Reconstruction Retold: Perspectives from 20th Century US Secondary History Textbooks

Author

Lyric ChurchFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-9-2024

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Education

First Advisor

Eva Payne

Second Advisor

April Holm

Third Advisor

Phillis George

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Since the creation of the American public school system, the use of the textbook has been vital to history education. It has been the primary tool used by educators to teach children about the past to help them understand the present and shape the future. To this day, in the modern technological age, they are, still, used in classrooms across the country. This thesis investigates the effects of changing societal thought on United States history textbooks used in the secondary classroom, using the Reconstruction Era as the area of study. Analyzing multiple textbooks from each decade of the twentieth century, it was found that key events in American history changed societal thought, and these changes affected the interpretations of Congress, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Freedmen in Reconstruction narratives present in textbooks throughout the century. The influence of the Lost Cause and the Dunning School, partnered with an increasing and solidifying white supremacist feeling due to New Immigration and segregated schools, created a narrative where the Ku Klux Klan was a group created by Whites who were being oppressed by the manipulative and corrupt Congress and naïve, helpless Freedmen. As World War II ended and the Cold War began, the country’s racism and hypocrisy were brought to the national and international stage, leading to a suppression of some of the nation’s darker history. As the Civil Rights Movement began and schools started to integrate, the narrative of the Reconstruction Era starts to shift to one where Congress’s own corruption and racism prevented Freedmen from fully experiencing their freedom while angry Whites created terrorist groups to put the Freedmen back into oppression. As the century ended, Black voices in academia grew louder, and color-blind conservatism took over the tone of the narratives to mediate the different voices. As we think about the future of our curriculum, we must understand how our curriculum was taught in the past and how societal thought and perceptions affected its interpretations. This allows us to be critical and analytical of how our current thoughts and perceptions might affect the future of our children’s education.

Recommended Citation

Church, Lyric, "Reconstruction Retold: Perspectives from 20th Century US Secondary History Textbooks" (2024). Honors Theses. 3096.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3096

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.