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Citation: 

Nash, Gary B. "The 'Convergence' Paradigm in Studying Early American History in the Schools." In Knowing, Teaching, and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, edited by Peter N. Stearns, Peter Seixas and Sam Wineburg, 102-20. New York: New York University Press, 2000.

Abstract/Summary: 

This article traces the interpretive development of America’s colonial period as seen through the work of academic historians and history textbooks.  The author illustrates that history textbooks were decades behind the findings that the early colonial period was not an ordained conquest over lesser beings, but a “tricultural interaction” between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans.  Learning about this interaction, he argues, is central for understanding the multiple layers of America’s beginnings.

Source/Credit: 
Samantha Cutrara