Frances Fitzgerald's Essay Rewriting American History

Frances Fitzgerald, in her essay “Rewriting American History” (1979) asserts that history textbooks are changing too quickly. She supports her assertion by including informative anecdotal evidence, reflective diction, and witty irony. Fitzgerald’s purpose is to encourage people in control of history textbooks to be more objective in order to provide students with a more consistent knowledge of history. She adopts a sarcastic tone (“Poor Columbus”) for her audience of textbook publishers, textbook writers, teachers, and school-board members.

Appendix:

Type of Evidence: Anecdotal

Example(s): “... begins with the story of how Henry B. Gonzalez, who is a member of Congress from Texas, learned about his own nationality” (para. 3); “In addition, there is a mystery man called Crispus Attucks, a fugitive slave about whom nothing seems to be known for certain except that he was a victim of the Boston Massacre and thus became one of the first casualties of the American Revolution” (para. 4).

By using anecdotes throughout her argument, Fitzgerald is able to emphasize the amount of incongruities that history textbooks have, which ultimately, supports her original claim. Some people learn about battles and wars, while others analyze the people who lived during that time, and the relationships that were intertwined around every concept. This helps develop a witty tone since history is all stories. She does this purposely to appeal to logos, and truly think about how much control they have over the knowledge of kid’s in schools nowadays. Fitzgerald is effective with this evidence since she aims it directly towards the audience’s trust, in order to establish her sense of credibility. In doing so, the audience is more likely to take her advice and truly reflect on history