This analysis of U.S. history textbooks from the 19th century to the present examines how and why textbooks have changed during certain decades. The book is organized into three chapters. Chapter I, Past Masters, discusses the politics of textbook publishing, the influence of large adoption units, and the book from which a majority of American school children learned history: David Saville Muzzey's "American History." Chapter II, Continuity and Change, focuses on various ways in which U.S. history textbooks have treated issues such as immigration, reconstruction, the American Indian, assimilation and multiculturation, the role of the United States in world affairs, and Communism. Chapter III, Progressives, Fundamentalists, and Mandarins, examines the lack of intellectual history in textbooks, the treatment of institutions and social forces at the expense of individuals, progress orientations, inquiry texts, the academic reform movement following Sputnik, and the New Social Studies. The author concludes that the Progressive, fundamentalist, back-to-basics, and educationist movements have contributed to the reductive view of history and the dullness that inhabit so many history texts. (Author/KC)