An AnnoTATEd sTudEnT RHEToRiCAl AnAlysis 45an annotated stUdent RhetoRical analysis
Now read our student’s rhetorical analysis about David Tyack’s discussion
of history textbooks in “Whither History Textbooks?” We have annotated
the student’s analysis to point out how he identifies the author’s situation,
purpose, argument, and audience.that engages students in learning. Those who call for expertise suggest
that history is too important not to be left to the historians.
But this response to the faults of history texts presents its own prob-
lems. Calling in the experts doesn’t eliminate disputes; PhDs love to
differ among themselves. Teachers are adept at sabotaging reforms
dropped on them from above. And amid all the commercialism and spe-
cial interests now rife in the process of selecting textbooks, the public
still deserves some say in deciding what American students learn about
the past, expert or not.
Patricia Nelson Limerick, professor of history at the University of
Colorado, suggests a pluralistic model of history that contrasts with
both muddling through and textbooks by experts. She recently sug-
gested that the Little Bighorn Battlefield, where Sioux and Cheyenne
fought George Armstrong Custer, needed not two monuments, one in
honor of the Indians and one to recognize Custer and his soldiers, but
“a different kind of memorial — one in which no point of view domi-
nates.” She imagines visitors walking among memorials to the warriors
and Custer, but also to the enlisted men dragooned into the slaughter, to
Custer’s widow, to the families of the white soldiers, and to the children
and wives of the Indian warriors.
Such perspective-taking lies at the core of historical understanding of a
socially diverse nation. Pluralistic history can enhance ethnic self-respect
and empathy for other groups. Parallel to the monuments Limerick pro-
poses, texts for a pluralistic civic education might have not one master
narrative but several, capturing separate identities and experiences.
But the history of Americans in their separate groups would be par-
tial without looking as well at their lives in interaction. Our society is
pluralistic in character, and so should be the history we teach to young
citizens. But alongside that pluribus citizens have also sought an unum,
a set of shared political aspirations and institutions. One reason there
have been so many textbook wars is that group after group has, in turn,
sought to become part of a common story told about our past. The
unum and the pluribus have been in inescapable tension, constantly
evolving as Americans struggled to find common ground and to respect
their differences.1112131402_GRE_5344_Ch2_029_054.indd 45 11/19/14 4:03 PM