A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers

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This curriculum addresses labor politics and economics from the colonial period to the present day. Conceived and written by James D. Brown, Jr, "in cooperation with teachers from the metro Chicago area and local union members," it is divided into 11 chronological sections, each comprised of several elements: a 100–200-word overview; an inventory of major themes, episodes, and concepts; and a feature entitled "Integrating Labor History into Effective Teaching of the Period." This last portion recommends questions and lessons for students, and, for several sections, provides primary source materials. Thus "The Growth of a New Nation" outlines a lesson that asks students to compare Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence with an 1829 essay by George H. Evans—a founder of New York's Working Man's Party—entitled "The Working Men's Declaration of Independence."

The 11 sections emphasize gains achieved by organized labor and invite teachers to "highlight the stark contrast between today's working environment and the relationship between workers and owners of the past." Includes a list of 44 "Significant People in America's Labor History"; a 16-title bibliography; a link to an international news desk providing daily stories dealing with labor groups and issues; and additional material on Illinois labor history.

Some sections of the curriculum are thinner than others. More curiously, the site does not furnish any primary documents from the 20th century, and generally relies more on lists of events and issues than the sort of narrative prose that can enliven the past.

Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research

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This gateway website was created by English professor Alan Liu. It contains over 70 pages of links to humanities-related resources on the internet and provides a guide to online resources in 26 subject categories, including anthropology, legal studies, history, women and gender, and minority studies.

Each link is subdivided. For example, the Minority Studies link is divided into 11 subcategories, including African American, Chicano Latino Hispanic, and Native American history. The History category is subdivided into 19 sections, such as Family History, Military History, and national and regional categories like North America, with subheadings for Canada and United States. The United States history subheading contains over 500 links to primary documents from all periods of American history.

This site contains both primary and secondary resources, and there is a History Teaching Resources link that provides resources for teachers of World History, syllabi for women and gender-related courses, and a guide to using historical places as teaching tools. The site is easy to navigate and contains a keyword search engine.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection

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On order of an Act of Congress signed into law in 1992, the National Archives has gathered federally-created material relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy—including declassified material from every relevant presidential commission, congressional investigation, and executive-branch agency—and placed it in a single collection, supplemented with materials donated by local governments, presidential libraries, institutions, and private individuals.

While original records are not available online, this site presents a searchable database and extensive finding aids and includes full texts of the reports issued by the Warren Commission, published in 1964, and the 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations.

This is a well-designed site that will be of most value to scholars of the assassination who plan to conduct research at the Archives.

Regarding Vietnam: Stories Since the War

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Created in 1996 to facilitate a "dialogue across differences," this site provided a space where stories, opinions, photographs, and memories pertaining to the Vietnam War era were collected, organized according to broad topics, and displayed. In addition, visitors to the site between 1996 and 1998 participated in 227 discussion groups ranging in subject matter from protests against the war (which provoked 420 responses) to effects of the war on children today (which only drew two communications).

Material ceased to be added to the site in 1998, search capabilities no longer work, and full texts of contributed stories are no longer accessible. Still, excerpts of 45 stories—on topics such as the "Wall," movies, reconciliation, scars, heroes, and history—remain accessible, as well as complete texts from the discussion groups.

The site also includes a useful 2,400-word guide by Bret Eynon to conducting oral histories on the impact of the Vietnam War era, which makes the salient point "that the goal is to gather stories not just about experiences of that time, but how those experiences have influenced people's lives since then."

A valuable site for those studying the war and its legacy.

The Digital Classroom

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A series of activities, primary documents, lesson plans, links, and worksheets designed to encourage "teachers of students at all levels to use archival documents in the classroom."

Includes tasks to help students understand how to use National Archives materials; 20 thematically-oriented teaching activities covering the period from the Constitutional Convention to Watergate; detailed information about National History Day, an annual educational program and competition; and 35 lessons and activities organized around constitutional issues ranging from well-known patent cases to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Many of the activities correlate to specific sections of the National History Standards and the National Standards for Civics and Government. Also contains a handful of links and material about books, workshops, and summer institutes for teachers.

A well-organized introduction to the practice of historical research.

Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers and Artists of Color

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Descriptive information about the lives and works of 136 "women writers of color in North America" is provided in this site, designed primarily for high school and college classroom use. Offers introductory material, including images, bibliographies, quotations, biographical sketches, and critical views with regard to writers such as Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Evelyn Lau, Winona LaDuke, Terry McMillan, and Alice Walker.

While the site concentrates primarily on 20th-century figures, it also contains 10 entries on women from the 19th century, including Sarah Mapps Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.

The material is arranged into four indexes: name, birthplace, racial/ethnic background, and significant dates. Annotated links to 18 related resources are included.

The site relies on contributions from interested students and teachers, and promises to grow to more than 500 entries in the future.

WWW-Virtual Library, History Central Catalogue

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Created by an international group of volunteer institutions, this site offers a gateway with thousands of links to general history resources and seeks to provide "effective tools for practicing historians wishing to work online." Links are presented for the following categories: "Research: Methods and Materials"; "Eras and Epochs"; "Historical Topics"; and "By Countries and Regions."

Washington As It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959

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Presents approximately 14,350 photographs by Theodor Horydczak (1890-1971), most of which document the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area between the 1920s and 1950s. Subjects include the architecture and interiors of government, commercial, and residential buildings; views of streets and neighborhoods; images of work and leisure; and events such as the 1932 Bonus March and the 1933 World Series. Also includes a limited number of shots taken in other U.S. locations and in Canada and a background essay, "Discovering Theodor Horydczak's Washington." Provides visual documentation of official and everyday life in the nation's capital and its environs.

Center for Working-Class Studies

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Introduces an organization begun in 1996 that "creates social spaces for civic and academic conversations on working-class life and culture and its intersections with other identities and serves as a clearinghouse for information on working-class culture, issues, and pedagogy." The site presents information about the Center, its outreach programs and electronic discussion network; a 1,000-word essay defining working-class studies and commenting on recent trends; six course syllabi; online student exhibitions for a course on "Working in Youngstown," which deals with the history and representations of work in "Steeltown, U.S.A." and throughout the U.S.; 88 abstracts of papers presented at the 1999 conference on "Class, Identity, and Nation"; 84 partially annotated links to related resources, including 24 for museums on working-class and labor history; and a bibliography organized into 24 thematic categories such as "Working-Class Fiction," "Class as Culture," "Class Perception in the U.S.," and "Class and Sexuality." A useful site for introducing students to discussions of class and labor issues in American history.

California Heritage Collection

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An impressive archive of more than 30,000 digitally reproduced images "illustrating California's history and culture," taken from nearly 200 collections at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. The site, searchable by keyword, features photographs, sketches, and paintings in six categories: early California missions and mining activities, natural landscapes, Native Americans, San Francisco, World War II and Japanese relocation, and portraits of notable and ordinary Californians from diverse backgrounds. More than 100 images selected from the larger collection are included in an accompanying California Cornerstones Collection. Includes 158 finding aids, additional links to the Bancroft Library, and six "web-based lesson plans" for using the collection in K-12 classrooms. While the text accompanying each image is limited to artist/photographer, subject, and date, the sheer number of images available makes this a valuable resource for those studying California's history.