Truth in Texas Textbooks Review
Editors: Dr. Sandra Alfonsi, Dr. Amy Jo Baker
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/The Americans: United States History Since 1877 (Teachers Edition)/2015
Problem: Bias (B), Omission of Fact (OF), Half-Truth (HT), Factual Error (FE)
43
Page #/Line # / Quote / Problem / Fact & Source1. / Page 2; Chapter 1; the Colonial Era; inset titled Exploration and the Colonial Era / The timeline in the referenced section includes a reference date to the Crusades and the establishment of Timbuktu as an Islamic learning center. / B / · These two events are totally unrelated to the content of this section and American history. Its inclusion creates opportunity for a discussion on Islam not relevant to this section.
2. / Page 3; Chapter 1; inset titled Interact with History / “You live in the 15th century. Your society hunts freely, grows crops of great variety and trades with nearby cultures. Now you sense your world is about to change. You see ships approaching…” / B, HT / · The text establishes bias with the untrue implication that Native Americans lived an idyllic, peaceful lifestyle prior to the advent of the Europeans. Source: “North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence’; uapress.arizona.edu; excerpt from text -“In rebutting that contention, this groundbreaking book presents clear evidence—from multiple academic disciplines—that indigenous populations engaged in warfare and ritual violence long before European contact.”
3. / Page 9; Chapter 1, Section 1; inset titles Historical Spotlight “Islam.” / Inset provides a description and history of Islam / B / · Not only religion practiced by West African inhabitants and practiced mostly by Northern Africans. The focus of the section is on West Africa and not a specific religion or ideology. Inappropriate to spotlight one religion or even to discuss monotheistic religions. Many of the West Africans practiced some form of an ‘indigenous religion.’ Source: Britannica.com
· Source: exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu; While Christianity and Islam were introduced to West Africa, there were many and varied religious beliefs too complex and numerous to list; excerpt from text - “Obviously many people practice ‘indigenous religions’ in West Africa.”
4. / Page 9; Chapter 1, Section 1; section titled “Trading Patterns with the Wider World.” / Text neglects to address the Islamic slave trade that was part of the established trade between Northern Africa and Western Africa. / B, OF / · Source: Britannica.com; Slavery did not begin with import of slaves to North America. Excerpt from text - “Approximately 18 million Africans were delivered into the Islamic trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades between 650 and 1905.”
5. / Page 10; Chapter 1, Section 1; European Societies of the 1400s; Christianity Shapes the European Outlook. / “In 1096, Christian armies from all over Western Europe responded to the churches call to force the Muslims out of the Holy Land around Jerusalem.” / B, HT / · This quote is a perfect example of Islamist Crusade Revisionism. The Crusades were a call to retake the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Arab Muslims conquered Palestine from the Christians in 636. They were intolerant of Jews and Christians. The treatment of the Christians and Jews as dhimmis, or second-class citizens, was codified in Muslim law with the Pact of Umar II (c. 717). With the launching of the Crusades, the Christians took back the region in 1099 and dominated it until the Mamluk Muslims, who originated in Egypt, took it in 1291. The Mamluk Muslims hated the Christians. The Turkish Muslims did not take control of the land until 1517.
Thomas F. Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades – Updated Student Edition, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Bat Ye’or, Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide. NJ: Fairleigh University Press, 2002.
6. / Page 36; Chapter 1, Section 4; paragraph titled “Effects of the Great Awakening and Enlightenment”; 1st sentence / “Although the Great Awakening emphasized emotionalism and the Enlightenment empathized reason, the two movements had similar consequences.” / FE, OF / · The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment did not have similar consequences. The Great Awakening was a direct response to the negative impact of the Enlightenment on religious belief and religious practice.
· In the 1700s, a European philosophical movement, called the Enlightenment, swept America. Also called the Age of Reason, this era laid the foundation for a scientific, rather than religious, worldview. Freedom of conscience was at the heart of this struggle against old regimes and old ways of thinking, and it changed the way people viewed authority. In the same way, a religious revival, called theGreat Awakening, changed the way people thought about their relationship with the divine, with themselves and with other people. The Enlightenment engaged the mind, but the Great Awakening engaged the heart.
· The Great Awakening pushed individual religious experience over established church doctrine, thereby decreasing the importance and weight of the clergy and the church in many instances. New denominations arose or grew in numbers as a result of the emphasis on individual faith and salvation.
· http://americanhistory.about.com/od/colonialamerica/p/great_awakening.htm
· http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3591
· http://www.ushistory.org/us/7b.asp
· http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/the-first-great-awakening-religious-revival-and-american-independence.html
7. / Page 61; Chapter 2, Section 2; 3rd paragraph / “Native Americans, however, remained on the fringes of the revolution, preferring to remain independent and true to their own cultures.” / FE / · Source: Page 59 of this text; 3rd paragraph – “Most Native Americans supported the British because they viewed colonial settlers as a greater threat to their lands.”
8. / Page 71; Chapter 2, Section 3; Section 4 titled “Continued Relevance of the Constitution” 2nd sentence / “It is a ‘living’ document, capable of meeting the changing needs of Americans.” / FE / · The Constitution is a legal document. It provides the framework for our constitutional republic. The Founding Fathers did recognize that extenuating circumstances could arise that they had not anticipated. With that in mind, they did provide for an amendment process. See page 83 of this text, section titled “5. Allow for change.”
