This paper uses literary analysis of 21 st century U.S. history textbooks and the theoretical frameworks of post-colonial theory, racial pedagogical content knowledge, and critical race theory to argue that students at urban schools continue to be "made ahistorical" by classroom instructional conditions that devalue history instruction, including textbooks, standardized testing (in both the presence and the absence), and the lack of substantial content-matter teacher professional development. More troublesome is the persistence of a colonial master narrative that both fails to serve the majority of white students, and that minimizes or erases the growing population of students of color in urban schools.