How do American colleges and universities teach American history? Conservatives may have a ready answer: poorly. But a ready answer can just as readily be deflected. At the National Association of Scholars (NAS) we decided to find out, as precisely as possible, how history is actually taught at two major universities.
Last month we published the findings of our study “ Recasting History: Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History? ”, which examines freshman and sophomore U.S. history courses at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. We found an extraordinary emphasis on race, class, and gender. At A&M 50 percent of history course material and at UT 78 percent of the assigned readings revolve around race, class, and gender.
