The Treatment of Economic Issues in High School Government, Sociology, U.S. History and World History Texts.

This article presents information about a report on the findings of four separate studies which analyze the economic content of leading high school texts in World History, U.S. History, Sociology, and Government. Each study assesses the economic issues discussed in the books, presents the correct economic analysis of each issue, and compares this analysis with that found in the books. Each of the four reports documents different errors. Some errors are of a technical nature. Others reflect a more profound misunderstanding of the way in which markets operate. The most numerous and serious errors occurred in the discussions of labor markets. The most common mistakes were in the area of historical facts. All four U.S. History texts and five of the six World History texts stated that the industrial revolution in Europe and the U.S. widened the gap between low and high income persons by making the workers poorer while a few industrialists grew rich. Except in one World History book, there is little appreciation of the fact that in a market system, industrialists grow rich because they offer workers and consumers better terms of trade than they had before. Although the authors always extol the virtues of competition, they seem to be afflicted with considerable confusion about its nature and doubt about its durability. The most common view, expressed in all four U.S. History books, is that there is a tendency for competitive industries to be monopolized through unfair practices.