The topic came up in discussion here last week of the “objective” science of history. Here’s an interesting, and disturbing, article on the role of Texas textbook reviewers on what history books get selected for the entire nation — and what sorts of “objective” criteria they use.
“Out of Many,” the work of four respected historians, is one of the biggest sellers among American history college textbooks in the United States, but it is not likely to be available to Texas high school students taking advanced placement history. Conservative groups in Texas objected to two paragraphs in the nearly 1,000-page text that explained that prostitution was rampant in cattle towns during the late 19th century, before the West was fully settled.
“It makes it sound that every woman west of the Mississippi was a prostitute,” said Grace Shore, the Republican chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education. “The book says that there were 50,000 prostitutes west of the Mississippi. I doubt it, but even if there were, is that something that should be emphasized? Is that an important historical fact?”
As I said, what you choose to include or exclude from historical teaching provides an ethical, moral, and ideological spin to what is being taught.
(Via WMT)