Textbook Hope & Change

Accuracy in Academia ^ | December 4, 2009 | Malcolm A. Kline

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Textbook Hope & Change

Malcolm A. Kline, December 4, 2009

A new political science textbook, American Democracy Now, actually makes a stab at balance and, to a surprising degree, can claim some success.

The attempt to level the academic playing field is particularly noteworthy since the publisher is McGraw-Hill, which has been scored for inaccuracies in its textbooks by reviewers in Texas and California—the two largest markets for texts. Moreover, the publisher promoted it as the first textbook written by an all-woman team, a politically correct distinction that suggests a similar treatment of civics.

Even the title is reminiscent of the left-leaning Amy Goodman series on PBS. Nevertheless, given the frequency with which bias occurs due to omission rather than commission, what the authors include is rather novel among political science texts.

For example, ADN features two whole paragraphs on media bias, a couple more than most texts give it. Still, conservatives might have a hard time recognizing themselves in the sentence, “Advocates of conservatism recognize the importance of preserving tradition—of maintaining the status quo, or keeping things the way they are.”

Arguably, that depends on the tradition to be preserved, whether it be that of the U. S. Constitution, which conservatives revere, or the Environmental Protection Agency, which they do not. Still, the authors go on to assert, “In fact, one of the best ways of determining your own ideology is to ask yourselves the question, To what extent should the government be involved in people’s lives.” Ironically, this book came out before the TEA parties started....

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Democracy Now. A radical leftist Pacifica radio and satellite television show. Hosted by Amy Goodman.

Parents of school children don’t watch this sorta thing, but textbook writers do.