Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, Volume 1: The Colonial Period to Reconstruction

by Larry Madaras, James SoRelle

Taking Sides volumes present current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript or challenge questions. Taking Sides readers feature an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites. An online Instructor’s Resource Guide with testing material is available for each volume. Using Taking Sides in the Classroom is also an excellent instructor resource.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Education

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 1999

Reviews

[Jennifer]

This book wasn't quite what I expected. It's designed primarily to be used as a textbook. It that capacity, it has some potential. The editors do a good job of emphasizing that history is not just a set of facts, but also involves interpretation of the facts. They also draw on essays that offer a range of historical methods to give students a better idea of how historians approach questions. Each "controversy" is introduced with some contextual material and summed up with a solid historiography. At times the editors are a bit one sided in their critiques of the two "opposing" views. I put "opposing" in quotation marks because the two essays selected for each controversy didn't always fit the imposed dichotomy. There were a few essays that barely addressed the question to which they were connected, or did so only tangentially. All-in-all, however, the book serves as a good starting point for looking at different interpretations of history and how to critique them.

[Elaine]

This book is an exercise in critical thinking for older students. It was an excellent resource for my son's AP U.S. History debates. So I picked it up and read it. Interesting topics and discussions. Some better than others, but then isn't that the point?