Everyone's history books suck a big one. This is because the past is politicized and our national identities are tied up in our national heritage. I had impeccable history instruction but due to state law, two entire years are devoted to New Mexico state history. Worse, the state mandates a competency test prior to graduation, of which more than 50% of the content is tied to state history. It was fairly common for exchange students to come from Europe, either by themselves or with their theoretical physicist parents, and have their graduation in jeopardy because they didn't expect to be grilled for two hours on the parochial history of a meaningless backwater province. By way of contrast, most American history classes I've seen spend the last week on events between WWI and the Vietnam War... if they're lucky. It's not uncommon for classes running late to pretty much stop at V-J day.