In particular, the study of history--its scope, reliance on analytical narrative, and methodology of tracing change and continuity over time--provides for an exchange of meaningful narratives. As historians Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier argue, "All cultures, all peoples, tell stories about themselves, and it is these stories that help…

In teaching the causes of the Iraq War, the use of "virtual history" can be employed in a conference setting in which different individuals are assigned to different plausible counterfactuals they use to construct virtual histories. The Iraq War lends itself to the virtual history approach because of the availability of many plausible…

That primary source documents have the power to bring the past alive is no news to social studies teachers. What is new in the last 10 years is the number of digitized documents available online that teachers can download and use in their classrooms. Encouraging teachers to utilize this ever-increasing treasure trove of resources was the goal of…

In the late summer of 1888, officials at the U.S. Department of State appointed John Henry Haynes of Rowe, Massachusetts, to become the first U.S. consul in Baghdad. At that time, Baghdad--along with all of present day Iraq--was part of the Ottoman Empire, as it had been for more than three centuries. In his fourth dispatch, a single-page,…

This article discusses a problem teachers encounter relating to how to teach the delicate topics of 9/11 and Iraq war. Five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and in the midst of intensifying debate over the nation's approach to battling terrorism, teachers around the country are trying to determine how, and when, to teach about…

The attacks of September 11th, followed by U.S. military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, have brought greater attention to the simmering conflict between Islam and the West--a conflict most brutally played out historically during the Crusades. The series of holy wars for control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land stretched over centuries--from 1096…

Reports on a study of 16 elementary students' personal narratives on their historical memories about the Gulf War. Maintains that much can be learned about students' historical understanding when they tell about an event in story form. Suggests further research into the reasons student narratives were thin and abbreviated. (CFR)

Reflecting on the current debate on how to teach about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, this article examines Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Terrorists, Despots, and Democracy: What Our Children Need to Know, one of the several publications produced by the Fordham Institute that…