Truth inCalifornia Textbooks Review

First Choice Education; Grade 8; E Pluribus Unum: The American Pursuit of Liberty, Growth, and Equality, 1750–1900, CA Edition (2017)

Problem: Omission of Fact(OF), Half-Truth (HT), Factual Error(FE), Slant (S), Bias (B), Incorrect Terminology (IT)

OF means that there is additional useful information to help students learn complete history. The author/publisher has not deliberately omitted material to fulfill an agenda. HT means that the author/publisher has presented "half of the story" and has omitted the other half for agenda-based reasons. HT leads to slant and bias.

Location / Quote / Problem / Fact & Source
Introduction: Historians at Work
Page 1 / Still others study how people have changed their environment, the struggles of minority groups and women to achieve equal rights, or our nation’s past relations with other countries. / OF /
  • The authors omit the study of the accomplishments and successes of history.
  • The authors would be more accurate if they explained history as “the struggles and successes of minority groups and women to achieve equal rights”

Introduction: Historians at Work
Page 7, Para 2 / The title of this book is E Pluribus Unum. This Latin expression—the language of the ancient Romans—has been translated as “Out of many, one.” It means that from our diversity has come our unity. Since 1782, it has been the motto on the Seal of the United States. / OF/FE /
  • The motto has come to represent the unity of Americans of differing national origins. However this was not the meaning of the motto when it was created.
  • The motto E pluribus unum alludes to the union between the states and federal government, as symbolized by the shield on the eagle's breast. The thirteen stripes "represent the several states all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting a Chief, which unites the whole & represents Congress."

Introduction: Historians at Work
Page 7, Column 2, Para 2 / The Declaration of Independence announced an even loftier goal—that of equality: “All men are created equal and are endowed with unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” / IT/S /
  • The authors are inaccurate in stating that in the Declaration of Independence equality is stated as goal.
  • That is exactly backwards and misleads students, equality of outcome, as a goal is not what the Founders had in mind and is a difficult idea.It is equality of opportunity that is designated in the Declaration of Independence.

Introduction: Historians at Work
Page 8, Column 1, Para 2 / The history of our country can be seen as the story of the extension of liberty and human rights. It is the story of who should be considered as an American with equal rights and responsibilities. And it is the story of how our nation has expanded across the North American continent—from sea to shining sea. / S /
  • The author’s three-pointed overview of our history is good on the first and third points.
  • “the story of the extension of liberty and human rights”
  • “the story of who should be considered as an American with equal rights and responsibilities”
  • “the story of how our nation has expanded across the North American continent—from sea to shining sea.”
  • The second point, “the story of who should be considered an American with equal rights and responsibilities” is a PC, 21st century victim culture mentality point of view and does not accurately define what the history of our country should be focused upon.This Reviewer suggests that the second point be removed.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations
Page 16, Column 1, Para 2 / Europeans at the time had no regard at all for the native peoples who were already living in the Americas. / HT/OF/S /
  • The authors provide no support or explanation for this blanket condemnation of the European mindset. This is vastly oversimplifying the complicated relations between the two populations.
  • In many cases the Native Americans were not looked upon negatively. The most famous example being the Pilgrims befriending the Native American Pokanokets and Wampanoags and working with Squanto.
  • The Europeans “saw it as an entirely new land, with animals and plants to discover. They also met new people in this exciting New World—people with fascinating lifeways that the Europeans had never seen and languages they had never heard.”
  • American Indians at European Contact. Originally published as "Earliest American Explorers: Adventure and Survival" by John W. Kincheloe, III. Used with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian 47: 1 (Fall 2007): 6-8, copyright North Carolina Museum of History. Accessed 6/20/17.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations
Page 16, Column 1, Para 2 / Europeans at the time had no regard at all for the native peoples who were already living in the Americas. / HT/OF/S /
  • The French had cooperative relations with the Native Americans and often married the women.
  • Native American. Elizabeth Prine Pauls. Encyclopedia Britannica. Oct 4, 2016. Accessed 6/20/17
  • There were many different responses of the colonists to the Native Americans, positive as well as negative:
  • Overall, it was the accidental spread of germs and the lack of immunity that made the population so very vulnerable to the Europeans and not any disregard for them by the Europeans.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations: New England: Religion
Page 20, Column 1, P4 / People were so religious that Massachusetts was shaken by a “witch craze” at the end of the seventeenth century. Several women in the town of Salem were put on trial for witchcraft. The trials lasted from 1692 to 1693. Neighbors swore they saw the women cast spells. Nineteen women and men were hanged for witchcraft before the trials ended. / HT/S/IT /
  • Saying “People were so religious…” is slanted below grade level, schoolyard terminology, gauged to create anti-religious ideas and ridicule.
  • That the people of Salem were devout is not the sole, direct reason for the mass hysteria that took hold. Many other colonists communities were devoutly religious and did not develop a similar problem. Also, while religion was a contributing factor in the mass hysteria, there were political, and socioeconomic factors as well.
  • Incorrect Terminology: The authors put the phrase witch craze in quotes as if it were the correct terminology for the Salem Witch Trials. It is not.
  • This Reviewer recommends that the Publisher eliminate this slanted sentence and incorrect vocabulary and replace it with the following sentence: “The town of Salem experienced religious mass hysteria, inflamed by political and socioeconomic factors, and Massachusetts was shaken by the Salem Witch Trials at the end of the seventeenth century.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations: Page 21, Inset / Many later settlers in the Middle colonies came as indentured servants. An indentured servant was a person who signed a contract (written agreement) in England with a sponsor. The sponsor paid the expenses for the person to come to America. Theindentured servant agreed, in return, to work for the sponsor for four to seven years. After that, the indentured servant was free to do whatever he or she wished. / HT / IT /
  • Incorrect Terminology: Referring to indentured servants as settlers is not accurate. At best, they were servants.
  • Half Truth: The history of indentured servitude is not that simple and rosy. Many were essentially imprisoned or enslaved by the indenture contract, forced into indentured servitude against their wills. This was especially true of the Irish men, women and children during Cromwell, but also European prisoners and debtors during early America when labor was in high demand. The book should give more accurate depiction of indentured servitude.
  • Irish Indentured Labour in the Caribbean. Michael Mahoney. The National Archives. March 11, 2013. Accessed 6/20/17

