Textbook publishers are under attack for producing books that are superficial in content and oversimplified or confusing in language. They respond that their products are the inevitable result of applying the many textbook selection formulas to book production. Efforts by educators to improve textbooks are currently being organized. (PGD)

United States history as a linchpin in the school curriculum and as a potentially exciting, sometimes electrifying, subject was the conviction underlying this analysis of U.S. history textbooks. This assessment investigates the capacity of leading U.S. social studies and history textbooks to inspire the imagination of students through effective…