how we present World War II

I rarely use my textbook. However, we spent some time analyzing it for bias and propaganda. The easiest section is often considered the safest - World War II. I split them up into groups, where they analyzed any elements of bias and then we spent about twenty minutes discussing these trends as a whole class. A few disturbing trends emerged.

First, the book presents the cause for war as a combination of Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust. However, there is no historical evidence that the American people or the president wanted to fight a war to stop genocide. Our class discussed this trend in American history and the idea that universally, it is rare that any nation intervenes to stop genocide. After all, we did nothing to stop the Armenian genocide or, in recent years, Rwanda, and we are currently averting our eyes from what is happening in Sudan.

It is also interesting who the textbook blames. The entire war is blamed on Axis aggression. While this is partially true, there are larger issues at hand, including the alliance system, imperialism (Germany and Italy wanted the same type of colonies that America, France, Britain, Belgium and the Dutch had all over the world) and anger over the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans felt like victims. Again, this led to great dialogue about how the victors write history and about the absolute necessity to create heroes and villains.

We also noticed how they portrayed the dictators of World War II as complete monsters. They never mentioned the great oratory skills of Hitler or his great organizational abilities. Nor did the textbook include anything about his immediate economic reforms which seemed to work, including the first true freeway system or the Volkswagen. Students picked up on the loaded language used. The textbooks calls it "inhuman," but one girl asked, "Was he really inhuman? What if that's the scary truth? What if he was human? What if we all have the potential to be like Hitler?"

That leads to the final aspect. By blaming the dictators, the textbook lets everyone else off the hook. America becomes the liberators of death camps, when, in fact, we sent many Jewish immigrants back to Germany (in fact, the textbook, a few times uses the word "race" to describe Jews rather than using religion or culture). The German citizens are somehow innocent bystanders who fall victim to brainwashing. Even if it were brainwashing, there needs to be a dialogue about how brainwashing occurs and when absolute obedience begins. Yet, there is nothing about the Zimbardo experiment or the social psychology of power.

It just seems that, by blaming Hitler and praising America for stopping the Holocaust, the entire war fits nicely into a happy narrative about how America saved the world. While the textbook uses some great descriptive language, it turns out to be a predictable bore and frighteningly inaccurate.