The Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars are designed to strengthen participants' commitment to high quality history teaching. Public, parochial, independent school teachers, and National Park Service rangers are eligible. These week-long seminars provide intellectual stimulation and a collaborative context for developing practical resources and strategies to take back to the classroom.

The Cold War dominated the second half of the 20th century, but until recently the world had only an imperfect sense of what it was all about. Historians wrote about it, of necessity, from within the event they were seeking to describe, so that there was no way to know its outcome. And because only a few Western countries had begun to open their archives, these accounts could only reflect one side of the story. Cold War history, hence, was not normal history: it was both asymmetrical and incomplete. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent partial opening of Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives have revolutionized the field. Everything historians thought they knew is suddenly up for reconsideration, whether because of the new documents available to them, or as a consequence of knowing how it all came out. Even as this happens, though, the memories of those who lived through the Cold War are rapidly fading, and a new generation of students has no memory of it at all. This seminar will seek to integrate the latest scholarly research on Cold War history and the ways in which that subject is presented in the classroom. The seminar will use a variety of means: lectures, books, documents, video documentaries, and the resources of the worldwide web. There will also be ample opportunity for participants to learn from one another, and for the presenters to learn from the participants. It will be, in short, a week of total immersion in the lengthy, occasionally dangerous, and (almost) always intriguing history of the Cold War, filled with debate and new information.

The workshop features Dr. Harvey Klehr of Emory University as the keynote speaker and offers sessions on television, toys, fashion, music, art, and literature of the Cold War era.

Sponsored by the National Park Service, Gettysburg College, and Mount St. Mary's University, the Academy presents an in-depth perspective of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president and world leader. Sessions introduce effective strategies for teaching the Cold War in the classroom and include:

* New scholarship on the Eisenhower Presidency.
* Field trips, lectures, and discussion on the 1950s including the Cold War, civil rights, and popular culture.
* A visit to the Eisenhower National Historic Site to get an intimate glimpse into Eisenhower's life and times.
* Opportunities to learn about and use primary source documents, film and video footage, and the World Wide Web as research tools.
* A walk through historic Gettysburg exploring Eisenhower's life and times in the community.

"An NCHE team will explore the topic of the The 60's at this colloquium."

"An NCHE team of Marc Selverstone and John Pyne will explore the topic of The Cold War in Historical Perspective at this Teaching American History colloquium."

"This seminar will use a variety of resources: lectures, books, documents, video documentaries, and the resources on the internet. There will also be ample opportunity for participants and hosts to learn from one another. It will be, in short, a week of total immersion in the lengthy, occasionally dangerous, and (almost) always intriguing history of the Cold War, filled with debate and new information."

"This seminar will explore a controversial era shrouded in myths and memories. Among the topics it will examine are the presidencies of John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon; the civil rights movement; the Vietnam War; the New Left; the counterculture; the women's movement; the gay movement; the conservative movement; the international dimension of youth protest; and the legacies of the 1960s. The aim of the seminar is to provide a balanced history of a turbulent time that continues to influence American politics, society, and culture."