We are frequently called upon to comment upon coverage of Asia in secondary school and college world history textbooks. It's clear that many teachers rely heavily on these volumes, especially when working on periods or places that they are less prepared to teach about. In this thread, let's discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the books we use.
When first introducing a text into the discussion, please provide complete bibliographical information about it, so that others can readily consult it if they choose. Many publishers now have extensive websites to support their texts, please don't hesitate to share these and to comment upon their usefulness.
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Textbooks and Their Uses
08/03/2005 10:12 AM
#1
Textbooks and Their Uses
In 2004 the American Textbook Council (http://www.historytextbooks.org) published a review of secondary school world history texts. It was written by ACT director Gilbert T. Sewall. Mr. Sewall previously taught at Phillips Academy and wrote for Newsweek. The review was underwritten by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Bodman Foundation, and the Maytag Family Foundation.
Among Sewall's conclusions is a claim that four corporations (Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, and Houghton Mifflin) now determine the prospects for improving history textbooks. He believes their commercial interests work against such improvement. Among his principal complaints is the "unauthored" nature of these texts. By this he means that writers are brought in for particular tasks and books lack coherence and a clear narrative voice.
Sewall also believes that bringing more of the world into world history textbooks has resulting in the excising of crucial materials on the history of the West. He writes, "To make all cultures equally significant and consequential, new topics, heretofore unknown golden ages, unnoticed epochal events, and pressing identity themes have not only become dominant in world history; they are becoming the only [emphasis his] world history."
Sewall further argues that the West is held to different standards than other regions when "social relationships, ethnic conflicts, and barbarism" is addressed. "World history textbooks avoid subjects of tyranny and anarchy, of economic failure, and of cultural repression when they reflect badly on contemporary non-Western nations, or they blame Western imperialism for these conditions."
Ultimately, Sewall accuses publishers of sometimes being "agents of global misinformation."
These are Sewall's views and not my own. His complete report is available at the website listed above or by clicking on the icon below. It's a 35 page .pdf file.
Is your textbook an agent of global misinformation? Is Sewall's assessment accurate?
In 2004, the Thomas Fordham Foundation underwrote the review of high school history texts which it subsequently published as A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks. The full report can be downloaded at http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=329#1021.
Those of us interested in the Foundation's reviews of high school world history texts may wish to visit the website above or see those reviews by clicking on the icon below for that 20 page section of the report.
One of the report's conclusions is:
"Although the reviewers rate some texts as better or worse than others, on the whole they find striking similarities among them. The books are of identical size and heft. They are graphically gorgeous. They have beautiful multi-colored images on every page. (Some actually seem to allot more space to graphics than to text.) With only relatively minor variations, all relate a similar narrative about the development of the United States or the world."
In general, the reviewers found the books poorly written, riddled with errors, and too ambitious in their coverage.
The authors of the report conclude that the problem is that textbooks are prepared with the state adoption committees/processes of just a few states (California, Texas, and a few more) in mind. They argue that "The states should set their academic standards, align their tests to those standards, and leave teachers free to select the books, anthologies, histories, biographies, software and other materials that will help students meet the standards."
How did the book you use fair in this review? Do you agree with the comments made by the reviewers?/
Here is the report's description of the reviewers:
Lucien Ellington, Co-director of the Asia Program and Professor of Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He holds advanced degrees in history, economics education, and education and is founding editor of Education About Asia, a journal for instructors published by the Association for Asian Studies. He has authored three books on Japan and currently is series editor for ABC-CLIO's Global Studies: Asia. Ellington was a high school world history and economics teacher for eight years.
Marc A. Epstein, an Advanced Placement world history and American government teacher at Jamaica High School in New York City. He is a world history teacher and holds a Ph.D. in Japanese-American diplomatic history from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Margaret C. Jacob, Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles. She is a past president of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies and a member of the American Philosophical Society. She is a specialist in the history of science. Her recent books include: The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford, 2001); Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West (Oxford University Press, 1997); and, with Larry Stewart, Practical Matter: The Impact of Newton's Science, 1687-1851 (Harvard University Press, forthcoming).
