1. Has the Texas Revolution Changed? A Study of U. S. History Textbooks from 1897-2003
- Author
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Duran, Connee M. and Null, J. Wesley
- Abstract
For more than a century, high school students in the United States have been required to take at least one course in United States History. Almost every U.S. history textbook used for these courses covers the Texas Revolution in one way or another. Since the Texas Revolution is a significant part of American history, the authors chose to focus this study on the way this pivotal event has been presented to students over time. The success of the Texas Revolution initially established a separate country known as the Republic of Texas, but when later annexed to the United States triggered a war with Mexico resulting in the addition of massive territory being added to the United States that included the present day states of California, Nevada, and Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. This article examines five textbooks published over approximately a one hundred year span in order to determine how the authors of the books portrayed the Texas Revolution. All five books were published on the East coast, specifically New York and Massachusetts. All were designed as secondary school textbooks. The books were published between twenty and thirty years apart. Books published at twenty or thirty year intervals were chosen so that the authors of this article could analyze contextual influences while at the same time avoiding the problem of too much time between publications. After analyzing the way in which the Texas Revolution is portrayed in each of these texts, the authors attempt to identify the source of the changes that become apparent when comparing these five texts.
- Published
- 2009