2003 U.S. History textbooks reviewed

Texas just adopted new high school U.S. History books. Four major publishers offered texts. Three had more or less the same old pro-big government, anti-free market, political correctness problems. But one, The American Republic Since 1877 (Glencoe ©2003), broke ranks to become a benchmark. Its overall scholarship is superior to other high school U.S. History books seen in Texas in the last 40 years, in that it features:

inclusion of
pro-free enterprise perspectives
It moves beyond 1930s quasi-Marxist "Robber Baron" interpretations on industrialization and big business.

accurate treatment of
strict and loose construction
It rightly defines strict and loose construction of the Constitution, and properly discriminates between them.

clear grasp of
concepts of divided sovereignty
It always distinguishes states' rights from state sovereignty, and Constitutional supremacy from federal supremacy.

some due diligence on
original intent
It occasionally notes Jeffersonian-Jacksonian views of original intent on major Constitutional issues.

divergent views on
the Depression and New Deal
It generally avoids partisanship on controversial topics in economic history from 1929 to 1939.

This text also affirms the conservative nature of the American Revolution by closely relating it to its British constitutional historical context. On resource economics it correctly distinguishes "scarcity" from "shortages," noting that the latter result from government price ceilings. It equally presents pros and cons on whether global warming exists, and on economic policy measures to deal with it. It avoids most excesses of political correctness.

A chief flaw in the book is that student activities in its Teacher's Edition, and end-of-chapter exercises, do not reinforce the exceptional portions of the text narrative. It ignores many Constitutional issues of Radical Reconstruction that would have engendered strife even without a race factor. Its pro-women's lib slant on the 1960s-70s echoes adversarial views of gender relations with inadequate counterpoint. Our critique documents these defects.

Yet this Glencoe book reviews the pre-1877 period in greater depth than the other high school U.S. History texts. This is vital because high schoolers can absorb more than 8th graders; because recent immigrants may have missed the first half of U.S. History in 8th grade; and because many colleges do not require students to take U.S. History. If not in high school, some Americans will never learn pre-1877 U.S. History. That would be tragic.

8th grade companion volume

The same four publishers submitted 8th grade as well as high school U.S. History books in Texas. We found 249 remaining uncorrected factual errors in the four high school books. But we had time to identify only the 59 factual errors in Glencoe's 8th grade U.S. History book – The American Republic to 1877 – for correction in the final Texas edition. The other three publishers' 8th grade books doubtless still have uncorrected factual errors.

when POLITICAL CORRECTNESS loses its monopoly in textbooks.
They deplore including
such FORBIDDEN INFO as:

INNOCENT INDIANS, MURDEROUS WHITES?

Sand Creek Massacre

Colorado, 1864

After a bout of frontier warfare, Cheyenne chief Black Kettle sought peace. The U.S. Army promised him protection and told him to camp with his Indians at Sand Creek, pending negotiations. As Black Kettle waved an American flag and a white flag, about 700 soldiers attacked this camp, killing several hundred Indian men, women, and children.

Frontiersmen, however, said of this incident:

Indian behavior was seasonal. They "surrendered" in the fall (Sand Creek occurred in late November), when grass for their ponies died. They returned to the warpath in the spring when the grass grew.
Black Kettle was friendly. His braves were not.
Little Raven's Arapahoes had received a pledge of truce. Black Kettle's warriors had not.
Indian women and children were attacked because the women fought alongside the men, and to avenge cruelty to settlers' families in recent frontier depredations.
The soldiers involved testified they did not see Black Kettle waving flags during their charge.
The commanding officer reported after the encounter that "… scalps of white men, women, and children, several of which they had not had time to dry and tan since taken … were taken from the belts of dead warriors on the battlefield of Sand Creek, and from their teepees …. What of the Indian blanket that was captured, fringed with white women's scalps?"
At Sand Creek, whites mutilated the Indian dead in retaliation, and as psychological warfare (Indians thought that whatever disfigurements the body received, the soul bore in the afterlife).