Walter Russell Mead is Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. His most recent book, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Routledge, 2002), received the Lionel Gelber Award for the best book in English on international relations in 2002. He is currently working on a book entitled Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America's Grand Strategy in A World at Risk (Knopf, April 2004). Mead writes regularly on international affairs for leading newspapers.
Theodore K. Rabb, Professor of History at Princeton University. Among his many books are Enterprise and Empire (Routledge, 1999); The New History (Princeton University Press, 2002); The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 1975); Climate and History (Princeton University Press, 1981); Renaissance Lives (Random House, 1993); Jacobean Gentleman (Princeton University Press, 1998); and The Making and Unmaking of Democracy (Routledge, 2002). He has chaired the trustees of the National Council for History Education.[Edit by="Clay Dube on Aug 3, 5:52:01 PM"][/Edit]
For about $6-12/book, National Geographic offers its Reading Expeditions series. They are relatively thin volumes (e.g., 24-64 pages, full color, with downloadable teachers' guides). Have you used any of them?
Here's a link to info about the China volume:http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@3+record@P3002
Chinese Civilization
http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@3+record@P6990
Japanhttp://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@3+record@P6457
East Asia
http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@13+record@P3420
Shingu, Japan
http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@13+record@P4140
West Asia (Afghanistan)
http://www.ngschoolpub.org/c/@j3PG232B9eGxE/Pages/product.web?nocache@16+record@P3450
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Feb 4, 8:53:38 PM"][/Edit]
Hello,
Well, I use a widely used book World History: Connections to Today. Its principle author is Elisabeth G. Ellis. My edition is from 1999. We have the newest edition and its quite similar.
It got a "-" from the American textbook council.
I like it, its not perfect but its fine. Since the standards forces us to skip around in the book i don't know the whole text. As far as Asia it seems pretty good. I don't know of any non-western nations getting special treatment. I discusses Japan's imperialist moves into Korea in the early 1900s and describes how they built up Korea but for their benefit. It also VERY BRIEFLY mentions the Rape of Nanking (its basically 2 sentences.)
One additional thing about this book...It bugs me how they alter names. "Franz Joseph" becomes "Francis Joseph."
My current textbook: Armento, Beverly J and others. A Message of Ancient Days Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.
I have a very picky problem with my school textbook in regards to its discussion of Buddhism. When talking about the 2nd of the Four Noble Truths, they speak of sorrow and suffering caused by greed, hatred, and ignorance. If one is to talk to a Buddhist, he/she would actually say that sorrow and suffering is caused by "attachment." Perhaps some teachers would not be able to explain this concept well enough, but it seems that the textbook should at least try to include a term that is very important in Buddhist thought.
By the way, our school district is going through a social studies textbook adoption. We are currently considering the books for Prentice Hall, Holt, and Glencoe. If anyone has any thoughts on their treatment of China, I would love to hear them.
Thanks
Of the textbooks I have seen, Prentice-Hall, and Holt-Rhinehart are the best of the bunch. They provide enough details to give context to the people and events mentioned, and make the narrative interesting. The fact that they are mostly in a narrative style is also a plus, since most other textbooks use mostly a descriptive style that seems to have the goal of at least mentioning every subject in the standards. One or two other that do use sa narrative style, for example, the TCI text, unfortunately leave out significant details as they use up space making those subjects that they do cover very well told stories (for example, TCI makes no mention of the Grand Canal, a rather important achievement that literally united China.)
Prentice-Hall is loaded with details, perhaps too much, considering the limited time that teachers have to cover the extremely broad 7th grade curriculum. Also, this mass of information often tends to overwhelm the main points,so that the student would have a hard time seeing the forest from the trees. However, this is preferable to other texts, such as Mcdougal-Littell, which do a very superficial job in covering each of the topics. I think that the Holt-Rhinehart text strikes the best balance, presenting enough details to make the narrative interesting, but clearly emphasizing the main ideas that students should know about each of the various cultures. They also have the best graphics, all with a multitude of labels, so that they aren't just pretty pictures, but add even more contextural information to the stories.
