48(4/1984):282-83;DarrellF.KirbyandNancyB.Julian,“TreatmentofWomeninHighSchoolU.S.HistoryTextbooks,”SocialStudies72(9/1981):203-7;aspecialissueofSocialEducation51,no.3(3/1987);andearlier,J.W.Smith,AnAppraisaloftheTreatmentofFemalesinUnitedStatesHighSchoolHistoryTextbooks(PhDdiss.,IndianaUniversity,1977),andJaniceLawTrecker,“WomeninU.S.HistoryHighSchoolTextbooks,”SocialEducation(March1971):249-60.Alsothought-provokingisPatriciaHiggins,“NewGenderPerspectivesinAnthropology,”AnthropologyNotes11,no.3(Fall1989):1-3,13-15.Twoveryreadablebooksintroducewomen’shistoryeffectively:RuthWarren,APictorialHistoryofWomeninAmerica(NewYork:Crown,1975),andElizabethJaneway,ed.,Women:TheirChangingRoles(NewYork:Times/ArnoPress,1973).

7Ifyouagree,emailmeatjloewen@uvm.eduandbringthemtomyattention.

PleaseknowthatwhateveromissionsanddistortionsIhaveperpetuatedherehavebeenaccidental;toparaphraseErnstBorinski,longtimeprofessorofsociologyatTougalooCollege,“WhatIhavenotlearned,Idonotknow.”Ifmytonehasbeentoocertain,know,too,thatmyownconclusions,whetheraboutthecausesoftheWarof1812ortheeffectsofthecivilrightsmovement,arestillinflux.

8PostmanandWeingartner,TeachingasaSubversiveActivity;termusedthroughout.

9Neitherdotheirteachers:severalteachersIhavemetwhotaughtfromTriumphoftheAmericanNationnevernoticedthatitmildlycounterstheflat-earthnotion,andcontinuedtoteachthemythtotheirhighschoolstudents.Collegeprofessors,too,canmissfactsthatgoagainstthearchetypalgrain.AfterIlecturedonthePilgrimsandtheplagueatauniversityinAtlanta,ahistoryprofessorcameuptome,amazedtolearnoftheplague,anddecriedthemonographfromwhichhehadlearnedcolonialhistoryforleavingoutsuchanimportantfact.WewithdrewtohisofficesohecouldchecksourcestoprovetohimselfIwasrightabouttheplague;hegrewfurtheramazedtofindtheplaguestorymentionedinpreciselythebookhehadcriticizedforomittingit!

10MirceaEliade,TheMythoftheEternalReturn(NewYork:Pantheon,1954),46.

11Forteachers,hereareafewreferencestogetyoustarted.JamesPercoco,afinehighschoolhistoryteacher,haswrittentwobooksoftips:APassionforthePast(NewYork:Heinemann,1998)andDividedWeStand(NewYork:Heinemann,2001).Someofhisscoresofsuggestionswon’tworkforyou,butsomewill.DavidKobrinonlysuggestsahandfulofideasinBeyondtheTextbook(NewYork:Heinemann,1996),butheexploreseachindepth,showingpitfallstoavoid.StephenBoteinetal.,ExperimentsinHistoryTeaching(Cambridge:Harvard-DanforthCenterforTeachingandLearning,1977),presentsclassroomexercisesandresearchprojectsdevelopedbyhighschool,college,andcommunityteachers.GarySmithetal.,TeachingAboutUnitedStatesHistory(Denver:CenterforTeachingInternationalRelations,1988),andClairKeller,“UsingCreativeInterviewstoPersonalizeDecision-MakingontheAmericanRevolution,”SocialEducation43(3/1979):271,suggestvariouslearningprojects.JohnAnthonyScottproposeswaystoteachhistorywithoutusingtextbooksin“ThereIsAnotherWay,”AHAPerspectives29,no.5