Index Page 553 / Religious toleration / OF /
  • In the index, the term “religious toleration” directs the reader to page 31. This omits the first occurrence of the term back on page 21. In fact the term is highlighted in the text on page 21 and not highlighted, and harder to locate, on page 31. Confusing.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations Page 22, Inset on Slavery / The Atlantic Slave TradeNew slaves were people first captured in Africa by members of a different tribe. Then they were marched to stone fortresses along the coast of West Africa where they were sold to European slave traders. / OF /
  • There is no mention anywhere of the essential role that Muslims played in the Atlantic slave trade.
  • See the following sources for the place of Islam in the history of slavery:Baroness Caroline Cox and Dr. John Marks, This Immoral Trade –Slavery in the 21stCentury, Monarch Books (Oxford, UK, etc, 2006), pp.124; 143. Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture,( NY: BasicBooks, 1994), p.188.Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East(“Slavery”), Oxford University Press (Oxford, NYC, 1990), pp.11-12; 52-53; Murray Gordon,Slavery in the Arab World, (New York:New Amsterdam, 1989), p. 232); Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade. (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997), p.46.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations: Colonial Government
Page 25 / The Pilgrims were “separatists” who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England—the official Protestant church. They believed the Church of England could not be reformed and wanted to separate from it. To worship God in their own way, many of them moved to Holland. / HT/OF /
  • Because the Church of England is an arm of the government, the separatists were guilty of treason. And therefore they were subject to persecution by the government for that crime, worshiping in their chosen faith.
  • Thus – “To worship God in their own way, many of them moved to Holland.” – would be more accurate if the authors added the information about the separatists wanting to be able to worship safe from persecution.

Chapter 1: Colonial Foundations: Religion in the 13 Colonies
Page 31 / Several of the colonies were established so that the colonists might worship God in their own way. The Pilgrims went to Plymouth and the Puritans went to Massachusetts Bay for this reason. / OF /
  • The authors give no reason why the colonists had to leave their homes in order to “worship God in their own way.”

Ch01: page 3 of 30, paragraph 9 / 9. English settlement had a harmful effect on Native Americans. Colonists took away their land while new diseases reduced their population / HT /
  • The statement is misleading because the Native American had no concept of land ownership per se.

Ch 01: page 8/30 right column, line 5 / Fishing was successful in New England because of large numbers of cod, mackerel, and halibut swam in the ocean waters nearby / OF /
  • The historic fishing area of the Atlantic Ocean’s Grand Banks needs to be mentioned here.

Ch01: page12/30 The Atlantic Slave Trade / New slaves were people first captured in Africa by members of a different tribe / OF/HT /
  • What is omitted is the role of Islamic slave traders who organized the raids of strong tribes against their weaker neighbors. The practice has been going on for a thousand years and continues to the present day.
  • “Islam’s Black Slaves” Ronald Segal Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2001 Chap. 6

Ch 01 page 12/30 / Picture showing slaves being moved, linked together by neck collars / OF/B /
  • Author fails to point out the Muslim slave driver in a turban with the whip.

