A Comparative Study of the "Late Qing History" Text System in Chinese and American High School History Textbooks

Abstract

As the most important vehicle of knowledge in history teaching, the history textbook is the basis and prerequisite for successful history education. As the foundational structure in history textbooks, the text systematically presents a complete as well as comprehensive overview of the historical process, reflecting important events, people, and phenomena in the development of history. It defines the depth and breadth of the content of history instruction in order to safeguard the goal of teaching history as a nurturing and developing subject. In both countries, the history of the late Qing Dynasty has a relatively important place in high school history teaching, but the selection of knowledge points and the presentation of ideas in the content of the history of the late Qing Dynasty have their own distinctive characteristics. Therefore, this paper aims to present the differences between the content of the two editions of "History of the Late Qing Dynasty" through a comparison of the content selection and presentation of historical events in the Chinese and American textbooks, and to touch upon the root causes behind the differences.