Teaching American History: Essays Adapted from The Journal of American History, 2001-2007

by Gary J. Kornblith, Carol Lasser

Teaching American Essays Adapted from the Journal of American History, 2001-2007 brings together a selection of articles from the "Textbooks and Teaching" section of the Journal of American History . Editors Gary J. Kornblith and Carol Lasser have compiled a set of thought-provoking essays from a wide range of top scholars that helps instructors of the U.S. survey consider pedagogy, assessment, re-centered narratives, "uncoverage," as well as textbooks and other course materials. Each part of the book focuses on a different aspect of teaching the survey. Part I introduces an on-line roundtable discussion on teaching the U.S. survey. Part II features articles reflecting on the role of the textbook in the U.S. survey. Part III, "Teaching Outside the Box," contains a selection of articles on incorporating sports, theater, oral history, field experience, service learning, field trips, and the Web into teaching and learning. Part IV challenges teachers to think about the connection between teaching, learning, and testing. Finally, Part V includes articles about bringing the narratives of marginalized people to the center of American history.

Genres: History

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2009

Reviews

[Michael Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

Teaching American History is a collection of essays that were published in the Journal of American History, in its “Textbooks and Teaching” feature. Because the book is about teaching US history at the college level, the topics were of interest to me, but not always of much practical value. One of its biggest flaws was that it was written about 20 years ago, and some of it was clearly out of date. There was a roundtable discussion in which several professors discussed how they organized their courses and the issues they were dealing with. Two essays about the writing of textbooks were interesting, especially since I have used both books to teach my AP US History course. A few chapters described the need to include topics that have traditionally been ignored – Asian Americans, gay Americans, Latino Americans, etc. My favorite essay was one by Lendol Calder in which he proposes a “signature pedagogy” for the teaching of history. I found the chapter provided interesting ideas and some building blocks that could be used to structure a high school history class.

[Scott Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduced to Lasser's social history from A Century of American Historiography by Banner.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very innovative approaches and ideas- if you have the time and flexibility to implement them.