In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States, people immediately compared the attack with the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor sixty years prior. In this article, we explore how US and world history textbooks published shortly after Pearl Harbor and 9/11 depicted and contextualized both events. The textbooks…

How individuals interpret the justifications for historical war can have a large effect on how they see modern warfare. In the social studies classroom, particularly in the U.S. context, so much of what educators focus on in regard to war are the events of World War II. This focus on the Second World War is understandable. However, it could also…

In 1972, the United States Office of Education (USOE) released a lengthy and unprecedented report about gifted education in response to a Congressional mandate. Both Congress and the USOE lamented the inadequate state of gifted programmes in American schools and urged that gifted education should become a greater national priority. In this essay,…

Nearly 20 years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York, Washington D.C., and Shanksville, PA there is a yearly ritual in a majority of US Schools. On the anniversary each year, teachers and students across the US learn about the attacks and memorialize the events. In many classrooms this is done through witnessing the events…

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 was the first federal investment in low-interest student loans and became a precedent for expansion of student loans in the Higher Education Act of 1965. In its controversial loyalty provisions, the NDEA required loan recipients to affirm loyalty to the U.S. government. Between 1958 and 1962,…

In this article I ask a seemingly simple question--How can a Muslim be a liberal citizen? In order to explore this question I define who and what was indexed by the term "Muslim" at various points in United States history. I argue that the figure of the Muslim has existed as an existential other upon which otherness, violence, and…

The internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II lies at the heart of ongoing discussions in American social studies. We analyzed inputs of members of the Yahoo! Answers Q&A online community following students' questions dealing with differential treatment of Japanese and German and Italian American citizens during World War…

Academic freedom has long been a sacrosanct principle in higher education; however, the same rights to intellectual autonomy have rarely been afforded K-12 practitioners. In times of national political crisis, the abilities of teachers to engage students in the crucial debates about contemporary public policy issues have been stretched to the…

In the 1960s federal agencies in the US encouraged the building of protected schools designed to survive a nuclear attack. A number of designs, including underground schools, were constructed. In order to promote the building of protected schools, the US government produced a number of propaganda films for school boards and governors. In addition…

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to examine the impact of historical sociopolitical events on music education, particularly post 9/11 with the intent of establishing a context for social justice issues; and second, how we might examine the broad implications to further music education research focusing on social justice. Issues of…

A number of authors consider that the early period of US security and education (1950-1970) was in some way a "golden age" where there was a prevailing societal orientation towards civil defence. This is supported, to some extent, through "Duck and Cover" type activities in schools and in community preparedness efforts. This…

A. Philip Randolph, the national president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was one of the driving forces behind the March on Washington Movement in 1941. In frustration over the federal government's lack of support for opportunities in the booming war industries and equality in the military, Randolph had begun to organize the March…

Few people truly recognize the influence of modern transportation on society. In the United States, that includes the influence of highways that allow the citizenry to travel freely, the strength of the economy, and the country's national security. In all cases, the geography of the United States influenced the evolution of transportation and…

In the United States, the right to a fair trial is protected by the Constitution. The ideal of justice is a critical underpinning of the democracy. However, while the United States is a model of an honorable and just court system most of the time, our constitutional rights are occasionally stretched or broken. The rationale is often national…

On Sunday, October 14, 1962, an American U-2 aircraft, flying a photographic reconnaissance mission over Cuba, took 928 images (one is included with this article). The next day, analysts at the National Photographic Interpretation Center concluded that the photographs showed evidence of Soviet missile site construction in Cuba and conveyed their…