What are the "Bottom Line" Lessons From the History Wars?
  1. The history wars demonstrated that politicizing education has great costs - especially in terms of impeding our national mission to improve the teaching of history.
  2. The history wars intensified the debate between revisionist historians and the American public about what is and is not history.   Most Americans continue to believe there is but one set of facts, deeds, or ideas that comprise "the truth" about US history.
  3. The history wars have not convinced many history teachers to teach a more complex story. Many teachers still do not accept the reality that teaching students historical content is pointless if we do not ask them to reflect upon the issues and upon the complexity of history, if we do not create a carefully crafted story, and if we do not teach our students to analyze historical content and debate the issues across time using many different sources of historical evidence.
  4. The history wars are not going away.

on the other hand...

  1. The history wars strengthened the growing collaboration between K-12 teachers and university scholars.
  2. The historical narrative became more inclusive by adding those previously excluded to our textbooks, curriculum, and tests.
  3. The history wars proved that Americans are still interested in and concerned about teaching history in the nation's schools.
  4. The history wars encouraged many states to debate the merits of a statewide, standards-based history curriculum.

History on Trial poster