Teaching American History

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Teaching American History

• Conceptualizing American History via
• Event Analysis
• but first why are you here?

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Teaching American History

• Good answer!
• But here is another answer
• that is related to two sets of historical facts.
• Historical Facts Set 1 For several decades I
  have been interested in this question
  

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Teaching American History

• If I am such a wonderful teacher, then why dont
  my students do better on my exams?
  
• My favorite answer to the question
• is that it is because many of my students
• do not read the assigned readings.
• But why do they not read the texts?

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Teaching American History

• Perhaps it is because
• Many history texts are boring
• and
• Many history texts are simply data dumps
• that attempt to say a little about everything,
  and are poorly organized
  

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Teaching American History

• Again, lets go back to the question,
• Why are you here?
• Historical Facts Set 2
• In 2002 I read an article in the NEJM,
• renewed a childhood friendship, and
• soon the idea for 12 Days That Changed America
  was born
  
• In 2003 our dean changed the merit system,
• and I tweaked the book proposal for 12 Days and
• added Dr Olsons issue analysis idea
• and approached Bill about a TAH grant
• In 2004, the grant was funded

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Teaching American History

• Since then 12 Days was converted
• from a trade book into a textbook,
• changed its name to Currents,
• and was signed with McGraw Hill
• but ultimately published
• with ME Sharpe

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Teaching American History

• The idea of Currents in American History is to
• - provide good stories
• about days of impact
• that can help students frame the contours
  of the American past
  
• and enable them to understand cause and
  effect relationships

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Teaching American History

• Last year I had 3 hours for this lecture so I
  used the time to talk about historiography and
  changes in the history profession over the last
  two centuries
• Lucky for you, this is now a 1 hr lecture
• so you can skip the next 15 slides
• but please remember this one thing ...

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during the last 150 years the pendulum has swung
from
Narrative history
Analytical history
to
back toward Analytical history
wrapped into a narrative structure
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(Notice Do not learn because the following
material will NOT be on the final exam)

• I will make a statement about history
• and you tell me ...
• 1) if you agree or disagree with the statement,
• 2) if you think most academic historians today
  agree with the statement, and
  
• 3) if you think historians 100 years ago would
  have agreed with the statement

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Teaching American History

• Agree or disagree?
• History is essentially linear, progressively
  marching on a gradual gradient upward.
  
• The task of the historian is to arrange the facts
  in their proper order and let the facts speak for
  themselves.
  
• The task of the historian is to search for
  universally applicable generalizations.
  

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Teaching American History

• Answer key to statements 2 and 3
• Today, most academic historians disagree with
  each statement
  
• 100 years ago, most historians agreed with each
  statement
  

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Teaching American History

• Why did most historians 100 years ago embrace
  these statements?
  
• The short answer is because most academics a
  century ago believed in the notion of progress.
  
• But why.....

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Teaching American History

• If progress was really real,
• then the primary task of the 19th century
  historian was to explain why or how the march of
  time propelled humankind forward rather than
  backward.
• Here are some common answers given by the great
  19th century philosophers of history

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Teaching American History

• Prophets of Progress in the Golden Age of
  History
  
• Thomas Carlyle human progress is the result of
  great men
  
• Jules Michelet history is the story of people
  overcoming misery, bringing freedom into the
  world
  

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Teaching American History

• Georg Hegel
• history is the unfolding of truth, ultimate
  reality what happens is a reflection of the
  divine
  
• the dialectic method
• thesis, antithesis, synthesis

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Teaching American History

• Marx dialectic materialism
• stages of history
• primitive communism
• slavery
• feudalism
• capitalism
• advanced communism

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Teaching American History

• August Comte father of sociology
• stages of humanity
• theological era
• philosophical era
• age of science with goal to find
• laws of society and apply them

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Teaching American History

• Leopard von Ranke
• through history, humanity can discover the
  ultimate Truth, Gods plan for humanity
  
• Herbert Spencer Social Darwinism
• progress will proceed if mother nature has her
  way
  

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Teaching American History

• In the early 20th century, however, the idea of
  progress was questioned, if not outright
  rejected.
  
