We know that a great many college students need remedial work in English and math, in a desperate attempt to make up for years of neglect and malpractice. The same thing is true with respect to history, as we read in this NAS essay by Hamilton College professor Robert Paquette.

The trouble is rooted in the kind of teaching about history that students receive in high school, and especially if they take AP History. The students are apt to get a big dose of Howard Zinn-inspired history — a “nothing but warts” portrait of American history. Students are also likely to have people teaching their history courses who have “a political axe to grind.” The APUSH standards make things worse.