AGGRIEVED VIETNAMESE, CYNICAL WHITES?

Vietnam War

Gentle, avuncular Ho Chi Minh ("he who enlightens") originally "admired" the U.S. and was "disappointed" it did not support his "nationalist" movement for Vietnamese "independence."

South Vietnam's pro-U.S. president Ngo Dinh Diem was "oppressive" and "corrupt." With U.S. support, he cancelled a 1956 Vietnam-wide election because he feared a loss to the more popular Ho.

In 1968 American soldiers massacred 200+ noncombatants at My Lai, South Vietnam.

But North Vietnamese communism under Ho Chi Minh was Stalinist and Maoist in practice.

Ho came to power in 1945 on a wave of communist terror where thousands of his political foes died, including non-communist Vietnamese nationalist leaders.
More bloody than Diem's rule in the South was the 1951-56 purge by communists in the North that killed ca. 50,000.
Diem cancelled the 1956 Vietnam-wide election because Ho opposed a free vote (with international observers) in the North.
The communist massacre of about 3,000 civilians at Hue in 1968 dwarfed the killing of 200+ noncombatants by U.S. soldiers at My Lai that same year.

ENLIGHTENED RADICALS, BIGOTED WHITES?

Radical Reconstruction

Southern white racism caused all the ills of Radical Reconstruction. Carpetbag state government corruption was just part of Gilded Age political culture.

In fact, Radical Reconstruction involved many Constitutional conflicts unrelated to race.

Bill of attainder
"40 acres and a mule" unconstitutionally punished the previous landowner without a trial.
Taxation without representation
From 1867-71, an "iron-clad oath" disfranchised Southerners who had voluntarily aided the Confederacy. Meanwhile huge tax increases and soaring state debts far exceeded real value received. The personal impact of carpetbag corruption on Southerners eclipsed that of the Tweed and Grant scandals on Northerners. New state social spending – plus postwar re-building costs – tripled and quadrupled Southern state tax rates in 1870 compared to 1860, though the property-tax base had shrunken. 15% of Mississippi landowners could not pay these taxes and lost their land at one time.
Unfree elections/restriction on republican form of government
Until 1872, the 14th Amendment prevented ex-Confederates from holding state or federal office if, before supporting the Confederacy, they had sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution. This deprived the South of its natural leaders.
Standing army in peacetime without consent
Under Radical Reconstruction, after the President formally declared the rebellion over and with ex-Confederate states unrepresented in Congress, the Army occupied the South.
No separation of powers
Through their issuance of general orders, commanding generals in the five military districts under Radical Reconstruction combined executive, legislative, and judicial functions.
Juryless trials
Peacetime military tribunals in the South during Radical Reconstruction lacked juries.
Partisan motives of Constitutional amendments
The 14th Amendment assured Republican dominance, not black suffrage: the South could either enfranchise the freedman, increasing Republicans in Congress (the 13th Amendment had repealed the 3/5s Compromise); or it could disfranchise him and lose Democratic representation there. The 15th Amendment forbad disfranchisement by race only after Grant won in 1868 due to the freedmen's vote.
Extra-Constitutional amending process
Ex-Confederate states had to ratify the 14th Amendment as if they were in the Union, but were unrepresented in the Congress that proposed it, as if they were not in the Union.

HEROIC INDIANS, BLUNDERING WHITES?

Fetterman Massacre

Wyoming, 1866

Indians ambushed about 85 soldiers under Captain William Fetterman and killed them all — "a stunning defeat" for the U.S. Army.

Fetterman's company fought valiantly. Poorly armed and low on ammunition, they killed about 65 Sioux (based on battlefield evidence afterward) before succumbing to overwhelming odds.

