In the early modern era, Spanish missionaries, cosmographers, chroniclers, and physicians wrote major studies on botany, ethnography, navigation, Indigenous languages, war, and history, aided by capable, though often reluctant, Indigenous informants. They penned this rich body of scholarship using iron gall ink -- a mixture of tannins, sulfates,…

History departments at many colleges and universities offer upper-level courses that focus upon the craft of the discipline. These stand-alone methods classes often lack the specific time period and geographic region that typically anchor history curriculum. Although most graduate programs in history provide in-depth exposure to historical theory,…

Science in Latin America has a rich, complicated history, but it is often ignored both by traditional historians of science, as well as Latin American historians. Latin American science is characterized by liminality, "nepantlismo," an in-between-ness, a hybridization, a "mestizaje" of multiple indigenous, Creole, imperial…

Educators, legislators, and other segments of the general public have been in discussions related to evaluating history as an academic subject. Various individuals and groups have taken up the task of not just trying to decipher what history majors learn, but also how they are equipped to apply what they learn outside of academia. Since the Spring…

Inspired by participation in the 2014 version of the Stewardship of Public Lands seminar, hosted by the Yellowstone Association Institute and sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities' American Democracy Project, the author's first goal was the creation of a "Sophomore Seminar" course themed on "Parks,…

In November of 2016, Laurent Dubois discussed the importance of Haiti in writing the history of slavery, freedom, and human rights in the Atlantic World during the Age of Revolutions for Aeon. He explained that histories of modern political thought and culture underestimated the Haitian Revolution due to the lack of written sources by the enslaved…

Significant research has documented the benefits of using primary materials in the classroom, and for a long time, textbook authors and scholars have collected such materials for in-class student use. Teachers and researchers regularly engage with physical and digital archives as resources for their own research and for classroom materials. At the…

Efforts have been made among scholars from Japan, South Korea, and China since the 1980s--on both private and state initiatives--to narrow the gaps in their historiographies and to cultivate mutual understanding. This article offers an extensive discussion of the author's history project, "A Student Project of Writing a Common History…

Contemporary educational initiatives require more non-fiction reading in English/language arts (ELA), close readings of primary and secondary sources in social studies/history (SSH), and text-based writing in all curricula. Teachers rely on various objective reading measures to determine a suitable challenge level for students. Primary sources, a…

Eleanor Roosevelt (ER), niece of President Theodore Roosevelt (TR) and wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), was so revered that towns were named in her honor; she advocated for so many causes for so many people across most every continent that space prevents compilation. Now imagine young students' reactions upon discovering that the…

The potential of video games for teaching history is receiving increasing recognition. However, the greatest emphasis is on their use as tools in secondary education. The few studies focusing on undergraduate education demonstrate the use of games to create an immersive historical experience with counterfactual options. While exploring these…

Those who frequently encounter history-based children's literature view it quite differently. Writers craft the storytelling for young readers; young readers want to be engaged; teachers want the books read; publishers want the books sold; and history education researchers worry about emergent patterns of historical representation (and…

War is one place where the complexity of victory and defeat should be explored more deeply. Unfortunately, war--whether experienced directly as a soldier in Afghanistan or a Syrian in an Aleppo suburb, or indirectly through a news item on the Internet or American television--is a near inescapable aspect of most people's daily life. Yet unless…

Timelines are a regular feature of almost all history education. Teachers and students create them on chalkboards, white boards, and an increasing number of web-based programs that allow multiple users to collaborate on a timeline's shape. Textbooks offer timelines to accompany the material they cover--chapter-by-chapter, students are told which…

While the field of history education elucidates a clear and ambitious vision of high-quality history instruction, a current challenge for history educators (including teacher educators, curriculum specialists, and school-based history and social science supervisors) becomes how to illuminate and capture this when observing classrooms to research…