From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"High school and undergraduate survey courses on U.S. history before 1865 rightly treat the War of Independence and the Civil War as decisive events. Three other significant conflicts of the period, the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War, rate mentions in the textbooks, but their events are usually treated cursorily, and their impacts are rarely considered, if they are mentioned at all. This seminar will demonstrate the powerfully ironic significance of these less well-known imperial wars by exploring the linkages between them and the far more familiar revolutionary civil wars that define this period in American history. For in fact the decisive victory of Britain and its colonists in the French and Indian War brought on the collapse of the British empire, just twelve years after the triumphal Peace of Paris (1763); the similarly decisive victory of the United States over Mexico, confirmed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), precipitated the crises that led, in thirteen years' time, to the disintegration of the Union. The War of 1812, usually seen as having ended indecisively with the Treaty of Utrecht (1815), not only decided the fate of native peoples east of the Mississippi and lent a powerful impetus to the democratization of American electoral politics, but also created an ideological justification for warfare that endures in American political culture to the present day. Our exploration of these striking effects will, we hope, encourage the participants both to reconsider the dynamics of early American history and to re-think the contexts in which they discuss with their students the impact of warfare on the formation of the American Republic."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865 abolished slavery in the United States, formally, officially, and legally. A century and a half after emancipation, however, the question of slavery still roils the waters of American life. This seminar, led by Ira Berlin, will view the development of chattel bondage in mainland North America from the perspective of the larger Atlantic world. Topics include the nature of the slave trade, the distinction between societies with slaves and slave societies, the evolution of plantation slavery, the transforming face of the Age of Revolutions, the remaking of slavery in the nineteenth century, and the current debate about the meaning of slavery for American life."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Thomas Jefferson is best known as the author of the American Declaration of Independence. Beginning with the imperial crisis that led to the separation of the thirteen colonies from Great Britain and their union as a confederation, this course will focus on Jefferson's political thought and career in order to gain a broad perspective on the founding of the United States and its early history. Professors Peter Onuf and Frank Cogliano will emphasize the geopolitical context of the revolutionaries' bold efforts to establish republican governments and federal union. Jefferson and his patriot colleagues were acutely aware of the international historical significance of their revolution and therefore profoundly anxious about its ultimate outcome and legacy.

By exploring the rich canon of his writings, participants will seek to better understand what the Revolution meant for Jefferson and Jefferson meant for the Revolution. Major themes will include federalism, foreign policy, constitutionalism and party politics, and race and slavery."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"This seminar explores the history of the American antislavery movement, from its institutional and ideological origins in the post-Revolutionary era to the eve of the Civil War. A particular focus of the course will be the historical reality and mythology of the Underground Railroad, understood through the lives, strategies, writings, and fate of black abolitionists."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"This seminar will proceed from two premises: 1) that the Revolution had many meanings to its diverse participants; and 2) that its causes, dynamics, and outcomes, have been interpreted and reinterpreted, ever since. Therefore, we will read secondary works of various historians who have disagreed sharply on how to interpret the American Revolution; and we will examine a variety of primary documents through which we can better understand how people at the time understood what they were fighting for and what outcomes they hoped to enjoy. 'Who shall write the history of the American Revolution?' wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (in 1815). 'Nobody,' Jefferson replied, 'except merely its external facts . . . The life and soul of its history must be forever unknown.' Almost two centuries later, let's discover the answers to that question for ourselves."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Professor Gordon Wood investigates George Washington's contributions to the creation of the American republic. The bicentennial of Washington's death in 1999 sparked a reassessment of this extraordinary man and his times. He was commander in chief of the Revolutionary army, a leader in the formation of the Constitution of 1787, and the first president of the new United States. Despite these great accomplishments, he remains strangely distant and inaccessible to us in the early twenty-first century. This brief but intensive course helps explain the sources and meaning of Washington's greatness."

From the Facing History and Ourselves website:

"Please join us as we explore the Facing History and Ourselves resource book, Choices in Little Rock—a collection of teaching suggestions, activities, and primary sources that focus on the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. These efforts led to a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as 'the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War.'

These resources explore a range of civic choices—the decisions people make as citizens in a democracy. Those decisions, both then and now, reveal that democracy is not a product but a work in progress, a work that is shaped in every generation by the choices that we make about ourselves and others. In this workshop, we will consider ways to engage students in the issues raised by this history and its civic implications for their lives today.

Choices in Little Rock can be used not only to teach history but also to deepen and enrich a study of civics, government, and literature."

The National History Education Clearinghouse presents its own workshop at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. Topics covered will include a Clearinghouse demonstration by NHEC outreach coordinator Teresa DeFlitch; "Teaching the 'New' Military History with Social History: New Subjects, New Techniques"; "Teaching about Immigration to Immigrants, Children of Immigrants, and Non-immigrants"; "History, Education, and Public Policy: California, 1998-2011"; "Talking about Text: Engaging Students in Historical Analysis"; and "Resources to Teach about Immigration from a West Coast Perspective."

From the Corcoran website:

"Deepen your understanding of the purpose and intent of interpretive labels through the four ways they may be used in teaching: identification, idea and concept generation, information gathering, and visual focus. This workshop employs label writing exercises using original artworks to sharpen observation skills and develop analytical writing skills adaptable to any grade level."

From the National Humanities Center website:

"Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson offered distinct visions for the nation they were founding—one urban and industrial, the other rural and agrarian. In twenty-first-century America, a nation of cities and commerce, it is easy to think Hamilton won. But did he? How did the two visions clash in eighteenth-century America? What were their origins, and what have they meant for the United States? This seminar is a collaboration between the National Humanities Center and public television's historical documentary film series American Experience. Participants will view the American Experience film Alexander Hamilton and explore how to use it in the classroom."