Bruce Zellers a Contributor to New Presidential Debates Book

Longtime Greenhills history teacher and scholar Bruce Zellers recently contributed to a book about the presidential debates called The Idea Guide to the 2012 U.S. Presidential Debates.

The Guide begins with Zellers’s essay, which places presidential debates in an historical context. A series of 17 essays then offer historical background and explain both Romney’s and Obama’s positions on 17 key issues, including Afghanistan, China, education, healthcare, immigration, etc.

“It’s important to put the debates in historical context,” says Zellers.  “Americans tend to think they’ve always been around, when in actuality the first debate was held in 1960.  I think the notion of debates needs to be modified to reflect that they really are a relatively new phenomenon.”

According to Zellers, 80,000 copies of the Guide, which features discussion questions at the end of each chapter, are being used in 1,600 high schools nationwide.

To order a copy of the Guide, click here.