Pearl Harbor Attack Map

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Avenge Pearl Harbor, Our Bullets Will Do It, c.1942-3, NARA, Flickr Commons
Annotation

This interactive website on the attack on Pearl Harbor provides a chronological overview of the day's events. Each major event on the day's timeline is shown on a map of Hawaii, giving the events a visual place within the harbor geography and allowing site visitors to see where ships were in relationship to each other.

On the map, each major occurrence can be selected as the "full story." These individual full story pages provide a short textual overview of the event alongside a looping archival image and video slideshow. Clicking progresses through the slideshow for users interested in quickly revisiting an image after it has passed or who simply want to go through the slideshow at a faster pace. Many of the events also offer eyewitness quotes.

One of the most praiseworthy aspects of the site is that these quotes are not all from U.S. sailors and commanders. The voices selected include two women—a nurse and the daughter of a military man—and several Japanese airmen, submariners, and commanders. By providing voices from both sides of the attack, National Geographic avoids dehumanizing the Japanese through the absence of their own stories.

A Patriot's History of the United States, Part Two: Reinterpreting Reagan and the Cold War

Description

Professor Larry Schweikart argues that most popular textbooks today show a liberal, left-wing bias. He reexamines specific periods in U.S. history from a conservative perspective, focusing particularly on the slave market within the U.S. and then on Ronald Reagan's presidency and his role in ending the Cold War.

This lecture continues from A Patriot's History of the United States, Part One: Liberty and Property in the American Past.

A Patriot's History of the United States, Part One: Liberty and Property in the American Past

Description

Professor Larry Schweikart argues that most popular textbooks today show a liberal, left-wing bias. He reexamines specific periods in U.S. history from a conservative perspective, focusing on Ronald Reagan's presidency and the colonization of the original colonies, particularly as documents from the latter discuss property rights.

This lecture continues in A Patriot's History of the United States, Part Two: Reinterpreting Reagan and the Cold War.

Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive

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Photo, That Fateful Day, cayusa, Flickr
Annotation

There are countless websites which catalog web activities related to the spread of information on 9/11. However, film is another way to approach research on the day. At what time did news of 9/11 break in China? Japan? Iraq? Russia? How did news coverage vary from one U.S. news station to another?

This archive contains television coverage arranged in visual timelines by day and channel. This format allows users to easily compare the information being aired at the same time by NBC, FOX, BBC World, and Japan's NHK—to name just a handful. Additionally, the timeline permits educators to find clips broadcast at specific times between 9/11 and the 17th of September.

The website also includes 10 talks given at a scholarly conference about the implications of film archives in historical research.

Note that foreign news channels have not been subtitled.

Fort Meigs [OH]

Description

William Henry Harrison built Fort Meigs on the Maumee River in 1813 to protect northwest Ohio and Indiana from British invasion. Today's reconstruction is one of the largest log forts in America. British and Canadian troops, assisted by Indians under Tecumseh, besieged the fort twice. The 10-acre log enclosure with 7 blockhouses and 5 emplacements presented a formidable defense. The first assault was in May of 1813 and the second was in July. Both failed and the British retreated after the second. The Museum and Education Center has 3,000 square feet of exhibits and artifacts—including soldiers' letters and diaries, weapons, maps, and uniforms—that describe Fort Meigs's role during the War of 1812.

A second website covering the site can be found here.

The site offers exhibits; tours; educational programs; workshops and classes; and recreational and educational events, including living history events.

Indian Mill [OH]

Description

Indian Mill, built in 1861, is the nation's first educational museum of milling in its original structure. The restored three-story structure replaces the original one-story building that the U. S. government built in 1820 to reward the loyalty of local Wyandot Indians during the War of 1812. Many exhibits are placed around the original mill machinery. The restored miller's office displays the history of milling from prehistoric times to the present.

The mill offers exhibits and tours.

Ellis Island

Description

From the Bowery Boys website:

"For millions of Americans, Ellis Island is the symbol of introduction, the immigrant depot that processed their ancestors and offered an opening into a new American life. But for some, it would truly be an 'Island of Tears,' a place where they would be excluded from that life. How did an island with such humble beginnings—'Little Oyster Island,' barely a sliver of land in the New York harbor—become so crucial? Who is the 'Ellis' of Ellis Island? And how did it survive decades of neglect to become one of New York's most famous tourist attractions?"

