Democracy's Half-Told Story. What American History Textbooks Should Add.

Autor/in	Gagnon, Paul
Institution	American Federation of Teachers, Washington, DC.
Titel	Democracy's Half-Told Story. What American History Textbooks Should Add.
Quelle	(1989), (180 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Beigaben	Tabellen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Educational Objectives; History Instruction; History Textbooks; Secondary Education; Social Studies; Textbook Content; Textbook Evaluation; Textbook Research; United States History + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Educational objective; Bildungsziel; Erziehungsziel; History lessons; Geschichtsunterricht; Sekundarbereich; Gemeinschaftskunde; Lehrbuchtext; Schulbuchforschung
Abstract	The first purpose of a high school course in U.S. history must be to help students understand the essence of democracy and those events, institutions, and forces that have either promoted or obstructed it. This review examines five textbooks and analyzes how useful they are in aiding that process, and how they might be made more helpful. The five texts are: (1) "A History of the United States" (D. Boorstin; B. Kelley); (2) "History of a Free People" (H. Bragdon; S. McCutchen); (3) "The United States: A History of the Republic" (J. Davidson; M. Lytle); (4) "People and Our Country" (N. Risjord; T. Haywoode); (5) "Triumph of the American Nation" (L. Todd; M. Curti). The texts are reviewed using topic divisions such as: "History's Role in Civic Education"; "Old World Backgrounds";"Civil War and Emancipation"; "Change and Reform Before World War I"; and "Depression, New Deal, and War Again." The textbooks under review are at one and the same time over-detailed and under-detailed: the first, because they try to mention something about everything; the second, because they fail to develop major themes in depth. They labor too hard to balance affirmation and negation of U.S. history, and the result is a detached neutrality, passionless about both the ugly and the beautiful moments in that history. The texts should convey the complication, drama, suspense, and the paradox of comedy and tragedy found in history. The Education for Democracy Project's Statement of Principles and its signatories are given in the appendix. (PPB)
Anmerkungen	Democracy's Half-Told Story, American Federation of Teachers, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001 (1-10, $7.00, additional copies $5.00).
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2004/1/01