The New York Times has an interesting article called "Where’s Mao? Chinese Revise History Books" about Senior year "History" books in Shanghai. What should be in a History textbook is an issue that every Society has to deal with.
IMO, I think it's healthy to question any official History. History textbooks for high school tends to be very filtered and watered down. Often it's not done to follow any Political agenda as much as there is a space limitation for the book and for the class. for example, American History covers over 200 years, how do you Cram that in two to three hundred pages? In China, it seems to have a lot to do with the current Message that the current Gov't wants to deliver. If it's a "Social Studies" class, then it has more to do with a message than actual history.
Back in the day, my high school history teacher, Dr. Kahn, had a discussion about the difference between History and Social Studies. He pointed out that labeling high school Social Studies as a History class might not be accurate.
Personally, when I feel like exploring history, I go to Newspaper microfilm archives in a library (Are they still available??). Even if the newspaper coverage is biased, it's a bias that was current to the time of publishing. Another advantage of reading the old newspapers is looking at the printed advertisements. Go back ten years and it's a completely different world with very different products for sale. The concerns and issues are totally different too. Jump 10 years back each time and you'd be surprised at the changes that have happened just in your life time.
Music I'm listening to right Now:
"Call Me When You're Sober" by Evanescence from the "The Open Door" Album.
