The Emancipation Proclamation

Description

According to the Gilder Lehrman website, "Henry L. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Gettysburg College Allen Guelzo examines Abraham Lincoln's motivations for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Guelzo contends that the proclamation is among the most misunderstood of the Civil War era, a necessary and even desperate attempt by Lincoln to enact a form of emancipation that would pass legal muster. Guelzo traces the evolution of Lincoln's views on emancipation with particular emphasis on the strategic and moral calculus that factored into the momentous proclamation of 1863."

FDR's First 100 Days

Description

Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter and Columbia University Provost Alan Brinkley discuss the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, the subject of Alter's recent book, The Defining Moment: FDR’s First Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. The book contends that the first 100 days were not only the beginning of the New Deal, but also "the climax to a piece of political theater," which had begun years earlier when Roosevelt overcame polio and public perceptions of him as an elitist lightweight.

A Life in the 20th Century

Description

According to the Gilder Lehrman website:

"Distinguished American historian and counselor to presidents, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. had a ringside seat to the most pivotal moments of the 20th century. Schlesinger's Journals: 1952-2000, the second volume of his journals, were published in 2007 to great acclaim. The Gilder Lehrman Institute presents a 2001 Historians' Forum that he delivered on the first volume of his journals, A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950. Schlesinger focuses particularly on how perceptions of progress, government, and human nature changed in the face of the two World Wars and the rise of government forms that challenged democracy."

King Philip's War

Description

Jill Lepore, Professor of Early American History at Harvard University, speaks about her book, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity, and traces the meanings attached to this brutally destructive war. Lepore examines early colonial accounts that depict King Philip's men as savages and interpret the war as a punishment from God, discusses how the narrative of the war is retold a century later to rouse anti-British sentiment during the Revolution, and finally describes how the story of King Philip is transformed yet again in the early 19th century to portray him as a proud ancestor and American patriot.

The American Dream

Description

Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities and Director of the American Studies Program at Columbia University Andrew Delbanco examines the evolution of the American Dream—the idea that anyone may rise above his or her station, regardless of birth. Beginning with the Puritans, Professor Delbanco traces the origins of the American Dream from the Calvinist fire-and-brimstone of Jonathan Edwards, to the swelling optimism of Emerson and Melville, to the present day.

Civil Rights Movement Veterans

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Photo, March to Montgomery, 1965
Annotation

This site celebrates the commitment and efforts of veterans of the Civil Rights Movement. Introduction provides an overview of the website and the Movement.

Veterans Roll Call provides biographies (in some cases, autobiographies) of more than 500 veterans. It includes dates of activity, organizational affiliation, states they worked in, home states, contact information, and personal essays (of lengths ranging from one sentence to full essays). In Memory records the names of men, women, and children killed during the Civil Rights Movement, as well as names of veterans who have died. The Speakers List lists men and women who are available to speak or answer email inquiries.

Photo Album features more than 15 photo essays on subjects including sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, and the March on Washington. Photo annotations link to more information on the events depicted. Other resources including Civil Rights Movement posters, album covers, and pins, as well as photographs organized by photographer.

History & Timeline lists events by year, from 1951 to 1968. Some events include short descriptions; all include recommendations for print and online resources on the events.

Articles gathers together more than 50 documents by Civil Rights Movement veterans, some contemporary to events and some written later. Visitors can also download samples of literacy tests from Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and view segregation laws. Documents archives contemporary documents created by CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, SSOC, and other organizations. Documents include newsletters, maps, plans, reports, minutes, government reports, and more. Also see Letters from the Field for more than 40 letters by Civil Rights Movement participants.

Our Stories includes interviews, stories, and other recollections from more than 80 veterans, while Our Thoughts includes more than 40 retrospective articles by veterans. Discussions preserves more than 20 online and transcribed discussions looking back on the Civil Rights Movement (most are modern, but they also include a 1956 discussion with Rosa Parks).

In addition, the website includes poetry by veterans, related links organized by topic, and a bibliography featuring age-specific book lists.

