On Monday, September 17, 1787, 39 delegates to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States, along with Major William Jackson, who had served as the secretary of the Convention. That same day, Jackson received instructions to leave for New York City on Tuesday and carry the document to Congress. All of these…

For almost three quarters of a century, advocates have worked to give comparable federal stature to September 17, the day on which we celebrate the anniversary of the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by the nation's founders. As President John F. Kennedy noted in his 1961 Constitution Day proclamation, it is a day for…

In this article, the authors explore the timely and sometimes controversial topic of gay civil rights and how the attendant issues might be taught in the social studies classroom. Many teachers shy away from teaching students about gay rights issues for a variety of reasons including personal beliefs, a lack of instructional time as a result of…

Waves of revolutionary actions beginning in late 2010 led to the downfall of dictatorial leaders who had been entrenched in the Arab world for decades. Everyday citizens used social media services to coordinate, communicate, expose, and respond to the oppressive forces that would crush pockets of resistance. The period known as the Arab Spring…

Is sniffing at the front door of a private home by a trained narcotics detection dog a Fourth Amendment search requiring probable cause? Is a "drug dog" somehow like a manmade technology, such as a thermal imaging device? These were a couple of the questions recently presented to the U.S. Supreme Court during arguments in "Florida v. Jardines."…

A. Philip Randolph, the national president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was one of the driving forces behind the March on Washington Movement in 1941. In frustration over the federal government's lack of support for opportunities in the booming war industries and equality in the military, Randolph had begun to organize the March…

Medical doctor and geologist Dr. Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden selected more than 30 scientists, technical personnel, and artists, including photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, to join the survey of the Yellowstone region in northwest Wyoming territory. Thomas Moran was an accomplished artist when he joined the survey to…

The nation's classrooms have become more diverse, and children of Hispanic heritage represent a large and an important part of this multicultural mosaic. Events such as the commemoration of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon's historic voyage offer teachers the opportunity to reflect on important events of the past and connect them to students'…

Manifest Destiny, the idea that Providence guided the conquest and settlement of North America, is one of the most contested ideas in American culture and history. One's opinion about this central aspect of American mythology depends heavily on one's point of view. Exploring westward expansion and the Cherokee Trail of Tears with primary sources…

This article describes how re-enactment was used to enhance learning in a living history classroom. Bringing a "character" into the classroom brought history to life. The students were learning without knowing they were learning. The author stresses that re-enactment methods cannot, and should not, be used all the time, or they lose impact. But if…

On 1860, Prince Albert Edward took a daylong excursion aboard the 270-foot revenue cutter USS "Harriet Lane" to Mount Vernon, the ancestral home of George Washington. The ceremonial visit to Mount Vernon was thought of at the time as not only a tribute to Washington as a man and leader, but as symbolic of reconciliation between England and its…

Teaching economics at the preK-12 level has always been one of the most difficult aspects of social studies education notes C. Frederick Risinger, yet, throughout his teaching career economic issues and events were the drivers of most historical, political, and sociological trends and topics and even human slavery was driven and maintained by…

The topics of Columbus's voyages of exploration, the first encounters between Amerindians and Europeans, and the ensuing collision of their respective worlds provide ample opportunities for creative and stimulating pedagogical approaches that go beyond the stale memorization of dates, places, and names. This essay and accompanying classroom…

Many social scientists have recently commented on the high levels of income inequality in the United States. Indeed, the last time income inequality was as great as it is today was 1928, the year before the stock market crash ushered in the Great Depression. In this article, the authors offer a historical look at income inequality and taxation in…

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers staged a surprise attack on U.S. military forces at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Sixty years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was attacked again. On the morning of September 11, 2001, four commercial airplanes hijacked by 19 terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people when they crashed…