In concluding their reviews, the Committee declared, “Both writers have shown a striking sense of proportion, great skill in focusing attention upon what is vital, and commendable courage in calling attention to weaknesses and mistakes in our history, some of which still need to be corrected. The few defects of these books are insignificant as compared with their many excellencies. Both books mark an advance in the writing of history texts for school use. Both are worthy contributions to the study and teaching of American history. Neither of them should be excluded from our schools.”[904]
Because of alleged un-Americanism West’s History of the American People was banned from the approved lists of text books in Alta, Iowa, and Jackson, Minnesota.[905] The McLaughlin and Van Tyne history received like treatment in Battle Creek, Michigan.[906] From the San José (California) Carnegie Library Hart’s Formation of the Union, his National Ideals Historically Traced, and Van Tyne’s American Revolution were removed by orders of the library board, who declared them “un-American and unfit for reading, particularly by school children.”[907] The Study of the Nations by Harriet Tuell was prohibited in the schools of Somerville, Massachusetts, because of alleged pro-British leanings. The attacks against this book culminated in a bill in the Massachusetts Senate, in 1921, forbidding its use in any school of the commonwealth, but the bill died in committee.
PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE CENSORSHIP OF HISTORY TEXTBOOKS
These endeavors to censor history textbooks have occasioned much discussion by the press, by educators and others. To The New York Times “however commendable these efforts to find and set forth the historical truth may be, and however honorable and sincere the motive, it must be admitted by all that this is not the way to ‘rewrite history.’”[908]
To the [New York] Evening Globe “the controversy over school histories is largely between defenders of doctrine and defenders of free inquiry, between those who do not believe that children can be trusted with the truth and those who believe that they can. Most of the modern histories have been written by scholars inspired by the scientific spirit and, therefore, no more tender with myths about history than a modern bacteriologist with myths about disease.... A true American history need not rob us of the story of Paul Revere or the reverence for George Washington, but it will teach that personal anecdotes are not the life of a nation, that great men as well as mean men flourish in every generation....”[909]
The reaction of teachers engaged in the public schools is much the same as that of the press. The continued agitation regarding histories carried on in Washington, D. C., led the High School Teachers’ Association to adopt the following resolutions:
“It is resolved that the questioning of the Americanism of teachers of history in American schools is resented, that the teachers themselves should be the judges of the content of the courses, and that the object of teaching history is to give the truthful picture of the past, with due regard to the age of the pupil for whom the work is intended, and therefore the truth should not be distorted for any purpose whatever; both sides of a controversial question should be presented from an academic point of view so that the students of history shall be trained in habits of open-minded tolerance.”[910]
Further evidence of a rebellion against the censorship attempted over history textbooks was manifested at the annual meeting of the Association of History Teachers of the Middle States and Maryland in May, 1923, when a series of resolutions was unanimously adopted “deploring an agitation based on either ignorance or malice, or which has for its object the promotion of animosities between classes of nations; ...”[911] In October, 1923, the Washington State Teachers’ Association resolved:
“1. That decisions regarding textbooks should be made by those scientifically trained; 2. That teachers who show a lack of judgment in the interpretation of texts, or whose loyalty is questioned, should be disciplined, or dismissed by their own school board. There should be no blanket charge against the whole corps. 3. That no unbiased committee of examiners has, on investigation, substantiated the attacks made on History teaching in American schools. 4. That examination will show that the groups making these attacks have no understanding of the distinction between grade and high school history, no conception of the methods of teaching, nor of the necessary content of an American history. 5. That a cursory examination of the attacks appearing in newspapers and originating with organizations prove much of their charge is based on half quotations and a wrenching of sentences from their context. These display an entire lack of the American quality of fair play.”[912]
The objection of historical scholars toward present-day censorship of history textbooks voiced itself at a meeting of the American Historical Association in December, 1923, when the following resolutions were adopted: