History is important. More than any other topic, it is about us. Whether one deems our present society wondrous or awful or both, history reveals how we got to this point.

It is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit... No one likes to think of him or herself as a bad person. To treat badly another person whom we consider a reasonable human being creates a tension between act and attitude that demands resolution. We cannot erase what we have done, and to alter our future behavior may not be in our interest. To change our attitude is easier.

There's no excuse therefore, for a 1,152 page book. I think we should all be using 300-page paperbacks. These exist.

What gets lost in the textbook is the overall narrative. It gets lost in all the boxes and all the photos and all the little stuff that's stuck in all the time.

The world, of course, doesn't come divided into disciplines. The world just is.

The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.

All of the common core standards stuff about critical reading and critical thinking and so on can only be positive.