Inspired by this week's (great) Drinking with Historians on evangelicalism with @varsha_venkat_ & @prof_gabriele, I want to share what my homeschooling US history textbook looked like & how Trump's current rhetoric largely mimics whats been taught to evangelical kids for years.

For context: I was homeschooled by latino evangelical immigrant parents k-12. They were unfamiliar with US curriculum so just purchased whatever textbooks were grade level by A Beka. I am now into my third year of a PhD in History and yes it took a LOT of unlearning to get here..

Alright, let's start with the framework of history. Its a Euro-centric, providential view of history that can't be bothered to edit out passive voice: "God, in all His wisdom, allowed America to remain hidden until the Modern Age had dawned in Europe"

As you might imagine, heavy on the Protestant exceptionalism. Views on British colonization of North America is mostly "THANK GOD we got Anglicans over Catholics:"

Lots of views on indigenous folks that can be summarized by:

The civil war is MOSTLY a deep survey of battles with little to no information on social/cultural context but describing the KKK as a secret society who tried to 'improve the situation' really falls in line with that whole 'some very fine people on both sides'

Okay, here we get into the $$$ of it. Capitalism becomes the primary theme of the second half of the textbook. We get entire sections dedicated to oil tycoons & the development of steel and industry: "a nation is free when the people accept responsibility for their own welfare"..

Which dovetails into the 'problems' of the 60s quite nicely. Basically, inner city under-development is BECAUSE of laziness. This is how the section on the Civil Rights Movement begins:

You knew it was coming. Reagan's economic system was a return to traditional American principles "that made America Great."

So I could keep going but my whole point with this thread is to emphasize that 'fringe' ideas circulating in contemporary American discourse (legitimized and used by Trump) is not new and certainly not in evangelical education.