I recently completed my midlife crisis career change and went from boat captain to high school history teacher. Yea I landed a gig at a public school, good school, great kids. In my search for the truth (not found in the textbooks) I came across this website and use as much of the essays and books offered here as I can. I am amazed at some of the benchmarks which ask us to teach outright lies. So first just wanted to hello, instead of always lurking.
Second I was wondering if anyone knows of a good US History textbook? I have gathered five different ones together but am not thrilled with the way unions, entrepreneurs, and the governments are being portrayed. If I know I am reading propaganda there, what else are they sneaking into our heads? I love how the Fed sends me free dvds and comic books. What a joke, one dvd ends with the host saying “Our job is to keep the economy humming” Then I ask the students how good of job have they done throughout the 20th century? Then I show the mises currency dvd.
It’s a great job, and I hope I can make them think and be better informed than most of todays current voters.
“The student: Examines how the disparity of wealth, speculation, the plight of farmers, and bank failures led to the Great Depression.”
“Explain how programs in FDR’s New Deal, including the FDIC, AAA, WPA, and Social Security, attempted to resolve problems brought on by the Great Depression” Fair enough but it is protrayed so positively in the text that it is difficult for the students to see what a bust the new deal was.
"The student: Explains how government, dominated by business magnates, adopted pro-government policies such as providing subsidies, passing tariffs, and pursuing laissez faire policies that resulted in the growth of trusts. " I need to do a better job on this one. I am reading “The myth of the robber barrons” so I should do better.
I would use Thomas Woods’ books on American History as a primary text or supplement to their readings. Check out his Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and 33 Questions You are Not Supposed to Ask.
How can the government adopt subsidies, pass tarrifs and still pursue laissez faire policies? Answer: they can’t.
I’m currently teaching my 7th grade U.S. history class about the Great Depression. I use the book very sparingly around this time. Today, for example, I showed them why Hoover was by no means a do nothing president - propping up wages, limiting immigration, turning a $700 million surplus into a $2.6 billion dollar deficit with a 40% increase in government spending and signing the Smoot-Hawley tariff.
I try to use modern day examples to help them out. I use quotes from real people. So now when the books tells them that Hoover didn’t do anything they’ll know better.
I would suggest reading Bob Murphy’s PIG To the Great Depression. It’s got some very good, very easy to understand theory. I can actually use the textbook to demonstrate how the Austrian theory is correct. Namely, I can show how the US’s attempts to inflate the currency to help out Britain starting in 1927 led to the stock bubble. Their textbook shows a marked increase in 1929. I also told them about the recession of 1920/21 even though the book completely ignored it. The only thing close to a reference were two graphs showing the stock market beginning in 1920 and car sales beginning in 1920. In both cases there was a big drop from 1920 to 1921.
I don’t know of any textbooks that you’re going to be able to use. Just do the best you can and try to avoid the text as much as possible and be creative. I showed them a video of Ben Bernanke from youtube to demonstrate that the people in charge are clueless much of the time.
I’ve been through a few history textbooks as a history student. There is never one good one. The best idea I can give is to divide the class up into time periods in which I [ or others ] can recommend books or maybe give several authors who offer a broad history. It’s kind of like life, having a singular source of information is rarely a good thing. You could also check out the History Reading List topic.
Right on! Thanks for all the input, the reading list is great, I picked up a few of the suggested ones and look forward to a fun month of summer school. I’ll keep hanging around and learning as much as I can.
Yes its a gov school and I have a fair amount of freedom. For two periods I have a special ed teacher with me who occasionally will give me a surprised look. Sometime this month the principle is suppose to sit in and critique me…we’ll see. One period is seniors and the course is called “American Problems” so I have them read some articles from here and the Freeman. With a course title like that there is no shortage of content. The stats say plenty teachers wash out in their first couple years but I have not had a bad day yet and enjoy the work quite a bit.
There are obviously great texts to use for history classes, but they’re not textbooks per se. I’m fortunate to teach at a small private school and was allowed to select one of the textbooks that we use. Unfortunately they’re all garbage.
Great to hear this from a teacher. I remember my teacher having us spoon-fed a “People’s History of the United States” as opposed to a real history.
I’ll suggest something:
David Landes’ The Unbound Prometheus; the updated 2003 edition; and The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, 1998.
These have great array of empirical discussions of the United States (of which there is only section which has any important theoretical error, in my opinion). They also cover a unified perspective of Western Europe and the rest of the world (should that be desired).
Austrian economics to analyze the subjects of the book is a really good combination.
Notice: If anyone bugs you about your choice of texts, you can bring these out and officially knock them over the head so to speak, given the prestige of the author. (If it was British history, I would have said T.S. Ashton’s The Industrial Revolution, for similar reasons.)