"Schlesinger's Canon Vs. My High School's Canon" In school, whether it be at the high school or college levels, there are usually lists of books thought as being essential reading. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.--a Pulitzer Prize winning historian--calls this list in his book The Disuniting of America, a "canon" or "canonical literature." A problem exists with this canon, at least Schlesinger claims there is. He states that the canon is being used "as an instrument of European oppression enforcing the hegemony of the white race, the male sex, and the capitalist class…" From my hig