Overview

School textbooks in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds are filled with anti-Western and anti-Israel propaganda. Most readers will be shocked to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. Did you know that ""there is no record of any important Jewish contribution to the sciences?"" (World Civilizations, Thomson Wadsworth). Or that ""Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus?"" (The World, Scott Foresman/Pearson). Supplemental materials and other classroom influences are even worse. The Trouble with Textbooks exposes the poor scholarship and untruths in textbooks about Jews and Israel. The problems uncovered in this ground-breaking analysis are instructive, and illustrate the need for reform in the way textbooks are developed, written, marketed, and distributed. Substitute another area—how we teach American history, Western civilization, or comparative religion—and we have another, equally intriguing case study. The Trouble with Textbooks shows what can go terribly wrong in discussing religion, geography, culture, or history—and in this case—all of them. The Trouble with Textbooks tells a cautionary tale for all readers, whatever their background, of how textbooks that Americans depend on to infuse young people with the values for good citizenship and to help acculturate students into the multicultural salad that is American life, instead disparage some groups and teach historical distortions. With millions of young people using these textbooks each year, the denigration of some should be a concern for all.

Full Product Details

9780739130940

Table of Contents

Reviews

The Trouble with Textbooks is a very important book not only for Jews but for the entire Christian community. This volume is an excellent tool for anyone who is interested in balanced information that is fair and reliable concerning Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.--Rev. John J. Keane

One of my greatest challenges in the university classroom is to teach critical thinking. Most undergraduates, though, consider the course textbook revealed truth and refuse to question it. The Trouble with Textbooks reveals that what passes for academic writing must be challenged.--Dollinger, Marc

Author Information

Gary A. Tobin is the president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and the author of The UnCivil University: Politics and Propaganda in American Education. Dennis R. Ybarra is a research associate at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research.

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