The world history books reviewed by the group at the start of this thread were all high school world history books. Perhaps, that is why the reviewers disliked the emphasis on graphics and special features as compared to an engaging text. At the 7th grade level, while its important for the text to be accurate and interesting, the lower level of reading skills of these students suggests that they should have more graphic support for understanding the concepts and facts presented by the text. This is even more crucial to EL students, who make up a majority of LAUSD now, and of course also for Special Ed students as well. Taking all these factors into consideration, I have had success using parts of the Holt-Rhinehart text on medieval history, and found my students grateful to see a text that they can both understand and enjoy.
My favorite is actually McDougall Littell, but I may be blinded by the impressive array of ancillary materials, especially the cool flash drive containing all the materials. Prentice Hall is riddled with mistakes. After one cursory look, i easily caught two, eg: the Japanese Feudal hierarchy puts merchants below samurai, and above artisans and farmers. I have seen an update, and that error remains.
I will look more discerningly at all the books. I am prejudiced by the opiniions of some reviewers at the state level. Their hands down favorite in McDougall Littell.
My school is currently in the process of selecting a new history textbook. Many of our teachers really enjoy using the History Alive (TCI 1998) supplemental lesson guides, transparencies, audio etc.. in addition to our current textbook: "A Message of Ancient Days" Houghton Mifflin Company. We plan on replacing the Houghton Mifflin text and have heard that History Alive also has a textbook. I'm interested if anyone has feedback on the History Alive textbbook. I heard it might not be rigerous enough.
I was looking forward to seeing these resources, but when the page is not able to be accessed. It has been a long time since this post, but do you have any updated information about the National Geographic reading... and/or do you know any good web resources that have full texts of Asian literature?
In searching for a text to be used in an East Asian literature course, I found one, and only one somewhat comprehensive book, published by Prentice Hall titled Literatures of Asia.
Literatures of Asia. Ed. Tony Barnstone. Prentice Hall. New Jersey, 2003.
The text covers all of Asia beginning with India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This section, as are the others, is organized chronologically and includes Buddhist texts which may be relevant to East Asian studies. Section 2 focuses on China and Section 3 focuses on Japan. The selections are relative to each historical period of their respective countries and there are also many poetry selections.
One major flaw, the three sections listed above are the only three sections aside from poetry; this means that other coutries are not represented such as Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc.
http://www.pearson.com/about-us/consumer-publishing/news/?i=1130
Pearson, the publishing compnay shared the news about the international publishing company "Penguin" in China.
Penguin is lounching in 2010 a list of books in English that are either Chinese Language titles translated to English, or Books in English about China writen in China.
They will be publishing about 8 books a year
http://w3.cantos.com/08/pearson-811-q24y7/interviews.php?interviewee=6
Many publishing companies offer free samples or desk copies
Patricia:
That is great news. With new text adoption likely being delayed four almost three more years, this is the best time for teachers to scour samples and make recommendations that will benefit our growing Asian population.
From taking the seminar last fall, the Asian additions I made this year had great impact. All students loved the information and my Asian students loved sharing their insight in their culture. So were even quizzical on where I learned so much. LOL
I appreciate the heads up.
Kyle Kulish
I teach 6th grade Language Arts, and have found some great resources/stories in the HOLT Language of Literature series. We've recently read Japanese stories: The Bracelet, Wartime Mistakes...Peacetime Apologies, Go for Broke/Purple Heart team, The last Samurai, Japanese Folk Tales and Chinese: The All American Slurp.
The kids had their eyes opened about the predjudice and mistreatment of Japanese Americans, learned about internment camps, and were able to bring stories to the classroom after talking with their familes about their relatives who witnessed, or experienced the atrocities.
The short story: All American Slurp is about a Chinese American girl and her family who have difficulties adjusting to the various cultural norms. There are comparisons between her family and another American fam.. : from PTA meetings, mastering English, having dinner parties, food choices, wardrobe, proper etiquette at a restaurant, etc. There are many faux pas that they survive, and as we watch the family go through all their scenarios, my students can definitely relate to situations that they'd endured and how we all have had embarrasing things happen to us.
