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11/20/2014: Best in History Online: BackStory

… we like to take a moment to highlight fantastic history sites from around the web. These are websites that – much … drill down to colonial times and earlier, revealing the connections (and disconnections) between past and present. With … broadcast by 36 primary public radio stations, serving 72 communities in 20 states and Washington, D.C.—and more than …
President George W. Bush and his wife Laura listening to a Missouri elementary student read aloud to them.

Can Bush Avoid the Curse of Re-election?

… takes the press and the opposition party a full term to become familiar with an administration’s use of executive … There are dangers in a second term and many past examples exist to prove it. The most notorious is the abbreviated … second term of Richard M. Nixon. No other presidency was less popular with the liberal press, which relished the …
The Warren Court (1953–1969).

Blending Empathy and Justice

… on the Supreme Court, appears before the Senate judiciary committee. Obama raised the subject when he identified “that … understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.” Conservatives immediately began taking taken pot …
Julian Assange

Information Leaks in American History

Grade Level
9-12
Teaching Area
US History since 1877
American Government
Science & Technology
… This lesson has students debate the morality of whistleblowers … both sides of the argument before taking a viewpoint.   Files for download: Information-Leaks-and-Whistleblowers-Lesson-Plan (PDF File) Leaks-and-Whistlehlowers-Presentation …
Gunpowder Plot conspirators in front of a bonfire celebrating Guy Fawkes Night.

Powder Treason, Bonfire Night, and the English Art of Reinventing the Past

… fireworks light the sky and effigies burn. The celebration commemorates an event from 1605, when authorities discovered … and all of Parliament. But Bonfire Night’s endurance stems less from the historical event itself than from the English … of Parliament, killing King James I, the Lords, and the Commons in one stroke. The conspirators hoped the chaos …
The laser system of a CD-ROM drive.

From Manuscript to CD-ROM: A Longer Journey Than We Think?

… claim being made lately about the ever-advancing Computer Age. After all, cyber-data is easier to store, takes up less space and uses fewer natural resources than printed … Europe, the printing press affected book production in ways comparable to how today’s computer is transforming …
Cover of The British Way of War by Andrew Lambert

Redefining Strategy in 20th Century Britain

Review of The British Way of War: Julian Corbett and the Battle for a National Strategy by Andrew Lambert (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2021)
… his intellectual independence. Corbett’s work applied lessons derived from extensive historical research to the … strategic priorities. Corbett disavowed continental commitment and mass armies, believing Britain should instead … committed a mass conscript army to the continent, the opposite of Corbett’s vision. The result for Britain was the …
WNYU 89.1

Best in History Online: WNYU News

… we like to take a moment to highlight fantastic history sites from around the web. These are websites that–much like Origins –seek to bring history into … often taken for granted such as QWERTY keyboards, garage sales, and the 40-hour work week. In fact, Episode #3, …
A slave owner holding a baby and a whip and a group of slaves

From Republicans to Democrats: The Changing Political Allegiance of Black Voters

Why did Black voters vote in greater numbers for Republicans in the first 70 years after the Civil War?
Grade Level
9-12
9
10
11
12
Teaching Area
African American History
US History to 1877
US History since 1877
… at an 80% or higher rate for a Democratic president? This lesson asks us to evaluate how the Republican Party went …
Entrance gate of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, "Work Sets You Free," 2013

At the Movies: “Canaries,” A Review of Denial

… of the sort espoused by Richard Rorty. The maneuver is a common one from the perspective of positivism. In The … of it all. However, when the triumphant Donald Trump visited Barack Obama in the White House after the election, … He began by directing episodes of James Burke’s Connections (1978), one of the great television science …
People wearing masks

The Respirator and Cloth Mask

Germ theory helped to usher in the widespread use of cloth masks.
… for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this content do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for …
the cover of a Captain America comic book

