Breaking news, History Textbooks in California and Texas are Different.

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Snattlerake

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John6185

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Indoctrination-exactly what they are doing-and some of the public schools in other states are going along with it in the form of Common Core-I believe that is till in vogue with liberals. I don't like what they are doing to my country and all I can say is that the day is coming when they will rue their liberalism-if they succeed.
 

druryj

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History is written by the winner. I doesn't really matter whether the information is factual or not, all history texts reflect the author and editor's bias, view, and thus their report of events.

A small example: What is your view of John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln?

But what if the Confederacy had won the Civil War? I imagine Booth would be presented to the reader as a hero; the man who brought down the evil leader of the oppressive North and sought to restrict Confederate American rights.
 

TerryMiller

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In a discussion of history books, it was brought out that the B*E*S*T ones were those written by people roughly 30 years or so after the events. Those authors were more likely to fully research the "material" before putting the information in their books. In some cases, the authors hadn't even been alive at the time of the "events."
 

donner

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History is written by the winner. I doesn't really matter whether the information is factual or not, all history texts reflect the author and editor's bias, view, and thus their report of events.

A small example: What is your view of John Wilkes Booth, the man who shot Abraham Lincoln?

But what if the Confederacy had won the Civil War? I imagine Booth would be presented to the reader as a hero; the man who brought down the evil leader of the oppressive North and sought to restrict Confederate American rights.

your confederate analogy is pretty close to what has actually happened and why the myth of the lost cause refuses to go away around these parts.
 

donner

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this really isn't new. IIRC discussions of this nature have been going on for a while. I believe it caught the public attention a few years ago when texas moved required the inclusion of Creationism for a time, so any book used needed to have what some regarded as religion masquerading as science. And it's not so much that they can force the publisher so much as its the publisher risks losing out on one of the two biggest systems in the country if they don't comply. The Texas and CA systems are too large of buyers for the publishers to simply ignore, so as goes those places, so goes the textbooks of our nation.

Wasn't the texas board even trying to move to exclude teaching about ol' hillary and helen keller at one point recently or some such thing?
 

druryj

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@TerryMiller; this is true. In fact, almost all US, European, Asian, and World History texts fall into this category. Look at books on the Revolutionary Period, and the Founding of the Nation for example. None of us was here. So, in studying and writing history, much credence is given to "original source material" - notes, diaries, letters, maps and such from people who actually lived in the time and through certain events. In many cases, one simply chooses the outcome you want, or the position or view you want to present and them back it up with the source materials that suit your purpose, while discarding those that don't.

The American Revolution wasn't what many think it was. Many if not most of the Colonists were loyal to the Crown, and simply wanted to live as British Subjects in peace, and farm their plot of land. But corruption among the British Governors and their folks led to increasing acts of revolt by radical revolutionary groups, and the British retaliation forced many to choose a side. The British responses to those colonists who did resist was often brutal and often with no regard to actual British law, serving to alienate a growing number of colonists who just wanted the same rights as those subjects in England. Many joined militia groups as protection against marauding Indians, who also just wanted to live in peace but were being forced further and further out. The Indians often chose sides that best met their goals and needs at the time, with no regard to politics. What is one left to do when faced with dislocation or seizure of property but eventually resist? You can only push people who have the means to resist so far, after all. So the British pushed, and pushed. And pushed harder. And the colonists increasingly pushed back. As it were, the British decided it was economically unfeasible to continue to fight the rag-tag group of colonists who were actually becoming a drain and liability on Mother England anyway, so they said to hell with it and went home, leaving the colonists to fight with themselves and the Indians, in a land to far away and which was becoming increasingly difficult to govern and support.

So did we win a war of independence or did we simply inherit a discarded European idea which somehow still managed to grow and thrive?

Thank God we don't have oppressive authorities or a group of citizens who are resisting them in this country today right? Imagine what would happen if such a group of oppressive authorities were to push too hard today. Why, who in their wildest dreams could ever imagine a politically motivated leftist group seizing power of say...The State of Virginia and attempting to thwart the US Constitution? Of actually attempting to take away the cherished freedoms many have come to expect? Isn't that silly to even imagine something like that could happen?
 

donner

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@TerryMiller; this is true. In fact, almost all US, European, Asian, and World History texts fall into this category. Look at books on the Revolutionary Period, and the Founding of the Nation for example. None of us was here. So, in studying and writing history, much credence is given to "original source material" - notes, diaries, letters, maps and such from people who actually lived in the time and through certain events. In many cases, one simply chooses the outcome you want, or the position or view you want to present and them back it up with the source materials that suit your purpose, while discarding those that don't.

The American Revolution wasn't what many think it was. Many if not most of the Colonists were loyal to the Crown, and simply wanted to live as British Subjects in peace, and farm their plot of land. But corruption among the British Governors and their folks led to increasing acts of revolt by radical revolutionary groups, and the British retaliation forced many to choose a side. The British responses to those colonists who did resist was often brutal and often with no regard to actual British law, serving to alienate a growing number of colonists who just wanted the same rights as those subjects in England. Many joined militia groups as protection against marauding Indians, who also just wanted to live in peace but were being forced further and further out. The Indians often chose sides that best met their goals and needs at the time, with no regard to politics. What is one left to do when faced with dislocation or seizure of property but eventually resist? You can only push people who have the means to resist so far, after all. So the British pushed, and pushed. And pushed harder. And the colonists increasingly pushed back. As it were, the British decided it was economically unfeasible to continue to fight the rag-tag group of colonists who were actually becoming a drain and liability on Mother England anyway, so they said to hell with it and went home, leaving the colonists to fight with themselves and the Indians, in a land to far away and which was becoming increasingly difficult to govern and support.

So did we win a war of independence or did we simply inherit a discarded European idea which somehow still managed to grow and thrive?

Thank God we don't have oppressive authorities or a group of citizens who are resisting them in this country today right? Imagine what would happen if such a group of oppressive authorities were to push too hard today. Why, who in their wildest dreams could ever imagine a politically motivated leftist group seizing power of say...The State of Virginia and attempting to thwart the US Constitution? Of actually attempting to take away the cherished freedoms many have come to expect? Isn't that silly to even imagine something like that could happen?

it's almost as is history is far more complicated than people want to remember it as.

And you're completely right, it's easy to forget how radical and revolutionary the founding fathers actually were.
 

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