A British historian of the American South examines the forces of contingency and the stimulus of teaching that led him to become a historian of the United States and, in particular, the American South. Belonging to a generation of British historians who aimed to make their work indistinguishable from their American counterparts, he has been forced…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a rigorous preuniversity course of study leading to examinations for highly motivated secondary school students between the ages of 16 and 19. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) offers the diploma program for students throughout the world. Recognition of the diploma is slowly…

The author presents a social studies lesson that uses a commemorative coin to encourage understanding of the Monroe Doctrine. The international factors surrounding the formation of the Monroe Doctrine are discussed along with the implications and limitations of the document. The lesson provides quotations from the Monroe Doctrine, discusses how…

In this review essay, Harvey Kantor and Robert Lowe explore the history of the culture wars in public education in the United States. Drawing on three books--David Tyack's "Seeking Common Ground," Jonathan Zimmerman's "Whose America?" and Amy Binder's "Contentious Curricula"--Kantor and Lowe review the history of…

One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found…

Economists and historians have struggled for almost 80 years to account for the American Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early years of World War II. In this article, the authors discuss three major schools of thought on the causes of the Great Depression and the long failure of the American economy to return to full…

Everybody accepts that Americans celebrate the independence of the United States on the Fourth of July, in remembrance of that famous date in 1776. In this article, the author features a simple lesson designed for students to check the accuracy of this most basic of American historical facts. During the lesson, the students examine nine pieces of…

The aim of this series is to provide some facts of British history not usually given in elementary schoolbooks, together with some broad outlines of the European history of which British and American history form a part. This volume, the first in the series, consists of simple stories of all time drawn from ancient history.

The aim of this series is to provide some facts of British history not usually given in elementary schoolbooks, together with some broad outlines of the European history of which British and American history form a part. This volume, the third in the series, deals with the period of 55 B.C.-1066 A.D.

The aim of this series is to provide some facts of British history not usually given in elementary schoolbooks, together with some broad outlines of the European history of which British and American history form a part. This volume, the fourth in the series, deals with the period of 1066-1485.

The aim of this series is to provide some facts of British history not usually given in elementary schoolbooks, together with some broad outlines of the European history of which British and American history form a part. This volume, the fifth in the series, deals with the period of 1485-1688.

The aim of this series is to provide some facts of British history not usually given in elementary schoolbooks, together with some broad outlines of the European history of which British and American history form a part. This volume, the sixth in the series, deals with the period of 1688 to the present.

Classroom observations and interviews with 60 children, aged 6 to 12 years, in Northern Ireland and comparisons with previous U.S. research show the extent to which specific forms of historical representation shape understanding of change over time. As was consistent with differing historical representations, children in Northern Ireland are less…

This article is largely the author's reflections on one particular aspect of history and social studies education, reflections that are very much those of an outsider. Nationally, she is not an American, but a Canadian, and professionally has been, until recently, a historian rather than a history educator. And the differences, are profound. This…