With the interviews, autobiographies, photos, documents, and discussions, the site includes a wealth of primary sources, and would be invaluable for any student researching the human side of the Civil Rights Movement.

Oral History
Photographs
Civil Rights Movement
Text
African American History Month
Learn AAH Month
Postwar US, 1945-Early 1970s
African Americans
Ideas & Ideologies
Legal History
Radicalism
Reform
Southern States

Eugenics Archive

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Image for Eugenics Archive
Annotation

The history of the eugenics movement in the United States, from its inception in the decades following the Civil War through its height in the first few decades of the 20th century, is traced on this website. As we move into the age of genetics, this movement, that sought to filter "bad" traits from the human population, becomes increasingly important to understand.

The movement's history is told through a narrative divided into eight themes, including social and scientific origins, research methods and traits studied, flaws in these methods, ways in which the movement was popularized, immigration restriction, and marriage and sterilization laws. Each narrative is accompanied by roughly 10 primary sources—reports, articles, charts, legal documents, and photographs. These materials provide a succinct introduction to eugenics in the U.S.

In addition to the narratives, visitors can search or browse the Image Archive, featuring more than 2,000 primary sources, including documents, artwork, photographs, and more. Visitors may browse by topic, object type, time period, or the archive sources' originals are held by, or search by keyword or ID number. Note that primary sources cannot be downloaded from the Flash version of the Archive, though they can be from the HTML version of the site.

Newspapers and Periodicals
Official Documents
Photographs
Eugenics; sterilization; marriage
genetics
immigrants
laws
Images
Text
Emergence of Modern US, 1890-1930
Great Depression & WWII, 1929-1945
Health & Medicine
Ideas & Ideologies
Immigration
Legal History
Radicalism
Science & Tech.

Causes of the American Revolution

Question

What were the causes of the American Revolution?

Textbook Excerpt

Textbooks tend to emphasize a political and military story that makes the American Revolution seem like a unified, logical, and inevitable event.

Source Excerpt

Primary sources reveal the diversity and complexity of the revolutionary movement. There was no single American Revolution, but many different American revolutions.

Historian Excerpt

Historians emphasize the diversity of participants, contradictions among their motives, and the variety of long-term causes of the American Revolution.

Abstract

Most elementary and middle school American history textbooks continue to portray the coming of the American Revolution in terms of a series of discrete political and military events that culminated, more or less inevitably, in the separation of the North American colonies from Great Britain. Little attention is given to underlying social conditions, the diversity among participants, and the wide variety of intellectual traditions that contributed to the revolutionary movement. By ignoring the insights of new scholarship, textbooks fail to convey a sense of the long-term causes of the Revolution, the movement's tremendous complexity, or its limitations as well as its achievements.

Women of Protest: Images from the Records of the National Woman's Party

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Photo, Lucy Burns in Occoquan. . . , Harris and Ewing, 1917, Women of Protest
Annotation

This combined archive and exhibit offers a selection of 448 photographs from the Library's National Woman's Party (NWP) collection that "document the National Woman's Party's push for ratification of the 19th Amendment as well as its later campaign for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment." Photographs span the years 1875 to 1938, but most date from 1913 to 1922. Visitors can browse photographs by title or subject or search the descriptive information. The site has a photo gallery of more than 50 photographs depicting NWP activists who were arrested and imprisoned for their role in suffrage protests. Additionally, the site provides a timeline of the National Woman's Party from 1912 to 1997 that places it in historical context. The site also provides three essays: on the tactics and techniques of the National Woman's Party suffrage campaign, a historical overview of the NWP, and on leaders of the NWP.

Oral History
Text
Women's History Month
Splash Pullout Women's Month
Learn Women's Month
Civil War & Reconstruction, 1850-1877
Devel. of the Industrial US, 1870-1900
Emergence of Modern US, 1890-1930
Great Depression & WWII, 1929-1945
Gender
Ideas & Ideologies
Politics
Radicalism
Reform
Women

Picturing the American Revolution

Image
Photography, Yorktown Cannon, 23 April 2003, DanRhett, Flickr CC
Question

If you had to choose five picture books for early U.S. History what would these books be? Also, this would be for urban 5th graders who have not had Social Studies and tend to score very low on standardized reading tests.

