The Code of Hammurabi : A Case Study

This case study shows that a widely used U. S. Government high school textbook puts an ancient King of Babylon on the same level as American founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The research study finds that the assertion that the Hammurabi Code is an underlying document of the United States-as millions of American high school students are being taught today-is not correct. The U.S. Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the founding documents of the United States. The study challenges the claim by both legalists and religionists to the presumed importance of this ancient code to the foundations of American government-now and in the past. It warns that historical revisionism of this type poses a threat to U.S. national security at a time when American values are being challenged abroad, especially in the Middle East. It finds no overall uniform oversight or coordination of parties at all levels involved in high school textbook content. The present system for fully reviewing textbooks and curricula-a combination of publishers, school boards, issue-blind teachers and academics, government and national security agencies-is not working. Unless corrected, the foundations of freedom and democracy and the Judeo-Christian spiritual values upon which they are built will continue to be seriously eroded in the nation's high schools.