This article focuses on ten U.S. history textbooks, all in common use across the nation. This study adopts a historical narrative analysis, which aims to determine the manner in which textbook narratives may promote "de facto national mandates." This method allows for the comparison of textbook narratives to historical works, looking for…

In teacher's idealized history classroom, students are abuzz with questions. They are eager to jump into a serious analysis of primary sources. They relish additional opportunities to engage historiographical debates. They are, as teachers like to say, "thinking historically." While there are few easy ways to create these idealized…

The simplest and most widely held definition of Social Darwinism is the application of concepts of biological evolution to social and moral development. More specifically, it is social evolution through "survival of the fittest" in a "struggle for existence" in which the strong prevail and the weak are defeated and disappear.…

Shortly before Christmas in 2004, departing Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed a luncheon meeting hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. Powell described to his Boston audience the readjustments that his cabinet post had imposed on him. Powell went on to discuss how he was tested in the Middle East and Asia, and the universal dilemmas…

When James Conant, former president of Harvard University, took on the topic of teacher preparation in his 1963 report "The Education of American Teachers," he demanded sweeping change. Conant's reform agenda, which focused on reshaping the educational establishment in America, took on the National Education Association and National…

The author frequently teaches introductory courses in what was once generally called "Western Civilization" and has often been called upon to referee all or parts of the manuscripts of new editions of "Western Civ" textbooks. Through his own reading, he has become aware that much current scholarship on ancient Israel and Judah…

One educational area that has greatly benefited from the growth of technology is historical studies. Since the initial development of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, tens of millions of historical documents have been placed online. During that time the quality and range of historical documents available on the Web has steadily increased.…