The Wrong Syllabus

As a historian, I know it's nearly impossible to get everything right. No sooner does one write a chapter in a book than new research disproves at least some of the details of the "Corrupt Bargain"; new science, such as DNA testing, provides a clearer picture of who Jack the Ripper was or was not; and new techniques, such as mapping spent cartridges with metal detectors, allows for a different interpretation of "Custer's Last Stand."

Well at least he’s gotten his book published, so there isn’t a TOTAL blackout of his ideas. It’s fairly easy to “shoot at” textbooks, profs, universities, etc - Horowitz has made a comfortable living for a while, and maybe Schweikart can spread his message around as well.

Some of the issues that he raises in his article really seem to have no answer, though. He’s irate because the “third most common photo” “representing the 20th Century” in textbooks are images of the KKK. (Love to see the methodology of that assessment, btw.)

So what SHOULD the third most common representative issue be? Scheikart mentions feminists - does he think THAT should be the most 3rd most common? Civil rights marchers? Breadlines? Factory assembly lines of the Model T? (My personal choice) Lines to get into the 1939 or 1964 World’s Fairs? People lined up to buy homes in Levittown? I’m sure you can name your own favorite - and that’s just lines.

You know that this a a marketplace of ideas. If he has a textbook that is better than the ones he cites, let him go out and sell it to school boards. They are the ones that make the decisions - and they are comprised of your neighbors, just ones with a hell of a lot more free time than the rest of us.

"Love to see the methodology." You're kidding, right? It's called, LOOK and COUNT.

I had the top 20 U.S. history textbooks. I counted.

As for what should be there? Easy. Ronald Reagan or the Moon Landing or Martin Luther King. Any of them are more characteristic of America than the Klan.

And since you get into this, it's interesting that not one---NOT ONE---depicted a pro-life march, despite the fact that there were several, each of them many,many times larger than the Klan march on D.C.

As for school boards, guess you're having trouble reading. I said repeatedly, COLLEGE level textbooks. Boards don't choose those. Leftist profs do. And I do have a textbook much better than the ones I cite:

A Patriot's History of the United States and it has become a bestseller, and is used in lots of college classes (at last count, at TCU, Penn St., Utah, Washington, and several others).

I wasn’t aware when I first read this thread that it was a article in the Sun about a book that the poster himself had written. Perhaps I could have anticipated the tone of your response had I been aware.

Okay I haven’t read your book - I never even heard of it til this article. You say you went through’the top 20 (college) textbooks.” How did you determine what they were?

Then you counted the types of photos. Does your book have a matrix of the types of photos? What were types 1 and 2? When were the books published? How many institutions of higher ed use them? I know very little about the world of history text publishing at this moment, so welcome you comments.

And since “A Patriot’s History” (which you co-authored) is so much better than all the others, why isn’t it more popular, if it isn’t one of the 20? Leftist professors - yah, heard that. But WHY don’t the students eschew these profs? They are pretty conservative and should be flocking to courses that are based on your texts. I’m not saying they aren’t - I just want to know how this book itself is doing in the marketplace of ideas. You teach at U of Dayton - did the dept give you tenure yet, or have your political positions caused issues for you? How do the students respond to your classes - oversubscribed, etc? It’s not like Dayton is Berkeley or Boston - it’s got a pretty representative student body.

Having taught for many years in a state u - albeit not in history departments - I noticed that the bookshelves at the U didn’t have a a lot of history classes base on textbooks, except for the gigantic “History of World Everything from Then to Now” into course. The American courses seemed to be mainly built on other secondary texts, and sometimes reprints of archival collections. That was one of the arguments that the students had - lib arts courses are expensive cause they make you buy so many freakin’ books! They’d LOVE to have a textbooks - it ends up being cheaper plus they have some resale value.

And as far as “LOOK and COUNT” - that’s cool but have you gotten independent verification of your numbers? Not calling your intent into question, but in my fields, theories are testable because they are supposed to be objective, and the results are repeatable when other parties engage in the investigation.

But like I said, I haven’t read your book so I don’t know how you document your methodology.

There are only about 20 out there. The major publishers mail free copies to instructors, so it's a no-brainer as to which are the "major" ones.

Yes, there are a couple of "montages." I reviwed single photos with captions.

#1 most common image in the 20th century=FDR, #2, a-bomb.

All published since 2000. I don't know how many instructors use them---I only go by the ones that ARE USED. In other words, if it's not marketed as a text, I don't use is.

If you don't know, there is a WORLD of difference between "textbooks" and trade books (such as "The World is Flat.") They are different departments in the publishers, and are marketed differently. Textbooks, as a rule, are NOT sold in bookstores. That's why Patriot's History is so Impressive: it's a trade book that is being used as a text because it's so good. But once you publish a "textbook" (as I found out with my book, The Entrepreneurial Adventure, you can't even get it into bookstores. The ordering and purchasing is entirely different.

I didn't include PHSUA because it is the antidote to every one of these---so that would have been kind of silly, plus it's not a "textbook" per se.

Students have little power in college classes. Sure, they can disagree with the prof, but in "structured" discussions, a student usually gets one answer in (among 35 other students) and it's on to someone else, figuring many of the students will be liberal. But NO ONE questions "the book." Most exams and study guides are based on the textbook.

Finally, do you really have to ask why there aren't more conservatives on campuses? It's a self-selecting process through tenure: conservatives are willing to hire liberals who are talented, but liberals will seldom hire a talented conservative because of ideology. It's the difference between the two views of the world.

I got promotion right on time, and tenure right on time, and am a full prof; the U. has supported me generously. My classes do fill up, every semester. One topic, "Technology and the Culture of War," I could fill (35 per section) with three sections, every semester.

As to independent verification, that's why I supply end notes in my book. You can check it out.

Thanks for your very civil reply. Since most textbooks don’t have blurbs on their covers, I didn’t realize it fell into the text- as opposed to trade- category. Congrats on achieving that holy grail of academic publishing - the Crossover Hit! Seriously, that’s a major tribute to your success.

It sounds as if the hiring and tenuring practices among History Departments are almost as bad as those in English Departments.

The “Technology and the Culture of War” class sounds fascinating. How far back do you go? The hoplites?

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