This article explores the National History Day theme Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas through the experience of Chinese laborers on the Transcontinental Railroad and Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. It includes topics and sources for research as well as relevant classroom materials.
The National History Day® (NHD) 2022 theme, Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences, asks students to think about competing and multiple perspectives on various issues across history. This article explores debates surrounding the role of government during the early years of the newly-created republic and the extent to which these debates remain important today.
Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) was created by the National Museum of American History back in 2002 to celebrate the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz. This Closer Reading focuses on women in Jazz, with features on Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald, and resources for including jazz across the humanities.
The National History Day® (NHD) 2021 theme, Communication in History: The Key to Understanding, asks students to think about how people have communicated with each other across time and place. Newspapers are often a key piece of the historical research process and this essay provides ideas on how to analyze and use these sources when studying media, the press, and communication technology.
It is hard to imagine any movement more important for understanding the meaning of freedom and equal rights in the U.S. than the civil rights struggle in the post-World War II era. Yet, as Julian Bond succinctly argued, in most textbooks and the media, the popular understanding of that movement is reduced to: “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, and the white kids came down and saved the day.”
Read and discuss some of the great American writers and their work in the mid-19th century. This feature explores the themes of slavery, the role of women, and the experience of war.
The month of May is an opportunity for reflection on and commemoration of all that AAPI individuals and organizations have accomplished and contributed to U.S. history and culture. This piece highlights NEH projects and classroom resources for teaching about these experiences in America.
The We the People Bookshelf theme, “A More Perfect Union,” is the literary complement of library programs observing the sesquicentennial of the Civil War in American history and culture.
Teach Immigration History from the University of Texas at Austin explains the important and complicated history of immigration to the United States for general audiences and high school teachers of U.S. history and civics courses. The backbone of the website is an 80-item chronology of key events, laws, and court rulings that are further explained by a dozen thematic lesson plans on topics such as citizenship, an overview of major laws, gender and immigration, and migration within the Americas.
Now celebrated in more than 40 countries, Jazz Appreciation Month offers an opportunity to explore cultural dynamics that inform jazz music across places, as well as the idiosyncratic ways in which jazz artists reimagine and perform their local for the global.
