Since approximately 1970, many historians have been seeking a unifying theme for the American History Survey. Early in the twentieth century, Progressive historians identified class conflict as the main theme in American History, but during the 1950s and 1960s, this view was challenged by the Consensus Schools' assertion that Americans have always…

Students in this author's undergraduate Sociology and Social Science classes often tell him that the "history" they learned in high schools was different than the "history" they learned in university classes. They often claim that what they learned in K-12 was "wrong" and that they did not learn the "real"…

Two graduate level interdisciplinary courses in industrial archaeology are described. (DE)

Participants in an undergraduate oral history project interview Vietnam veterans in their locality as primary source material for a course in Southeast Asian history. (DE)

American popular music -- ballads, folksongs, and mass media songs -- can be used in an American studies class to trace social history. This takes advantage of young people's loyalty to music and enlists their aural sensitivities in learning about the United States. (JH)

Suggestions are made for the successful incorporation of museum materials in instruction focusing on women's history in the United States. (JH)

The Anglo-American Quaker communion provides an example of the author's thesis that British influence upon the United States persisted in the first half of the nineteenth century beyond that explored in traditional histories of political and diplomatic matters. (JH)

The use of quantitative data and computer analysis in an undergraduate American social and urban history course is described. (DE)

The author describes how to use novels and autobiographies in teaching about the immigrant experience in American history. A select bibliography of novels and autobiographies relating to 24 different ethnic groups is included. (DE)

In terms of teaching about the American Revolution, this article surveys strengths and weaknesses of representative, frequently used high school history books. It suggests how the most common weaknesses can be corrected. (Author/AV)

Analyzes methods of teaching American social history and the merits of new (narrative) versus old (analytic) methodologies. Using college syllabi as models, the article concludes that historians must remain storytellers to be effective. (TRS)

Major American historians used to lie about the past. Today, they try terribly hard to tell the truth. And though trying to tell the truth might seem a good thing in theory, it has been debilitating in practice. (RM)

Comparing the biographies of individuals is a technique that can be used to illuminate the larger history of a society. As an illustration, comparative biographies of two dissident leaders, Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin, are discussed to show how they reflect the social and political history of the 1930s. (RM)

Examines U.S. history from the perspective of radical historians. America has always provided a particularly favorable environment for positive imaginings of the past by the Left. (RM)

Analyzes past local history movements and addresses benefits and problems for historical studies and history teaching in the current upsurge of interest in local and community history. Concludes that local history must transcend parochialism in order to see the larger picture. (KC)