Answer

My answer to your question will be based on the following assumptions:

  1. By “early U.S. history” you are referring to the American Revolution.
  2. You will use the picture books as read aloud and possibly incorporate an ELA writing activity after the read aloud.
  3. Both fiction and nonfiction books may be used.
  4. The order of the list does not give precedence to one book over another.
  5. It’s impossible to choose only five books!

Enjoy!

Here are some suggestions for the American Revolution:

  1. Boston Tea Party by Pamela Duncan Edwards: This book sets the stage for the Revolution. Students will gain an understanding as to why the colonists were upset with the British king and took such action. The book offers a clear and concise explanation of the causes and effects of the Boston Tea Party while providing a humorous touch with mice conversing at the bottom of each page. Their chattering provides a simplified version of the events reaching students who might find too many details overwhelming.

    2. ELA writing piece: Have students write a friendly letter to a family member in England explaining why they are upset.

  2. Let It Begin Here- Lexington & Concord—First Battles of the American Revolution by Dennis Brindell Fradin: A timeline of events is depicted for the first 24 hours of the American Revolution. Students will gain an overview of that fateful day. As the date and time that appears at the top of each page is read aloud, students will sense how quickly the events unraveled. It would be fun to give each student a paper clock and have them move the hands as the time is reported. They could use their math skills to determine how much time has passed between events.

    ELA writing piece: Have students rewrite history. Students will change one event and write how it could have changed our history.

  3. Sybil’s Night Ride by Karen B. Winnick: Not only Paul Revere rode to announce the British were coming, so did Sybil Ludington. Students will relate to the heroism of a peer and enjoy hearing about someone their age performing a heroic deed similar to that of Paul Revere. After the reading the class could discuss the characteristics of a hero.

    4. ELA writing piece: Have students write a paragraph about a contemporary hero.

  4. When Washington Crossed the Delaware by Lynne Cheney: A detailed depiction of Washington’s attack on Trenton. Students should take notes on the hardships faced by the colonial army. After reading and discussing these, the teacher could show students the famous 1851 painting of Washington crossing the Delaware and ask them how the artist’s depiction is not historically accurate. Students will enjoy finding the “mistakes.” They should be ready to answer this question, “If a photograph had been taken what would we see?” Students could even draw their interpretation.

    5. ELA writing piece: Have students write a character sketch of Washington. What made him such a great leader? Use details from the story.

  5. The Scarlet Stockings Spy by Trinka Hakes Noble: A young girl in Philadelphia, 1777, helps Washington’s army by spying on the British. The order in which she hangs laundry is a code and secretly read by her brother who is a spy for the Patriots. Students will like the suspense of the story and notice that even though women may not be on the battlefield, they served in meaningful ways on the home front.

    6. ELA writing piece: Have students retell the story in modern time using current technology that mirrors the actions taken by Maddy Rose in 1777.

  6. The Declaration of Independence—The Words that Made America by Sam Fink: The words of the Declaration are written phrase by phrase. Instead of reading aloud, the teacher could give pairs of students a phrase to rewrite in their own words and then explain to the class. The teacher should first model one phrase for the class. Students will gain a true understanding of what this document is saying. For students who have only seen small mock versions of the document, they will find that the larger than life font size brings the words to life. The cartoon-like illustrations with bubble captions will also appeal to this age group.
For more information

Books for students who would like to discover more on their own:

  1. Why Not Lafayette? by Jean Fritz: Readable biography of Lafayette for a 5th grader.
  2. Paul Revere’s Ride by Xavier Niz: A graphic rendition of the famous ride.
  3. Twice a Hero by Dirk Wales: Tells the story of Polish American heroes of the Revolution.
  4. Now & Ben—The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin by Gene Barretta: Connects Ben Franklin to our lives today.

Look for more ideas here, where you will find books for the K-12 classroom that have been designated as notable by social studies teachers who are members of the National Council for the Social Studies.

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