History of Censorship
History Misrepresented in the Classroom
History Culture War of the 1990's
Browse resources about the history culture war of the 1990's below, selected by Professor John Diffley:
Nikole Hannah-Jones on The 1619 Project
News Articles
Read these books to learn more
Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America (both written by James W. Loewen) offer an examination and study of how history is represented, and often misrepresented, across the United States in the classroom, at historic sites, on monuments, memorials, and historic markers.
ISBN: 9781620974551
Publication Date: 2018
Format: Print book and eBook
Call Number: E175.85.L64 1995
Based on careful research at the Smithsonian Institution, here is a bold, direct challenge to the errors, misrepresentations, and omissions of the leading American history textbooks. Lies My Teacher Told Me is available to read online for STCC students, faculty and staff. Find the print version in the STCC Library stacks, lower level.
ISBN: 1620974932
Publication Date: 2018
Format: eBook only
History book that focuses on the inaccuracies, myths, and lies on monuments, statues, national landmarks, and historical sites all across America. Lies Across America is available to read online for STCC students, faculty and staff.
Book Banning in Springfield's Early History
Image source: Springfield Museums
The image on the left is an archival scan of The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, written by William Pynchon. Pynchon was an English colonist, fur trader, writer, and the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts.
On October 1650, the General Court decreed Pynchon's book The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption to be false, erroneous [and] heretical, and it was burned in Boston by the Common Executioner.
The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption is considered one of the first banned and burned books in early colonized America.
Kreiser, C. M. (2014, April 1). Banned book goes up in flames. 'The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption’. American History, 49(1), 16.
STCC Library Podcast Episode 6: Book Bans and Curriculum Bills with John Diffley
Professor John Diffley helps to put the recent book challenges and curriculum laws in a historical context. We discuss how curriculum standards point to a philosophical question- what do we want children to know? What knowledge and skills should everyone have?