Spotlight on Elementary Education

History has been shaped and influenced by the out come of ancient trials—such as the Trial of Socrates in 399B.C.—to Rosenberg Trial in the 1950s. This site offers a comprehensive look at 50 prominent court trials throughout history and its resources can be used to give young learners an introduction to the history of the modern judicial system.

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Website Reviews

Find quality websites & primary sources
CIA Electronic Reading Room
Document, Letter to J. William Leonard from Edmund Cohen, April 15 2006, CIA.

Digitally serves thousands of formerly secret documents in compliance with [...] »

National Security Archives: The Pentagon's Spies
Paul H. Nitze, "Instructions for the coordination"

James Bond, anyone? Delve into the States' history of espionage.

[...] »
Slavery and the Making of America
Oil, Olaudah Equiano or Ottobah Cugoano, 18th century, The Atlantic. . .

An extensive glimpse into slave life and the history of slavery in the [...] »

History Quiz

Test your history knowledge
Presidential Moments: Hail to the Chief Nicknames

Fond or far-fetched, everyone has one—but as president, nicknames garner the [...] »

Probing Probate

How do we know what people in the past owned and valued?

[...] »
Women at War

Women have fought in every U.S. war, but only recently have they gained [...] »

Beyond the Textbook

Question textbook narratives
Women's Reform Movement
Print, A downright gabbler, or a goose that deserves to be hissed, 1829

The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 reflected the voices of [...] »

The Tet Offensive
Eddie Adams, Vietcong shooting prisoner cropped

American historians have depicted the Tet Offensive as the turning point for [...] »

Causing the Civil War
Postcard, Train Load of Cotton for Export, South, 1902-1903, NYPL

Did King Cotton cause the Civil War? Or should you look further?

[...] »

National Resources

Federal teaching resources
Selective Service System
Lithograph, Don't wait for the draft--Volunteer, 1917, Library of Congress

Did you know that the draft was used in times of peace, as well as war?

[...] »
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Photo, Barking Frog, Mark A. Musselman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The government acts for fauna as well as society. When did this start? Why [...] »

Bureau of Justice Statistics
Graph, "Sentences for those convicted in federal court," BJS

Everyday you read about local crime in the newspaper, but are the rates [...] »

Ask a Historian

Booth's Reason for Assassination
The gun Booth used to kill Lincoln, Ford's Theatre, 2007.

In an attempt to salvage a failed Confederate agenda, John Wilkes Booth [...] »