(5/1991):20-22;cf.GaryNash,“Response,”21,23,ofthesameissue.RethinkingSchools(1001E.KeefeAve.,Milwaukee,WI,53212)providesafascinatingifsometimesirritatingmixtureofeducationalideasofnationalsignificanceandnewsofschoolpoliciesinMilwaukee.Rethinkingalsosellsbackissuesandreprints.FourotherperiodicalscontainideasespeciallyusefulforteachersofAmericanhistory:TheHistoryTeacher,SocialEducation(Washington,D.C.:NationalCouncilfortheSocialStudies),TheRadicalTeacher,andDemocracyandEducation(313McCrackenHall,OhioUniversity,Athens,OH45701).TheNationalCouncilforHistoryEducation,SuiteB2,26915WestwoodRoad,Westlake,OH,44145,distributesPaulGagnon’simportantbook,Democracy’sHalf-ToldStory,andothermaterialintendedtoimprovehowAmericanhistoryistaught.JamesDavidsonandMarkLytle’sAftertheFact(NewYork:McGraw-Hill,1992)suggestsimportanthistoricalissuestoexplore.ThemassivegeneralcatalogfromSocialStudiesSchoolService(POBox802,CulverCity,CA,90232)listscompacttextbooksforAmericanhistory;theirusewouldfreeclasstimeforstudyofafewissuesindepth.Another suggestion is to use two textbooks. This raises many issues, as

students question why they differ, thereby realizing that history is not justwritingdown“thetruth”forstudentsto“learn.”Eventwoeditionsofthesametextbookcanplaythisrole,butitismoreinterestingtouseverydifferentbooks.Withinmysample,theinquirytexts,AllanO.KownslarandDonaldB.Frizzle,DiscoveringAmericanHistory(NewYork:Holt,RinehartandWinston,1974),andSocialScienceStaffof theEducationalResearchCouncilofAmerica,TheAmerican Adventure (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1975), provide the greatestcontrasttotheusualnarrativetextbooks,buttheyarebothoutofprint.Studentscouldusereservecopiesattheirschoollibrary,however.JoyHakim’sseries,AHistory ofUS (NewYork:OxfordUniversity Press, 2006 [1993]), readswellandshouldbeineveryclassroom.More interesting still is to compare a very different book with a standard

textbook.PossibilitiesincludeHowardZinn’sAPeople’sHistoryoftheUnitedStates(NewYork:Harper,2005),aleft-wingapproach,andClarenceB.Carson,A Basic History of the United States (Wadley, AL: American TextbookCommittee,1986),fromtheright.Orhistoriesemphasizingaparticulargrouporthemecanbeused,suchasthoselistedinnote13below.Other ideas are available atworkshops, seminars, and summer institutes for

history teachers run by theNational Endowment for theHumanities and state

endowments,universities,historicalmuseums,andprofessionalassociations.I also hope that the full citations provided in the endnotes the first time a

sourceiscitedineachchapterwillproveasusefulasaseparatebibliography.

12UsingTakingSidesintheClassroom(Guilford,CT:Dushkin,1996),aguideforteachersusingDushkin’spopularseries,suggestswaystohelpstudentsdevelopcriticalthinkingskillsandmanageconflictingpointsofview.Itisoutofprintbutisusuallyavailableontheweb.AlsoseeBillBigelow,ed.,etal.,RethinkingOurClassrooms(Milwaukee:RethinkingSchools,2007).

13Jackdaws,packetsofcopiesoforiginalhistoricalmaterials,arepublishedbyJackdawPublications(jackdaw.com).Severaltextbookpublishersputoutteachers’kitsthataremoreinterestingthantheirtextbooks.TeachingforChange(teachingforchange.org)putsoutausefulandcompactcatalogofmaterialsforhistoryteachers.SocialStudiesSchoolServiceputsoutMulticulturalStudiesCatalog,whichgroupsteachingmaterialsforwomen’shistory,Hispanichistory,andsoon.Accessibleatanyuniversitylibrary,theERICdatabasereportsthousandsofteachingideasindexedbykeywordsonCD-ROMandavailableonmicrofiche.Somearticlesareonlineateric.ed.gov.American literature usefully ties in with American history, so long as that

literatureishistoricallyaccurate.Thus,OklaHannalibyR.A.Laffertyoffersarichoverviewofthenineteenthcentury.Anthro. Notes, a newsletter published by the National Museum of Natural

History (Kaupp, Public InformationOffice, Dept. of Anthropology, Stop 112,Smithsonian Institution,Washington, D.C. 20560) and available at no cost tohighschoolteachers,oftentreatspre-ColumbianNativeAmericansocieties.Myown1992book,LiesMyTeacherToldMeAboutChristopherColumbus (NewYork:NewPress,thenewpress.com),isaposterbookintendedforclassroomuseinearlyOctober;itintroducesstudentstoissuesofhistoriographyandtextbookanalysis as well as the Great Navigator. Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale,ThroughIndianEyes,publishedbyOyate,containsusefulpoetryandessaysbyMichael Dorris and other Native writers, a checklist for evaluating books fortheir treatment of Indian issues, and an extensive resource list. For teachers,GaryNash’sRed,White,andBlack(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1974)isamasterfuloverviewofracerelationsincolonialAmerica.The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Smithsonian

