Timothy Messer-Kruse, a Bowling Green State University (BGSU) professor, recently published a civics textbook designed to meet Ohio’s Department of Higher Education’s new requirements.

These new requirements come from the recent enforcement of Senate Bill 1, one of them being sustained engagement with documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. In his book, “Unpatriotic Civics: An Exploration of Founding Texts That Fulfills the Requirements of Ohio’s Collegiate Civics Law,” Messer-Kruse analyzes these documents and more as products of conflict, exclusion and power, as opposed to timeless expressions of national virtue.

In a book summary on Amazon, the publication recognizes the Declaration of Independence as a product of slavery and imperial panic, the Constitution as a counter-revolutionary settlement and civil rights as unfinished insurgency.

A recent press release notes that this publication comes amid a national push by conservative lawmakers to mandate “patriotic” education in colleges and universities. In the same press release, the book does not refuse compliance with this new law, but instead complies aggressively.

“It fulfills the statutory requirements precisely,” said Messer-Kruse. “But it treated these documents the way historians treat everything else: by asking who wrote them, why and who paid the price.”

For more information on Messer-Kruse and his accomplishments, visit https://blogs.bgsu.edu/tmesser/.

If you’d like to purchase Messer-Kruse’s book, visit https://www.amazon.com/Unpatriotic-Civics-Exploration-Requirements-Collegiate/.