History's Boring?

It is if you're a student subjected to modern "social studies" textbooks, according to a new study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (www.edexecellence.net). As described in the WSJ's Taste page, as well as in such excellent works as Diane Ravitch's The Language Police, textbooks are written not to teach but to avoid giving offense. They substitute politically correct revisionism for balanced interpretation, and fill pages with illustrations and photographs (but none that might offend!) rather than well-written text.

I note below one result of such dumbed-down works -- journalists who can't place contemporary events in historical context. I own several of my grandfather's old textbooks from his days as an elementary school principal before and after WWII. They're well written, challenging, and surely beyond much anything now in use. Is there a publisher interested in bringing out updated versions of these venerable works?