Help! I am looking for a good reference/text book for my classroom to have as a go-to aid on Asia/East Asia. It seems a lot of US and World History texts do not present enough perspective, especially regarding Colonialism. Can anyone suggest titles? I did see Clayton's website posted on July 15th and wonder if anyone prefers one title over another.
Thanks.[Edit by="agalloway on Dec 10, 10:48:47 AM"][/Edit]
Thanks to all who have contributed assessments of the textbooks they use or have considered. Please keep these reviews coming! If possible, change the subject line of your message to include the subject (world history, literature, or whatever).
Here's an LA Times article about a joint textbook project.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/30/world/fg-textbook30
Here's a journal article on the topic:
History & Memory, Volume 21, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2009
E-ISSN: 1527-1994 Print ISSN: 0935-560X
Old Wounds, New Narratives:
Joint History Textbook Writing and Peacebuilding in East Asia
Zheng Wang
Abstract
Powerful collective memories—whether real or concocted— often lie at the root of conflicts, nationalism and cultural identities. In most societies, history textbooks are the “agents of memory” and function as a sort of “supreme historical court.” This article reviews initially how controversies over history textbooks have become sources of conflict in East Asia and then examines the activities of a trilateral history textbook writing project between China, Japan and the Republic of Korea. It also aims to contribute to the theoretical discussion about why history textbooks are worth fighting over and how joint history textbook writing can be used as a means for peacebuilding.
Here's an article about the Chinese version of the book:
http://www.danwei.org/books/a_joint_approach_to_history.php
My district uses Holt for Lit too. The All American Slurp is widely read here too. I teach Social Studies in 7th grade. We use the TCI History Alive text books. For China we have chapters on The Political Development of Imperial China, China Develops a New Economy, Chinese Discoveries and Inventions, and finally, China's Contacts with the Outside World. This may sound like a lot of material, but considering the size and scope of China's history, this is almost nothing. We do the best we can though, just like everyone else.
Many teachers have read and some have even used with students a provocative book about the teaching of American history. James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me has been an academic hit. He's a sociologist and recently wrote about his experience trying to write an acceptable preface for a new Chinese edition of the textbook.
He describes trying to meet the censor's concerns. Ultimately, though, the Chinese decided the preface was fundamentally too troublesome and published it without the new preface. You can read what was judged too dangerous in the attached document.
Please do share your comments.
I feel obliged to put in a plug for the textbook that I use in my AP World History class. The textbook is entitled Traditions & Encounters and it is written by Bentley and Ziegler. The publisher is McGraw Hill and, in my opinion, it is the best college level world history textbook available. It provides ample coverage of China/East Asia from 10,000 BCE to the Present and makes a legitimate attempt to balance its coverage of all regions on the globe. The text is not so dense as to be unreadable for high school sophomores but also, it is not so simplistic that it fails to cover the most important aspects of history that a college student must know for an adequate survey course in college world history. Two thumbs up for Traditions & Encounters!
Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction. McDougal Littell, 2003
Surprisingly, my school textbook does do a pretty good job in providing various sources and teaching suggestions which are all aligned according to the California Content Standards.
The California Content Standards for tenth grade World History does not cover Chinese history very well. Because of the standards, the book does not put much emphasis on Chinese history either.
Just last week I brought up a week long lesson plan on Asian history during Imperialism. The feedback I was given was, "It will not be emphasized on the test so it is not worth spending a week on it." Again, like A.P. European history, Asian history is not emphasized to it importance on the current world stage.
I find most textbooks extraordinarily boring and void of any interest and relevance for my students. I use them as background information that I supplement with lots or outside reading. They are usually written in a very dry manner that fails to delve into any subject matter. I use Howard Zinn to counterbalance the traditional US history book. I have also put together a wealth of primary documents that include a plethora of visuals, film, and other types of text to explore the various topics more profoundly. I find that students get into a mind set that all they have to do is look for words in bold to be able to answer the questions at the end of the section. Unfortunately, this is the way that many history classes are "taught" by assigning rather than teaching the material, especially in high school. ONe of the best comprehensive programs for teaching history in middle school and high school is History Alive. This comprehensive program has units with simulations and role plays that really engage kids.