A seventh-grade Texas history textbook, published in 1954, which was written by two middle school principals – one from Marshall and one from San Antonio – shows how textbook bias can become more apparent with the passage of time. Historians say the exclusion of women and minority narratives from these books can leave children who don't seem themselves reflected in the history less interested in the material.
In the acknowledgements at the front, you can find the book’s guiding philosophy:
KUT asked several experts in Texas history to review this book.
Dr. Nancy Baker Jones of the Ruth Winegarden Foundation for Texas Women’s History says one of the most obvious aspects of women’s history in Texas is missing from the book: the suffrage movement, when women fought for the right to vote.
“Preserving orthodox notions of gender and faith and nation, and to have been aware of the participation and contributions of groups other than Anglo males, was just not in the cards educationally during the 1950s,” Jones said, adding that women in the book are defined by their relationship with men.
“What you have set up here is this mythology. The women who helped these brave men were wives and mothers. They were connected to men through marriage and motherhood. They were not single women. They were not working women. They were not reformers,” Jones said. “They were the women that were in their socially approved places to the exclusion of many other roles that women have played and contributions that women have made and lives that women have lived.”
This textbook was used by public school students across Texas in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so it helped shape the perceptions and attitudes of people who today would likely be in their ‘60s.
Sam W. Haynes, another historian who analyzed this book, said two things in particular jumped out at him.
“First of all, the illustrations for the book, the photographs, which are taken from B-Movies and films about Texas history from the 1940s and 1950s,” he said. “Struck me as rather odd, this peculiar blending of popular culture and history.”
The other thing that stuck out to the University of Texas at Arlington professor and director of the Center for Greater Southwestern Studies was its characterization of Texas culture through the years.
“The textbook characterizes Texas history as a clash of cultures, which isn’t surprising,” said Haynes. “There really isn’t a sense that Texas is one of the most diverse regions in North America in the first half of the 19th century.”