Today's history textbooks incorporate a great deal of political correctness. I believe that political correctness that is blurring the truth. In addition, history books seem to over glorify the good and ignore the bad parts of our history. I am speaking for US history textbooks ONLY. Any input from foreign sources is greatly appreciated. A few examples to prove my point are below.

I have read in a textbook that George Washington freed his black “servants” when he died. I am sorry, but he owned slaves. The definition of a servant is someone who is employed for a service, not owned. In addition, Martha’s slaves were not freed and were given to her grandson upon death.

After the Revolutionary War, congress funds by taxing imports, beer and “property sold at auction.” I had to think about this for a minute before I related auction taxes to slaves sold at auction. I know slavery is a dark part of our history, but our history is being rewritten to hide it.

My wife and I argued over when the declaration of independence was signed. She had been taught it was signed on July 4th. I had to show her in a bio on Ben Franklin to change her mind. The declaration was signed in August. Then the document was conveniently hidden away. If America had lost the war, those guilty of treason would hang.

Before I read a book on Lewis and Clark, I had always thought of Lewis and Clark to be extremely noble men. After learning the darker side of the men and the fact that Lewis committed suicide a few years after the mission, I changed my mind about Lewis and Clark.

History books spend little time talking about our war with Mexico or the Spanish American War. These wars were not fought for noble causes, they were fought more for economic and territorial gain.

If you read any detailed article or book on the Founding Fathers, you will read in great length about their devotion to God and religion. The history text books tend to ignore this point.

I wish I had a history textbook in front of me so I could get better examples. Anyways, I believe political correctness is ruining our history.

Yes, as a High school student, a definet yes. I dont have time to explain now, more to come.

Ok, heres some things from my experiences...

1. There is a general favor to the left when It comes to extremist movements. What do I mean, I mean there our more free discussion encouraged about Communism then Fascism, and an idea is presented that "communism good, Stalin bad". That is to say Communism is often looked on with a sense of "What could have been." I haven’t seen this with any of the radical right wing ideologies. Going along with that, I’ve seen to much generic definitions and grouping of Fascism that just aren’t correct. Traditional Fascists were not racist, Mussolini himself employed large numbers of Jews until he got involved In Hitler. In fact, a large minority of Italian Jews were Fascist. Now I’m not promoting any ideology here, I’m just saying the radical left is better viewed in retrospect then the radical right, while In truth both could have been "ok" If the violent means were ceased.

2. Alot of blame is focused on the early Catholic Church, while none is directed against modern Muslim extremists.

3. Women's Rights and Feminism are highly looked upon, however there are never any mentions of the radical elements within that promote the "If you dont support abortion your a rascist" message.

Its been a few years since I've graduated college and was teaching in schools, so I don't even remember what history textbooks contain anymore. I will say that history books ruin the fun of history. History is a wonderful subject, but unfortunatly it is often ruined in the classroom. And often, teachers are really unfamiliar with the historical events they are teaching (I saw this often in elementary schools) so they teach directly from the textbooks.

I recall a time when I was student teaching and I told my students the story of Henry VIII and his six wives (obviously, I had to "De-sex" it a little, because these kids were 11). I was as historically accurate as I could have been, under the circumstances. (BTW-- I was telling them for entertainment while the teacher was out of the room) But I don't remember trying to be politically correct. I just told them what people thought at the time, about attitudes toward the women, etc.

Doody-- Have you read the abridges Journals of Lewis and Clark?? They make a good read if you are interested in the subject. They may not have been "noble" but it is an interesting part of American History.

If you read any detailed article or book on the Founding Fathers, you will read in great length about their devotion to God and religion. The history text books tend to ignore this point.

Ive noticed that. I do not like that.

That's not a small unimportant detail to leave out either, it shows how our country was founded on the basis of Christianity, which is absolutely absurd to mention in school now, but is true.

Judeo-Christianity, we must not forget our Jewish friends

Judeo-Christianity, we must not forget our Jewish friends

yeah but nowadays if we say that our Country was founded on those beliefs we quickly get couple million atheists saying God is "unconstitutional" and crap like that.

Originally Posted by mvilla2426

Doody-- Have you read the abridges Journals of Lewis and Clark?? They make a good read if you are interested in the subject. They may not have been "noble" but it is an interesting part of American History.

No I haven't but I did read Undaunted Courage by Steven Ambrose. I agree, it was a very interesting part of our history. 500 pages describing the expedition was way better than the 2 pages the history text book devoted to the subject. The history textbook i read made Lewis and Clark to be these perfect men. The fact that Lewis committed suicide took me by surprise.

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I am glad that everyone so far agrees that leaving out the religious aspects of our past is a big problem. There are elements inside the USA that are working to rid the United States of anything that pertains to CHRISTIANITY even if it is part of our history. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is an organization I wish never existed. Here is a picture of the county seal for LA county.

The ACLU sued the county to remove the cross that is on the right side of the seal. The cross represents the heritage of the Spanish missionaries that founded California so many years ago. Yes, it was religion that first brought Europeans to California, but the ACLU wants the cross gone. LA county officials gave in to the law suit and decided 3 to 1 to start the process to change the seal. LUCKY, people in LA county are fighting the seal change with counter suits of their own.

Here is the problem I have with the ACLU. They went after the cross but left missy in the middle out of it. The woman is the Pagan Goddess Pomona, the goddess of gardens and fruit trees. There are people in the US who practice paganism as a religion. If the ACLU is so devoted to the separation of church and state, they would have gone after Pomona too.

GuyontheRight, you may be able to use this next bit of info. The University of North Carolina, a public school, made its incoming freshmen read parts of the Koran as "required" reading. This is a public school making students study one form of religion. Strangely, the ACLU did not take action against UNC. If UNC had required all freshmen to read parts of the Bible, the ACLU would have filed suit the day of the announcement. It seems that Islam is ok in our school system while Christianity must be banned. I believe due to public outrage, UNC has made the reading of the Koran optional. These 2 example shows how 2 faced our country is when it comes to religion in our history and in our school system. Organizations like the ACLU are ruining the truth about our past.

Sorry for writing so much...this is a complicated issue the info above needs to be heard.

SSG Doody

Doody, I agree, the orginization In my mind is inheritanlty Anti-Christian. Frankly Id be surprised if there was somone In the orginization who wasn't an atheist.

I have got to agree with you guys, despite the fact that I am an Agnostic. Eliminating Christianity from the US history books for the sake of being P.C. Our Capital has the statements that our rights are given us by god, it says that because our forefathers believed it. Asking the US to discard Christianity is like asking modern day Italians and Greeks to eliminate all evidence of their ancient mythologies or asking the Japaneese to abandon their ancient traditions and customs still followed to today. From the Puritans to the Spanish Missionaries, Christianity is part of our heritage, so there.