Whitewashing War

by Leahey, Christopher R.

• ISBN13: 9780807750438
• ISBN10: 0807750433
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-18
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

Whitewashing War explores perhaps the most critical issue social studies educators presently face: How do we teach students about war? In this timely book, Leahy investigates how the political struggles over the social studies curriculum, the corporate domination of the textbook and testing industry, and the curricular constraints of the No Child Left Behind Act combine to stifle historical inquiry and deprive students of meaningful social studies instruction. Using the Vietnam War as a case study, Leahey holds textbook narratives up to the light, illuminating how the adoption process, interpretive framework, and selection of evidence combine to transform the past into thinly veiled historical myths.

Author Biography

Christopher R. Leahey teaches world history in upstate New York. His articles have appeared in Social Education and The Social Studies.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
The Atomic Bomb, the Vietnam War, and the New American Militarism	p. 9
Historical Memory and the Selective Tradition	p. 12
The Vietnam War: "A Zone of Contested Meaning"	p. 18
The Emerging U.S. Militarism and American Schools	p. 22
Conclusion	p. 27
Whose History Is It? A Close Look at the Corporate Textbook	p. 29
The Corporatization of Schooling	p. 31
The Corporate Textbook Production Process	p. 33
The Textbook Adoption Process	p. 36
The Connection Between Textbooks and Standards-Based Education	p. 39
Conclusion	p. 43
A Patriotic Rendering of the Gulf of Tonkin Crisis	p. 45
The United States Prepares to Escalate the Vietnam War	p. 46
The Gulf of Tonkin Crisis	p. 52
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution	p. 60
Conclusion	p. 64
Whitewashing the Tet Offensive and the Failures of 1968	p. 67
The Intelligence Failure	p. 68
History Textbooks and the Intelligence Failure That Wasn't	p. 73
Public Opinion and the Tet Offensive	p. 75
How the Media "Sabotaged" the War	p. 78
Tet and the Decline of American Military Morale	p. 80
1968-The Year of the Massacres at My Lai and My Khe	p. 85
Conclusion	p. 91
Recovering Democratic History Education in an Era of Standardization	p. 93
The Myth of War	p. 94
Recovering Democratic Education	p. 98
Beyond the Standardized Curriculum and Corporate Textbook	p. 102
Conclusion	p. 112
Appendix: Lessons on the Vietnam War	p. 115
High School History Textbooks	p. 123
References	p. 125
Index	p. 135
About the Author	p. 146
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