Institution (A&I Building, Room 1163,MRC 402,Washington, D.C., 20560)distributesTeachingtheConstitution,asummaryoftheir1987“Symposiumfor

Educators”by that title. Itoffersways tousedocuments,projects tomake theissuescomealivetoday,andabibliographyofresourcesforclassroomuse.SeealsoTeachingAbout theBillofRights (Bethesda,MD:PhiAlphaDeltaPublicServiceCenter,c.1987).Historiesofblack-whiteracerelations,suchasAfricanAmericanHistoryby

LangstonHughesandMiltonMeltzer(NewYork:Scholastic,1990)onthehighschoollevelandBeforetheMayflowerbyLeroneBennett(Baltimore:Penguin,1966[1962])andFromSlaverytoFreedombyJohnHopeFranklin(NewYork:Knopf, 2000) on the advanced high school level relate to many issues inAmerican history. In 1994 the Anti-Defamation League (823 United NationsPlaza, NewYork, NY, 10017) put out a new edition of David Shiman’sThePrejudiceBook,withclassroomexercisesonissuesofraceandgenderrelations.Several books by James A. Banks have useful ideas, including TeachingStrategiesforEthnicStudies (Boston:AllynandBacon,1987)andMultiethnicEducation:TheoryandPractice(Boston:AllynandBacon,1994).SeealsoCarlA.GrantandChristineSleeter,TurningOnLearning (Columbus,OH:Merrill,1989). We Shall Overcome, PBS Frontline video (1-800-328-7271), tellssomethingoftheimpactofAmericanantiracismoverseas.TheAssociationforSupervisionandCurriculumDevelopment (1250N.Pitt

St., Alexandria, VA, 22314-1453), concerned that textbooks ignore religiousideas in our past, publishes a collection of primary documents by Charles C.Haynes,ReligioninAmericanHistory.Itlivesuptoitssubtitle,“WhattoTeachandHow.”The American Social History Project’s Who Built America? (New York:

Pantheon, 1989), also available in a gripping video version on CD-ROM forApple equipment, fromVoyager (1-800-446-2001),makes labor history comealive.How Schools Are Teaching About Labor, published periodically by theAFL-CIO (81516thSt.NW,Washington,D.C., 20006), supplies lessonplansand classroom materials. Labor’s Heritage, a quarterly from the AFL-CIO(10000 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD, 20903), has producedteachers’guidesandpostersonteachinghistoryandusinglocalsources.Powerin Our Hands, by Bill Bigelow and Norman Diamond (New York: MonthlyReviewPress,1988),containsinterestingexercisestogetstudentstothinkaboutsocialclass.Onthefederalgovernment,JonathanKwitny’sEndlessEnemies(NewYork:

CongdonandWeed,1984)winsmynodforteachers,becausehecondemnsourcounterproductiverepressionofpopularmovementsabroadfromanevertheless

patriotic perspective. Lonnie Bunch and Michelle K. Smith explore wayscitizenshaveobligedgovernmentstoactinProtestandPatriotism(Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian Office of Elementary and Secondary Education [A&IBuilding,Room1163,MRC402,Washington,D.C.,20560],n.d.).TheCenterfor Social Studies Education (teachvietnam.net) puts out an extensive kit forteaching high school students about the Vietnam War. Brooke Workman,TeachingtheSixties,publishedin1992bytheNationalCouncilofTeachersofEnglish(ncte.org),issomewhatdiffuseandaffablebutofferswaysforstudentstolearnaboutthatturbulentdecade.The1960sarealsoemphasizedinTeachingTolerance 1, no. 1, available to teachers without charge from the SouthernPoverty Law Center, 400Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL, 36104, whichalsodistributestheCivilRightsTeachingKit.Finally,anovelbyMargePiercy,WomanontheEdgeofTime (NewYork:FawcettCrest,1977),providesa funwaytogetstudentstothinkaboutprogressandthefuture.In addition to these mostly print recommendations, ever-changing websites

