Public opinion and the teaching of history in the United States

by Bessie Louise Pierce

Such laws were but the outpouring of a dynamic and enthusiastic patriotism, and were considered by the legislator another means of awakening and encouraging a love of country.

TEXTBOOK LEGISLATION

Few states since 1917 have passed laws requiring a uniform series of textbooks: North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and West Virginia. In all of these states, except North Carolina, textbooks in local history and in local and national civics were added to the uniform series in United States history.[308] In North Carolina the state textbook commission was empowered to select histories for the elementary grades.

The only other legislation of this period, except that designed to censor the content of history textbooks, was the resolution of the Georgia legislature of 1918. This resolution endorsed the preparation of a suitable textbook in civil government. It came from the State Board of Education, who, in 1913, had condemned the textbook then in use and had suggested the readoption of Peterman’s Civil Government, temporarily, until one which would be satisfactory could be prepared. From the action of the legislature in 1918, it is evident that no book had been written which met the approval of the State School Book Commission. The restatement of the resolve of 1913 merely sought to call attention to the need for such a book.[309]

The outstanding legislation of the period, which deals with history textbooks, results from opening the flood-gates of apprehension regarding the content of school histories. It is the same misgiving which prompted restrictive legislation regarding the speech of the teacher and required an open avowal of allegiance to the government of the United States. Here, again, the vital thing in the mind of the lawmaker is to repress any statements considered by him as likely to undermine American patriotism.

In 1918, New York approved another Lusk law prohibiting the use of any textbook which contained statements seditious in character, disloyal to the United States or favorable to the cause of any enemy country. The law created a commission composed of the commissioner of education and two persons designated by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. To this body any person might present written complaints against textbooks in “civics, economics, English, history, language and literature,” which were then to be examined “for the purpose of determining whether such textbooks contain any matter or statements of any kind which are seditious in character, disloyal to the United States or favorable to the cause of any foreign country with which the United States is now at war.”[310] In case the commission disapproved of the book after examination, the law prescribed that the reasons be forwarded to all boards of education, who then must abandon the use of the book. It was further provided that any person in authority continuing to use a condemned book would be considered guilty of a misdemeanor.

Less drastic legislation than the New York law was passed in New Hampshire in 1921, declaring that “no book shall be introduced into the public schools calculated to favor any particular religious sect or political party.”[311] Other legislation which can be considered in the same category was passed in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and California, in their prohibition of “partisan and sectarian” books.[312]

During the years of 1922 and 1923, systematic efforts were made by private organizations to control the content of history textbooks. In general, the criticisms against the histories then in use were directed by patriotic and racial organizations seeking to revive the traditional treatment of relations with Great Britain, particularly during the American Revolution and the War of 1812.[313]

An outgrowth of this agitation against school histories was the law of Wisconsin approved April 5, 1923. This statute has prescribed that “no history or other textbook shall be adopted for use or be used in any district school, city school, vocational school or high school, which falsifies the facts regarding the war of independence, or the war of 1812 or which defames our nation’s founders or misrepresents the ideals and causes for which they struggled and sacrificed, or which contains propaganda favorable to any foreign government.” The law has also provided that a complaint against any textbook filed by any five citizens with the superintendent of public instruction, must be heard within thirty days at the county seat of the county in which the complainants reside. The statute has made it the duty of the superintendent to pass upon the case ten days following the hearing and to exclude from the schools any book found to contain statements prohibited by the enactment. In 1925, a bill embodying substantially the same spirit and phraseology was presented to the Massachusetts House by Mr. Garrity of Boston, but was not enacted into law.[314]

Oregon has a similar law. The use of any textbook has been prohibited which “speaks slightingly of the founders of the republic, or of the men who preserved the Union, or which belittles or undervalues their work.”[315]