What about our own textbooks?

[Charley Norkus]

The more I read Werner, the more curious I became about our own US History textbook here at Athens. I went through the chapter we are currently using for World War II and took note of the images that the publishers had selected: Hitler at a Nazi rally, a Japanese Zero, a board game for children used to spread Nazi ideals, a button for “America First” isolationists, the cover of Mein Kampf, Stalin smiling and holding a small child, German girls waving Nazi pennants with a caption that states, “Through organizations such as the Hitler Youth for boys and the League of German Girls, young people were indoctrinated with Nazi ideals.” I could not but compare to their counterpart images that could have been offered, and the idea that young people – as well as the old – in America were indoctrinated with American ideals during the same period.