How American History was Taught and Written

Pre Vietnam Era Texts Perpetuated Stereotypes and Omitted Facts

Jun 14, 2009

The history of text books detailing the American journey from a colonial people to superpower status is worth studying because of the lasting impressions given to pupils.

How history is written forms lasting impressions. This is particularly true in Middle and High School history classrooms. Often, what is left out is as important as what is included. Prior to the years of the Vietnam War, history texts included stereotypes, marginalized minority groups, and perpetuated myths. Examples can be seen in the treatment of Native Americans, American imperialism, the role of women, and even the Holocaust.

Historical Treatment of Native Americans

In 1880, John Clark Ridpath of Indiana Asbury University published A Popular History of the United States of America. The book begins with a discussion of the “aboriginal” people of America: “The primitive inhabitants of the New World were the Red men called Indians.” Presenting common perceptions of Native Americans of the 19th Century, Ridpath comments on Indian women: “The Indian woman was a degraded creature, a drudge, a beast of burden…”

Views like Ridpath’s helped to establish decades of perceptions that were never scrutinized by solid historical and anthropological evidence. Novels depicting Native Americans, such as James Fennimore Cooper’s, tended to romanticize and portray Indians as noble savages. Although some books, like Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor (1881) aimed to correct injustices and misperceptions, prevailing views carried on into the 20th Century.

Freedom’s Frontier: A History of Our Country by Ray Compton was published in 1954 and used in many school systems. Compton’s section on the post-Civil War West discusses the loss of Indian land and concludes, “Perhaps it is just as well that these things are no more – just as well for the Indians as for the white man.” He also refers to the “red man.” His treatment of the buffalo hunts never addresses the government strategy of deliberate extermination to deprive Native Americans of a food supply.

American Imperialism and World War II

A 1955 public school history text, Makers of the Americas, is more generous to Native Americans but heavy on serious omissions. The American acquisition of the Panama Canal is attributed to the “energetic” Teddy Roosevelt, but the book never mentions the political coup d' etat in Panama, sponsored and paid for by the U.S. government in order to wrest the land from legitimate Colombian control.

In the section “The Rise of Dictators,” author Marion Lansing focuses a few short paragraphs on Adolph Hitler and his desire to build a “superior race.” There is no mention of the six million Jews that died in Concentration Camps or any other atrocities. The entire treatment gives the impression that a small group in Germany, the Nazis, was the problem.

In contrast, far more is written about the world-wide threat of Communism under the leadership of Soviet Russia. The text, of course, corresponds to the growing Cold War fears.

Marginalization of Women

The 1961 edition of Adventures of Famous Persons, volume six of the highly popular Childcraft series, includes a brief account of Dolly Madison saving the portrait of George Washington before the British burned the White House in 1814. Author Helen Monsell, ends the piece commenting, “She (Dolly) didn’t expect people to think that she was wise or brave or smart. She was just helpful and friendly. And that was enough.”

Clearly, the role model for girls reading the story was far from an assertive, aggressive female who, as First Lady, out-shone her husband and, given the times, achieved a higher status than was the norm for women.

History Texts Change Perceptions

Contemporary American History texts, at all grade levels, have attempted to eradicate the sins of the past. Women, Native Americans, African Americans, and other minority groups are singled out for their contributions to American History. High school texts include profiles on Betty Friedan, Malcolm X, and Harvey Milk. And this is the way history should be taught.

The copyright of the article How American History was Taught and Written in Modern US History is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish How American History was Taught and Written in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.