The Alexis de Tocqueville Tour: Exploring Democracy in America

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Designed to accompany a nine-month C-SPAN "road trip" in 1997–98 that retraced Alexis de Tocqueville's travels in 19th-century America, this site contains information about Tocqueville, his travels, and his writings; the full text of Democracy in America; a map of Tocqueville's trip; and selections—organized by state—from the journal he kept while in America.

Also provides a short list of references to Tocqueville by modern-day Americans ranging from President Bill Clinton to Newt Gingrich; 26 present-day photographs of Tocqueville's hometown; a 13-title bibliography; access to "A Conversation on Democracy," a two-hour video special; a preview of the book and video Traveling Tocqueville's America; links to seven sites on France; and approximately 30 lesson plans.

A useful introduction to the man and his influence.

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.

Women's History: The 1850 Worcester Convention

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To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the First National Women's Rights Convention, held in 1850 in Worcester, MA, this site provides an archive of documents relating to the convention, including eight speeches, 15 newspaper accounts, 14 letters, and selected items from the proceedings.

Also offers three speeches from the 1851 convention, as well as a host of other resources concerning the 19th-century woman's movement more generally. Diary entries, government reports, tracts for and against suffrage, poems from Godey's Lady's Book, and the full text of several books are included, such as The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility (1856).

On an ongoing basis, the site presents essays about and selections by formerly well-known advocates for women's rights who since have been forgotten; currently the works of Jane Grey Swisshelm and Caroline Wells Healy Dall are featured.

Also includes links to 24 related websites.

Comprehensive with regard to the 1850 convention, and useful for more general resources devoted to the mid-19th-century women's rights movement.

Scout Report Archives

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This extensive gateway offers a full-text search of almost 12,000 annotated websites. More than 6,500 are searchable by field (e.g., title, location, resource type) or can be browsed by Library of Congress subject headings or classifications. There are only about 150 records under the U.S. History heading, ranging from speeches and archives to gateways and resources.

Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the project was designed to "assist in the advancement of resource discovery on the Internet" and to "provide timely information to the education community about valuable Internet resources." Sites are selected, researched, and annotated by librarians, educators, and "content specialists" and the summaries are thorough and concise.

The site is updated weekly.

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.

The Five Points Site

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A virtual exhibit of a 1991 archaeological undertaking at the Foley Square Courthouse block in Lower Manhattan of the 19th-century "Five Points" area, a working-class and immigrant neighborhood infamously regarded in contemporary accounts as a "center of vice and debauchery." The site offers information on excavations of a tannery, bakery, saloon, and oyster house, as well as residences in the neighborhood--including Irish, German, Jewish, and Italian residents at various times--and makes an argument that journalistic descriptions of the period failed to adequately represent the "hard work and industry" that material culture evidence suggests. Includes eight images of the excavation sites and more than 60 photos of artifacts. The site also provides five maps, six contemporary images of the neighborhood, and a list of five recommended readings and 13 links to other websites on archaeology and history. Valuable for those studying 19th-century urban life and as a demonstration of ways that archaeology can provide a window on everyday life of earlier eras.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine

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An indispensable resource for teachers and scholars in a wide variety of fields, but especially for historians. H-Net—an international interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers—contains sections on H-Net Reviews, which publishes and disseminates reviews of books, films, museums, software, sound recordings, and websites; Discussion Networks, a gateway to more than 130 academic discussion networks administered by H-Net via email; "H-Net Papers on Teaching and Technology," presenting 10 discussion panels on multimedia teaching; academic announcements of professional organizations, conference programs, fellowships, and prizes; employment listings; and additional websites from various H-Net special projects.

WestWeb: Western Studies and Research Resources

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This gateway offers a wide range of links to primary and secondary documents, bibliographies, maps, images, and other resources for the study and teaching of the American West. Its 31 topics include agriculture, economics, the environment, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, military history, political and legal history, religion, settlement, technology, and water. Also highlights six selected "outstanding sites."

Well-designed, comprehensive, and easy to navigate, the site also furnishes syllabi and additional teaching materials and suggestions.

Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices

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An exhibit of primary source material relating to slavery from the late 18th century to emancipation in the 19th century.

It reproduces or describes 33 documents, such as a broadside announcing a reward for the return of a runaway slave, a map delineating slave labor on an indigo plantation, a New York bill of sale for the purchase of a slave in 1785, and an 85-page memoir written in 1923 by Elizabeth Johnson Harris, an African American woman from Georgia who relates stories and experiences of her parents and grandparents, who had been slaves. The site "showcases the kinds of rare materials that under scrutiny reveal the ambitions, motivations, and struggles of people often presumed mute."

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.