The 'Counter-Textbooks' Offering Kids a Radical Look at History

Throughout the promotion of Beacon Press’ ReVisioning American Historyseries–in which each book tells the nation’s story through the lens of a marginalized group–the authors kept getting the same question, usually from a teacher: Is there a version of this for kids?

“They are hungry for resources,” says Beacon senior editor Joanna Green. “They know their students want something that’s more radical.”

So Beacon is responding, starting with A Queer History of the United States for Young People. The adapted version of a 2011 book by Michael Bronski, released in time for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising this month, is full of stories of people who prove that issues of gender and sexuality have always been part of the American narrative. In July, the series will continue with a YA adaptation of ReVisioning‘s take on the indigenous perspective. And these aren’t the only books offering students a different take on the stereotypical textbook version of the American past. Separately, the New Press published the first young readers’ edition of James W. Loewen’s 1995 classic, Lies My Teacher Told Me, in April.