providecrucialinformation.OfcoursestudentswillusetheWeb,butremembertworules:first,theymustnotstopthere.Booksstillexist,alongwiththecensus,old-timerstobeinterviewed,etc.Second,studentsshouldannotateeverysource,Webornot,withasentence tellingwhy it iscredible (for theusemadeof it).ThousandsofprimarysourcesareavailableattheLibraryofCongress(loc.gov)and National Archives (archives.gov). Census data by county in very usableform is at the Fisher Library of the University of Virginia(fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/listcensus/).DatafortownsisattheU.S.Census (census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/index.htm). Teachers should signupforh-high-sandotherdiscussionlists(free)ath-net.org.Whenhistorymakesnews, it is summarizedatHistoryNewsNetwork (hnn.us/),whichanyonecansign up for. Students need good vetted sites, arranged by topic area (e.g.,women’s history, Civil War, etc.). There are many, includingbesthistorysites.net.Ahostofvideoandfilmresourcesexist,fromfeaturefilmssuchasGloryandMissingtoPBSdocumentariessuchasTheCivilWar,EyesonthePrize,andRememberMyLai(PBSFrontline,1-800-328-7271).Astheyusevideos, teachers may want to consider the points in Linda Christensen’s“UnlearningtheMythsThatBindUs,”RethinkingSchools5,no.4(5/1991):1,15-16.

14GlennWhitmangetshisstudentsdoinglocalhistoryandexplainshowinDialoguewiththePast(Lanham,MD:AltaMira,2004).

15RuralOrganizingandCulturalCenter,MindsStayedonFreedom(Boulder,CO:Westview,1992).SeealsoC.L.Lord,TeachingHistorywithCommunityResources(NewYork:TeachersCollegePress,1967).

16MarkHilgendorf,ed.,ForgottenVoicesinAmericanHistory(availablefromMiltonAcademy,170CentreSt.,Milton,MA,02186).

17ShirleyEngletellshowsomeofthesequestions,basedonworkbyAlfredNorthWhitehead,werethebasisofaninnovationinsocialstudiesteaching,the“Indianaexperiment.”See“LateNightThoughtsAbouttheNewSocialStudies,”SocialEducation50,no.1(1/1986):21.

18WedidthisinChapter6whenconsideringAbrahamLincoln’sGreeleyletter.

19JamesAxtell,“ForkedTongues:MoralJudgmentsinIndianHistory,”AHAPerspectives25,no.2(2/1987):10.

20LeeJones,“Textbooks:AChangeofView,”AustinStar-Telegram,10/20/1985.

21MichaelWallace,“ThePoliticsofPublicHistory,”inJoBlatti,ed.,PastMeetsPresent(Washington,D.C.:SmithsonianInstitutionPress,1987),42-43.

22QuotedinLewisH.Lapham,“Notebook,”Harper’s,7/1991,12.

23Well,Ialsodidotherthings.

APPENDIX

HERE, LISTED ALPHABETICALLY BY TITLE, are the twelve AmericanhistorytextbooksIsurveyedinpreparingLiesMyTeacherToldMe,followedonthenextpagebythesixbooksIstudiedforthesecondedition.Quotedmaterialistakenfromtheseeditionsunlessotherwisenotedinthetext.Social Science Staff of the Educational Research Council of America, TheAmericanAdventure(Boston:AllynandBacon,1975).IraPeck,StevenJantzen,andDanielRosen,AmericanAdventures(Austin,TX:Steck-Vaughn,1987).JohnA.GarratywithAaron Singer andMichaelGallagher,AmericanHistory(NewYork:HarcourtBraceJovanovich,1982).ThomasA.BaileyandDavidM.Kennedy,TheAmericanPageant (Lexington,MA:D.C.Heath,1991).RobertGreen,LauraL.Becker,andRobertE.Coviello,TheAmericanTradition(Columbus,OH:CharlesE.Merrill,1984).Nancy Bauer, The American Way (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,1979).Robert Sobel, Roger LaRaus, LindaAnnDe Leon, andHarry P.Morris,TheChallengeofFreedom(MissionHills,CA:Glencoe,1990).AllanO.KownslarandDonaldB.Frizzle,DiscoveringAmericanHistory (NewYork:Holt,RinehartandWinston,1974).Carol Berkin and Leonard Wood, Land of Promise (Glenview, IL: Scott,Foresman,1983).PhilipRoden,RobynnGreer,BruceKraig, andBettyBivins,Life andLiberty(Glenview,IL:Scott,Foresman,1984).PaulLewisTodd andMerleCurti,Triumphof theAmericanNation (Orlando,FL:HarcourtBraceJovanovich,1986).JamesWestDavidsonandMarkH.Lytle,TheUnitedStates—AHistoryof theRepublic(EnglewoodCliffs,NJ:PrenticeHall,1981).JoyceAppleby,AlanBrinkley, and JamesMcPherson,TheAmerican Journey

