The Great Textbook War: Opening Shots in the Culture Wars
Posted by Tell No Lies on April 30, 2010
Sometimes the struggle over ideology becomes the main arena in the class struggle.
from WNYC
Trey Kay’s documentary on the fight over school textbooks in west Virginia in the 1970s has just won a Peabody award. This fight was contemporaneous with the Coalminer’s Gas Protest which Mike Ely participated in and has written on.
The Great Textbook War
April 20, 2010 —In 1974, Kanawha County, West Virginia was the first battleground in the American culture wars. Controversy erupted over newly-adopted school textbooks. School buildings were hit by dynamite and Molotov cocktails, buses were riddled with bullets and surrounding coal mines were shut down by protesting miners. Textbook supporters thought they would introduce students to new ideas about multiculturalism. Opponents felt the books undermined traditional American values. The controversy extended well beyond the Kanawha Valley. The newly-formed Heritage Foundation found a cause to rally an emerging Christian conservative movement. This documentary, recent winner of the Peabody award, tells the story of that local confrontation and the effect that it had on the future of American politics.
The documentary is available from West Virginia Public Broadcasting below in 3 parts:
Karl said
For the “rest of the story” see http://www.insectman.us/testimony/protester-voices.htm.