Whitewashing war
Subtitle: historical myth, corporate textbooks, and possibilites for democratic education
By: Christopher R. Leahey ; foreword by E. Wayne Ross.
Publisher: Teachers College, Columbia University
Published: 2010
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 146
ISBN-13: 9780807750438; 9780807750445
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
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The atomic bomb, the new American militarism, and the Vietnam War; title: Whose history is it? : a close look at the corporate textbook; title: A patriotic rendering of the Gulf of Tonkin crisis; title: Whitewashing the Tet Offensive and the failures of 1968; title: Recovering democratic history education in an era of standardization.