(NewYork:GlencoeMcGraw-Hill,2000).David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey, The AmericanPageant(Boston:HoughtonMifflin,2006).GeraldA.Danzer et al.,TheAmericans (Boston:McDougalLittell [HoughtonMifflin],2007).Andrew Cayton, Elisabeth Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan Winkler, America:PathwaystothePresent(Needham,MA:PearsonPrenticeHall,2005).Daniel Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley, A History of the United States(Needham,MA:PearsonPrenticeHall,2005.)Paul Boyer, Holt American Nation (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart & Winston[Harcourt],2003).

INDEX

abolitionists;seealsoBrown,JohnAdams,AbigailAdams,JohnAdams,JohnQuincyAfghanistaninvasionAfricaAfrican Americans; in CivilWar; and Indians; during nadir of race relations(1890-1920); during Reconstruction; terrorism against; today; see also civilrightsmovement;racism;slaveryAfrocentrichistoryAfro-PhoeniciansAlamoAlbanyPlanofUnionAli,MuhammadAllende,SalvadoralQaedaAmerica:PathwaystothePresent;onblack-whiteracerelationsAmerican Adventure, The; on black-white race relations; on Columbus; onIndians;as“inquiry”textbook;onprecontactNorthAmericaAmericanAdventures;onblack-whiteracerelations;onColumbusAmericanDilemma,AnAmericanexceptionalism,archetypeofAmericanHistory;onblack-whiteracerelations;onIndiansAmericanIndianMovementAmericanJourney,TheAmericanLegionAmerican Pageant, The ; on black-white race relations; on environmentalproblems;onIndians;onJohnBrown;onU.S.foreignpolicyAmericanRevolution;Indiansand“Americans”(term)Americans,The;onblack-whiteracerelations;onIndiansAmerican Tradition, The; on black-white race relations; on environmentalproblems;onIndiansAmericanWay,The;onblack-whiteracerelations;falsehoodsin;onIndians

Angelou,Mayaanthropologyantiracism,seeracialidealismApachesArawaks;seealsoHaitiArbenz,Jacoboarchetypes; ofAmerican exceptionalism; of benign federal government; of thehero;ofprogress;ofReconstruction;ofsavageIndian;ofSocialDarwinism;ofunprogressiveIndianArthur,ChesterA.Ashburn,P.M.Aspinwall,ThomasAttucks,CrispusAxtell,James

Bailey,Thomas;seealsoAmericanPageant,TheBaldwin,JamesBarber,J.W.Barzun,JacquesbaseballBayofPigsinvasionBeals,CarletonBeck,WarrenBeringiaBerkin,Carol;seealsoLandofPromiseBeveridge,AlbertJ.Bigelow,BillbinLaden,OsamaBirthofaNationbirthpracticesBlack,HillelBlackHawkWarblacknationalistsBlackPantherorganizationBlackwell,ElizabethBok,SisselaBolivar,SimonBoone,DanielBoorstin,DanielJ.;seealsoHistoryoftheUnitedStates,ABostonTeaPartyBoyer,PaulBraddock,Gen.EdwardBradford,WilliamBrezina,DeborahL.Brown,John;changingviewsonBrownv.BoardofEducationBryan,WilliamJenningsBurnham,WalterDeanBurns,Ken

Bush,GeorgeH.W.Bush,GeorgeW.Butler,SmedleyD.Butterfield,Herbert

CahokiaCalifornia,andtextbookadoptionsCanadaCanaryIslandscapitalismCarmichael,Stokely“carpetbaggers,”Castro,FidelCatlin,GeorgeCentralIntelligenceAgency(CIA)ChallengeofFreedom,The;onsocialmobility;onU.S.presidentsChamplain,SamueldeChaney,JamesCheney,DickCheney,LynneCherokees“ChiefJoseph”(Inmuttooyahlatlat)ChileChoctawsChristianitycivilrightslegislationcivilrightsmovement;influenceof,ontextbooksCivilWar; blacks in; foreign policy during; Indians in; party politics during;slaveryascentral issue in;students’ ignoranceof;seealsoConfederacy; racialidealismclassdistinctions,seesocialclassCleveland,GroverClinton,BillClowers,MylesCobb,JonathancognitivedissonanceColumbianExchangeColumbus,Christopher; devastationwrought by, inHaiti; and flat-earth fable;1492 voyage of; as hero; initiation of transatlantic slave trade by;motives of;

