Pessimism and Primary Sources in the Survey
Are we teaching pessimism in our history surveys?
Teach My Book: Emily Conroy-Krutz’s, Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic
Teaching United States History is excited to present Teach My Book, a series of posts where distinguished authors reflect on their work and how instructors might integrate their insights into the classroom. Our thoughts today come from Emily Conroy-Krutz, Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University, the author of Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in…
De-centering Content: Lessons from my First Year Teaching
We are pleased to present this guest post from Christopher Bishop on his experience as a first-year community college instructor. When I was in college, content was king in history courses, even in general education courses. We listened to lectures, took notes, read four books a semester, and took bluebook exams that required so…
“Where did these racist stereotypes come from?” Questions from Students
The Fulbright program has provided me with the opportunity to connect with scholars and students not just in Norway but across Europe as well. Last fall, I had the opportunity to travel to Warsaw to speak with students about the life and work of Frank Yerby. During my presentation, I talked about some of the…
Quotidian Content: History in our Backyards
I just wrapped up a week-long trip to Morocco with my senior Global Studies students. After a fall term of exploring what globalization is and a winter term case studying a country–this year, Morocco–the course is predicated on the idea that you can not even begin to grasp the inner workings of a nation-state without…
Writing Assignments: Depth and Breadth
In crafting assignments, we strive to help our students find depth of knowledge while allowing them to explore topics located off the beaten path. In my course, Witnessing the Sixties, students read classics like Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and yet I also want them to encounter Sixties phenomena that are revelatory due to their…
Who Gets Historical Empathy?
Historical empathy can be a powerful tool for fighting hatred. But are we teaching it wrong?
Teaching Slavery and Identity in the American History Survey Course: Part One
Every semester I assign the chapter titled, “Turning People into Products” from Walter Johnson’s book, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Marketto my survey-level American History students. As historians are painfully aware, slavery is one of the most misunderstood, overgeneralized, and downplayed topics in American history. My objective is to expose my students to…
Teach My Book: Ann M. Little on The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright
Teaching United States History is excited to present Teach My Book, a series of posts where distinguished authors reflect on their work and how instructors might integrate their insights into the classroom. In this post, Ann M. Little, Professor of History at Colorado State University, explores how to teach The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright…
How did our ancestors “tame” a continent?
Last May, Donald Trump delivered the commencement address at the Naval Academy. There, he stated that “our ancestors tamed a continent,” and he followed this statement up by adding, “we are not going to apologize for America.” What does this mean? What does it mean to “tame” a continent? What does it mean to be…
Teaching ‘The Sixties’
We routinely offer courses on the transformative decades of US History. Departments place “The 1970s” or “The Eighties” in course catalogues, hoping these tidy chronologies will inspire enrollment. These deep dives are an efficient means of focusing our students on, say, Global Oil Shocks, Nixon’s machinations, or Ronald Reagan as a cultural icon. It…