NEW YORK, Oct. 8 (Xinhua)-- A scholar has found that history textbooks in the United States traditionally came to focus on the experiences of white Americans and downplay the experiences of Black Americans, the Time magazine has reported.

Donald Yacovone, a Harvard University researcher, analyzed 220 history textbooks from 1832 to the present day, and found that textbooks mostly focused on national politics, the magazine reported on Tuesday last week.

The overwhelming majority of the history textbooks "treated the introduction of African Americans in American society as a 'problem,'" Yacovone was quoted by the magazine as saying.

"The further you go into the 20th century, this almost Evangelical theme of 'the problem of a Negro' and how much he needed to be controlled because he was so inept and ignorant became the guiding theme of American history textbooks," Yacovone added.