Ch01 page 22/30 / Section on “The Great Awakening” / OF /
  • Christianity is currently ridiculed in academia and our historical slavery condemned. But it should be pointed out that it was Christian ethics that considered slavery wrong that brought it to an eventual end in the West (yet it is still practiced in Islam).

Ch02 page 9/24 left column / Re: General Thomas Wolfe: “After a 15 minute battle the next day, the French were defeated and the British captured Quebec”. / OF /
  • It is an egregious historical error to omit the fact that General Wolfe lost his life during the battle and is Lionized as “The Hero of Quebec”.

Ch03 Page 7/34 Square of “Colonial and British Forces” / “Soldiers had to insert a bullet, push it with a ramrod, add gunpowder from a cartridge, and fire the musket with a spark that came from a flintlock.” / FE /
  • The order is incorrect:one needs to insert the powder first and THEN insert the bullet and use the ramrod.

Ch 04 page 18/26 / An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom / OF /
  • It needs to be emphasized that Thomas Jefferson’s bill to break the stranglehold of the Church of England in Virginia with his “The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom” paved the way for the tradition of religious freedom and the separation of church and state in the entire United States.
  • “The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom” Petersen/Vaughn, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Ch 05 page19/42, left column / Congress has no power to say what children should learn in school / OF /
  • The Federal Department of Education intervenes in local education by offering grants to school districts and attaching strings that mandate standards, content, and massive reporting requirements

Ch 05, p 150 (27/42)
Left column / “This provision states that government can take property for a valid public use….” / OF /
  • Presently the government considers condemning private property and turning it over to private developers whose projects may result in higher tax revenue has become a “valid public use”

Ch 05 P 154 / While it is true we cannot judge those in the past by today’s standards. / HT/B /
  • Slavery is condoned and practiced in Islam to the present day, yet there is no condemnation of them by those who continually criticize the founding fathers for slave ownership two centuries ago, nor is there any recognition that our Christian ethics was what finally ended slavery in the West.

Ch 08: page 226, left column / The system of capitalism depends on having governments that enforce laws and protect private property. / HT /
  • The capitalist system depends more on the culture of ethics and trust among the citizens. Without that what’s written in the commercial codes has little effect. Dishonest and untrustworthy people will ruin a business very quickly.

Ch 8 Page 232 / Whole section on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Americans / B /
  • Entire section is making a minor issue a major theme, exposing the author’s politically correct agenda.

Ch 8 p 230 / “the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion / S /
  • The author is taking the statement out of context of the Treaty with Tripoli.” It is meant to convey from the US point of view that the context of the Treaty was drawn between two nation states and was not to have religious implications. The references to “inalienable rights endowed by their creator” contradicts the author’s indirect assertion that our country is purely secular.

Chapt. 11 p. 311,
1st column, last para. / Emerson also encouraged the work of the famous poet Walt Whitman. This gay writer was born on Long Island in 1819. His family later moved to Brooklyn. / S /
  • The column is about the beauty of Whitman’s poetry. The Reviewer suggests that his personal habits are not appropriate for this text and should not be included in the text.

Chapt. 11 p.311,
2nd column, para. 4 / Alcott was an abolitionist and supporter of women’s rights. She never married: “I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls” she once explained, “and never once the least bit with any man.” / S/HT /
  • The focus should be on the achievements of Alcott, not the unsubstantiated suggestion about her sexuality. The innuendo should not be included in the text.
  • “I found no evidence that she was gay, nothing in her correspondence to women that is more intimate in any sexual sense than in letters to men, and I don’t think such a passionate woman was asexual.”

Chapt. 12 p. 328
2nd column, para 2 / Overseers were usually paid by how much they made their slaves produce. Most had no sympathy at all for how the slaves felt as human beings. / S /
  • The publisher does not show documentation to back up the statement that “most had no sympathy at all for the how the slaves felt as human beings. This appears to be an editorial opinion presented as fact.The Reviewer recommends that it be removed.

Chapt. 12 p 329 question # 3 / How could people who otherwise believed in liberty and human rights, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, have permitted such a system / S /
  • The term “permitted” implies that Washington and Jefferson gave their consent to the practice of slavery. The Reviewer suggests a rewrite of the entire sentence. “Individuals like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who believed in liberty and human rights, reluctantly went along with the system of slavery.”
  • “There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.”
  • Skousen, W. Cleon. The Real George Washington. National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2009. p.447
  • In 1776, Thomas Jefferson compiled a formula which would have eliminated slavery in one generation (by 1800).
  • Skousen, W. Cleon. The Making of America. National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2007. p. 729