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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Japan, the Japanese people, and Japanese- Americans enter the pages of American history textbooks only in treatments of World War II, which, together with the American Revolution, constitutes the high water mark of American triumphalism. At a time when Japanese textbooks are subject to intense public scrutiny for their treatment of the war and colonialism, it is appropriate to examine their American counterparts. Like the treatments of wartime foes in the textbooks of other nations, these reveal as much about dominant American nationalism and chauvinism as they do about Japan and the Japanese. Here I consider two of the primary – and most contested – issues discussed in 19 textbooks spanning the years 1958 to 2000 and including many of the most influential among both high school and college textbooks.
1. *Leon H. Canfield and Howard B. Wilder, The Making of Modern America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958.
2. Richard Current, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel, American History: A Survey. New York. Alfred A. Knopf, 1961.
3. Thomas A. Bailey, The American Pageant: A History of the Republic, 2nd edition. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961.
4. Lewis Paul Todd and Merle Curti, Rise of the American Nation, 2nd edition. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966.
5. Dexter Perkins and Glyndon G. Van Deusen, The United States of America: A History. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
6. John Garraty, The American Nation: A History of the United States, 5th edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
7. *Herbert J. Bass, George A. Billias, and Emma Jones Lapsansky, Our American Heritage. Morristown, N.J.: Silver Burdett, 1983.
8. Stephan Thernstrom, A History of the American People. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984.
9. Mary Beth Norton, David M. Katzman, Paul D. Escott, Howard P. Chudacoff, Thomas G. Paterson, William M. Tuttle, and William J. Brophy, A People and a Nation: A History of the United States, brief edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
10. *Henry Graff, America: The Glorious Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985.
11. Bernard Bailyn, Robert Dallek, David Brion Davis, David Herbert Donald, John L. Thomas, and Gordon S. Wood, The Great Republic: A History of the American People, 3rd edition. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1985.
12. *James West Davidson and Mark H. Lytle, A History of the Republic. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1986.
13. Gary B. Nash and Julie Roy Jeffrey, The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
14. *Lewis Paul Todd and Merle Curti. Triumph of the American Nation. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
15. Arthur S. Link, Stanley Coben, Robert V. Remini, Douglas Greenberg, and Robert C. McMath, Jr., The American People: A History, 2nd edition. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1987.
16. Paul Boyer, Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, Thomas Purvis, Harvard Sitkoff, and Nancy Woloch, The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1990.
17. Robert Kelley, The Shaping of the American Past, combined edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1990.
18. *Joy Hakim, War, Peace, and All That Jazz. Book Nine, A History of US. New York: Oxford University Press.
19. Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. 3rd edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
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