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Molding the Good Citizen
The Politics of High School History Texts
 By Robert Lerner, Althea K. Nagai, and Stanley Rothman

0-275-94919-2/978-0-275-94919-8

Description
A series of culture wars are being fought in America today; Lerner, Nagai, and Rothman contend that one key battleground is the nation's high school texts. The authors argue that today's textbook controversies, as exemplified in the proposed National Standards for the Study of United States and World History, reflect changes in American public philosophy and the education profession. Conventional wisdom among students of the curriculum is that the major threat to freedom of the schools comes from the religious right. While this may have been true at one time, Lerner, Nagai, and Rothman assert that the major thrust today involves the imposition on schools of the ideology of particular groups that seek to use education as a mechanism for changing society. They document the growing influence of these groups, and their supporters among educators, through an extensive quantitative content analysis of leading high school history texts over the past 40 years and a historical analysis of how this outlook and the willingness to impose it became part of educators' conventional wisdom.

Reviews:
-Through painstaking research and statistical analysis, the authors demonstrate that history textbooks have maintained a negative view of corporate capitalism and the 'robber barons,' while bowing to feminism and left-wing black politics by overstating the importance of [some] historical figures....We are fortunate to have Molding the Good Citizen to point out the problems [with these texts]. —National Review
Endorsement From William J. Bennett Codirector, Empower America Former U.S. Secretary of Education
Molding the Good Citizen is an empirical, even-handed, and comprehensive study of the growing--and alarming--politicization of our nation's high school curricula. This is a good book for those who care about American history, American education, and what our children are being taught.
Endorsement From Lynne V. Cheney W.H. Brady, Jr. Distinguished Fellow, American Enterprise Institute Former Chairman of National Endowment for the Humanities
A crucial book for anyone who wants to understand why textbooks are like they are and how they got that way.
Endorsement From Chester E. Finn, Jr. John M. Olin Fellow, Hudson Institute Co-chair, Educational Excellence Network Former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education
This powerful analysis could not be timelier or more helpful in illuminating the continuing battles over the history curriculum--and the increasing control wielded by "radical progressives" over what our children learn in school. The recent uproar over national history standards is far clearer--and more worrying--within the context provided by this splendid book.
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0-275-94919-2 978-0-275-94919-8 Molding the Good Citizen £59.95    
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