Presents three responses to the perennial student question, "Why study history?": (1) the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills; (2) the construction of history through a consistent and clear lens; and (3) the safeguarding of American individualism. Asserts that teachers need to provide frameworks that allow students to interpret…

Contends that historians are now using historical sites to produce three-dimensional experiences with the past that cannot be obtained in any other way. Asserts that Stratford Hall Plantation, the Lee family home in Virginia, is an outstanding example of such a site. (CFR)

Maintains that Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr. fundamentally altered the tradition of protest and reform. Compares and contrasts the role of each man in U.S. social and constitutional history. Concludes that while Thoreau lacked the broad influence of King, his writings influenced both King and Mohandas Gandhi. (CFR)

Suggests that educational researchers can strengthen history education by promoting educational equity and access to students not motivated by traditional approaches to teaching history. Discusses changes being considered for history education. Explains that some students may interpret primary sources or relate them to historical trends through…

Asserts that the issue of U.S. participation in the League of Nations is usually presented as a failure by Woodrow Wilson and the Republicans to compromise. Presents a lesson that clarifies the choice confronting the United States in 1919-20 and interprets the league as a historic innovation. (CFR)

States that studying the motives and ideas of conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War poses conflicts between individual and civic responsibility. Presents a lesson about the major issues of individual conscientious objection to military service during that period. Includes three student readings and two teacher background supplements. (CFR)

Comprehensively reviews literature concerning immigrant history and experience in the United States. Discusses literature covering colonial immigration, old and new immigration, Hispanics, and Asians, as well as novels and autobiographical accounts providing insight into immigrants' experiences. Includes literature concerned with nativism also.…

Illustrates how U.S. history and geography teachers can locate supplementary materials for teaching about immigration using the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database system. Cites 11 documents containing units of study, lesson plans, and class activities. (NL)

Examines the origins of the U. S. Bill of Rights and constitutional guarantees, focusing on trial rights, tracing them to English antecedents and the colonial period. Explains changes in understanding and the application of trial rights, highlighting the U.S. Supreme Court's evolving influence since the nineteenth century. Outlines contemporary…

Presents a lesson plan based on the military decisions made at the Battle of Manassas, or Bull Run, in the Civil War. Provides historical background and outlines the military strategies of both the North and South. Includes role-playing description handouts and possible choices for students involved in the role-playing. (CFR)

Discusses the career and contributions of Modjeska Simkins, a black female teacher in South Carolina who became active in public health and civil rights. Throughout her career Simkins used her home in Columbia, South Carolina as an office. That home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (MJP)

Presents a lesson plan built around the life and career of Anna Kingsley. Kingsley was an African slave who married her former owner, acquired freedom, and became a prosperous businesswoman and landowner in the Spanish colonial territory of Florida. Includes reproductions of primary source documents. (MJP)

Maintains that most history textbooks support the traditional view that dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima (Japan) was necessary to end World War II and save U.S. lives. Briefly articulates the revisionist view that the bombing's main purpose was to intimidate the Soviet Union. Reviews six textbooks. (MJP)

Highlights the scholarship that exists on the World War II homefront covering topics such as World War II as a good war, Franklin D. Roosevelt, economic policy, propaganda, status of women and women's employment, the role of African Americans, racial violence, and the Japanese American experience. (CMK)

Urges that the changes in the ethnic, religious, and cultural pluralism in the United States, as well as those in politics of the educational system, be taken into account when designing history curricula. Argues that world history should replace the western civilization course. (KO)