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As the smoke cleared from around the United States Capitol in January, the phrase "conspiracy theory" quickly became an epithet. However, history shows us that conspiracies do exist and have altered the course of history. Citizens, therefore, need the skills and dispositions to examine and intelligently assess the merits of conspiracies. This article argues that social studies and history teachers are uniquely qualified and situated to speak to what is an emerging crisis within our nation, while also arguing that social studies educators have a professional, civic, and moral obligation to confront this issue.

When Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers football team, "took a knee" during the playing of the National Anthem, he outlined his rationale for protest: "this country stands for freedom, liberty, and justice for all. And it's not happening for all right now." He also spoke specifically about police brutality and the killing of African American men and women at the hands of police: "There's people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. People are being given paid leave for killing people. That's not right. That's not right by anyone's standards." However the reaction was that he was disrespecting the National Anthem, the flag and the military. James Bryant argues that the flag, the anthem, and the military could become so fully intertwined is a powerful indictment of the failure to teach history in the schools. He blames policy makers, textbook publishers, and colleges of education who are more interested in obedience and compliance than vision or integrity, having all played a role. Having fetishized the military, many Americans arrive at adulthood utterly ignorant of the men and women who, often without having ever worn the uniform, advanced the cause of freedom for Americans. It must be a matter of concern that both the flag and the national anthem have become synonymous with the military rather than the freedom, democracy, or even the rule of law. He surmises that have arrived at this troubling place in part due to what passes for historical study in the schools, which sanitizes, co-opts, or erases the troublemakers who painfully yet relentlessly pushed America towards the more perfect union Colin Kaepernick has told us he envisions and for which he is protesting. He examines five social studies/American history textbooks to get an idea of how they portray, approach, and/or discuss the movements and people--non-military--that have served as freedom fighters in American history.

This paper is an analytic essay that examines the treatment of the Cherokee Trail of Tears in a North Carolina fourth grade textbook. I begin by offering a satiric look at an imaginary textbook's treatment of the Holocaust that is based closely on the actual narrative of the Trail of Tears written in the fourth grade text. Following this, close scrutiny is applied to the fourth grade narrative, looking at its subtle messages, its questionable historical methodology, and its lack of drama. The second half of the paper is organized around the state of American Indian education in North Carolina as reported by the State Advisory Council on Indian Education. The challenges mentioned are investigated in light of the fourth grade text's treatment of the Cherokee Trail of tears and its possible repercussions. Finally, several ideas for reform are posited for consideration.

In this article, the author presents how the tools and skills of a historian has made it possible to hold accountable the executive branch of the federal government in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Historian Philip Zelig made it possible to secure the testimony of National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice--a request was initially denied by President George Bush for fears that it would set a dangerous precedent that could damage the ability of future presidents to acquire advice from their advisors--after procuring a grainy photograph of Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, testifying last November 22, 1945 before a panel investigating the attack on Pearl Harbor. This story offers evidence of the immense power and practicality of studying history. The author also observes how the study of social studies has received less and less attention with the ascendance of each new curricular focus.

Social studies and history have taken a back seat to other subjects in recent years, but the author argues that there is far too much at stake to allow these important fields to become irrelevant. To drive home the point, in this article, he shares a story about the 9/11 Commission, that made headlines in 2004.