Truth in Texas Textbooks Review

Truth in Texas Textbooks Review

Publisher/Publication/Year: Discovery Education/US History Civil War to the Present/2015

Editor: Dr. Amy Jo Baker; Editor/Consultant: Dr. Sandra Alfonsi

Problem: Bias (B), Omission of Fact (OF), Half-Truth (HT), Factual Error (FE)

Publisher addressed 16 of 68 problems. Seven of the agreed correction were grammatical. Two of the items received two publisher comments which appear to be in conflict (see #60 & #66).

Page #/Line # / Quote / Problem / Fact & Source
1.  / UNIT 1
A NATION
DIVIDED
CHAPTER 1
SLAVERY & THE CIVIL WAR
Page 3
Line 26 / “The Second Amendment asserts the right to own firearms. This right has long been at the center of debate in the United States. Many Americans continue to disagree on whether or not the Amendment permits governments to pass some restrictions on individual gun ownership. / HT / ·  This has not been a long-debated issue, only since the last quarter of the 20th century. People in recent history having been basing interpretation on current English language, not as it was the language was used by our founding fathers.
·  http://www.madisonbrigade.com/library_bor.htm
·  William Howard Taft, 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. 1921-1930:”It is revealing that in the thousands of pages of proceedings that were published in the course of the debates that took place in the state and federal legislatures before the drafting of the bill of rights and throughout the ratification period, little mention is made of the individual right to keep and bear arms. This indicates, I think it is fair to say, that whatever their disagreements about the inclusion of a bill of rights in the Constitution, the Federalists and Anti-federalists were unanimous in their support of an individual right to keep and bear arms.”
2.  / Page 3
Line 47 / “One argument against including a bill of rights in the Constitution was the fear of leaving something out. All of amendments limit the power of government, but people feared that a list of specific rights would suggest that the government could violate any rights would suggest that the government could violate any rights they had forgotten or not thought of. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments were designed to address these fears. The Ninth Amendments says that people have rights other than those listed in the Constitution. For example, this amendment has been used to protect an individual right to privacy. The Tenth Amendment has primarily been interpreted to protect states from potential abuses by the federal government. It reserves to states and to the people powers that are not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution.” / HT / ·  The Tenth Amendment protecting states’ rights against encroaching federal rights has been in contention in recent history:
·  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/26/tenth-amendment-movement-aims-power-states/
·  There is a movement of states to try and reach the mandated number in which they can call for a States’ Constitutional Convention and a non-partisan website devoted to protecting Tenth Amendment rights:
·  http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/
·  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/26/tenth-amendment-movement-aims-power-states/
·  https://conventionofstates.com/
3.  / 3.1 Explore 1;
Industrialization in the United States;
Paragraph 5 / The country’s industrial transformation and urbanization also contributed to its increasing diversity. Hoping to find better lives and steady work in American factories, millions of immigrants arrived in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many came from eastern and southern European and Asian countries that, in the past, had rarely been sources of American immigration. The arrival of these “new immigrants” created cultural and economic tensions over the meaning of American citizenship. / B / ·  People seeking the American Dream and the opportunity of a better life.
·  Yes, there has been economic hardships and some discrimination (“No Irish need apply”) however, the United States contains a highly diverse population; its diversity has to a great degree come from an immense and sustained global immigration. Probably no other country has a wider range of racial, ethnic, and cultural types than does the United States. In addition to the presence of surviving native Americans (including American Indians, Aleuts, and Eskimo) and the descendants of Africans taken as slaves to America, the national character has been enriched, tested, and constantly redefined by the tens of millions of immigrants who by and large have gone to America hoping for greater social, political, and economic opportunities than they had in the places they left.
·  America was the first of the European colonies to separate successfully from its motherland, and it was the first nation to be established on the premise that sovereignty rests with its citizens and not with the government
