Dumbed Down, PC Textbooks for History

Today's MSNBC has an interesting article on the political drivers for textbooks:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12705167/?GT1=8199

It's synchronicity that this appeared two days after I posted a review of my son's history textbook, The Americans, by Gerald Danzer, et al. It coverage of WWII has serious deficiencies, largely due to PC-motivated additions and deletions. Here's a quote from my review:

- The Navajo Code-Talkers get their own sidebar on page 579. Their contribution was tactical, not strategic. However, the efforts of codebreakers who defeated Japanese and German encryption (truly war-winning, history-changing contributions) receive no such recognition, despite the pivotal significance of their achievments for the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Atlantic, among others. Major deficiency!

- Many units distinguished themselves in the air war over Germany. Yet while the 8th Air Force receives no mention, for example, page 573 singles out the Tuskagee Airmen as "Heroes in Combat". The same page runs through the major minority units of concern to the book's authors, like a checklist. An all-Mexican unit is mentioned by name, the 101st Airborne is not!

- The effects of this "affirmative action" in history are a disappointment. As a result of it, for example, space is given to another ethic group checklist on page 564, yet no space is found anywhere for mention of the the Guadalcanal Campaign, the beginning and archetype of the Pacific island war. One has political significance. Apparently the other did not.

(the rest of my review is at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0618015337/ref=pd_rvi_gw_3/103-6033827-7135015?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155)

The article refers to a chairwoman of a textbook committee who did not care of the books were "effective", only if they were "correct".

WWII Weekend! June 2-4!!

In a few weeks, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum (www.maam.org) will hold its landmark World War II weekend, in Reading, Pennsylvania. Here's the URL:

http://www.maam.org/maamwwii.html

I've been attending for seven years straiht now, and have never failed to have a wonderful time. Here are some of the cool things worth experiencing:

- Flying examples of period aircraft, such as a B-17, B-24, P-38, P-47, P-51, Val, and dozens of others.
- Re-enactors of German and US forces, with a French village shootout reconstruction!
- Dozens of other men and women in period outfits.
- Veterans of the Ploeste raid and Pearl Harbor, among others, sharing their experiences.
- Home front reconstructions, from period kitchens to cars and even radio broadcasts.
- Displays by veteran and other groups.
- Dozens of tanks, trucks, half-tracks, and camp installations. Awesome stuff!
- Flyovers by B-17s and other planes.
- More vendors of more cool stuff than you can shake a stick at.
- The museum's loving-restored P-61 Black Widow has made great progress, and will be on landing gear display this year!

My children have loved it, my father has, and I have. The ambience is total: when you pay your entrance fee, they stamp "Buy War Bonds" on your hand!

Registration can be done at the gate. Parking is ample, wih regular buses ferrying you in and out. If you have the slightest interest in WWII, the period, or its people, you will love this weekend.

First post!

Welcome. This blog will focus on China past and present, and on the Second World War. They're not necessarily related, but enough points connect them to warrant joining them here. After all, this is a blog, not the Library of Congress.