Captain America: Changing Conscience of a Nation

… next to the adult fare at the newsstands was something far less ambiguous: a four-color spectacle featuring a red, … and artist Jack Kirby in the eponymous Captain America Comics #1 , the patriotic hero became a breakout star for … “good war.” Four-color McCarthyism could not pull enough coins from adolescent pockets to prevent the superhero …
Plague Doctor

Responding to Pandemics—Both Past and Present

What can we learn from the public/medical responses during previous epidemics and pandemics to aid us in combating COVID-19 on the local, state, and national levels?
Grade Level
9-12
9
10
11
12
Teaching Area
US History to 1877
US History since 1877
… The purpose of this lesson is to reflect on the response of government officials … outbreak, and the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic to aid us in combating COVID-19 on the local, state, and national levels. … during previous epidemics and pandemics to aid us in combating COVID-19 on the local, state, and national levels? …
Louis XVI

What Happened to Louis XVI? A Swift Public Execution

On January 20, 1793, the deputies decreed Louis’ guilt and his punishment by death.
… where he was imprisoned, to the Place de la Révolution, the site of his execution.  Written by Dr. Elizabeth Bond. …
A view of the World Trade Center in New York City

Responding to Terror: No Good Choices

… and anger are settling into a cold rage against whoever committed the atrocity and those who may be sheltering the perpetrators’ accomplices and families. But what must now be done? This is … were the primary actors, these Americans favor the wholesale extermination of the terrorists. Killing bin Laden …
Thomas Jefferson

The Road to a New American Aristocracy

… crises and growing debt. Yet estate taxes, and other rules governing the transfer of wealth between generations, … that the blood in their veins distinguished them from the common herd. Despite the rhetoric about property rights that … In the 18th century when a man died his estate often passed complete to his eldest son. This form of inheritance, known …
A "bucket brigade" works to clear rubble and debris on September 14, 2001.

United We Stand? The Unequal Costs of Mobilization

… for their lost brethren at the World Trade Center disaster site, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urged the firefighters’ union … from new opportunities. But the patriotic fervor that accompanied wartime mobilization meant that unions were … who were a key part of the economy servicing this center of commerce. But, like the firefighters turned away from Ground …

A Century of HIV

… human immune systems, HIV has also allowed tuberculosis to come thundering back as a global health threat and has … story of HIV is a story of globalization. The expanding connections of the twentieth century spread the disease, yet … trading centers and colonial outposts. Two towns on opposite sides of the Congo River, Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) …
An HIV AIDS patient in Mozambique

What HIV Teaches Us: The Need for Affordable Health Care

HIV and COVID-19 have both laid bare that stark racial disparities exist in population health and in access to quality medical care in the US.
Comparing COVID-19 to HIV is, in many ways, like comparing apples to oranges: HIV is transmitted primarily through sexual … or recommendations expressed in this content do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for …
A COVID-19 antigen testing center in Warora, Maharashtra, India.

The Deep Roots of India’s COVID-19 Crisis

… patients’ access to lifesaving medical assistance, all compounded by the emergence of a new variant that may be … at odds with indigenous understandings of disease. Regardless of the balance of causes, from the late nineteenth … administration gave Indians greater authority, though not necessarily more funding, to address health concerns. …
Person holding sign that reads "Stop Voter Suppression"

From Poll Taxes to Partisan Gerrymandering: Voter Disenfranchisement in the United States

… to include many more citizens since 1776, these gains have come haltingly and unevenly. Even as women gained suffrage, … voter suppression continue to affect electoral outcomes today? Listen in to find out. To learn more about the … Rhodes. Song and band information can be found on our website. You can find our podcasts and more on our website
A COVID-19 anti-lockdown protestor in Vancouver, Canada, May 2020

Going Viral: COVID Conspiracies in Historical Perspective

… As national governments and the global scientific community struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus … In particular, American society witnessed an incredible outpouring of unfounded rumors around the influenza pandemic at … the face of globalization . Americans fear that global connections have rendered them increasingly vulnerable to …