·  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topis/616563/United-States
4.  / 3.1 Explore 1;
Industrialization in the United States;
Paragraph 6 / Industrialization also affected the class structure of the United States and contributed to income inequality. As the industrial companies grew larger and more powerful, a wealthy upper class of business leaders began to dominate American society and politics. A few industrial giants, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, attained levels of wealth that at one time seemed unimaginable. Larger businesses also hired managers and other office workers to perform administrative tasks. These white-collar jobs paid more than factory and farm work, and contributed to the emergence of an American middle class. However, unskilled workers, often immigrants, who toiled in factories and in mines often lived in poverty and faced very difficult and often unsafe conditions both at home and at work. / B; / ·  Conflicting statements in this paragraph.
·  American middle class is presented as an ambiguous understatement instead of being celebrated.
·  While these historians concede that many suffered through this transitional period, while they acknowledge that wages were low, farmers' status was precarious, and urban conditions were deplorable, American entrepreneurs, large and small, were building a national economy that would deliver better goods, improved lifestyles, and eventually higher wages for the vast majority of Americans. http://www.shmoop.com/gilded-age/summary.html
5.  / 3.1 Explore 5
A Corporate World
Paragraph 3
Line 2-4 / For example, a large oil company would might all of the oil refineries in a single region, forcing all oil for the region to be refined at one of its refineries. / Syntax / ·  This sentence does not make sense as it is written.
Publisher’s Comment: New text will read: “For example, a large oil company might own all of the oil refineries in a single region, forcing all oil for the region to be refined at one of its refineries.”
6.  / 3.1 Explore 8
Everybody's Talking
Telegraph Cables View Image / Once the telegraph was invented, companies rushed to put up telegraph lines all across the country and across the seas. This drawing shows the laying of a telegraph cable off the Arabian Coast in 1859. / B / ·  On this slide, why is a photo of the Arabian coast shown as opposed to a photo of an American or European coast? This is United States History!
Publisher’s Comment: Photo caption will be modified to read: “Once Morse invented a practical telegraph in the United States, companies rushed to put lines up all across the country and across the seas. This drawing shows the laying of telegraph cable off of the Arabian Coast in 1859.”
7.  / 3.2 Explore 1
The Transcontinental Railroad
Paragraph 2 / The railroads would not have become the country’s transportation backbone without massive government support and subsidy, or financial assistance. Congress enacted the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862, which gave two companies—Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad—the assignment of building a transcontinental railroad. When completed, this rail line would cross the continent, connecting the East Coast with the West Coast. The federal government paid the railroad companies $16,000 per mile, and sometimes more, to plan and build the track. Additionally, the government purchased or traded for the land needed to build the rail line. The government granted this land to the railroads, along with additional neighboring lands. The land grants were not so valuable at the time, but once the railroad was completed land values would skyrocket. A railroad already existed from the East Coast to Chicago. Soon, workers extended this track westward to Omaha, Nebraska. / B; OF; HT / ·  There were many individual investors who became wealthy (that invested in RR)
·  The tycoons, also called barons, were the early pioneers of the railroad industry amassing or overseeing the construction of large Class I railroads through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These included names like James Hill, Jay and George Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Edward Harriman, Collis P. Huntington, and others.
·  http://www.american-rails.com/railroad-tycoons.html
·  Central Pacific Railroad,American railroad company founded in 1861 by a group of California merchants known later as the “Big Four” (Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker); they are best remembered for having built part of the first American transcontinental rail line. The line was first conceived and surveyed by an engineer, Theodore Dehone Judah, who obtained the financial backing of the California group and won federal support in the form of the Pacific Railway Act (1862), which provided land grants and subsidies to the Central Pacific and Union Pacific. Each company was granted financial support from government bonds and awarded sizable parcels of land along the entire length of their route as an added incentive. http://www.britannica.com/ EBchecked/topic/102543/Central_Pacific_Railroad
