This article presents an interview with Richard Luther of Tenafly High School in Tenafly, New Jersey. A 40-year veteran teacher who is retiring this year, Luther always assigns his Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History students an extensive research paper and integrates their research into their coursework and preparation for the AP exam. In this…

In the high school history textbooks children read, too often they find that labor's role in American history--and labor's important accomplishments, which changed American life--are misrepresented, downplayed, or ignored. That is a tragedy because labor played (and continues to play) a key role in the development of American democracy and the…

This article presents a detailed example from the Albert Shanker Institute's report that shows the error of U.S. history textbooks and how it is distorting the historical record. One of the most glaring errors in textbooks is the treatment of the role that unions and labor activists played as key participants in the civil rights movement. The…

Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…