precursorsofColumbus,Ferdinand;roleof,inslavetradeColumbusDayCommager,HenrySteeleConfederacyConstitutionCosto,RupertCraig,GordonCrévecoeur,MichelGuillaumeJeandeCrosby,AlfredCuba;U.S.interventionsinculturalimperialismCushman,Robert

daGama,VascoDarrow,ClarenceDavidson,JamesWest;seealsoUnitedStates,The—AHistoryoftheRepublicDavis,JeffersondeAlva,J.KlorDebs,EugeneV.Decatur,StephenDeclarationofIndependenceDeLeon,LindaAnndeLeon,PonceDelong,JamesF.Deloria,Vine,Jr.deMadariaga,SalvadorDemocraticParty;inCivilWarandReconstruction;aswhite-supremacistpartyDermer,Capt.ThomasDeSoto,HernandoDiamond,JaredDíaz,BernalDiscovering AmericanHistory; comparatively good coverage by; as “inquiry”textbookdiseases;seealsoplaguesDisneyenterprisesDixon,ThomasDobyns,HenryDominicanRepublicDonald,DavidDorris,MichaelDouglas,StephenA.Douglass,FrederickDredScottdecisionDuBois,W.E.B.Dulles,JohnFosterDumbrell,John

economicgrowthEducationalResearchAnalystsEisenhower,DwightD.Eliade,MirceaEmancipationProclamationEngle,Shirleyenvironmentalmovementenvironmentalproblemsepidemics,seeplaguesErasmus,WilliamEscott,PaulethnocentrismEurope,impacton,ofconquestsEvers,MedgarexplorersbeforeColumbus

Fallows,JamesFarb,PeterFausz,J.F.FederalBureauofInvestigation(FBI)Ferro,MarcFestinger,LeonFitzGerald,Francesflat-earthfableFlournoy,RobertFoner,Ericforeignaidforeign policy: realpolitik approach to; and slavery; underWoodrowWilson;afterWorldWarIIseealsoVietnamWar;Warof1812Forrest,NathanBedfordFortPillowmassacreFourteenthAmendmentFrance,AnatoleFrank,MitchFranklin,BenjaminFreire,PauloFrenchandIndianWarFrisch,Michael

Gabler,MelGabler,NormaGagnon,PaulGarison,WilliamLloydGarraty,JohnA.;seealsoAmericanHistoryGeffert,HannahGettysburgAddressGiroux,HenryGleijesus,PieroGoneWiththeWind(novelandmovie)Goodlad,JohnGoodman,Andrew“GoodNeighborPolicy,”Gorges,FerdinandoGraff,HenryGrandArmyoftheRepublicGrant,UlyssesS.Greeley,Horace;Lincoln’slettertoGriffen,WilliamL.Griffith,DavidW.;seealsoBirthofaNationGross,RichardGuatemala

Haiti;Columbusand;U.S.policytowardHakim,JoyHampton,FredHansberry,LorraineHansot,ElisabethHaralson,Mrs.W.K.Harding,WarrenG.Harrison,WilliamHenryHeidegger,MartinHeilbroner,RobertHenry,JulesHenry,PatrickHenrytheNavigator,Princeheroification; of America; of Columbus; effects of; of Helen Keller; ofWoodrowWilsonHighgate,EdmoniaHistoryof theUnitedStates,A ; on black-white race relations; on Indians; onJohnBrownHitler,AdolfHobomokHoChiMinhHoltAmericanNation;onblack-whiteracerelations;onIndiansHomans,GeorgehomosexualityHoover,J.EdgarHorowitz,DavidHorseCapture,GeorgeP.Horsman,ReginaldHorton,JamesOliverHoward,Gen.O.O.Howe,JuliaWardHussein,Saddam

immigrantgroupsIndianHistorianPressIndians;adaptationby;aidgivenby,towhites;assimilationofblacksandwhitesby;barrierstoacculturationof;Columbusand;devastatingeffectofplagueson;enslavement of; Founding Fathers and; influence of; and Plymouth colony;precontactpopulationof;intwentiethcentury;andWarof1812IndianTerritoryIndianWarsinequality;economic;gender;seealsoracism;socialclassInmuttooyahlatlat(“ChiefJoseph”)“inquiry”textbooks;seealsoAmericanAdventure,The;DiscoveringAmericanHistoryInterestingEvents—theHistoryoftheUnitedStatesIranIran-ContrascandalIraqWarIrelandIroquoisIrving,WashingtonIsabella,QueenIslamIsraelIves,Charles

