Early Responses from History Professors and Others Who Have Seen an Advance Copy of Our Forthcoming Report, Recasting History
NAS will release our report, Recasting History: Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History, on Thursday, January 10, at 5:00pm. Some members of the professoriate and others to whom we've sent embargoed copies are not happy, while others agree with the findings. Here are some of the early responses we've received:
As a long time history geek, teacher of American history, and Professor of Teacher Education / History Education all I can say is that there has rarely been such an ignorant statement made regarding the teaching of history at any level. I have been involved in some sort of history teaching and learning for over 30 years. The only evidence I see is that history education is dominated by traditional approaches that focus on transmission of decontextualized "facts," war, heroes, exceptionalism, and blind patriotism... all adding to the facilitation of American empire, ignorance and hate toward American history on the part of most students, and the increased state of oligarchy in this society...
Shame on you...
Cameron White, PhD
Professor
University of Houston
Dear Ms. Thorne,
I'm not sure quite what inspired you to think I might be interested in the so-called research of your nasty little organization, but I am definitely not. Delete my name and email address from your mailing list and do not contact me again.
Sincerely,
Bruce E. Baker
Senior Lecturer in United States History Royal Holloway, University of London http://bruceebaker.com List Editor, H-SOUTH Co-Editor, American Nineteenth Century History
Thanks for the info--all of this sounds very familiar. You might notice that while UT and TAMU have done their best to eliminate Texas history and military history (which include discussions of politics, religion, intellectual movements), UNT has proudly embraced both of those as focal points in our program. we of course pay attention to race, class, and gender, but we do not privilege them above all other subjects. And now I will step off my soapbox....
Richard B. McCaslin, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair,
Department of History
