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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

More fluff than a pillow.

Kathleen

According to Yahoo (and verified by a simple google search) the official US Gov't's White House presidential biography series online is about as hard-hitting as an infant:

"The White House site, http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents, offers one-page summaries of all 44 presidents... Much of the material is taken directly from a companion book by the White House Historical Association first released in 1964 and last reissued in 2009. "The Presidents of the United States of America" is a glossy, illustrated paperback that includes a foreword by President Barack Obama, who writes: "I hope it not only teaches you about America's past, but also ignites a passion to build America's future."

But the White House biographies offer an unusual history lesson. Some are examples of blatant boosterism and outdated scholarship. Others are oddly selective or politically incorrect.

George W. Bush's entry, for example, makes no reference to Hurricane Katrina or the economic collapse of 2008, but does find room for the names of his dogs. .... Vietnam is included on Lyndon Johnson's page (and spelled "Viet Nam"), but not his fateful decision to send ground troops."

I'd like to say I'm surprised by this, but it really is no shock. (I mean, really, if I said "Bloody bloody Andrew Jackson" to someone who had only read this, they would scratch their heads.) I obviously would never reference a .gov website for substantial research, but I think of all the times I used it as a source in middle school....

Anyway, good luck finding more than a paragraphs worth of achievement for Barack Obama (that is, of course, unless the Presidents themselves are allowed to submit their content).
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1 comment:

  1. I think the White House bios do a great job balancing the average public schools history textbook in regard to their treatment of the Presidents (they hate all of them).

    ReplyDelete