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One, for instance, contains a picture of a doll half buried in a mass of untreated sewage; the caption reads, "Are we in danger of being overwhelmed by the products of our society, and wastage created by their production?" Two books show the same picture of an old black woman sitting in a straight chair in a dingy room, her hands folded in graceful resignation; the surrounding text discusses the problems faced by the urban poor and by the aged who depend on Social Security. Other books present current problems less starkly. One of the texts concludes sagely:
例如，一本書以一幅布娃娃半個身子被埋在污水坑里的圖片來說明問題，圖片說明文字則寫道：“我們是否會被我們社會所生產的產品及生產過程中所產生的垃圾所淹沒？”另有兩本書選擇了一張相同的圖片，昏喑的房間里一位黑人婦女坐在一張直背椅上，雙手交疊，姿勢得體卻透著無奈；圖片周邊段落討論的是城市貧民和依靠養老金度日的老年人所面臨的問題。其他書中對當前社會問題的呈現方式則略為溫和。某本教材在結尾處語重心長地說：
Problems are part of life. Nations face them, just as people face them, and try to solve them. And today's Americans have one great advantage over past generations. Never before have Americans been so well equipped to solve their problems. They have today the means to conquer poverty, disease, and ignorance. The technetronic age has put that power into their hands.
問題本是生活的一部分。正如每個人都要面對問題一樣，一個國家也要面對問題并嘗試解決它們。今天的美國與過去相比有一個顯著優勢，那就是美國人比以往任何時候都要裝備精良。今天的美國人有足夠的辦法去解決貧困、疾病以及無知等問題。技術時代為他們提供了解決問題的能力。
Such passages have a familiar ring. Amid all the problems, the deus ex machina of science still dodders around in the gloaming of pious hope.
這樣的話在教材中比比皆是。在問題面前，美國人仍然希塑科學之神能夠從天而降，神奇地解決一切問題，但這樣的愿望虛無縹渺、不切實際。
Even more surprising than the emergence of problems is the discovery that the great unity of the texts has broken. Whereas in the fifties all texts represented the same political view, current texts follow no pattern of orthodoxy. Some books, for instance, portray civil-rights legislation as a series of actions taken by a wise, paternal government; others convey some suggestion of the social upheaval involved and make mention of such people as Stokely Carmichael and Malcolm X. In some books, the Cold War has ended; in others, it continues.
比在教科書中看到美國社會種種問題更讓人吃驚的是教材之間的統一性被破壞殆盡。50年代所有的教材呈現的是同一個政治觀點，但如今的教材中卻再難覓統一的正統觀點。比如，公民權利的立法保障在一些書中被描述成是一個如父親般慈愛的政府所采取的一系列措施，但在另一些書中卻隱含社會動亂，并出現了諸如斯托克利·卡邁克爾和馬爾克姆·X等人的名字。冷戰，在一些書中已然結束，在另一些書中卻還在繼續。
The political diversity in the books is matched by a diversity of pedagogical approach. In addition to the traditional narrative histories, with their endless streams of facts, there are so-called "discovery," or “inquiry" texts, which deal with a limited number of specific issues in American history. These texts do not pretend to cover the past; they focus on particular topics, such as "stratification in Colonial society" or "slavery and the American Revolution," and illustrate them with documents from primary and secondary sources.
與書中多樣化的政治觀點相呼應的還有多元化的教學方式。除了傳統的史實敘述法提供無盡的歷史亊實之外，還有所謂的“發現”和“探究”部分，針對美國歷史上一些特定事件進行討論。這些部分并不試圖去敘述過去的歷史，而是聚焦于諸如“殖民地時期社會的階層分化”和“奴隸制與美國獨立戰爭”等特定話題，并佐以一手或二手資料加以論證。
