History on Trial

Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past

By Gary B. Nash

1997

First Published

3.59

Average Rating

335

Number of Pages

10H13M

Audio Length

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION "A deeply informed, balanced, and compelling book." — Los Angeles Times In History on Trial, authors Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn examine the controversy and criticism over how our nation's history should be taught, culminating in the debate about National History Standards. The book chronicles a media war spearheaded by conservatives from National Endowment for the Humanities veteran Lynne Cheney to Rush Limbaugh, posing questions with regard to history as it relates to national identity. What, the authors ask, is our objective in teaching history to children? Is the role of schools, textbooks, and museums to instill patriotism? Do we revise and reinterpret the past to tell stories that reflect present-day values? If so, who should articulate these values? Wonderfully clear, timely in its intentions, History on Trial provides a thoughtful account of the ways in which Americans have, since the beginning of the Republic, perceived and argued about our past.

Avg Rating

3.59

Number of Ratings

116

5 STARS

17%

4 STARS

35%

3 STARS

37%

2 STARS

1 STARS

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Author

Gary B. Nash

Author · 14 books

Gary B. Nash received his B. A. from Princeton University in 1955 and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1964. He earned the position of Director of the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he taught colonial and revolutionary American history since 1974. Nash has been the Director of the National Center for History in the Schools since 1994 and co-chaired the National History Standards Project from 1992-1996. His past positions include: Dean of Undergraduate and Intercollege Curricular Development, University of California, Los Angeles; President, Organization of American Historians; Dean, Council on Educational Development, University of California, Los Angeles; Assistant Professor, Department of History, Princeton University. He has received research grants from the University of California Institute of Humanities and American Philosophical Society and fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial and American Council of Learned Society. Nash was elected member of American Antiquarian Society, Society of American Historians, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as winning the University of California Distinguished Emeriti Award and the Defense of Academic Freedom Award, from the National Council for Social Studies. Nash is the Founding Member and has been on the Board of Trustees of the National Council for History Education since 1990 and was Vice-Chair in 1992. He was also President of the Organization of American Historians, from 1994-95, the Primary History Consultant for the Schlessinger Production series in United States History, from 1996-97, he was on the University of California Bicentennial Committee, from 1975-76 and was an Historical Consultant and Writer for "Lights of Liberty," sound and light tour, Philadelphia, PA, in 1999.