ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how early adolescents evaluate significance in American history, and how they use history to create a sense of collective identity. Ideas of historical significance are cultural constructs transmitted to members of a society in a variety of ways. Schooling is one important forum for this transmission—a site where contending forces in the culture try to influence what history will be publicly commemorated. The findings highlight the extent to which understanding history as the image of an idea is both appealing and problematic. Students often described events in terms of fairness or freedom and of their contribution to the improvement of social relations or individual opportunity. The progressive development and extension of American rights and opportunities was the most frequently mentioned theme in students’ responses and many students consciously and explicitly described such events as part of an ongoing and significant process in American history.
