Narrating history is perpetually contested, shaping and reshaping how nations and people understand both their pasts and the current moment. Measuring and evaluating the scope of histories is methodologically challenging. In this paper we provide a general approach and a specific method to measure historical recall. Operationalizing historical…

Today, a growing number of teachers are moving beyond the textbook in teaching about the war, and U.S. history more broadly. Teachers are digging directly into primary sources and harnessing technology, all in an attempt to help students better understand the past and bring it to life. Doing so may be especially important with the Civil War,…

Background/Context: Educators, parents, politicians, and the media often complain that young people know little history and compare them unfavorably to better-educated, earlier generations. However, the charge is exaggerated. Young people have performed poorly on history tests for decades. Students' poor scores on one test in particular, the focus…

This qualitative study examines the distinguishing themes of cultural responsiveness in state- and federally-derived document-based learning materials. Two data sources--"Teaching with Documents" articles in Social Education and Document Based Questions on New York State 11th-grade U.S. History and Government Regents exams--were examined…

The purpose of this study was to follow six middle and high school TAH teachers and study their understanding and manifestations of the aims of the grant. Currently, there are few dissertations about the TAH program and none that address it as a qualitative study. This study focused on the ways that teachers experienced the grant including four…

The United States' participation in World War II affected millions of men, women, and children, both at home and around the world. The war effort also affected the Future Farmers of America (FFA). FFA members, agriculture teachers, and national FFA officers all volunteered to serve their country during the war. Local FFA chapters and individual…

Basic reading comprehension and summary tend to be the focus in social studies and history classrooms, if reading and writing are included at all. But such a focus inhibits a conception of history as an interpretive discipline grounded in evidence that is analyzed, not simply accepted. Understanding the past is impossible without such historical…

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." Change can be scary. Quite often people find themselves venturing down an unknown path, unsure of what twists and turns will come their way. This uncertainty brings about questions, anxiety, and for some, a sense of panic. Similar emotions…

American presidents are regularly called upon to share their thoughts, ideas, and sentiments both with the nation and the world. This prompts the questions: How are these speeches written? Who writes them? What other resources, texts, conversations, and experiences do presidents use to help them create these famous speeches? Who helps the…

For much of American history, political leaders have stood by a principle that "politics stops at the water's edge." While political disagreements about domestic policies are seen as inevitable and even healthy, there has been a tradition of trying to avoid partisan disagreements over foreign policy. As a result, intense disagreements…

This paper describes a pedagogical technique employed for an interdisciplinary course on Cold War America. Students had to "become" a fictional person and discuss how political and social changes during the Cold War era would have impacted that person. By doing a semester-long project that required primary source research, this…

This book surveys the history of the United States from the point of view of children. The book explores children's role in building the new nation as full participants in farm life in the early national period, as industrial workers in northeastern cities in the 19th century, and as pioneer and settlers of the West. It also examines the effects…

In United States history, the GAPE or Gilded Age and Progressive Era, roughly the last third of the nineteenth and first two decades of the twentieth centuries, constitutes one of the most formative and complex of periods, a time that historians designate as the birth of the United States. Many high school students and undergraduates find this…

Forty years ago, George F. Kennan advanced the doctrine of containment against Soviet encroachment throughout the world. The Soviet Union has evolved from a Eurasian land power into a global superpower. In an effort to create an international environment congenial to domestic reforms, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has sought greater tranquility…

This unit of study uses encounters between Japan and the West from earliest contact (16th century) to the present as a case study to help secondary students explore issues of cultural contact. The activities are appropriate for United States or world history courses as well as English, psychology, or sociology classes. The unit can be completed…