History in the Making - by Kyle Ward (Paperback)

About the Book

From the widely acclaimed co-author of "History Lessons" comes an examination of ways in which Americans tell the history their country has changed over time.

Book Synopsis

The popular, "thought-provoking study" that explores how contemporary prejudices change the way each generation looks at the nation's past (Library Journal).

Historian Kyle Ward, the acclaimed co-author of History Lessons, offers another fascinating look at the biases inherent in the way we think about, write about, and teach our own history. Juxtaposing passages from US history textbooks of different eras, History in the Making provides new perspectives on familiar historical events, and sheds light on the ways they have been represented over generations.

Covering subjects that span two hundred years, from Columbus's arrival to the Boston Massacre, from women's suffrage to Japanese internment, History in the Making exposes the changing values, priorities, and points of view that have framed-and reframed-our past.

"Interesting and useful . . . convincingly illustrates how texts change as social and political attitudes evolve." -Booklist

"Students, teachers, and general readers will learn more about the past from these passages than from any single work, however current, that purports to monopolize the truth." -Ray Raphael, author of Founding Myths

Review Quotes

"This thought-provoking study is ideal for history buffs and the general public; for public libraries and teachers' college collections." -Library Journal

"A nation's guiding assumptions must be continually re-examined . . . [Ward] shows that looking back and reconsidering history is a prerequisite of the very possibility of moving forward." -History News Network


"This thought-provoking study is ideal for history buffs and the general public; for public libraries and teachers' college collections." --Library Journal

"A nation's guiding assumptions must be continually re-examined . . . [Ward] shows that looking back and reconsidering history is a prerequisite of the very possibility of moving forward." --History News Network

About the Author

Kyle Ward is the director of the social studies education program at St. Cloud State University. He worked as a high school teacher for many years, teaching a variety of subjects. He is a co-author (with Dana Lindaman) of History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History and the author of History in the Making: An Absorbing Look at How American History Has Changed in the Telling over the Last 200 Years and Not Written in Stone: Learning and Unlearning American History Through 200 Years of Textbooks, all published by The New Press.