This book highlights case studies from Providence, Rhode Island, of history and social studies classes in grades 7 through 12. Rather than use textbooks to study history, the students used documents and primary sources to construct history, acting as historians and drawing their own conclusions from the past. Accounts of classroom lessons, discussion topics, sample handouts and primary sources, along with excerpts from students' writings are presented. Chapters include: (1) "Constructing History"; (2) "For Their Own Reasons"; (3) "Setting the Table"; (4) "Simple Rules"; (5) "The Essential Enterprise"; and (6) "Let the Future Write the Past." (EH)