Study finds influential textbooks labeled American actions as imperialist, contradicting American exceptionalism
LAWRENCE — The ideology of American exceptionalism has long held that the United States is and has been exceptional throughout its history, not making the same mistakes or perpetuating the same evils of other world powers. Yet a new study from the University of Kansas has found that influential history textbooks have long argued that America acted as an empire, especially in the late 19th century.
Stephen Jackson, assistant professor of educational leadership & policy studies at KU, has published a study in which he analyzed world history textbooks used in Texas high schools from the 1920s through 2016. He found the books commonly referred to American actions as imperialistic, which seemingly contradicts the concept of American exceptionalism.
In his analysis, Jackson found that while the language used varied over decades, it either argued those actions were aberrant and not consistent throughout the country’s history, or that such imperialism brought ‘civilizing’ influences with it, and therefore was not the same as European imperial activity throughout history.
The study was born from Jackson’s 2023 book “The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920-2021.”
“That book was looking at the key narratives in world history. A central question I had in the book was how textbooks portrayed modern empire-building,” Jackson said. “I thought I was going to see accounts only of European imperialism, but American actions kept coming up. Americans don’t tend to like that word, empire, so I wondered why American actions kept coming up in comparison to European imperialism?”
For both the book and journal article, Jackson analyzed world history textbooks used in Texas classrooms.
“Texas makes a really good case study. They were one of the first to adopt world history in their state curriculum,” Jackson said. “And they’re a very large state, so for most of the 20th century they were very influential in the books that were used across the country.”
World history as a class emerged just after World War I. Before that, classes such as general history tended to be the norm. For the study, Jackson analyzed books in three periods: Origins during the ‘20s and ‘30s, post-World War II to the ‘70s and from the ‘80s to the present. Language in textbooks throughout indicated that American actions, especially in acquiring Hawaii, actions in the Philippines and the Spanish-American war were imperialistic.
Analysis showed that during the 1920s, there was a general acceptance that the United States took similar actions to European empires, but there was little mention of non-European peoples in these texts. In some cases, criticism of imperialism grew in the 1930s.
“World history textbooks have historically largely portrayed imperialism as a means of spreading ‘civilization’ or ‘modernity’ to Asia, Africa and South America,” Jackson said. “Textbooks accepted that this was America’s obligation, to bring ‘civilization’ to the world.”
Textbooks in the post-World War II era tended to take a triumphalist narrative even as European empires began to crumble in the era of decolonization, and gradually included additional content on places such as Asia, China, Palestine, India and other regions in which America became involved, Jackson found. The narrative tended to shift away from the idea that the U.S. was “westernizing” the world but clung to the idea the nation’s actions had an overall positive effect.
“The narrative became a bit less triumphalist, less auspicious, acknowledging that maybe the people of the Philippines didn’t want us there, but we built roads and schools, and that we eventually gave them their freedom, so it was OK,” Jackson said.
The third era, from the 1970s to the present, saw the rise of state standards and conservative voices taking control of Texas educational boards. Jackson said he expected to see less language about American empire in textbooks from the era, yet by the ‘90s the books were explicitly saying the United States took imperialist actions. However, others used terms like “expansionism” instead of imperialism or argued that America’s empire was far superior to European empires and therefore exceptional in its own right.
While books of the era recognized American imperialistic actions, there tended to be a narrative of exceptional imperialism, he said.
The study, published in the journal Pedagogica Historica, helps provide an understanding of how America’s actions on the world stage have been taught in world history classrooms over the last century. While the inclusion of language about American empire seems to contradict the idea of American exceptionalism, Jackson points out that imperialistic actions tended to be excused through an idea of “exceptional imperialism.”
Future research is needed to understand more about how teachers teach the idea of American exceptionalism and empire and how students conceptualize it as part of America’s place in the world, Jackson said, but influential textbooks have been pushing against the idea of exceptionalism, even as they use it to excuse such actions.
“Framing U.S. imperial activity as directly comparable to European colonialism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries significantly undercuts the idea of the United States as qualitatively and quantitatively different from modern European colonizing powers,” Jackson wrote. “Textbooks which explained American imperialism as an aberrant episode in American history implicitly accept that the United States was acting like any other major power in the era of imperialism, undercutting the supposedly unique trajectory of American history. Alternatively, the textbook case for American exceptional imperialism justifies U.S. rule by appealing to the civilizing mission.
“Dressing up American imperialism as exceptional, therefore, merely reproduces European rhetorical justifications for empire.”