Analysis

Within my textbook, I covered information regarding government spending. This information included: Foreign and Domestic events and how they effected spending, how national debt increased during Bush and Obama, how this spending affected daily life, and how people's voting changed because of government spending. Although these topics are broad, I felt they covered relative information in a logicial, easy-to-follow order.

Foreign relations was a large part of this time period because we were in the middle of a war with Iraq. In addition to this, I added information on what Bush called the "Axis of Evil" and how they were gaining nuclear capabilities. All of our actions in foreign affairs cost billions of dollars and added to our national debt. Domestic Issues during this time period began to worry the public as well. In response to a failing economy, the government began to pour trillions of dollars into the failing financial institutions. This section also covers Hurricane Katrina, a natural disaster which devastated a whole city during the Bush presidency. The national debt section of the textbook covers spending in all categories under both presidencies, and how this spending affected the national debt. I put two sections, one for Bush and one for Obama, so readers could see how the two presidents are very similar in their spending. I also added a short sentence at the end to show how this spending is not sustainable. With all this information on increases in government spending, I felt it was important to add a section on how it affected daily life for most individuals. Things such as the housing bubble and the recession could be attributed to this spending. I did add a small section about technology growth, because technology is such a large part of everyday life and its presence is increasing. Finally my section on elections focuses on how people's perceptions of the government affected their voting habits. Spending in the government can be attributed to both the election of Obama and the election of Scott Brown in Massachusettes.

Although I tried to cover as much information about US History as possible, it is not possible to include everything. So much happens across the country on local, statewide, and national levels that affect our daily life that no one textbook could cover every aspect. Instead, my textbook focuses on how spending in the federal government changed in the years 2005-2009. Information may have also been left out by controversial issues. Different perspectives on issues may lead to different information. For example, some people may argue that the housing bubble was not the primary factor of the recession. This would cause bias in my textbook as it provides information on how I believe the US changed in these years. Finally, my personal biases may have affected what information I included in the textbook. While I tried to include information benefiting both sides of any issue, my way of seeing things may have blinded me from seeing the importance of certain situations.