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.

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen

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.

Lies Across America by James W. Loewen

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

Scanned image of archival document that reads: The Meritorious Price of Redemption, Justification, &c., Cleering from Some common Errors; And proving: 1. That Christ did not suffer for us those unutterable torments of God’s wrath, that commonly are called Hell-torments, to redeem our soules from them. 2. That Christ did not bear our sins by Gods imputation, and therefore he did not bear the curse of the Law for them. 3. That Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of Law (not by suffering the said curse for us, but by a satisfactory price of attonement; viz. by paying or performing unto his Father that invaluable precious thing of his Mediatroiall obedience, whereof his Mediatoriall Sacrifice of attonement was the master-piece. 4. A sinners righousnesse or justification is explained, and cleared from some common errors.

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?