This paper examines the controversy generated by the 1994 release of the "National Standards for United States History: Exploring the American Experience (5-12)" and "National Standards for World History: Exploring Paths to the Present (5-12)." The standards engendered protests as conservatives and others charged that it was a "politically correct" document with multiple perspectives, extravagant multiculturalism, and an anti-West bias. Media analysis showed that the more liberal newspapers and magazines supported the new standards with few qualifications and more conservative magazines and journals generally were very negative about the new history standards. The debate became a political focus where the supporters and critics reflected fundamental philosophical differences about U.S. history and world history. The media neglected the questions of whether or not the United States needed standards or if the writing of history is indeed revision. The history standards controversy probably will have an impact on other projects in other fields designing standards, as well as influence the acceptance of other social studies standards. Contains 36 references. (EH)