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Youtube Playlist The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850 -1861 Discover how the issue of slavery came to dominate American politics, and how political leaders struggled and failed to resolve the growing crisis in the nation. A House Divided: The Road to Civil War, 1850-1861 is a course that begins by examining how generations of historians have explained the crisis of the Union. After discussing the institution of slavery and its central role in the southern and national economies, it turns to an account of the political and social history of the 1850s. It traces how the issue of the expansion of slavery came to dominate national politics, and how political leaders struggled, unsuccessfully, to resolve the growing crisis. We will examine the impact of key events such as Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and end with the dissolution of the Union in the winter of 1860-61. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present. Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor o

Two prominent historians, Norman Davies and Timothy Snyder, were hosted at the Batory Foundation in Warsaw on Thursday, 28 November. The discussion was moderated by Aleksander Smolar, director of the Foundation's board. The full house included prominent historians, directors of institutions and programmes in Warsaw, Toruń and Radom, researchers including Jan Kieniewicz, the University of Warsaw historian and author of books on Europe and Asia, and members of the press.

An interesting talk regarding Teachers as Historians - interaction between practitioners and academic historians with historical resources and digital access.

Historians see themselves as detectives searching for evidence among primary sources to a mystery that can never be completely solved. Wouldn't this image be more enticing to a bored high school student? It would, and that's one reason why thinking like a historian deserves a place in the American classroom, the sooner the better.

1/8/13 Blog post by Larry Ferlazzo  The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents designed for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities.

"Lookbackmaps is a network of neighborhood historians, historical photo enthusiasts, historians, book publishers and others who collaborate to map history. Through the online digitization of high-resolution public photo collections and geotagging technology, Lookbackmaps creates collaborative, standardized views into the past. There's something in being human that wonders what was here before us-who occupied this space, how did they live, what did they leave behind? By mapping the millions of historical photos available through public libraries and private collections on the web, we start to piece together the puzzle."

This downloadable SlideShare accompanies my workshop in "Teaching with Documents." Don't think of it as a presentation. It's a online guide to resources and includes strategy illustrations from my workshop.

Youtube Playlist Learn about the political, social, and economic changes in the Union and the Confederacy and the Civil War's long-term economic and intellectual impact. In The Unfinished Revolution: Reconstruction and After, 1865-1890, Professor Eric Foner examines the pivotal but misunderstood era of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War, the first effort in American history to construct an interracial democracy. Beginning with a discussion of the dramatic change in historians' interpretations of the period in the last two generations, Foner goes on to discuss how Reconstruction turned on issues of continued relevance today. Among these are: who is an American citizen and what are citizens' rights; what is the relationship between political and economic freedom; which has the primary responsibility for protecting Americans' rights - the federal or state governments; and how should public authorities respond to episodes of terrorism? The course explores the rewriting of the laws and Constitution to incorporate the principle of equality regardless of race; the accomplishments and failings of Reconstruction governments in the South; the reasons for violent opposition in the South and for the northern retreat from Reconstruction; and the consolidation at the end of the 19th century of a new system of white supremacy. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the wa

The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations has a variety of resources available for teachers on its website, including syllabi, primary sources, and assignments.

All new history is revisionist history. This only gets dicey with the Holocaust since Survivors use the term "revisionist" for deniers or justifiers of the Holocaust. As this definition shows, communist historians can be revisionists and right-wing historians can be revisionist. All historians should aim to be revisionist if they are writing for academics (i.e. journals) and not the general public, if not there really is no reason to publish and no reason why the historian's work should be published since it is not new and not "revising" what we already know.

Fire destroyed the office of the War Department and all its files in 1800, and for decades historians believed that the collection, and the window it provided into the workings of the early federal government, was lost forever. Thanks to a decade-long effort to retrieve copies of the files scattered in archives across the country, the collection has been reconstituted and is offered here as a fully-searchable digital database.

"Fire destroyed the office of the War Department and all its files in 1800, and for decades historians believed that the collection, and the window it provided into the workings of the early federal government, was lost forever. Thanks to a decade-long effort to retrieve copies of the files scattered in archives across the country, the collection has been reconstituted and is offered here as a fully-searchable digital database." Isn't that cool?

Youtube Playlist Learn about the political, social, and economic changes in the Union and the Confederacy and the Civil War's long-term economic and intellectual impact. A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861-1865 narrates the history of the American Civil War. While the course examines individual engagements and the overall nature of the military conflict, the focus is less on the battlefield than on political, social, and economic change in the Union and the Confederacy. Central to the account are the road to emancipation, the role of black soldiers, the nature of Abraham Lincoln's wartime leadership, internal dissent in both the North and South, the changing position of women in both societies, and the war's long-term economic and intellectual impact. We end with a look at the beginnings of Reconstruction during the conflict. This course is part of the series, The Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. The series will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present. See other courses in this series: The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1850-1861 The Civil War and Reconstruction - 1865-1890 "The Civil War and Recons

Civil War and Reconstruction, which introduces students to the most pivotal era in American history. The Civil War transformed the nation by eliminating the threat of secession and destroying the institution of slavery. It raised questions that remain central to our understanding of ourselves as a people and a nation - the balance of power between local and national authority, the boundaries of citizenship, and the meanings of freedom and equality. This XSeries will examine the causes of the war, the road to secession, the conduct of the Civil War, the coming of emancipation, and the struggle after the war to breathe meaning into the promise of freedom for four million emancipated slaves. One theme throughout the series is what might be called the politics of history - how the world in which a historian lives affects his or her view of the past, and how historical interpretations reinforce or challenge the social order of the present.

Highly recommend anything from activehistory.co.uk. Russell Tarr is fantastic and his games really capture the interest of those "I hate history" students.

Useful for classroom discussions, days where a fire alarm cuts your class in half, etc.

Podcasts of interviews with prominent historians.

'The History Engine is an educational tool that gives students the opportunity to learn history by doing the work-researching, writing, and publishing-of a historian. The result is an ever-growing collection of historical articles or "episodes" that paints a wide-ranging portrait of life in the United States throughout its history and that is available to scholars, teachers, and the general public in our online database.'

Might be useful for lesson activities or research practice.

Turn your students into historians with primary-source based activities that develop historical thinking skills. Activities are ready to use in your classroom. Or alter an existing activity to fit your unique needs. Exchange primary source documents and modify activity instructions. Log in to borrow from an even larger selection from fellow educators.