Bad scholarship on American constitutionalism taints three out of four high school U.S. History books submitted by major publishers for 2003 local Texas adoption. These representative examples all favor expanding federal power:

Texas has approved these 5th grade Social Studies books for 2003 local adoption, which we rank as follows:

Our reviewer served on the Texas State Board of Education-appointed Social Studies Review Committee during the 1996 Social Studies curriculum writing process. His brief comparison charts show how these books' subject matter content differs on key topics. We can e-mail you those analyses, contrasting these texts' treatment of the American Revolution, constitutional history, principles and benefits of free enterprise, multiculturalism, religion, and character trait development. This info supplements Texas' State Textbook Review Panel, which checked conformity to the state standards; and balances publishers' sales pitches, which stress teaching aids.

No public school publisher funded our reviews in any way. We have no financial stake in any textbook company. Unlike publisher sales reps, we have no monetary interest in any textbook adoption outcome. Our support comes from concerned individuals and a few small foundations, which to our knowledge have no ties to the public school textbook industry. We are the Texas group noted by the Wall Street Journal and ABC's Good Morning America for finding hundreds of high school U.S. History textbook factual errors in 1991-92; and by ABC's 20/20 in 1999 for finding hundreds of high school World History textbook factual errors.

constitutional supremacy equated with federal supremacy
"National Supremacy … When a national and state law are in conflict, the national law overrides the state law. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land." — American Nation in the Modern Era (Holt, 2003), p. 55	This passage fails to explain that federal law trumps state law only if the federal law is constitutional; also, instead of "National Supremacy," the heading should read, "Supremacy of the Constitution."
wrong definitions of strict and loose construction
"In a sweeping statement now known as the elastic clause because it has been stretched to fit so many situations, the Constitution declared that … Congress has the authority to pass any laws reasonably necessary to carry out its duties." — America: Pathways to the Present (Prentice, 2003), p. 60	This passage claims the elastic clause gives the federal government almost unlimited power. In fact, strict constructionists believe the elastic clause gives the federal government the implied powers that are absolutely necessary to carry out its enumerated powers. Loose constructionists say it means the federal government can do whatever is convenient, and not expressly prohibited, in carrying out those powers.
confusing states' rights under the Constitution with state sovereignty over the Constitution
Q: "What difficulties arose from assertions of states' rights against the United States between 1789 and 1877?" A: "Questions about the right of nullification … were resolved by the Civil War." — The Americans: Reconstruction to the 21st Century (McDougal, 2003), p. 195	The Civil War destroyed state sovereignty over the Constitution. The pretense that it also destroyed states' rights (i.e., divided sovereignty) under the Constitution is a pro-big government myth.
Of the four high school U.S. History books submitted, only Glencoe's The American Republic Since 1877 (in its final Texas edition) avoids the above problems.

Best	Harcourt Horizons: U.S. History • Harcourt ©2003 Clearly superior coverage of the causes of the American Revolution Excels in discussing American constitutional history and issues Conforms to state law on free enterprise as well as Macmillan and better than Scott Most positive treatment of multicultural topics
Better	The United States • Scott ©2003
Fair	Our Nation • Macmillan ©2003

when POLITICAL CORRECTNESS loses its monopoly in textbooks.
They deplore including
such FORBIDDEN INFO as:

constitutional supremacy
equated with federal supremacy

wrong definitions of
strict and loose construction

confusing states' rights under the Constitution
with state sovereignty over the Constitution

Of the four high school U.S. History books submitted,
only Glencoe's The American Republic Since 1877
(in its final Texas edition) avoids the above problems.

Best

Better

Fair

when POLITICAL CORRECTNESS loses its monopoly in textbooks. They deplore including such FORBIDDEN INFO as:

constitutional supremacyequated with federal supremacy

wrong definitions ofstrict and loose construction

confusing states' rights under the Constitutionwith state sovereignty over the Constitution

Of the four high school U.S. History books submitted, only Glencoe's The American Republic Since 1877 (in its final Texas edition) avoids the above problems.