This essay reviews two books on Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Fund and places them within the historiography of the Fund. "Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced the Cause of Black Education in the American South," is a biography written by Peter M. Ascoli. The book entitled "The Rosenwald Schools of…

Old textbooks are one resource for teaching about the evolution of historical interpretation. Some libraries contain collections of U.S. history textbooks spanning multiple years and some schools even keep older textbooks used in past years. Recently, the author used a book by Kyle Ward entitled "History in the Making: An Absorbing Look at How…

Historians work in a discipline with few inherent concepts and are obliged to draw upon many fields in recreating the past. Yet authors of most school history texts, state and national standards and curriculum materials seldom incorporate economic analysis in their work. Just look at state standards that include Adam Smith and John Locke but draw…

Historiography is often overlooked as a fascinating subject by most contemporary students, whether in the secondary history classroom or undergraduate course. Some sense of the changing historical interpretation of a topic such as Reconstruction may be provided through contrasting passages from a modern history text with earlier editions of books…

Criticisms of Howard Zinn's work on U.S. History are examined in the context of increasing emphasis on the idea of "American exceptionalism" in contemporary political and cultural discourse, and particularly the insertion of American exceptionalism into revised social studies standards for the state of Texas. Analysis focusing on the…

Few scholars have achieved the level of recognition and respect among the wider public as Howard Zinn. This should not come as a surprise, given the "unconventional" ways that Zinn embodied and enacted his scholarship. He often took his teaching and writing into those seemingly restricted spaces of popular protest, converting words into…

This paper presents a discussion of Howard Zinn's intellectual and political ideas. Through the analysis of selections from his immense body of work, several interrelated themes emerge. Drawing more attention to these notions of dissent and democracy is crucial to revitalizing education at all levels and vital to advancing the public discourse…

"The accomplishments of Indians and their actual place in the story of the United States have never been remotely touched by ... [most] historians. The major reason for this omission is that a substantial number of practicing historians simply do not know the source documents with sufficient precision to make sense of them; ... They spend a…

Tests four historical propositions of ethnic partisans by reference to the history of Wisconsin. The propositions are: racism is a disease of Americans of British ancestry; foreign born won the Civil War for the North; Americanization is "really Waspification;" and the melting pot is a comparatively recent myth. (RM)

Provides an interpretation of survey results of historians by an Italian scholar of American studies. Maintains that U.S. historians and historiography are changing the way Italian and other European scholars view history and its societal role. Concludes that cultural and intellectual pluralism is deeply rooted in U.S. political culture. (CFR)

Assessing the role of historians during the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the author states that no "startling interpretive revisions" are likely to emerge and that historians' major function has been to defend the past against abusers, specifically strict-constructionist who adhere to the doctrine of "original…

Discusses ways in which American historians have conceptualized recent American history as a series of distinct decades and have used economic and other quantitative data, political movements and personalities, and data lying beyond the realm of political economy as evidence for the quality of life in a given decade. (RM)

Recounts the life and writings of noted U. S. historian, Carl Becker. Provides an analysis of his influence on the academic study of European history in the United States. (JDH)

Carl Becker's contribution to the philosophy of historical relativism is presented. Three ideas central to historical relativism are: 1) the subjectivity of historical facts, 2) history as a product of the historian's imagination, and 3) the influence of the contemporary "climate of opinion" in shaping the historian's view of the past.…

Discusses Patrick Henry's and James Madison's opinions on how the U.S. Constitution should be constructed. Describes how Henry introduced a set of substantive objections which were shared by Antifederalists throughout the country and persuaded many Revolutionaries that the Constitution was essentially at odds with the principles of 1776. (BSR)