Teaching a more Inclusive United States History

While teaching the History of Early Native North America, I am occasionally surprised that certain aspects of Native American history and the history of Early America and the United States are new for students. Numerous times throughout the course I asked students if they ever learned about any of this before? From the Native slave…

Teach My Book: Aston Gonzalez on Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century

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 Aston Gonzalez, Associate Professor of History at Salisbury University. Dr. Gonzalez is discussing his book Visualizing Equality: African American…

Teaching Native Primary Sources

As detailed in a previous blogpost, “What does Native American History teach us about Early America and the United States?” every Wednesday in our History of Early Native North America class students evaluate primary sources that center Native Americans. The purpose of these primary source workshops is trifold. First, I want to introduce students to…

The Search for Truth in the U.S. History Survey Course

Wesley G. Phelps, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of North Texas Part 1 of a 3-part series In late August 2005, I walked into a conference room in the Humanities Building for my first graduate seminar at Rice University in Houston titled “Introduction to Doctoral Studies.” Expertly taught…

Guest Post: Kevin Mason, “Choose Your Own Adventure: Creating Assignment Autonomy with Self-Determination Theory in the US History Survey”

Today’s guest post comes from Kevin Mason, Chair of the Department of History at Waldorf University.    College students crave structured autonomy. As students enter the classroom they often find themselves disappointed by a curriculum that exposes them to a broad variety of content, often in areas outside of their intended majors.  Engaging these students serves…