Closer Readings

57 Result(s)
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Witch Hunting for the Classroom

In their book Salem Possessed, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum remark upon the prominent place the Salem witch trials have in America's cultural consciousness. They observe, “For most Americans the episode ranks in familiarity somewhere between Plymouth Rock and Custer's last stand.”

The Declaration of Sentiments by the Seneca Falls Conference (1848)

This feature outlines the context of The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 which produced the “Declaration of Sentiments,” a CCSS exemplar for grades 11 – CCR. This document made a bold argument, modeled on the language and logic of the Declaration of Independence that American women should be given civil and political rights equal to those of American men, including the right to vote.

Science, Shakespeare, and the STEM Humanities

Learn how to make the most of STEM in your humanities classroom and how to incorporate nonfiction into STEM with the National Library of Medicine's lesson plan resources.

Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition

This essay written by a distinguished historian of American literature, gives an overview of the American slave narrative tradition, discusses five representative slave narratives, and provides a framework for cultural analysis of these works showing their intention and their arguments.

Emanuel Leutze’s Symbolic Scene of Washington Crossing the Delaware

We know General George Washington crossed the Delaware River to attack Britain’s Hessian army at Trenton on Christmas night in 1776. At the mention of this event, most Americans imagine a heroic Washington standing in a small boat. But, did this happen? How has the art of Emanuel Leutze influenced the telling of history? 

Pompeii and the Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius

Use this feature to understand the lives of people in Southern Italy before, during, and after the famous eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE, as well as learn how it inspired Neoclassicism.