• Why do you think 20th century scholars began to
  doubt the reality of progress?
  

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Teaching American History

• Annales School
• Mid 20th century historians who wanted to
• enlarge the scope of history
• make greater use of the social sciences
• focus mainly on the structures that cause
  events rather than the events themselves
  

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Teaching American History

• To Annales School historians, to understand the
  past we need to understand that
  
• geographical time (the relationship between
  humans and the environment) moves slowly
  
• social time (the relationship between groups in
  society) moves at a moderate pace
  
• individual time (event history) moves very
  rapidly

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Teaching American History

• To Brandel, historical events are merely
• surface disturbances, crests of foam that the
  tides of history carry on their strong backs.
  
• Events are often only momentary outbursts,
  surface manifestations of... larger movements and
  explicable only in terms of them.

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Teaching American History

• Some 21st century academics (and most of the
  public) believe that
  
• historical discourse today is too specialized,
• too much current history is driven by theory that
  gives too little importance to individuals as
  decision makers
  
• and we need to return to more narrative history
  and biography

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Teaching American History

• Currents in American History will
• conceptualize the American past by assessing the
  causes and consequences of 14 critical turning
  point events that have shaped American political
  and popular thought.
• describe each event in an engaging narrative that
  draws on the passion and emotion of each
  historical era.
  
• show how each day of destiny triggered a set of
  new events that changed American beliefs and led
  us into a new era of history.
  
• organize facts that offer insights into how the
  present is created by past actions.

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Teaching American History

• If you were asked to select one
• turning point event for each generation
• since the generation of 1776,
• what moments would you select?
• What factors would influence your decisions?
• My selections were ....

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Teaching American History

• Table of Contents
• Introduction The Genesis of America
• Chapter 1 Conceived in Liberty The Story Behind
  the Story
  
• Chapter 2 Defining the American Dream, July 2,
  1776 The Declaration of Independence and the
  Forging of a New Nation
  
• Chapter 3 Undeclaring War, February 18, 1799
  Navigating Neutrality
  
• and the Ramifications of the Pursuit of
  Peace
  
• Chapter 4 Struggling for Survival, September
  13, 1814 The Battle for
  
• Baltimore and the Emergence of American
  Nationalism

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Teaching American History

• Chapter 5 The Inauguration of Andrew Jackson,
  March 4, 1829 America Enters the Age of the
  Common Man
  
• Chapter 6 In the Name of Manifest Destiny, May
  9, 1846 The War with
  
• Mexico and the Acquisition of the American
  West
  
• Chapter 7 A Nation Divides, April 12, 1861 Fort
  Sumter and the Era of the American Civil
  War
  
• Chapter 8 Presidential Bargaining, February 26,
  1877 The Compromise of 1877 and the Price of
  National Unity
  
• Chapter 9 The Sinking of the Maine, February 15,
  1898 The Spanish American War and the Emergence
  of America as a World Power
  

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Teaching American History

• Chapter 10 The Silencing of Woodrow Wilson,
  September 25, 1919 Peace, Normalcy and the Rise
  of American Isolationism
  
• Chapter 11 The Day of Infamy, December 7, 1941
  Pearl Harbor and the
  
• Transformation of the Modern World
• Chapter 12 A Nation Mourns, November 22, 1963
  The Assassination of
  
• John F. Kennedy and the End of American
  Innocence
  
• Chapter 13 America Taken Hostage, November 4,
  1979 The Iranian Hostage Crisis and the
  Restructuring of the World Order
  
• Chapter 14 Terrorists Stun America, September
  11, 2001 Negotiating Security and Liberty in the
  21st Century
  

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How to use Currents in American History
For online maps, photos, primary sources, audio-
visuals, and questions that support CURRENTS IN
AMERICAN HISTORY, see this link
Teaching American History, 2006
Welcome to the SHSU Teaching American History
Site!   Here we will list resources for Summer
2006. Links Readings Presentations LINKS
Currents in American Historyhttp//www.sharpelear
ning.com/editions