History's Struggle to Survive in the Schools

History has a story unlike that of any other school subject. It entered the high school curriculum in the late nineteenth century as a so-called “modern” subject, along with science; then it enjoyed four decades of solid growth and esteem. But in the second and third decades of the twentieth century, the study of history became the target of relentless—and unfortunately successful—efforts to diminish its place in the elementary and secondary curriculum. Historians did little or nothing then to save their subject. Only in the past twenty years has the study of history regained a prominent role in schools, thanks to leading historians such as Kenneth Jackson and Theodore Rabb. American school children have always had some exposure to our national history. In the reading books used in nineteenth-century schools, such as the famous McGuffey readers, there were almost always biographies of great men, stories of important incidents in

American history · Ancient history · Archaeology · Curriculum · Historiography · Library science · Nothing · Pedagogy · Political science · Reading (process · Social history (medicine · Social science · Social studies · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subject matter · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Medicine · Classics · History · Law

• Being a Historian

  Open Access•James M Banner, Jr James M Banner et al.•Being a Historian•2012

  Add to list