Paul Kengor, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report
June 2002
Writing for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Grove City College's Paul Kengor reviews seventeen texts used in the state's public schools, where textbooks are selected by local school boards. Although most of them featured good coverage of touchy topics such as the slave trade, the use of the atom bomb, Japanese militarism, the Cold War, and the role of women in history and culture-all the while avoiding ethnocentrism and first world bias-the books ignore or treat lightly many fundamental topics like the importance of democracy and its development in the United States. Other "overlooked" matters include the treatment of women under Islam, terrorism, tribal warfare and dictatorship in Africa, the horrors of communism (including millions of deaths under Stalin), political and religious repression in China, and the dictatorship of Castro (who is depicted in some books as a hero). Kengor has included a chart of issues, events and people one would expect to find in a world history book and the number of times that each appears in the worst text he reviews, Global Insight. The Declaration of Independence, Woodrow Wilson, Otto von Bismarck and Canada do not appear there at all, though India appears 100+ times and Gorbachev receives sixteen mentions. This report, which should inspire all parents of high school students to take a close look at their child's world history book, is available at http://wpri.org/Reports/Volume15/Vol15no4.pdf or by contacting the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. at P.O. Box 487, Thiensville, WI 53092; phone 262-241-0514; fax 262-241-0774. - Janet Heffner