Hotly debated, attacked, and defended, multiculturalism has become a pervasive topic in contemporary American society, especially in the nation's schools. Despite its merits in bringing questions about ethnic diversity and national unity to the fore, this debate sorely lacks historical perspective, a shortcoming that Learning History in America seeks to correct. As it extends recent discussions about multiculturalism into the sphere of contemporary historical understanding, this book sets out explicitly to explore the practical and theoretical implications of these discussions for people who learn and teach history in the United States.

Mary Beth Norton, Dominick LaCapra, Ariel Dorfman, and Frances FitzGerald are among the authors gathered here, all of whom share a concern over how Americans learn the history of both their own society and other cultures in the world. University and secondary-school teachers, political journalists and textbook authors, an analyst of historical films, and a novelist, these writers use their personal experiences to analyze problems of historical understanding in American classrooms, popular films, and political conflicts. Drawing on new forms of historical knowledge and stressing the historical processes that create this knowledge, their essays recommend new ways to teach history in the academic curriculum, suggest critical perspectives for viewing the historical "lessons" conveyed by films or politicians, and insist on the important role that history—and historians—should play in public culture.