Nationalism (What/what, when, why)
-Advocate or support for the interests of one's own nation, especially to the exclusion or determent of the interests of other nations.
-People being patriotic
-A type of ideology-ruling ideology. US textbooks are based on the US not other countries. Herofies the US.
Social Structure (Who/what, when, historical significance)
-Preventing rising up in society
-Public school vs. Private school unequal learning
-Pyramid of classes
Ideology (Who/what, when, historical significance)
-A system scheme of ideas, usually relating to politics or society or to the conduct of a class or group, and regarded as justifying actions especially one that is held implicitly or adopted as a whole and maintained regardless of the course of events.
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-Textbooks only talk about US events and that was their ideology and other countries influenced them as well. The US frowns upon communism even though there are some benefits. US democracy is the main point.
Herofication (Who/what, when, historical significance)
-Is the process where details--both important and trivial--are left out or changed to fit the archetypical mold of flawless, inhuman "heros."
-Calcification that makes people over into heroes.
-How Columbus is portrayed as a hero instead of what is important so US history books leave out all the details.
Textbook Adoption Boards (Who/what, when, historical significance)
-Textbooks are based off of two standards in California and Texas
-Textbook authors
-Authors are limited to what they write because they don't want to offend others. The board creates standard how high schoolers across the country are taught about history.
Allegiance (Who/what, when, historical significance)
-Metritocracy, vesting interests of those in power.
Socialization (Who/what, when, historical significance)
- is the process by which children and adults learn from others. We begin learning from others during the early days of life; and most people continue their social learning all through life.
-Schools train appropriate thinking
Eurocentrism
- A term for a situation where historians/textbooks present a heavily biased worldview centered around Europe. A prime example of eurocentrism is the stories centering Columbus. Columbus is often portrayed as the brave explorer who sailed across the Atlantic and discovered America. However, this is extremely inaccurate because not only did the Vikings beat Columbus by almost 500 years, the native American had also been living on the continent for over 10000 years.
The Plague
-Devastating disease that wiped out an entire population
-Small pox
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American Exceptionalism
-refers to the special character of the united States as a unique free nation based on democratic ideals and personal liberty.
-They give foreign aid
-US is different from better than all nations on the planet
National Origin Myth
-the constitution was suppose to be something but in reality it isn't
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-We dont know all true facts about history because US textbooks leave out a lot of important information that created a cause.
Civilization
-Native Americans having been rebuking textbook authors for reserving the adjective civilized for European cultures.
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-Europeans migrating west towards America
Syncretism
-The amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought
Cultural Imperialsm
-The cultural aspects of imperialism. Imperialism, here is referring to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilizations favoring the more powerful civilization.
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-How China is always behind Europeans in technologies and advancements.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Intro
roduces the main problem with history textbooks. It also reveals the teaching stylesused that cause students to lose interest. The author states that textbooks, "exclude conflict or real suspense," and they "Leave out anything that might reflect badly upon our national character" (13). The textbooks also include small, irrelevant details that prevent the reader from obtaining the main ideas. Finally, history teachers give up on their students fairly quickly, feeling that no matter hard they try, the student will never fully understand the subject
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch. 1
focuses on themain idea of heroification a process through which people make heroes out of ordinarypeople, often emphasizing their good qualities and deliberately leaving out negative traitsin order to make them appear as heroes of noble causes. The author discusses both HelenKeller and Woodrow Wilson, revealing aspects of their lives that most people areunaware of. Most people know Helen Keller simply as a blind and deaf girl who workedto triumph over her handicaps with the guidance of Anne Sullivan. However, Loewenfirst acknowledges that Helen Keller was a radical socialist who strongly supported theformation of the USSR. President Woodrow Wilson is remembered by the nation as agreat president, known for his leadership of the nation into WWI, his establishment of theLeague of Nations, and his support for women's suffrage. Nevertheless, Loewen includesthat Wilson launched a secret war against the Bolsheviks, as well as sending troops intowars in Central America.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch. 2 Thesis
- Columbus and his voyage in 1492 is merely a story of feel good history. It omits the current state of change Europe was in before the age of exploration. Focusing on Columbus (a while male) enables Eurocentrism by ignoring all of the successful explorers before him.
