William Cheslock
History Faculty, Chatham High School
Chatham, Massachusetts

The authors and publishers of U.S. history books have the awesome responsibility of communicating this nation’s story to young Americans. It should not have to be written that history books should also present valid arguments representing both sides of an issue.

I have begun reviewing twenty U.S. history books that deal with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Since my investigation into this area is new, my data are still raw and not thoroughly organized into the final manuscript I anticipate producing.

I have, however, gathered enough information from these textbooks to share, in general, what American high school students are being told about a very important pivotal point in their nation's history......the assassination of President Kennedy.

Here are two excerpts from the twenty high school history books I have critiqued so far:

Unfortunately, only a TOTAL of seven pages from the twenty books are concerned with the assassination topic. With that limited space, one would hope that the information given would be correct.

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