The Pacific War and History Textbooks: How Historians, Educational Research and Government Policies Have Influenced What Students Have Read and Learned About This Event

For decades history textbooks have been the cornerstone for what millions of American students have learned about their nation¿s historic past. Often used as the main source for curriculum by numerous teachers over the years, these massive works are often considered bland and boring by the students forced to read them. Found in nearly every high school history classroom the textbook plays a key role in how students learn their history. Since history textbooks play such an important part in the history education curriculum this study specifically looked at U. S. history textbooks to see how they portrayed the Pacific War (1941-1945) to American students. The research for this project looked at how academic historians wrote about this subject, how social studies/history education professional journals and magazines suggested this topic be taught, and it analyzed educational initiatives to see if any, or all of these areas had an impact on what students found inside their U. S. history textbooks. This study should help those interested in the historiography of the Pacific War as well as being useful to those interested in history education in the United States.