The West and ignore the rest: Conceptualizations of world history in American high school textbooks, 1875--1934

Currently used world history textbooks in American high schools adopt Western civilization as the integrating element of world history. The chronology and conceptualization of world history contained in typical textbooks feature the issues and topics of Western civilization. In the last several decades, critics, such as social historians and multicultural and global educators, have complained that such attention to Western civilization is too Western-centered to help students live in a global, multicultural society. Still, advocates of the Western-centered approach argue that Western civilization should continue to be the organizational core of the high school world history course because Western civilization is the seat of democracy and the origin of modernity. The high school world history approach with Western civilization as the essence was a product of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The historical consciousness of this period continues to influence decision-making with regard to the selection and organization of high school world history textbooks.;In order to help educators assess strengths and weaknesses of the Western-centered approach in high school world history courses and textbooks, this research traces conceptual origins of the Western-centered approach to world history by undertaking an exploration of conceptualizations of world history in high school textbooks in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. This research seeks to answer the following questions: In the textbooks published during the period between 1875 and 1934, what kinds of themes determined the selection and the organization of world history? How did those organizational themes come into prominence? More specifically, what kinds of historical experiences—events, ideas, aspiration, and enterprise—gave rise to particular organizational themes and topics? What assumptions and premises undergirded the conception of world history? In order to answer these questions, this research analyzes high school textbooks in general history, European history, and world history, published from 1875 to 1934. In so doing, this research reveals the limits of the Western-centered approach to world history and, in the end, suggests a revision of the high school world history course that would be more relevant to contemporary needs.