Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Quickly Writing History for Textbooks
Aired October 30, 2001 - 06:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If there's one thing we've learned since September 11, things don't always turned out -- turn out as you might plan.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right, true words are never spoken. But who really expects a surprise ending in an encyclopedia? There's a question for you.
CNN's Bruce Burkhardt has this gentle reminder for us, history has a way of surprising us all, especially those in the book business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): History, while these high school students are studying it, others are writing it quickly.
(on camera): On September 11, students here and most everywhere else stopped their classes to watch TV, not so much studying history as living it. But seldom has history made such a quick jump from TV to textbook.
(voice-over): If news is the first draft of history, then these folks are working on the second draft. They're editors and layout artists for Pearson Prentice-Hall, a major publisher of textbooks, and after that Tuesday morning in September, the cry went out, stop the presses.
MICHAEL STOFF, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: We were in page proofs, which is the penultimate stage of publishing. We were ready to go to press with the book.
BURKHARDT: Michael Stoff is one of the authors of the "American Nation," a history textbook for middle schoolers from Prentice-Hall. The version that was headed to the printers took students right up to the contested presidential election of 2000.
STOFF: We thought that was the story that would end the century. It turns out to be far less important it seems now.
FRANK TANGREDI, PEARSON PRENTICE-HALL: And this row represents what we had originally planned before September 11.
BURKHARDT: Frank Tangredi is a senior editor of the "American Nation," and like so many, felt helpless in the wake of the attacks. That is until he went to a candlelight vigil and overhead a father talking to his infant son.
TANGREDI: But he was talking to his son and he said to the baby, some day you're going to read about this in the history books. I'm sorry. And I turned to him on impulse and I said, we'll see to that.
Yes, this is too horizontal.
BURKHARDT: But publishers also had other more practical reasons to rewrite history in a hurry, competitive pressures.
ANN SMISKO, TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY: We'll be spending about $229 million on social studies for this particular proclamation.
BURKHARDT: The state of Texas is the second largest buyer of textbooks in the country, and it so happens will soon be making their decision on which social studies books they'll use for the next six or seven years.
SMISKO: The curriculum looks to have students learn about events -- quote -- "through the present," and so that will be subject to some, you know, judgment call on the part of the textbook panel.
STOFF: On the evening of September 11, 2001, Americans across the nation gathered in grief. Many people wept openly, some held candles.
BURKHARDT: So begins Dr. Stoff's revisions of the last chapter of the "American Nation." History by definition is something best viewed through the prism of time. How do you do it when there is no time?
STOFF: It was some of the most difficult writing I've ever done. We had already begun developing certain themes that September 11 fit into. Those themes involved large issues like globalism, like the post-Cold War world, which we saw as a world of regional conflict.
TANGREDI: And this last row represents the first page layout that incorporates the changes we made as of September 11.
BURKHARDT: In illustrating the revised version, Tangredi and his team opted not to use dramatic photos of planes crashing into buildings.
TANGREDI: The central image we now have on our opener timeline is of the firefighters raising the flag at the World Trade Center which we felt was a very powerful image we wanted to emphasize.
BURKHARDT: The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Young (ph) once asked, who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood. For these students and the people who prepare their textbooks, maybe history lives in both places.
Bruce Burkhardt, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