-n "The True Importance of Christopher Columbus", written by James W.Loewen, he describes the adaptations between European and Native American culture.Europeans learned several farming techniques from the natives, and they exchangedaspects of European culture in return, however the settlers soon became to promotecomplete assimilation of the Native Americans into European culture. The majority ofnatives fought this idea, but the new settlers began to use violence, destroying NativeAmerican culture through the thousands of lives lost. Also within the chapter, Loewenexpresses the idea that textbooks conventionally share the accounts of the Europeans, butrarely advocates for the Native Americans. Throughout the chapter, he gives numerousexamples of how the accounts of both Native Americans and the settlers differ and thetruth is hidden. Loewen claims that textbooks need to tell both sides of the story.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch 3 thesis
- European involvement in the Americas led to the decline of the Native American population and while it shouldn't be condemned, the portrayal of history is noticeably inaccurate. The first thanksgiving is just another example of Europeans exploiting Native American hospitality and justifying it with their belief that Europeans are destined to control Americas.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch 4 thesis
-The portrayal of the Native Americans in the average history textbook is delivered completely from the point of view of European colonists and later the American citizens and in the almost no way does it accurately reflect the truth of these encounters. This situation was created due to a domination of European culture over the present Native American one.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch 12 thesis (Why is history taught like this)
-Upper class conspiracy, Brainwashing
-1) Textbook adoption boards
-2) Business of textbook publshers
-3) The Role of Teachers
4) All of us are responsible for state of history education
-Power elite theories inadequate for explaining why history is taught like this.
Loewen (Lies my teacher told me ) Ch 13 thesis
Loewen recognizes the outcomes of the ways high school students are taught. He argues that students are notreally learning the history, but simply memorizing facts temporarily in order to pass atest. The information is not obtained as it should be. He points out that the nation often associates education with wealth. Those who are wealthy can receive the education they need, and they continue to pass on information. Leowen proposes a change in teaching styles, in that history teachers will inspire their students to want to learn rather thanpassing on unnecessary, and often invalid, facts
Ravitch
-Unlike trade books or college books, textbooks prepared for the schools are not sold in a open competitive marketplace. Publishers must invest millions of dollars to develop a new textbook series, and their eventual success or failures depend on the decisions made by a few large states. The buying and selling of textbooks is more akin to a government procurement process that it is to a real marketplace with consumer choices. As a result textbooks are dull.
Bailey, CH. 1
-Evidence suggests that early people may have come to the Americas in crude boats, or across the Bering Isthmus.
By the time Columbus arrived in America in 1492, over 54 million people may have been living in North & South America.
-Unlike in Mexico with the Aztecs, dense populations did not exist in North America. This may have made it easier for the Europeans to colonize the continent.
- The Shaping of North America
Recorded history began 6,000 years ago. It was 500 years ago that Europeans set foot on the Americas to begin the era of accurately recorded history on the continent.
The theory of "Pangaea" exists suggesting that the continents were once nestled together into one mega-continent. The continents then spread out as drifting islands.
Geologic forces of continental plates created the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains.
The Great Ice Age thrust down over North America and scoured the present day American Midwest.
Hartman thesis
-Telling the history of slave dungeons shapes, and is shaped by, the present. The history of the slave trade is lost, but its legacy remains in the racism seen today.
Bender thesis
There is no mention of France secretly supporting the U.S. before publically, or France and Spain financially bankrolling the revolution.
Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
As animals were domesticated further, they transmitted their diseases to human populations around the world, leading to the rise of germs•Epidemics kill off many hosts rapidly and are eventually eradicated due to immunity or adaptation of immunity, while most other diseases just harm a few people in different areas without going away.•Agriculture is responsible for epidemics and crowd diseases because it allows germs to develop in large concentrations
Jacques; When China Ruled the World
Jacques very briefly discusses the "End of the Western World" with the objective of highlighting the process of modernity and industrialization that paved the way for the affluence that epitomized Western civilization from the late 18th Century to the early 21st Century. He also acknowledges the modernization and industrialization that many Asian countries underwent in the late-20th century, inspired by the Western models which suddenly brought many Asian countries to positions of affluence.
Four factors enabled the West to far exceed East ASia from 1800-1945
1) New source of fuel used in Britain
2) More important reason
3) Colonization of the Americas in turn gave the west more advantages for economic take off
4)Merchant elite played greater role in government decision making in west: no role in china
Failed Witness
- A failed witness is someone who could've portrayed a unique and accurate view of ahistorical event, but failed to do so. Failed witnesses also exist in the present as people also can fail to look for these unique points of view that can give a new insight into historical events.
Four problems with the depiction of Columbus in US History Textbooks
• Heroification
• Weak Understanding of the Rise of Europe
• Textbooks ignore his profound impact on race relations
• Eurocentrism