The Social Studies Wars, Now and Then, Social Education, Sept, 2006 by Ronald W. Evans, p. 5
"Into the void left by the failure of the new and newer social studies stepped the revival of history in the 1980s. Historian and former assistant secretary of education Diane Ravitch made social studies a scapegoat for the "decline and fall of history teaching," portraying it as a vacuous form of "tot sociology. (21) Ravitch and other critics charged that social studies was poorly defined and directed by fashion. This was largely a revival of the disparaging commentary on social studies from the 1950s and earlier. In essence, the revival of history represented the citizenship education wing of a much larger conservative restoration in schools and society. The movement gathered steam with formation of the Bradley Commission and received substantial funding from the conservative Bradley Foundation. Despite several criticisms of the revival of history from social studies scholars, the response from NCSS leaders was to create a new consensus definition for social studies and to lend support to the standards movement via creation of NCSS standards. (22) The new definition developed by NCSS offered social studies as an umbrella for the teaching of history and the social sciences, and further weakened support for alternative approaches. The net result was an increase in course-taking in history and the social sciences, notably in world history and geography, and a decline in elective social studies offerings."
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