Gilbert Sewall of the American Textbook Council testified to the Senate in 2003 about the “disturbing” “collaboration of educational publishers with pressure groups and textbook censors.” He described publishers who “cater to pressure groups for whom history textbook content is an extension of a broader political or cultural cause. They make books with content that is meant to suit the sensitivities of groups and causes more interested in self-promotion than in historical fact, scholarly appraisal, or balance.”¹

Of particular concern to Sewall is what he describes as Islamic political action through the “virtually unchecked power” of the Council on Islamic Education over leading publishers of history textbooks. He argues that “for more than a decade, history textbook editors have done the Council’s bidding, and as a result, history textbooks accommodate Islam on terms that Islamists demand.”²

The latest tumult over history textbooks involved two Hindu groups who just this year demanded numerous changes in textbooks adopted in California. These two foundations, the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation, submitted 500 proposed changes to the textbook approval committee in an effort to see textbooks portray Hindu faith and culture more sympathetically. Sam Wineburg, Stanford University professor of education, warns that “Even though the board resisted many of the changes sought by activist groups this time, the conflict could still impact future textbooks with publishers being tempted to soften the content on their own initiative.”³

Find out why secular publishers allow so much censorship of their textbooks.

¹ Gilbert T. Sewall, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Intellectual Diversity (September 24, 2003).
² Gilbert T. Sewall, Islam and the Textbooks (New York: American Textbook Council, 2003), pp. 25-26.
³ Charles Burress, “Hindu groups lose fight to change textbooks but decision by state Board of Education is supported by some Hindu Americans,” San Francisco Chronicle (March 10, 2006).

• The Textbook Trap
  • Do secular textbooks have errors?
  • Errors in science textbooks
  • Errors in history books
  • Examples of errors in secular textbooks
• The “Authors”
  • Who’s writing the secular textbooks?
  • How are secular textbooks compiled?
  • Why are textbooks compiled this way?
  • What happens when textbooks have no author?
• Censorship
  • How do secular publishers handle censorship?
  • Conservative Christian groups
  • Liberal and special interest groups
• What are they thinking?
  • Why do secular publishers do what they do?
  • The way it used to be in textbook publishing
  • The way it is now
• An Insider's Disclosure
  • What does an insider have to say about secular publishers and their agenda?
• Higher Standards
  • Measuring Christian textbooks against secular criteria
  • Informative articles on Christian education