I've always known that history textbooks tend to focus on the dominant group (i.e. white males in the United States). However, this fact did not really sink in until I did the quiz on D2L, which asked us to name people from each ethnicity throughout the centuries. My inability to name famous people from some ethnic groups was a bit shocking, and it made me realize how much of American history is focused on white men.
Obviously for me, I had a much easier time naming famous white people than any other ethnic group. I could name famous people (both men and women) for all the centuries quite easily. In America, whites have always been the dominant group. Therefore, our textbooks tend to focus on their contributions to history. This is especially true when the textbook is discussing the history of our nation because almost all of our famous political leaders have been white. It is impossible to discuss the history of our nation without talking about famous presidents, generals, and senators, all of whom have been white. I have only studied American and European history, which means that most of the famous people I have heard of are white. I'm sure if I had grown up in another region (for example the Middle East or Asia) I would know many more famous people of that ethnicity.
It was also much easier to name famous men than famous women, regardless of the ethnicity. Sadly, I could only come up with one famous middle eastern woman, and I wasn't even sure of her name. Throughout most of history (especially European and American history) men have been the dominant group. Women have not been allowed to participate in government, war, or many other famous events that history focuses on. In many cultures, women were not allowed to publish literature or works of art. Therefore, there are fewer women discussed in history textbooks because the lives of "ordinary" women are not considered important enough to include in textbooks.
Overall, history textbooks tend to focus on the dominant group. This is because textbooks do not have the time to discuss every historical event. Therefore, they focus on the major events, and many major events are controlled or lead by the dominant group. In the United States, white men have been the dominant group throughout our history. Minority groups, both women and people of other ethnicities, were not allowed to participate in the government for many, many years. Therefore, our famous political leaders have all been white men and the history books focus on these men. For me, the second easiest ethnicity to answer questions for was black because I have studied the history of the civil rights movement and the civil war. However, I could not name famous black people from before the United States was created. The hardest ethnic group for me was the middle eastern group. Textbooks in the United States do not typically discuss middle eastern history. This may be because, until recently, there were not many middle eastern people living in the United States; therefore, there is not as much history about middle eastern people in America for the textbooks to discuss.
American textbooks tend to focus on American history only. To some extent, they also discuss European history because America was originally a British colony. Otherwise, American textbooks do not really discuss history of other parts of the world. Do you think students in other parts of the world study American history or are they as clueless about our history as we are about their history?
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When I was in a high school, I learned world histoy inclide American history. It was not specific but I studyed where Americans came from, conflicts between colonists and Native Americans, slavery, the Civil War, and etc. Also, I learned European and Asian history because Japanese history strongly connected to American, European, and Asian histories. However, I did not learn anything about African and Middle Eastan histories.
ReplyDeleteI think that the text books vary from location to location. Since we live in the United States there is going to be a focus on the American history. If you are from a different country than the things that you learn in your text book will lean more towards your country.
ReplyDeleteI was never a very good student when it came to history, which is now kicking me in the behind. However, I do remember learning about American history and know that the textbooks mainly focused on major historical events. Like you said, these events mostly involved the dominant group of white men, therefore we mostly learned about these groups of people. I would assume that if I lived in another country, their main focus in History class would be major historical events that occured in their country, or involved their country. But at some point in their education, I bet other countries learn a little bit about American history.
ReplyDeleteI think that other countries study our country far more than we study theirs. Unfortunately for us, some countries may educate their children about all the atrocities and negative things associated with the U.S. They would be justified in pointing these out but I can only hope they include some of the good along with the bad when they relay our history to a new generation.
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