Jackson,AndrewJackson,CarolynJackson,HelenHuntJames,FrankJamestown;seealsoVirginiacolonyJefferson,Thomas;andIndians;andslaveryJenness,DavidJennings,FrancisJett,StephenJohnson,AndrewJohnson,LyndonBaines

Kammen,MichaelKansas-NebraskaActKarp,WalterKäta,RagnhildKeen,BenjaminKeller,Helen;radicalsocialistpoliticsofKelley,BrooksMatthew;seealsoHistoryoftheUnitedStates,AKennan,GeorgeKennedy,JohnF.;andcivilrightsmovement;murderofKennedy,RobertF.Kerry,JohnKessler,RonaldKidder,TracyKing,MartinLuther,Jr.“KingPhilip”(Metacomet)KingPhilip’sWarKirst,MichaelW.Kissinger,HenryKoning,HansKozol,JonathanKuKluxKlanKupperman,KarenKwitny,Jonathan

Land of Promise; on black-white race relations; on Columbus; format of; onIndians;onPlymouthcolony;onsocialclass;onU.S.foreignpolicyLanger,WilliamLapham,LewisLasCasas,BartolomédeLebanonLeckie,RobertLevin,HenryM.Levin,N.Gordon,Jr.LewisandClarkexpeditionLibby,JeanLibraryofCongressLifeandLiberty;onblack-whiteracerelations;onIndiansLincoln,Abraham;hostilityof,towardslavery;partiallytranscendedracismofLincoln-DouglasdebatesLiuzzo,ViolaLloyd,MarkLocke,JohnLoewen,JamesW.Loewenetal.v.Turnipseedetal.Logan,RayfordLondon,HerbertLongstreet,Gen.James“LostColony,”LouisianaPurchaseLovelock,JamesLumumba,PatricelynchingsLytle,MarkH.;seealsoUnitedStates,The—AHistoryoftheRepublic

McEvedy,ColinMcNeil,LindaMcNeill,WilliamH.McPherson,JamesMaddox,RobertMadison,JamesMalcolmXManhattanIsland,“purchase”ofMarble,SamuelD.Marciano,Johnmarkers,historicalMarshall,JohnMarx,KarlMassasoitMather,IncreaseMayflowerCompactmedicineMetacomet(“KingPhilip”)MexicanWar(1846-48)Mexico;andSpanishconquest;U.S.troopsin;seealsoMexicanWarMexicoCitymiddleclass;seealsosocialclassminstrelshowsMishan,E.J.Mississippi:ConflictandChangeMississippiBurningmobility,socialMobutu,JosephMohawk,JohnMontaigne,MichelEyquemdeMontesquieu,BaronMooney,JamesMoore,AmzieMoore,Robert

More,ThomasMorgan,L.H.Morison,SamuelEliotMosby,JohnMoses,RobertMossadegh,PrimeMinistermovies;seealsoBirthofaNation;GoneWiththeWindMoyers,Billmultinationalcorporations;andU.S.foreignpolicyMuseumoftheConfederacymuseumsMuslims;seealsoIslamMyLaimassacreMyrdal,Gunnar

nadirofracerelations(1890-1920)Nash,GaryNast,ThomasNationalAssociationofManufacturersNationalEndowmentfortheHumanitiesNationalMuseumofAmericanHistoryNativeAmericans,seeIndiansNevins,AllanNicaraguaNietzsche,Friedrich“NiggerDoodleDandy,”Nin,AnaïsNisbet,RobertNixon,RichardM.Nkrumah,KwameNoChildLeftBehindActNorse(Vikings)Novick,Peter

