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Laura Shortridge

When I was younger, I studied certain school subjects from American textbooks. They were very good, but they tended to have a problem – they really liked to only focus on and talk about America and Americans, with particular focus on American accomplishments. It’s not that they denied the accomplishments of other nations; they just didn’t bother focusing on them much. If you didn’t look to any other sources for your information, you could be forgiven for believing Americans invented absolutely everything that ever existed, made every scientific discovery that ever mattered, and single-handedly won every war they ever fought in.

At the time, because I was aware of the bias these textbooks carried, and because I resented that bias, (I’m not American, why do I have to only ever learn about Americans?) I made a point of looking to other sources. As a result, I was pretty sure that I had a good, well-rounded view on history and the various roles different nations played.

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