A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient Grudge — John Shaqi
A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient GrudgeWister, Owen
History
A Straight Deal; Or, The Ancient Grudge
Wister, Owen
Great Britain -- Relations -- United States; United States -- Relations -- Great Britain
Mr. Charles Altschul, in his admirable enterprise, addressed himself
to those who preside over our school world all over the country;
he received answers from every state in the Union, and he examined
ninety-three history textbooks in those passages and pages which they
devoted to our Revolution. These books he grouped according to the
amount of information they gave about Pitt and Burke and English
sympathy with us in our quarrel with George III. These groups are five
in number, and dwindle down from group one, “Textbooks which deal
fully with the grievances of the colonists, give an account of general
political conditions in England prior to the American Revolution, and
give credit to prominent Englishmen for the services they rendered
the Americans,” to group five, “Textbooks which deal fully with the
grievances of the colonists, make no reference to general political
conditions in England prior to the American Revolution, nor to any
prominent Englishmen who devoted themselves to the cause of the
Americans.” Of course, what dwindles is the amount said about our
English sympathizers. In groups three and four this is so scanty as to
distort the truth and send any boy or girl who studied books of these
groups out of school into life with a very imperfect idea indeed of the
size and importance of English opposition to the policy of George III;
in group five nothing is said about this at all. The boys and girls who
studied books in group five would grow up believing that England was
undividedly autocratic, tyrannical, and hostile to our liberty. In his
careful and conscientious classification, Mr. Altschul gives us the
books in use twenty years ago (and hence responsible for the opinion
of Americans now between thirty and forty years old) and books in use
to-day, and hence responsible for the opinion of those American men
and women who will presently be grown up and will prolong for another
generation the school-taught ignorance and prejudice of their fathers
and mothers. I select from Mr. Altschul’s catalogue only those books in
use in 1917, when he published his volume, and of these only group five,
where the facts about English sympathy with us are totally suppressed.
Barnes’ School History of the United States, by Steele. Chandler and
Chitword’s Makers of American History. Chambers’ (Hansell’s) A School
History of the United States. Eggleston’s A First Book in American
History. Eggleston’s History of the United States and Its People.
Eg-gleston’s New Century History of the United States. Evans’ First
Lessons in Georgia History. Evans’ The Essential Facts of American
History. Estill’s Beginner’s History of Our Country. Forman’s History
of the United States. Montgomery’s An Elementary American History.
Montgomery’s The Beginner’s American History. White’s Beginner’s History
of the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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