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The month of May is an opportunity for reflection on and commemoration of all that Jewish Americans have accomplished and contributed to U.S. history and culture. This piece highlights NEH…
More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source. —Historian Stephen Ambrose
Anton Chekhov began his career writing humorous pieces for popular magazines to support himself while he studied to become a doctor.
A French aristocrat visits Jacksonian America
In 1831, an ambitious and unusually perceptive twenty-five-year-old French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville, visited the United States. His…
Did you realize the humanities understood as the study and interpretation of languages, history, literature, jurisprudence, philosophy, comparative religion, history of art, and culture along with…
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592), one of the most consequential writers of all time, was born into the French aristocracy and educated in the Latin and Greek classics at home by his father.
This feature is a guide to using informational read-aloud text, “Amazing Whales!” by Sarah L. Thomson. It introduces this species to young naturalists in the primary grades K–1, who are mastering…
The Berlin Wall & Beyond is an online high school curriculum for teaching World History, which focuses on the critical post-World War II period. Once united as allies in their war…
Teacher guide “The Song of Wandering Aengus” by W. B. Yeats includes information about the poem and discussion questions. The included supplementary documents provide contextual background on…
Between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22), our commercial republic* has come to celebrate a national holiday unofficially called “Presidents' Day…
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) was a nineteenth-century Danish philosopher. He is often called the “father of existentialism” for his exploration of anxiety and absurdity.
It is perhaps no surprise that Fyodor Dostoevsky is known as one of the greatest psychological writers of all time, given his own dramatic history of suffering.
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…
Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) was an American writer who hailed from South Berwick, Maine. Born into a well-established New England family, she enjoyed a comfortable childhood in the countryside,…
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,…
Download each section of the lecture by clicking on the part subtitle so that you can mark it up as you read. We recommend that you read the lecture twice.
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.
This short video contains excerpts from David Walker's famous "Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World," a very significant document in American history. It is a call to freedom and to rising…
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…
This collection focuses on presidential inaugurations across U.S. history and includes audio and video excerpts of speeches, links to full texts of speeches, lesson ideas, and other resources for…
Adapted from the What So Proudly We Hail curriculum, provides background materials and discussion questions to enhance your reading and understanding of Willa Cather’s short story “The Namesake…
On the third Monday of January, Americans celebrate the life and achievement of one of our most respected citizens -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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…
This holiday season learn about different cultural traditions of Mexico! Attend a fiesta, break a piñata, make a traditional feast, sing popular songs, and decorate with poinsettias, a flower…
The selections within this listing represent frequently taught authors and texts in AP English Literature and Composition.
For each of the twenty-one poems or poetic forms for AP Literature and Composition, students and teachers will find a link to the poem and additional multimedia resources. These include EDSITEment…
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.
Through this collection of over 30 lessons, students can explore the great American authors of the 1800s, including Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain.
Gear high school students up for college with this collection of lessons based on College Board's recommending reading lists.
Use Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, "Fallingwater," to learn about 20th-century architecture and Wright's prolific career.