In January of 1968, Czechoslovakian leader Alexander Dubcek introduced a program of unprecedented economic and political liberalization, intending to revitalize the nation. The eight months of freedom provided by the leadership of Dubcek revealed to the citizens of Czechoslovakia not only that autonomy was universally desired, but also that it was…

Ralph Carr had neither expected, nor wanted, to be governor. Carr was at the midpoint of his second term as governor when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Public sentiment and the popular press overwhelmingly supported the incarceration of Japanese Americans. On February 18, 1942, for example, one Colorado newspaper editor…

Why do people who claim the same epistemological beliefs interpret and express these beliefs in ways that seem diametrically opposed? And how can the author understand tensions in the classroom that arise from such divergent expressions of religious faith, especially in the context of history? There are a number of ways to examine these questions…

Although geographically rooted in the Southern United States, the U.S. poultry industry is best understood in a transnational, or even global, perspective that can be difficult to address in regionally bounded courses. In intellectual terms, the topic straddles a number of historiographic subfields that have steadily grown in recent decades. These…

This author is an avid consumer of history and has a desire to open students to the endless supply of the riveting stories of men and women struggling to cope with a changing world. The fascination toward the people of the past is enthralling history, and students need to feel that same sense of wonder and love of history. To accomplish this goal,…

In 1995, California officially adopted standards-based reforms for public education when the Governor signed the Leroy Greene California Assessment of Academic Achievement Act into law. The legislation called for a new state system of standards-based tests and created the Academic Standards Commission to develop content and performance standards…

In the United States courses on civics or government are often marginalized in most states' social studies curricula in favor of courses in United States or world history. The origins of this history-dominated approach have roots in the debates between the American Historical Association and the National Education Association at the turn of the…

In this article, the author shares his experience in teaching a course called "American Political Theory" at Nanjing University in Nanjing, People's Republic of China. The course the author designed was intended to explore the philosophical background of what drove the North American colonists to declare their independence; what ideas…

For students of history, the acrimonious and contentious 1876 presidential canvass came to mind during the 2000 election imbroglio. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote, but to the dismay of outraged Democrats, an electoral commission of eight Republicans and seven Democrats decided along strict party lines to give twenty disputed…

The progressive movement in twentieth century America is traced through reference to and commentary on representative publications of the period. (SM)

Examines the French Popular Front of 1936 as a vehicle to investigate the turbulent decade of the 1930s. Reviews current historiography and discusses various facets of Leon Blum's government, examining the interrelationship of major economic and political forces. Concludes that the French Left still faces Blum's dilemma of implementing socialism…

Despite recent scholarship, the traditional views of the political life of the Gilded Age as mediocre and unproductive continue to influence general surveys, textbooks, and research. (DE)

Describes an innovative college history course which studied various operas and their librettos as representative of political and social history. (AV)

The many historical writings on political machines and bossism are reviewed in this article. (DE)