"One who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount," says a colorful proverb from an earlier time. This may be an apt saying for the situation facing the new head of the Federal Reserve, Janet L. Yellen, who takes over at a time when successive rounds of Fed policy have taken the central bank into uncharted territory. By historical standards,…

Everyone under the age of 20 who has grown up in North America has lived in the common market created by NAFTA--the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a zone linking the United States, Canada, and Mexico, most goods and investments flow freely across borders to users, consumers, and investors. In 1994, NAFTA created the largest relatively…

Just three years since it broke away from Sudan, the new country of South Sudan is embroiled in a violent civil war. This article examines what went wrong and why, by discussing the incredible difficulty of building a new nation from scratch following years of conflict, war, suspicion, and great expectations. How this tragedy will end is…

One joy of studying history is discovering people living meaningful lives and behaving in unusual ways that are startling to the modern reader--young or old. Why did pre-modern people living hundreds or even thousands of years ago do things so differently than we do? Robert Whaples states that Economic historians conclude that the key difference…

In this article, the author presents a truer picture than economic historians have previously had of the economies of Tokugawa Japan, and Britain during the Industrial Revolution. Though substantially different, both societies were prosperous compared to most of the rest of the world. Japan's economic success began in the Tokugawa period…

This article presents an economic perspective of the institution of slavery in the context of world and American history. Slavery has existed on all continents and in many societies. Its existence has long been controversial and, in the case of the United States, ended only as the result of a long and destructive war. Slavery as an institution was…

This article explores a multidisciplinary lesson on nanotechnology that can provide an effective means for teaching about both STEM and social studies topics. This approach encourages students to consider the "role that science and technology play in our lives and in our cultures." The extraordinary promise of nanotechnology, however, is…

Produced by cartographers of many nations over the course of six centuries, maps detailing Florida and the North American continent tell tales of exploration, conflict, and change. Before 1492, Europeans were unaware of what existed on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. That reality is illustrated quite well on two maps that show the "known…

In this article, the author argues that geography is more than a passive backdrop to time and events. Geographical perception is culturally mediated. He examines the case of the American Southwest and how its geography and historical heritage have been portrayed and how they might be otherwise if viewed through a different lens. (Contains 12…

Steven Spielberg's latest movie "Lincoln" updates Americans' national understanding of their sixteenth president and provides a partial, artful lesson on the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, this movie will become a defining work on President Abraham Lincoln's character and leadership in his…

At every stage in the nation's history, the next generation must be deliberately educated to be active and responsible citizens. That is always a complex and challenging task, but the challenges differ as the context evolves. Today, students and teachers of civics face special barriers as well as unusual opportunities. For one thing, national…

In an effort to address severe budget deficits at both the state and local levels, schools and educational programs are being asked to trim budgets. The Advanced Placement Program is one program that will certainly be scrutinized. This article presents a general overview of AP social studies, a brief history of the AP social studies program, and…

This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in "Shelby County v. Holder" that Congress had exceeded its Fifteenth Amendment enforcement authority when it reauthorized a part of the Voting Rights Act (a coverage formula) that forced places with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before making changes to their election laws.…

The sequenced levels of thinking articulated in Bloom's original taxonomy (or in the multitude of subsequent variations) is the most widely known list in education. In addition to enduring popularity, it is arguably one of the most destructive theories in education. In this article, the author explains what makes it so damaging and how…

Is sniffing at the front door of a private home by a trained narcotics detection dog a Fourth Amendment search requiring probable cause? Is a "drug dog" somehow like a manmade technology, such as a thermal imaging device? These were a couple of the questions recently presented to the U.S. Supreme Court during arguments in "Florida v. Jardines."…