Live, Online Professional Development Seminars for History and Literature Teachers

The Civil War destroyed the institution from which slaveholding women derived their status. It sent working class women into the streets to riot for bread, and the general deprivation it caused brought suffering to free and enslaved women alike. But, as all wars do, it thrust women into new roles and transformed their sense of themselves. They became victims, to be sure, but also managers and active partisans, some to advance the Confederate cause, others to sabotage it. How did Southern women, enslaved and free, experience the Civil War? How did it change their lives and their perspectives on themselves and on the South?

Visual imagery played a major role in the anti-slavery movement. From the iconic image of a kneeling slave asking "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" to images of family separations through sale at auction, images were an important weapon in the arsenal of abolitionist activity. This seminar will look at some of the imagery created in support of anti-slavery activities. How did the imagery evolve? What were the major themes? What were the iconic images of slavery? And how, then, did artists portray freedom? What was the relationship between anti-slavery imagery and slave narratives and abolitionist writing, including Uncle Tom's Cabin?

What was the relationship between the colonies and Britain that led to independence in 1783? What if the British had not tried to tax the colonies? The taxes were small. Why did the colonies resist them so strongly? What if the British had responded to the resistance in a more conciliatory and pragmatic way? Could the controversy have been resolved so the colonies would have remained connected to Britain? What form might that connection have taken? What might have been the result of reconciliation? Would slavery have been abolished earlier? Would the colonies have developed into one or more commonwealths with autonomous internal governance, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa? What would be the relationship today between the United States and Britain?

Slave narratives comprise one of the most influential traditions in American literature, shaping the form and themes of some of the most celebrated and controversial writing, in both autobiography and fiction, in the history of the United States. In recent years, as their importance has been recognized, slave narratives have appeared on more and more high school literature curricula. How did they evolve? What are their major themes? How do narratives written by men differ from those written by women? How do they portray slavery and freedom? How have they influenced later writing, and what can they say to students in the twentieth-first century?

Buffalo Bill, American Idol An AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Seminar SEMINAR FULL

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Between 1883 and 1916, Buffalo Bill's Wild West—an extravaganza of riding, roping, shooting, Indian attacks, and stage coach robberies—gave audiences throughout the world an image of the American West so vivid that, for millions both here and abroad, it became the American West. In the process William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill, established himself as one of, if not the, most famous American of his era. How did he achieve his fame? Why were audiences so captivated by his shows? How did he define the West? Built around the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE historical documentary film Buffalo Bill, this seminar will explore themes that illuminate American life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and that still resonate today, themes like the rise of mass entertainment, the creation of celebrity, the power of popular culture, and the role of the West in American national identity.

The Civil War caused Americans to re-imagine themselves and their nation. Countrymen once again, however uneasily, Northerners, Southerners, and growing populations in the West had to figure out the meaning of the War and the meaning of citizenship in a nation that now included four million new citizens who had once been enslaved. Public monuments were central to this effort. The decades after the War constitute the greatest era of monument building in our history. In metal and stone those monuments are still with us—generals, soldiers, freedmen. What did they mean to the people who erected them? What did they say about the country the War created? What do they say to us today?

To encourage the use of monuments in instruction, participants will be asked to submit photos of local Civil War memorials for possible analysis in the seminar.

We think we know "The Star-Spangled Banner." But how many of us realize that Francis Scott Key was not looking at the flag we now revere as the original and that he never set foot inside Fort McHenry? An instant success in 1814, the anthem, or at least its first stanza, opens so many sporting events today that some Americans think it ends with the words "Play ball!" Yet as we anticipate the first pitch or the kickoff, we often fail to pay attention to what our anthem actually says, to its expression of doubt, anxiety, danger, and the difficulty of envisioning a new and unformed republic. And what of the three verses we don't sing? Explore the context and meaning of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to show students how it illuminates Enlightenment thought and America's early struggle to define itself as a nation.

The Harlem Renaissance, or New Negro Movement, is known chiefly for its achievements in literature and the visual arts, not for its political aspirations. Yet its creators sought highly political goals. Militant and race conscious, they believed that the movement could open up American society to a revaluation of African Americans and acceptance of them as equals. In what ways are the literature and art of the Harlem Renaissance political? How should we read them as political texts? To what extent can we say that the Harlem Renaissance was part of the civil rights movement?

Martin Luther King, Jr., the apostle of non-violence, spoke of brotherhood and gave the civil rights movement of the 1960s its moral force. Malcolm X, the proponent of "any means necessary," spoke of ballots and bullets and displayed the movement's anger and frustration. Often teachers frame the civil rights movement between the seemingly stark polarities established by these two leaders. But how different were their positions? Did they share any common ground? How did they play off of each other's positions and rhetoric to advance the cause of African Americans? How has recent scholarship rethought Martin and Malcolm? Where did the civil rights movement end and Black Power begin?

Two themes frequently dominate textbook treatments of American popular culture after World War I: the enthusiastic embrace of motor vehicles and the explosive growth of big cities. But many Americans did not have cars and almost half did not live in any kind of urban center. How did cars and trucks, deliverers of mobility and freedom, change the lives of all Americans, even those who did not own them? And how did the city — with its amusements, temptations, and opportunities — transform American life along broad boulevards and country lanes? This seminar will explore documents and images that will enable you to give your students a richer understanding of the texture of life in the 1920s.

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is a staple in high school American literature curricula throughout the United States. Originally produced to a lukewarm reception in 1953, it was re-staged to more enthusiastic reviews in 1957 and made into a major motion picture in 1996. To what extent is it “about” the Salem Witch Trials and “about” McCarthyism? What can the play tell us about politics, American identity, the individual, women, community, and sexuality in the early years of the Cold War? What accounts for the play’s continuing power? How has more than half a century given us new perspectives on it?

In World History we struggle constantly with the balance between the big picture concepts and the illustrative detail that makes history engaging. One of the AP historical thinking skills focuses on applying chronological reasoning skills to world history. This includes not only causation and periodization, but also thinking about patterns of change and continuity over time. This seminar will seek to help teachers pace out the year, using a variety of periodization models and timelines and to consider what level of detail students need to know. Content examples will be used in this workshop from both African and Chinese history, as well as from general world history scholarship. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss different pedagogical approaches including advice on writing about time.

The Crash of 1929 An AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Seminar

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The Twenties were an era of easy credit, concentrated Wall Street power, and exuberant economic optimism. It seemed that prosperity would never end, until it did on October 29, 1929, when the Great Crash initiated the opening act of the Great Depression. Built around the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary film The Crash of 1929, this seminar will explore the ways in which the Crash resembled and departed from America's historic cycles of boom-and-bust. How did financial institutions, regulatory orthodoxy, and patterns of economic development contribute to the collapse? What role did non-rational behavior play in the crisis? What was the relationship between the Crash and evolving ideas about the appropriate role of the state in the economy?