Forty-two secondary-level Canadian and American world history, social studies, and geography textbooks on the Middle East are examined for errors in content, oversimplification of complicated issues, and stereotyping. Areas under examination for distortion include Middle East geography and culture, economics, and maldistribution of wealth, cultural bias and ethnic stereotypes, religious bias and stereotypes, United States relations in the Middle East, and the Arab-Israeli wars. An annotated bibliography contains critical references for 62 texts as well as a list of superior textbooks by American publishers. Two course syllabuses are also included. The first syllabus provides a guide to essential features of Muslim history and culture from the seventh to the twentieth centuries. It contains evaluation questions, student objectives, and references to suggested readings. The second syllabus provides student objectives, references to suggested readings, selected readings, teaching strategies, and student activities about the four major Arab-Israeli wars from 1947 to 1973. (Author/DE)