Archive for the ‘Teaching’ Category

This looks like a great event, and as most of you know. I am a student at American Public Univsersity and Dr. Woodworth is current one of my instructors. Well they have a great event coming up: Discovering the Civil War Online - Live Webcast. From their website: Have you ever ... Full story

I received today my A.P. United States History catalog from SocialStudies.com which was filled with books, DVDs, and other resources and guides for purchase. First off, I wish I had a budget I would order a ton of materials from this resource. But I would be remiss if I did not mention that ... Full story

A Time Capsule was unearthed that was buried about 1850, from the news piece: Athol (Massachusetts) Historical Society President Susannah Whipps-Lee said the time capsule — which has yet to be opened — was made from an old glass container that looked like a pickle jar with a rusted metal screw top. It ... Full story

There were a slew of news stories last week that specifically mentioned that Stone worked with two unnamed historians for his up-coming documentary on Hitler and other mass murders in an attempt to give us "empathy" for them and "provide" us with historical context to their rise to power. According to hundreds ... Full story

Oliver Stone is no stranger to conspiracy theories and to gross historical inaccuracies (see JFK for starters, Oswald was the lone shooter), and it looks like he is taking on yet more "misunderstood" events and people (thank God for Oilver Stone or we would all be , as he says "ignorant."); only this time his focus ... Full story

This week was the beginning of our second semester here in Colorado, and in my A.P. United States history class we changed from a block (95 min) class last semester to a skinny (45 min) class. We are up to the Progressive Movement and have found our numbers shrink from 26 to 12, due to the ... Full story

I took the week off to get some things accomplished that I needed to, so my apologies for a lack of posting, but I have been taking daily assessments of the blogosphere and noted a few things which I will comment on now. There has been some controversy over the History Channel’s upcoming Sunday evening program, ... Full story

It looks like Mr. Dreyfuss had a nice day recently at Gettysburg as he continued his crusade championing American civics and history instruction. Last Friday thousands showed up for the keynote Dedication Day speaker and Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss. After giving what appears to have been a well received speech on American ideals and virtue, ... Full story

Some historians and wanna be historians love to do the "I told you so" in regards to American history. They love to point out how Lincoln was not the Great Emancipator, Washington did tell lies, and that Jefferson not only owned a bunch of slaves, he fathered children by one of those slaves. Indeed, all of ... Full story

I have found out today that my efforts to start an early American History survey course has been approved. Some of you who already have such a thing might be saying, "So What." Thus, allow me to explain. Starting next year, here in our School District in Colorado, U.S. History A and B will start post-Reconstruction with ... Full story

Sounds like Richard Dreyfuss was a complete bomb today at Kevin Levin's private school in Virginia. Levin and his school had the unfortunate pleasure (I guess) to have this Hollywood actor/ historian (?) as a guest speaker. Levin titled his blog story today as The Richard Dreyfuss Show, very catchy! I like it. I will agree ... Full story

The end of our Civil War and Reconstruction unit is nearing and as we enter our discussion concerning Reconstruction we looked briefly at Sherman's Field Order Number 15. To me this represents so much about Reconstruction. William T. Sherman clearly issued the order as a practicality to take care of the issue of ... Full story

I got a chance to look through my recently arrived copy of John Keegan's book and I am already enjoying it. Some interesting comments just in his introduction alone he writes, "Had the battle gone the other way, as it might so easily have done, the war might have been concluded more quickly and ... Full story

The Enemy of American Exceptionalism posted this remarkable video as an apology to Eric Wittenberg over the recent debate (which predictably became personal!) they had concerning John Latschar. Eric accepted Kevin's apology, sorta. Anyway, what is remarkable to me is Levin's meandering video that I include below. Does the word narcissist come to mind? My God, this guy thinks the world revolves around him ... Full story

I will be clear.  I don't know John Latschar and don't care. However, he recently won some award concerning his work with the Gettysburg Battlefield and that's great. But what heated it up was the news about his alleged use of a work computer for something, well, controversial. According to the news report, "Federal investigators found more than 3,400 sexually-explicit images on a ... Full story

The period after the War of 1812 is a challenging time as an educator; at least it is for me. The excitement of the late 18th Century creates a lull that is hard to get out of and even the anticipation of the upcoming Civil War does not always help to generate ... Full story

Since the mid-1960s young historians tabbed "New Left Historians" entered the scene with an eye toward reshaping history. They saw all around them serious issues within the teaching of history. They favored an interpretation of the past that placed its emphasis in such a way as to, in the words of Warren Susman, "remake the present and the future." What is also clear, is that ... Full story

Levin writes : I don’t mind admitting that I am an enemy of the notion of ‘American Exceptionalism.’ It’s not simply that I fail to see how it applies to American history, but that it has nothing to do with my role as an instructor of history. I’ve said before that I do not consider it my responsibility to influence students in how they ... Full story

The latest issue of the Gilder Lehrman Institute's online magazine History Now centers on the studying and teaching of the American Revolution. Here's a list of those articles: Teaching the Revolution, by Carol Berkin Inventing American Diplomacy, by R.B. Bernstein Lockean Liberalism and the American Revolution, by Isaac Kramnick Unruly Americans in the Revolution, by Woody Holton The Righteous Revolution of Mercy Otis ... Full story

A reader posted that he believed every society to be "exceptional" and I have to say that this is the issue with declaring something exceptional. This entire issue is about cultural relativism. Which is fine if we do not "judge" any culture, but that's not the case. Do we simply shrug off the continual treatment of women in most Muslim countries and say well, that's ... Full story