Resources for Units on Early American Government

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Print, Louis XVI, King of France, New York Public Library
Question

As a student teacher, I am planning a unit on a textbook chapter that focuses on the origins of American government (MacGruder’s American Government, Prentice Hall) for a 12th-grade honors class. The chapter is divided into sections that cover such topics as historical documents and types of governments within colonial America, the causes of Independence, the Declaration of Independence, a student's look at the critical period, the Articles of Confederation, and the creation and ratification of the Constitution.

I need to plan a 1.5-2 week unit that assigns students to read the textbook at home, and prepare an interactive and project-based classroom activity that unites the ideas of this unit. Any suggestions?

Answer

There are lots of great resources on the Web for planning a unit on the origins of American government. A good place to start is the National Archives website, which has some excellent resources for teachers. For your purposes, the Teaching with Documents: Images of the American Revolution page is most relevant, while the American Revolution section gives background information, primary documents, teaching activities, and worksheets.

Another good resource for teachers is EDSITEment, a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their Voices of the American Revolution page gathers resources from a wide variety of websites and includes different activities for the classroom. The Colonial Broadsides and the American Revolution page, though designed for middle school teachers, has resources that could be adapted for older students.

Also consider the colleges and universities that have participated in the Teaching American History program. Many of these schools have web pages where participants post materials and lesson plans. Fitchburg State College, for instance, offers teacher-created plans on the American Revolution that you can browse.

The National Park Service provides great resources for history and social studies teachers. Their Teacher’s Guide to the American Revolution includes five separate lessons as well as primary source documents. Though sometimes lengthy, these units are packed with interesting details and materials.

A peerless source of classroom materials is the Public Broadcasting System. Among PBS web pages that focus on the American Revolution is Rediscovering George Washington, which includes a unit on Washington as military leader during the war for independence. Another excellent site is Africans in America, which comes with a teacher’s guide, complete with lessons, questions, activities, and resources.

Though it doesn't feature lesson plans, TeacherServe, a project of the National Humanities Center, can guide you to useful resources that focus on the Revolution and the Colonial era. Their section on religion, Divining America: Religion in American History, contains essays that offer different perspectives on the importance of religion during the period.

This is a mere sampling of what's out there on the origins of our democracy. Good luck with your unit planning!

Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power

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Photo, Rob Williams with Mao Zedong, Negroes with Guns
Annotation

This website is a companion to the PBS show on Rob Williams and the Black Power movement. Rob Williams was "the first African American civil rights leader to advocate armed resistance to racial oppression and violence." His radio program for blacks in the South "Radio Free Dixie," broadcast from exile in Cuba, "included cutting-edge music by African American artists, news from the front lines of the black freedom movement and fiery editorials by Rob Williams that railed against 'rump-licking Uncle Toms' and 'Ku Klux Klan savages.'"

The site offers a description of the film along with the film trailer. It also includes a short biography of Rob Williams with several images, as well as background information on "Radio Free Dixie" with ten audio clips including four excerpts from the show and six music clips. "Learn more" includes links to 12 related websites and six books on Black Power, Radio Free Dixie, Rob Williams, and black revolutionaries. A good starting point for research on Williams and his role in the Black Power movement.

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience

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Image for In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Annotation

Migration, both forced and voluntary, remains a prominent theme in African American history. This website is built around the history of 13 African American migration experiences: the transatlantic slave trade (1450s–1867), runaway journeys (1630s–1865), the domestic slave trade (1760s–1865), colonization and emigration (1783–1910s), Haitian Immigration (1791–1809), Western migration (1840s–1970), and Northern migration (1840s–1890).

Twentieth-century migrations include the Great Migration (1916–1930), the Second Great Migration (1940–1970), Caribbean immigration (1900–present), the return South migration (1970–present), Haitian immigration in the 20th century (1970–present), and African immigration (1970–present). More than 16,500 pages of texts, 8,300 illustrations, and 67 maps are included. An interactive timeline places migration in the context of U.S. history and the history of the African Diaspora.