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Who selected the book? Textbooks are chosen by instructors, not the end users. Publishers have tailored the content to appeal to those making the selection. How does the politics of those individuals affect what you have been given to read?

The book’s audience. If it is a big, colorful book, it is probably aimed at a wide market. If so, what might that say about its content? If it is a smaller book with a narrower focus, who is it trying to appeal to?

The author’s point of view. Does he or she promote particular values or ideas? Are any points of view left out? Do the authors make an effort to cover both sides of an issue or a controversy? If something troubles you, locate the primary source the authors refer to in the footnotes and read it yourself.

Your own reactions. Did the book cause you to look at a subject in a new way? What is the source of your reaction? Is it intellectual or emotional?

1. These two passages accompanied Sam Dillon, “Schools Growing Harsher in Scrutiny of Columbus,” New York Times, October 12, 1992, 4, www.nytimes.com/1992/10/12/us/schools-growing-harsher-in-scrutiny-of-columbus.html. The first paragraph is from Merlin M. Ames, My Country (Sacramento: California State Department of Education, 1947); the second is from John A. Garraty, The Story of America (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991).

2. Frances Fitzgerald, America Revised (New York: Vintage Books, 1979); James McKinley Jr., “Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change,” New York Times, March 12, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html; Laura Moser, “Texas Is Debuting Textbooks That Downplay Jim Crow and Frame Slavery as a Side Issue in the Civil War,” Slate, July 7, 2015, www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2015/07/07/texas_textbook_revisionism_new_textbooks_in_the_lone_star_state_downplay.html.