Teaching White Supremacy
America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4157942 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua A Lynn (Eastern Kentucky University , Richmond, Kentucky, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 111 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 588-588 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaae209 |
| OpenAlex | W4405296863 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
Beset by book bans and politicized curricula, historians today will not be surprised that teaching history has long been a high-stakes contest over national identity. Donald Yacovone's compelling study of history textbooks from the antebellum era to the present reveals how history education both challenged and, more often, instilled white supremacy. Before the Civil War, textbooks unfolded a history of white Americans exclusively. “Schoolbooks became a liberating force” after the war, however, by centering the history of slavery and recognizing African Americans as part of the nation (p. 146). These emancipationist textbooks underscore Reconstruction's radicalism and delayed potential. Lost Cause history triumphed after Reconstruction but did not fully eclipse emancipationist interpretations. Emancipationist history reemerged as Black activists and professional historians reoriented history education, particularly after the mid-twentieth century. While we may be experiencing an emancipationist moment in our teaching of U.S. history today, Yacovone's account of white supremacy's “depth, breadth, and durability” suggests the fragility of such moments (p. xiii).
Aesthetics · Art · Democracy · Identity (music · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Trial by ordeal · White (mutation · White supremacy · Gender Studies · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |