Maintains that, over the past 50 years, the United States has had an unusually close and tumultuous relationship with the United Nations. Provides an historical review of world events since the beginning of the United Nations and describes the U.S. role in the organization. (CFR)

Contends that the end of slavery, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement were watershed events of social justice in U.S. history. Provides reviews of two media-based sets of instructional materials that can help students understand the struggle by disenfranchised groups to become full participants in society. (CFR)

Asserts that the Civil Rights is the clearest and most accessible example of nonviolent resistance to injustice in U.S. history. Discusses two common misperceptions among students about the Civil Rights movement. Presents a three-day classroom activity, including a bibliography and primary source readings. (CFR)

Asserts that geography teachers teach how to derive information about history and culture from maps, photographs, and observations of real landscapes. Reviews four books: (1) "From Sea Charts to Satellite Images;" (2) "Historic Illinois From the Air;" (3) "Cultural Geography on Topographic Maps;" and (4) "US 40." Includes suggested student…

Describes a twelfth grade oral-history teaching project with multi-ethnic U.S. history senior students. Stresses that the project helps students think about and understand today's world by developing historical understanding. Activities include designing questionnaires, conducting interviews, writing biographical sketches, and producing a…

Traces development of U.S. cities through the colonial town, market place town, radial center, fringe city, and the multicentered metropolis. Notes the 1970 census showed the United States as a suburban nation. Examines the housing patterns of urban cities that continue to lose population. (NL)

Recommends using U.S. Bureau of the Census data as historical research resource and illustrates how to use data through analysis of tenement residents in New York City, at 97 Orchard Street. Census records provide information that allow an analysis of the changing social demographics of occupancy in large city tenements. Includes primary documents…

Discusses an elementary social studies class project in which students wrote letters to older Russian and European immigrants who were learning their English. Reports that students also met with their pen pals and helped them prepare for their citizenship test. Describes the test as an excellent U.S. history overview. Emphasizes the compassion and…

Describes an undergraduate education course on teaching in a multicultural society. Finds students to be multicultural illiterates, based on their lack of knowledge of multicultural terms. Suggests videotapes and textbooks for building students' multicultural knowledge base. Presents field activities that promote greater multicultural awareness.…

Provides a six-part lesson plan for use in secondary U.S. history classes. Illustrates the development of higher-order reading, writing, and thinking skills in assignments and projects dealing with the history of westward expansion. Specific skills addressed are comparison, contrast, prediction, and evaluation. Recommends cooperative learning…

Asserts that historians should not think of American Indians and white colonists as having two distinct historical experiences but "mutual history of continuous interaction and influence." Contends that European and American colonials recognized the power and subtlety of the American Indian confederacies. (CFR)

Presents a secondary school lesson on the building of the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. Helps students link history and geographical skills through cooperative group learning. Includes maps, diagrams, and three student readings. (CFR)

Emphasizes the importance of understanding the development of democracy around the world by comparative study of constitutions. Uses the development of the Japanese constitution after World War II as a case study. Describes the work of the team appointed by General Douglas MacArthur and the significance of the clause guaranteeing equal rights for…

Provides an overview of Cold War years from President Kennedy's inauguration to end of Soviet Union on December 31, 1991. Recommends six questions to provide a structure for studying or teaching about the Cold War era. Concludes that the Cold War remains one of the premier forces in shaping the world during the second half of the 20th century.…

Presents a secondary lesson plan based on primary sources recently released by the Central Intelligence Agency on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Provides a background essay on the event. Includes five maps and three documents, all of which have been declassified from top secret or secret status. (CFR)