In the 1940s textbook author Harold Rugg had come under criticism from business and patriotic groups who accused his books of being too negative about American history (Zimmerman, 2002, p. 55). Rugg was lambasted for “class-based” or even “socialist” views of the constitution, industrialization, and the Great Depression” (Zimmerman, p. 56). In 1941 the American Legion, and other patriotic and veteran’s groups essentially declared war on Harold Rugg’s books. The National Association of Manufacturers, Advertising Federation of America and other groups and individuals were united against Rugg. Negative brochures were printed and spread about his books (Zimmerman, p. 67)

“After 1994, however, “culture wars” increasingly connoted battles about race, ethnicity, and patriotism. One catalyst for this change was the controversy over national history standards in the schools, which burst across America’s front pages in late 1994 and early 1995. From the former secretary of education William Bennett to the talk-show impresario  Rush Limbaugh, conservatives charged that the proposed standards besmirched America’s image by inflating both the achievements and the oppression of racial minorities and women. On the other side stood professional historians and school teacher, who argued that the new standards provided a more complete picture of the nation- and might even inspire students to address its persistent problems. By 1996 an avalanche of new books had made “culture wars” nearly synonymous with this struggle over multiculturalism in schools and universities. Right-wing critics accused scholarly radicals of imposing an “anti-American” dogma of “political correctness” on the classroom. On the left, some authors urged a revamped defense of against the conservative challenge; others warned that the entire multicultural issue was diverting the country from more pressing matters, especially economic inequality.(p.216)  “As its closest chroniclers have acknowledged, the 1994-1995 battle over national history standards was largely a “media event” fought by elite politicians, journalists, and professors rather than by citizens in local communities.” (p. 217) 

• Source Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn – History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Knopf, 1997). 

“Unlike the question of history standards, the prayer issue continues to embroil local communities as well, especially in the South. (p. 218) School officials reported that the majority of parental complaints about local curricula concerned moral or religious subjects, not racial ones. (p.219)