Thread by @losthistorybook

1/n - In honor of the final day of banned books week, lets take a look at the history of banning, challenging and censoring social studies textbooks in the US. 🧵 #BannedBooksWeek #BannedBooksWeek2021

2/n - Before we get to books that were outright banned, I'd like to note that people have been complaining about textbooks for a long time. For example, this clipping from 1836 is from the prospectus of a publishing company.

3/n They wanted slave owners to invest since the public would be "benefitted by the instruction of a uniform series of improved school books, and the South protected against the introduction of any matter tending in the most remote degree to assail our institutions and property."

4/n - That publishing company never accomplished their goals, but critics like them did succeed in pressuring authors and publishers into censoring their books. For example, here are clippings from the 1831 and 1850 edition of "The First Book of History" by Samuel Goodrich.

5/n -The 1831 has a picture of black slaves working under an overseer carrying a whip. The text describes their total lack of liberty, grim reality of family separation, slave auctions, and the author's wish that slavery be abolished.

6/n - The 1850 edition removed all of that and replaced the picture with a beautiful landscape. The text contains a new section stating that slaves are "the legal property of their masters, who have the legal right to punish them for bad conduct, and to sell them."

7/n - During the 19th century, many other textbooks were revised to meet the demands of critics. New history textbooks were also written specifically for a southern audience.

8/n - The 20th century contained countless examples of book banning - some big and some small. In 1911 - "History of the United States" by Elson was banned in Roanoke College in Virginia. A student and her father objected to the book's brief description of sexual slavery.

9/n - Confederate heritage societies condemned the book and took steps to ban it wherever possible. The controversy received press coverage across the nation. Elson's book was later revised to remove the passage.

10/n - 1921 - "The History of the American People" by Beard and Bagley was banned from schools in Atlanta, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and elsewhere. Confederate heritage societies had an extensive list of complaints.

11/n - This example is from newspaper in Baton Rouge Louisiana. They objected to, among other things, this illustration of the fugitive slave law in practice. You can read the entire article here: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn8905930…

12/n -in 1938, all textbooks by Harold Rugg were challenged in Garden City, NY. The September 1940 edition of American Legion magazine criticized his book's treatment of the founding fathers and its economic analysis.

13/n - Local chapters of American Legion were mobilized to get the book banned across the US. In a small town in Ohio, someone burned a cross in front of the house of a man who objected to banning the books.

14/n - In 1940, Mississippi attempted to pass a law to provide different civics textbooks to black and white students. The textbooks for black students would not contain lessons on voting rights.

15/n - This provision was removed before it was signed into law, but, "Committeemen pointed out that 'red-blooded Mississippians and the sons of Confederate soldiers' would carry out the purpose of the amendments without their being written into the law".

16/n - 1956 - "Problems of Democracy" by Blaich and Baumgartner was banned in Alabama. They objected to a chapter titled "Minority groups should share equally with all others in the American Way of Life".

17/n - That chapter discussed workplace discrimination, voter suppression, housing discrimination and segregation. After negotiating with the publisher, a special Alabama edition was produced with the chapter removed. These pictures are from the original edition.

18/n - 1967 - "Land of the Free" by Caughey, Franklin and May was challenged in California. Opponents claimed the book was a communist plot and put undue emphasis on black history.

19/n - They created pamphlets, booklets and a filmstrip. This video is from the filmstrip titled "Education or Indoctrination" produced by an offshoot of the John Birch Society.

20/n - 1978 - "An American History" published by Addision-Wesley is challenged during the annual textbook review. The publisher agreed to remove an 18th century British cartoon because Norma Gabler, conservative textbook critic, called it disgraceful.

21/n - Mel and Norma Gabler were extremely active textbook critics from the 1960s to early 2000s. They even had a book written about them in the 70s. They would not tolerate any criticism of the founding fathers and regularly challenged books that did.

22/n - 1987 - A judge banned dozens of textbooks in Alabama in a suit claiming they promoted the religion of secular humanism. His ruling was reversed by the court of appeals.

23/n - An editorial by a member of the National Legal Foundation praised the ban and called the Alabama board of education the "carpetbaggers of humanism".

24/n - 1998 - "The Utah Adventure" by Susan Myers was challenged by a conservative think tank, the Sutherland Institute. They did not like the book’s coverage of environmental issues and Native American religious beliefs. The author revised the book to meet their demands.

25/n - In 2003, Mel and Norma Gabler once again challenge dozens of textbooks up for adoption in Texas. They described themselves as fact checkers, and they did legitimately identify factual errors, but they also inserted plenty of their personal opinion.

26/n - For example, their 2003 review of The American Nation published by Holt said the book incorrectly, "blames white racism for all the ills of radical reconstruction, with zero coverage on non-race related constitutional problems of the period that also caused conflict."

27/n - In 2015, the Ethics and Public Policy Center and other conservative groups tried to ban Advanced Placement US History testing in GA. They claimed that it put too much emphasis on the negative in history and not enough on positive ideals of the founding fathers.

28/n - One opponent believed that manifest destiny was "the belief that America had a mission to spread democracy and new technology across the continent". He didn't agree with the course's description of it being "built on a belief in white racial superiority..."

29/n - In 2021, The 1619 Project was banned from schools in Texas, despite concerns from teachers. Many other states have introduced legislation to do the same.

30/n - Once again, this effort is being spearheaded by conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, Manhattan Institute, ALEC, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Sutherland Group, the National Association of the Scholars and many more.