Haigh, Aidan Geoffrey2020-09-292020-09-292020https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2575461 pagesIn the past century, Americans have worked to define their national identity in public debates about American history textbooks. My thesis explores how conservatives have hijacked these debates to promote an uncomplicated, sanitized, and sanctimonious vision of American nationalism. I analyze public discussions about American history textbooks in each of the three “culture wars” waged over history education in the last century. In each instance, progressives advocated that history texts ought to offer more diverse narratives and accurately explain the United States’ oppression of black people. In response, conservatives repeatedly incited public outrage that these narratives undermined American exceptionalism. Their arguments stifled progressives’ efforts. Conservatives launched these cultural attacks because diversified textbooks contravened history texts’ original purpose: to promote a whitewashed narrative of American history that valorized a racially exclusive national identity. This crusade against textbook reform represented an important pillar of the conservative backlash against black Americans’ civil rights gains in the twentieth century by sustaining the racial barriers placed on American nationalism.en-USPolitical ScienceHistoryAmerican HistoryTextbooksNationalismRaceConservative BacklashCulture WarsAmerican EducationNarrativeThesis/Dissertation