American Tourists and the Holy Land, 1865-1900 nsleeter Fri, 01/22/2021 - 08:38
Teaser

Help students make connections between religion, technology, and American culture in this teaching module.

lesson_image
Website
Shapell Manuscript Foundation: American Tourists in the Holy Land
Description

Students analyze maps, travel posters, and the writings of Mark Twain to explore expectations versus reality. They then plan their own itinerary for American tourists.  

Article Body

In this teaching module from the Shapell Manuscript Foundation in collaboration with the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Mediastudents learn how to examine engaging primary sources including travel posters, train tickets, maps, and a letter written by Mark Twain to better understand the attitudes and experiences of Americans who travelled to British Palestine in the late 1800s.

Students work in small groups to analyze sources and think through what kinds of expectations Americans might have had about the Holy Land before they travelled there. Students are also encouraged to explore what technological changes allowed tourists the opportunity to travel across the ocean. Primary sources such as travel posters present an idealized version of the places that Americans were familiar with from the Bible. 

After analyzing these primary sources students work in groups to create their own travel itineraries and promotional posters or pamphlets to advertise tours in the Holy Land. These can be physical materials or students may use digital tools to create their promotional materials. The modules also contain guidance on differentiation for diverse learners and connections to standards.  

Topic
American Tourists in the Holy Land
Time Estimate
90 minutes
flexibility_scale
2
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Yes

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes
Students show their understanding through primary source analysis and creating visual media. 

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes
Requires close reading and attention to source information.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Yes

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

Yes

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

Yes

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes

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Coal and the Industrial Revolution Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/07/2010 - 17:47
Question

How can the story of coal help students understand the nature of today's fossil-fueled world?

Textbook Excerpt

Most textbooks explain the phenomenal growth of the American economy during the industrial revolution by some combination of immigration, urbanization, the rise of mass production, the inventiveness of great scientists, the development of extensive infrastructure, the rise of corporations, government subsidies, the "laissez-faire" legal environment, and the bounty of America's natural resources.

Source Excerpt

Sources reveal a society suffering from growing pains, with environmental and human rights concerns not yet keeping pace with the huge demand for raw coal and power to support rapidly expanding systems of infrastructure and industry. A nationwide dependency on mining sprang up unplanned, at the root of many of the changes in the U.S.'s culture and economy.

Historian Excerpt

Historians also treat economic growth during the industrial revolution as the product of many factors, but some seek out explanations and track changes beyond the few tidy categories laid out in textbooks. How, for instance, did the U.S. transition to coal power, and how was that transition both driving and driven by urbanization, mechanization, and a growing infrastructure? What effect did it have on the environment and living conditions?

Abstract

Why did the American economy take off in the late 19th century? What were the consequences of the nation's industrial ascendancy? Textbook treatments of what some historians call the "second industrial revolution"—the period of rapid and tumultuous economic expansion that stretched from the 1860s into the 1900s—can seem superficial and unsatisfying in comparison to neighboring sections on social change, political conflict, and cultural ferment. A better understanding of the story of coal, too often ignored by textbook authors, can provide students with important understandings about the nature of today's fossil-fueled world.

Lowell National Historical Park [MA] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:35
Description

The Lowell National Historical Park presents America's Industrial Revolution via the example of the textile industry's use of the Merrimack River. The park also presents local history. Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), famous member of the Beat Generation and author of On the Road, was born in Lowell.

The Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center offers exhibits. The park also offers tours, non-circulating library access, and teacher workshops. Appointments are required for library use. The website offers oral history transcriptions and a lesson plan.

Causing the Civil War

Question

Was economic difference—manufacturing in the North and slave-driven agriculture in the South—the primary cause of the Civil War?

Textbook Excerpt

Textbooks have traditionally taught that incompatibility between northern and southern economies caused the Civil War. Everything else was tied to that economic difference, anchored by cotton.

Source Excerpt

Census data from 1860 shows farms, manufacturing, and cities in the North and the South, as well as the location of slaves and cotton in southern states, all of which challenge the notion of a purely agricultural South and industrialized North.

Historian Excerpt

The Civil War was fought for many reasons, not solely or even primarily because of the growing importance of cotton on southern farms. Moving away from economic differences and cotton as simplistic causes leads to a more accurate, and far more interesting, understanding of the causes of the Civil War.

Abstract

For years, textbook authors have contended that economic difference between North and South was the primary cause of the Civil War. The northern economy relied on manufacturing and the agricultural southern economy depended on the production of cotton. The desire of southerners for unpaid workers to pick the valuable cotton strengthened their need for slavery. The industrial revolution in the North did not require slave labor and so people there opposed it. The clash brought on the war.

Economic divergence is certainly one of the reasons for the Civil War, but neither the major one nor the only one. Many factors brought about the war. Focusing only on different economies would be like arguing that one professional football team will always win because it has taller players.

The true causes of the Civil War are downright intriguing and just as complex as the conflict itself.

Andrew Jackson, Part Two

Description

Professor Robert Remini follows the life and presidency of Andrew Jackson, considering the great changes that occurred during his lifetime—in literature, religion, the arts, business, science, politics, government, and the presidency itself. This lecture continues from the lecture "Andrew Jackson, Part One."

Andrew Jackson, Part One

Description

Professor Robert Remini follows the life and presidency of Andrew Jackson, considering the great changes that occurred during his lifetime—in literature, religion, the arts, business, science, politics, government, and the presidency itself. He begins with a brief digression on the life of John Quincy Adams.

Slater Mill Historic Site [RI]

Description

Slater Mill is a museum complex dedicated to bringing one of the most exciting and significant periods of American history to life. Visitors to the site experience a time when an America of small farmers and craftsmen was poised to become the industrial leader of the world. In the Slater Mill itself, visitors are surrounded by vintage textile machinery bathed in the light of large windows. With expert commentary from costumed interpreters they can imagine the lives of the people—many of them children—who made the early mills come alive.

In the nearby Wilkinson Mill they can feel the throb of the great 16,000-pound mill wheel, a replica of the original wheel that harnessed the power of the Blackstone River to make the era's finest tools. Children get up close and personal with early production processes as they provide the power and operate miniature machinery in the Apprentice Alcove. In the Sylvanus Brown House they can look back to a time when spinning, weaving, cooking, and quilting were the stuff of everyday life.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, tours, demonstrations, workshops, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Bucks County Historical Society and Museums [PA]

Description

The Bucks County Historical Society seeks to make the presentation of historical information both engaging and relevant to everyday life. To this end, the society operates the Mercer Museum, Fonthill Museum, and Spruance Library. The Mercer Museum, housed within a 1916 structure, presents pre-Industrialization artifacts of daily life. Exhibit topics include illumination, medicine, tinsmithing, transportation, and dairy farming, among more than 60 early American trades. The Spruance Library is housed within the Mercer Museum. The 1912 Fonthill Museum is a historic home. Once home to Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930), anthropologist, antiquarian, archaeologist, and designer of renowned Moravian tile, the Byzantine, Gothic, and Medieval structure is now furnished in period style. Many of the pieces are original to the site and their locations within the home.

The society offers exhibits, period rooms, guided tours of the Fonthill Museum, curriculum-based programs, curriculum-based traveling trunks, curriculum-based outreach presentations, concerts, workshops for children and teenagers, summer camps, Act 48 workshops, research library access, collections access, and research services. Reservations are strongly advised for the Fonthill Museum. The Mercer Museum is approximately 65 percent wheelchair accessible. The Fonthill Museum is wheelchair accessible on the first floor only. Collections access is by appointment only. A fee is charged for research conducted upon request. The website offers pre- and post-visit materials and an online catalog.

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