Ochoa,AnnaOhioWar(1790-95)O’Reilly,Kenneth

Page,RebaPaget,ValerianPanamaParks,RosaPaxton,TomPeaceCorpsPenn,WilliamPequotWar(1636-37)Pessen,Edward“Philip,King,”(Metacomet)Phillips,WendellPhoenicians(Afro-Phoenicians)Pierce,BessiePitcaithley,D.T.plague,bubonicplagues;devastatingeffectof,onNativepeople;inEuropePlainsIndiansPlessyv.FergusonPlymouthcolony:foundingof;IndiansandPocahontaspopulation,Indian:catastrophicdeclineof;precontactPostman,NeilpowerelitetheoryProfilesinCourageprogress,archetypeofPuertoRico

raceriotsracial idealism: inCivilWar; inReconstruction;seealso abolitionists;Brown,John;Lincoln,Abrahamracism; of Democratic Party; against Indians; during nadir of race relations(1890-1920);inpopularculture;rootsof;ofWoodrowWilson;seealsoAfricanAmericans,terrorismagainst;segregation;slaveryRay,JamesEarlReagan,RonaldReconstruction;ConfederatemythofReeb,Jamesreligion;seealsoChristianity;IslamRepublicanPartyRevere,PaulRevolutionaryWar,seeAmericanRevolutionRicev.GongLumRiseoftheAmericanNationRoanokeIslandRobinson,JackieRockefellerfamilyRogers,WillRoosevelt,FranklinD.Ross,BetsyRoss,DanaFullerRousseau,Jean-JacquesRugg,HaroldRusk,DeanRussianRevolution;U.S.interventioninRuzzo,EdwardRyan,David

Sale,KirkpatrickSalk,JonasSandCreekmassacresasha“scalawags,”Scheuer,MichaelSchlesinger,Arthur,Jr.Schwerner,MichaelSeattle,Chiefsegregation;seealsocivilrightsmovementSeminolesSennett,RichardSeptember11,2001,terroristattacksofSequoyahSeward,WilliamH.Shanker,AlbertSheridan,Gen.PhilipSherman,Gen.WilliamT.Simms,WilliamGilmoreSimon,JulianSimpson,HowardSizer,Theodoreslavery;Columbus’srolein;asDemocratic-Republicanissue;FoundingFathersand;Indiansin;intheNorth;racismasalegacyof;andterritorialexpansion;andU.S.foreignpolicysmallpox;seealsoplaguesSmith,Capt.Johnsocialclass;studentsandSocialDarwinismsocialmobilitySoltow,LeeSovietUnion;seealsoRussianRevolutionSpanish-AmericanWarSquanto

states’rightsStephens,Alexanderstrikesstudents;indifferenceof,towardstudyofhistory;non-white;andsocialclassSutter,JohnSwiers,Georgesyncretism

TalibanTax,Solteachers;college;innovative;useoftextbooksbytechnologytelevisionTeoli,CamellaTexas;textbookadoptionsintextbookadoptions;influenceofstatewideadoptionboardsontextbooks: authorship of; and citizenship; constraints on; copying among;downplaying of ideas by; Frances FitzGerald’s critique of; lack of passion in;marketingof;optimismof;plagiarismin;purposeof;right-wingcriticsof;andsecondaryhistoricalworks;sizeofThanksgivingThernstrom,StephanThoreau,HenryDavidTippecanoe,BattleofTitanicToppin,MarthatriracialsocietiesTriumph of the American Nation; as best-selling text; on black-white racerelations;onIndians;murkyauthorshipofTubman,HarrietTurner,FrederickTurner,FrederickJacksonTurner,NatTyack,David

UncleTom’sCabin(novelandplay)unionsUnitedDaughtersoftheConfederacyUnitedStates,The—AHistoryoftheRepublic;onblack-whiteracerelationsupperclass;seealsosocialclassUSSR;seealsoRussianRevolution

VanSertima,IvanVecsey,ChristopherVerrazano,GiovannidaVietnamWarVikings(Norse)VirginiacolonyvonWuthenau,Alexander

WabashRiver,BattleofWalker,DavidWalker,FrancisA.Wallace,MichaelWampanoagsWarof1812IndiansandWaroftheWorldsWashington,BookerT.Washington,George;andIndians;andslaveryWatergateWeAmericansWeatherford,JackWeingartner,CharlesWelles,GideonWells,H.G.Westmoreland,WilliamWhigPartywhitesupremacy,seeracismWilder,LauraIngallsWilliams,RogerWilliamson,JohnWillie,CharlesV.Wilson, Woodrow; military interventions by; persecution of dissenters by;racismofWinthrop,Johnwomen’shistory,omissionofwomen’smovementwomen’ssuffrageworkingclass;seealsosocialclassWorldWideWebWoundedKneeWright,FrankLloyd

ZaïreZajac,Chriszamani

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