9. / Page 71; Chapter 2, Section 3; Section 4 titled “Continued Relevance of the Constitution” 3rd paragraph; 1st sentence / “Since its ratification, the US Constitution has served as a model for other democracies.” / FE / · The use of the word ‘other’ implies that the US is a democracy when we are in fact a constitutional republic. We suggest that the publisher remove the adjective “other” to make this acceptable.
10. / Page 84; Chapter 2; inset titled “Focus and Motivate” / “Ask students what they prize most about living in a democracy.” / FE / · The US is a constitutional republic not a democracy.
· Exercise should read: Ask students what they prize most about living in a Constitutional Republic”. Make certain that the students are taught what that means before assigning the exercise.
11. / Page 94; Chapter 2, Article 4, Article 5; inset titled “More About…” 1st sentence / “In addition to disasters such as the World Trade Center bombing in 2001, floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes can be classified as incidents of ‘domestic violence’.” / B, FE / · There were two bombings of the World Trade Center, the first in 1993 and the second in 2001. Neither one was a disaster. Both were the result of Jihadist attacks on the United States and Western society. Neither was the result of domestic violence which the Department of Justice defines as “domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone.” http://www.justice.gov/ovw/domestic-violence.
· Floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes certainly do not qualify as “incidents of domestic violence.” They are designated as “natural disasters” or “acts of God” and have absolutely no relationship to Jihadist or Islamist terrorist attacks. The publisher seems unable or unwilling to define the bombings of the World Trade Center as such.
· The bombing of the World Trade Center occurred in 1993 and was committed by avowed terrorists. The 9/11 attack in 2001 was carried out with planes and was also committed by avowed terrorists associated with al Qaeda and Osama bin laden.
· See page 197 of this text in inset title, “Entering the 21st Century.”
12. / Page 119; Chapter 3, Section 1; section titled “Historical Impact.”; last sentence of 2nd paragraph / “However, judges have an important role in deciding what the law is and how it is carried out.” / FE / · The role of the Supreme Court is judicial and its sole task is to determine whether or not laws approved by Congress abide by the intent of the US Constitution i.e. is the law constitutional? They are not authorized to enforce the law nor legislate from the bench.
· Source: law.cornell.edu/constitution; Excerpt from text – “Article 3, Section 1. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.”
13. / Page 131; Chapter 3, Section 3; paragraph titled “Mormon Migration.” 2nd sentence / “These people were the Mormons, a religious community that would play a major role in the development of the West.” / B, HT / · A more accurate statement would be that the Mormons played a major role albeit controversial role in settling Utah.
· Source: historytogo.utah.gov; excerpt from text “Between 1847 and 1900 the Mormons founded about 500 settlements in Utah and neighboring states.”
14. / Page 133; Chapter 3, Section 3; inset titled “Main Idea.” / “The Mormons were persecuted for their religion.” / HT / · True, but important to note that the rejection and persecution had less to do with their belief in God but more in their belief in and practice of polygamy.
15. / Page 133; Chapter 3, Section 3; paragraph titled, “Texas Revolution.” 1st sentence / “Despite peaceful cooperation between Anglos and Tejanos, differences over cultural issues intensified between Anglos and the Mexican government.” / B, HT / · The statement minimizes the seriousness of the issues involved and tends to erroneously segregate the players by race. A number of early Texans were Mexicans called Tejanos that sided with the Anglo immigrants against the Mexican government. The dispute was over economic issues, representation, the Constitution of 1824 and religious issues.
· Source: tshaonline.org/handbook/MexicanTexas
16. / Page 133; Chapter 3, Section 3; paragraph titled, “Texas Revolution.” 3rd sentence / “Mexico, which had abolished slavery in 1829, insisted in vain that the Texans free their slaves.” / FE, B / · Misstates historical fact and oversimplifies a complex issue involving Mexico’s form of “slavery” creating a bias in the mind of the reader. Source: tshaonline.org/handbook/MexicanTexas – Excerpt from text: “Since the mid-1820s, the three groups opposed to the Law of April 6 mentioned above had lobbied for the recognition of human bondage. They had succeeded in 1828 when the legislature, noting the scarcity of field laborers in the state of Coahuila and Texas, decreed that slaves could be brought to Texas under indenture contracts; in Texas, they would work to pay the slave owner for their freedom. Thus was Mexico's own form of economic bondage-debt peonage-utilized to rationalize the existence of slavery. On September 15 of the next year President Vicente Ramón Guerrero issued the Guerrero Decree, which expressly prohibited enslavement in every form. This move revealed the president's humanitarianism, but might also have been designed to control the flow of immigration from the United States. Political leaders in Texas and Coahuila remonstrated, however, and Guerrero excluded Texas from slave manumission by a decree on December 2, 1829. “
17. / Page 134: Chapter 3, Section 3: section title, “Remember the Alamo.” 3rd sentence; 7th sentence; 8th sentence / The words “rebel” or “rebels” is used to describe Texans / B / · Sana Ana was the aggressor. Mexicans, Tejanos, and Anglo Texans joined together to resist the aggression. It would be more appropriate to refer to them simply as “Texans.” They were fighting initially to uphold the Mexican Constitution of 1824 that Santa Anna had ruthlessly destroyed.
18. / Page 158; Chapter 4, Section 1; paragraph titled “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” 2nd sentence / “In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe…but also a great moral strug-gle.” / typo / · Hyphen in struggle should be deleted
19. / Page 182; Chapter 4, Section 3; inset titled, “More About, Wartime Economics”, 3rd sentence. / “Huge wartime demand helped launch…Philip Amour, oi mogul, John D. Rockefeller…” / typo / · The word “oi” is truncated and should be “oil” in referencing Rockefeller.