Important piece by @DanaGoldstein on differences in states' approach to national history
a quibble, based on my own experience as author of major textbook series. Often authors have little say in the ultimate decisions of content. 2/8
A major factor in content decisions are the roles of specialist lobby groups, often representing sectarian interests. Brad Fogo explored the pressures on state officials in his Stanford dissertation, summarized here 3/8 
Summarized as well in my latest book 4/8
Textbook adoption is a dizzyingly complex process with a host of players. As someone who was inside of the beast, I can attest that it's like pulling an errant thread on a sweater. Once you start pulling you realize all these disparate threads are connected. 5/8
Here's a more basic question: to what extent do changes in textbooks actually influence young people's historical understanding? 6/8
Back in 2007, we found that the influence of movies greatly overshadowed anything written in school textbooks on young people's understanding of the past 7/8
Textbooks offers journalists and political scientists a convenient way to study educational policy (the lost key/lamppost problem). But let's not confuse that with claims about what and how students actually learn about the past in a digital age. 8/8
