It is important to reaffirm the teaching of recent United States history in secondary schools. Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn state: "If we think it important that they (17-year-old students of 1986) understand the three decades between the Second World War and their own sixth birthdays (in 1975), we cannot expect this instructional job to be done for them by the daily newspapers or the nightly news; we have to teach this period as the history that it now is." Unfortunately, there are several obstacles to teaching this period of history, including time constraints, student apathy for the subject, and limited help from textbooks. This ERIC Digest: (1) examines the coverage of 20th century U.S. history; (2) discusses the consequences of limited coverage for student learning; (3) provides ideas on improvement of teaching and learning 20th century U.S. history; and (4) lists ERIC resources dealing with all these facets of the topic. (DB)