What are we teaching students about 9/11 & the War on Terror? : a survey of introduction to American government textbooks

Abstract

The 9/11 terrorist attacks are one of the most important political events to happen to the United States in the last several decades. This paper explores how a number of popular college Introductory American Government textbooks portray the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror. We examine which issues these textbooks cover and which ones they omit. We also explore the extent and the tone of the coverage. The resulting data will help give us a picture of what we are teaching students in Introduction to American Government classes about 9/11 and the ongoing threat of terrorism.