The teaching of American history in U.S. universities is fraught with narratives of oppression, inequality, white supremacy, and toxic masculinity, which risks stoking “the flames of personal grievance and identity politics,” according to a recent report by the Arizona State University (ASU).
“Our extensive research reveals that instructors in American history survey courses overemphasize racial, ethnic, and gender identity, most often to the detriment of a well-balanced and comprehensive understanding of our nation’s past,” said the Nov. 5 report published by ASU’s Center for American Institutions (CAI). “The use of identity-focused terms (e.g., ‘white supremacy,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘equity’) are pervasive in introductory courses in American history.”
An “implicit and explicit bias is shown toward concepts of progress, the advantages of a free-market economy, and American prosperity. Economic, social, and political progress unique to our nation is ignored or dismissed, and America is often presented as a nation in decline.”
The research found that little to no attention was given to traditional topics like the contents of the U.S. Constitution and the history of its drafting, the Industrial Revolution, the democratization of American politics including expansion of suffrage to women, and the role of religion in the abolition of slavery, and the Civil Rights movement.
“Nobody can deny that there is a crisis in civic education in our nation today,” said Donald T. Critchlow, the director of the CTI. U.S. colleges and universities “are failing to provide basic facts of American history and civics to their students.”
The focus on racial, ethnic, and gender identity issues in the lessons “stoke the flames of personal grievance and identity politics, speeding up the erosion of our civic culture,” he said.
A 2022 report by the National Assessment of Education Progress “revealed the severity” of the crisis, Mr. Critchlow stated. It had found that only 13 percent of students tested showed proficiency in American history, with 40 percent of students falling below the expected, basic level of knowledge of U.S. history.
The First Part
Regarding the first part, the CTI report notes that students are “directed to see inequality as unchanging.” It cited an instructor from a state university declaring in “Learning Objectives” that students will “demonstrate knowledge of history of diverse and persistently marginalized cultural groups in U.S. history.”Another university declared that the purpose of its syllabus was to ensure that students grasp “how inequality was woven into the nation’s very constitution.” An instructor at a Midwest university stated that the major goal of the course is to make sure students see “how race and racism is snarled in every part of U.S. history.”
An instructor from an eastern university claimed that America “was created through warfare, slavery, and territorial expansion.” A university in the South dedicates the first three weeks to “cultural imperialism” and “ecological imperialism.”
Another major theme covered in the first part is the “oppression of women and toxic masculinity.” The report noted that while discussing these topics, instructors tend to exclude comparing American culture with other cultures of the time like European, African, Asian, and South American.
One university in the Midwest was found to dedicate two class periods to “Whiteness in the Age of Jackson” and “Jolly Men and American Masculinity.”
The Second Part
In the second part of U.S. history, covering from 1877 to the present, similar themes of oppression and inequality continue.“Advances by women in voting rights, in professions, in work, in finances, professionally, the workplace, financially, or social relations are ignored in these classes,” the report said. “The focus on racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities focuses on protest politics to the exclusion of court decisions or legislative action.”
“Social, economic, and technological advances fail to be noted, discussed, or read about in required readings.”
Some professors openly claimed that the purpose of their courses was to teach students that America is a “land of exclusion” and that the nation’s history “has benefitted only a few.”
The second part also places “greater emphasis on sexuality and sex identity,” the report notes. Topics like radical feminism, gay liberation, and homosexuality are given “great attention.” Homophobia emerges as the “major theme” in several courses.
Not a single syllabus reviewed as part of the study found any discussion on America’s financial and industrial success during the postwar period.
“Typical of how instructors discuss the rise of industrial America is to discuss labor protest, class division, or the inequality of women,” it said. “Leaders of American industry, finance, and investors, such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, or Steve Jobs, receive little notice, good or bad.”
The teaching of legal history was found to be “generally excluded,” with only a few professors discussing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 or the Civil Right Act of 1964.
Military history was absent in “nearly every syllabus” reviewed by the report. Military operations during the First and Second world wars were rarely discussed by instructors. Instead, “primary attention” was given to issues like women workers, racial segregation, and suppression of liberties.
“The Jewish holocaust is included in a few syllabi, but surprisingly few,” the report said. “War is discussed without mentioning war itself, the sacrifice of those fighting the war, or why these wars were being fought.”
President Harry S. Truman’s use of atomic weapons to end the war in the Pacific “appears to be framed primarily as an identity issue, as racial hatred of the Japanese.”
Countering Divisive Ideologies
The report about proliferation of divisive ideologies at America’s educational institutions comes as conservatives are taking steps to clamp down on such teachings.In late December last year, for example, the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis instructed state educational authorities to report on how much they spend on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) in Florida’s higher education system.
A few weeks later, Mr. DeSantis vowed that he will be “eliminating all DEI and CRT bureaucracies in Florida.” The state’s universities “will be graduating students with degrees that will actually be useful,” he said.
In April, the Texas senate passed Senate Bill 16 (SB 16) that will ban the teaching of CRT ideologies in higher education institutes—with penalties for faculty members who push the ideology.
An April report by CRT Forward, an initiative advocating for CRT in schools at the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, revealed that state action against CRT teachings are on the rise.
“Between Jan. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2022, government actors (federally and across 49 states and their localities) introduced a total of 563 anti-CRT measures, 241 of which have been enacted or adopted,” it said.
“The momentum of the anti-CRT campaign has to this point shown no signs of slowing: indeed, nearly the same number of measures were introduced in 2021 (280 total) and 2022 (283 total).”