8.  / 3.2 Explore 1
Transcontinental Railroad
Paragraph 4
Line 2-3 / By the end of the 1900s, the United States had constructed four more transcontinental railroads. / FE / ·  Should state: By the end of the 1800s,...
Publisher’s Comment: New text will read: “By the end of the 1800s…”
9.  / 3.2 Explore 3
Dispelling the Cowboy Myth / Throughout the 1800s, cowboys drove cattle across the American plains. In Western mythology, the cowboy was a rugged individual who tamed the wilderness and protected the innocent. However, cowboys were usually employees of wealthy businessmen who raised cattle to sell. A cowboy’s job was to work with the team to get the cattle to railcars to be shipped to slaughterhouses. / HT / ·  Although some ranch owners were wealthy there were homesteaders who drove cattle to market. Ranchers only owned enough land for a homestead and sources of water. Twice a year, cowboys rounded up cattle to brand calves (in spring) and gather steers for sale (in autumn).
·  cowboy,in the western United States, a horseman skilled at handling cattle, an indispensable labourer in the cattle industry of the trans-Mississippi west, and a romantic figure in American folklore. But cattle were only a small part of the economy of Texas until after the Civil War. The development of a profitable market for beef in northern cities after 1865 prompted many Texans to go into cattle raising. Within a decade that lucrative industry had spread across the Great Plains from Texas to Canada and westward to the Rocky Mountains.
·  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/141239/cowboy
10.  / 3.2 Explore 3
Dispelling the Cowboy Myth / The First Cowboys
When the Moors, the people of the empire of North Africa, conquered Spain in the eighth century, the Spaniards quickly learned how to handle horses and use them as an effective tool in wartime. / B; FE / ·  The history of the horse in Spain pre-dates the invasion of the Moors. “About 875 BC the Phoenician colony of Carthage, located on the north coast of Africa, dominated trade in the western Mediterranean. Carthage traded with Britain and the Baltic area, eventually encroaching on the Greek colonies in Sicily. Defeated by Romans in the First Punic War (9th C. BC) the Carthaginians of northern Africa turned their energies to the conquest and occupation of the Iberian Peninsula - Spain and Portugal. The new possessions were protected by the highly efficient army of her general, Hamilcar. Hamilcar placed special emphasis on the quality and strength of his cavalry and of course, the strength of a cavalry depends on the quality of its horses. Spain already had a large holding of horses that had been brought across the Pyrenees Mountains from Gaul (modern France and parts on northern Italy). The Carthaginians brought many fine stallions from northern Africa, that were used to improve the overall quality of the Spanish horse. The Spanish horses soon became the best in the world. The horses of Ancient Spain were descendants of the best horses available in the Mediterranean world and could trace their history back through many centuries and generations to the horses of the Steppes of Central Asia.” http://www.spanishjennet.org/history.shtml
Publisher’s comment: New text will read “The first people to ride horses probably lived more than 4,000 years ago in Central Asia. By the 1500s BCE, people in the Middle East hunted and fought on horseback, and the practice spread through Europe in the centuries before the Common Era.”
11.  / 3.2 Explore 3
Dispelling the Cowboy Myth / Hollywood’s idea of a cowboy is usually a large man of European descent, a man skilled in shooting. The real cowboys were all types of people who worked together to bring cattle to the market to feed America’s appetite for beef. In the two decades of the Cowboy Era, cowboys drove more than six million steers and cows along the cattle trails to the railheads. / HT / ·  During the Cowboy Era (1866-1886) one sixth of the cowboys were Mexican, and many others were African-American or Native American. Most cowboys had small or medium physical frames since large men were too heavy to ride mustangs. http://www.blantonmuseum.org/elearning/aac/teacher/cowboy/game.html
·  Hollywood’s “cowboy” was a well-trained actor who told a story.
12.  / 3.2 Explore 5
Life on Farms
Paragraph 3
Line 1-2 / Many farmers made their first shelter by digging holes into hillsides. On the prairie, they used sod cut from the ground as building material for houses. These sod houses used little wood, which was scarce on the prairie, and kept cool during the summer and warm during the winter. However, they were naturally extremely dirty. If farmers earned enough money from selling crops, they could have lumber shipped in to build a larger house. / OF / ·  The term “sod” needs to be defined.