Title: Whitewashing war : historical myth, corporate textbooks, and possibilities for democratic education /
Authors: Leahey, Christopher R.
Publisher: Teachers College, Columbia University,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Study and teaching United States.; Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Historiography.; Textbooks Political aspects United States.; Textbook bias United States.; Myth Political aspects United States.; Education Political aspects United States; War and education United States.
Abstract: Investigates how the political struggles over the social studies curriculum, the corporate domination of the textbook and testing industry, and the curricular constraints of the No Child Left Behind Act combine to stifle historical inquiry and deprive students of meaningful social studies instruction. Using the controversial Vietnam War as a case study, holds textbook narratives up to the light, illuminating how the adoption process, interpretive framework, and selection of evidence combine to transform the past into thinly veiled historical myths. By attending to questions traditionally ignored in history education, this book challenges educators to rethink their pedagogical approaches to military conflict, American and otherwise. It calls on teachers to develop students critical sensibilities to ask questions, conduct research, evaluate evidence, and make meaning of the past, and provides classroom lessons for history educators and students to engage in rich, intellectual encounters with the historical record. From publisher description.
Contents: The atomic bomb, the Vietnam War, and the new American militarism -- Whose history is it? : a close look at the corporate textbook -- A patriotic rendering of the Gulf of Tonkin crisis -- Whitewashing the Tet Offensive and the failures of 1968 -- Recovering democratic history education in an era of standardization.