Ways of talking about social histories tend to follow social realities as well as personal inclinations. The very terms we use reflect and refract particular histories. The authors of our sources foretold many concepts as they carved out the domains and marked the paths later historians were to follow in their attempt to understand the past. It is…

The Federal Writers' Project was an arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Franklin Delano Roosevelt's massive program to put the unemployed back to work. The Writers' Project was charged with producing an extensive guidebook for each of the 48 states; and more than 6,000 local newspaper writers, novelists, poets, college professors, and…

Women's schooling has been lauded as having a large, important impact on child socialization. Although there may be positive effects of schooling, there may also be effects from concomitant cultural changes that come with modernization. In this article we examine the findings that changes in textile production among the Zinacantec Maya over the…

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected hundreds of thousands in southern Louisiana. To say that they touched people of every stripe and color dramatically is a gross understatement. Aside from the loss of life and property damage, families were uprooted, traditions disrupted, and one of the largest migrations in American history forced on a state…

This article reveals the disturbing truths uncovered by a retired biology professor about the past practices of a North Carolina hospital. In the 1990s, Irene Clark was a biology professor at St. Augustine's College, a historically Black college in Raleigh, North Carolina. One day, a janitor asked the native Virginian what she knew about the…

The human condition in the post-modern world is increasingly nomadic. A sense of displacement and alienation is pervasive. Schools emphasize abstracted knowledge removed from the experience of students. Many people feel detached from the places where they live and have no particular sense of belonging or responsibility toward their communities.…

Over 300 annotated citations to essays, articles, and speeches on oral history published from 1953 through 1974 are listed. Eight oral history collection catalogs and 37 books that incorporate oral history materials are included. A subject guide to the citations is also included. (DS)

This article describes a teacher development program that engages history and social studies teachers in making connections between learning and the well-being of places in which people actually live. "Our Place in History" is a three-year, federally-funded professional development institute for twenty teachers from diverse communities…

Rural intentional communities withdraw from mainstream urban space, rejecting its materialism and consumption. In creating their own places in the countryside, they produce new spaces of rurality. Constructions of rurality by intentional communities can be perceived as "out of place" by local populations. This article draws on a wider…

The purpose of this paper is to relate the history and growth of the Barberton Public Library (Ohio) as it has been influenced by its founders and its six directors. The biography of prominent persons who have in some way affected the development of libraries is also considered to be part of library history. The following persons and their careers…

A brief history of gold coins minted in California during the gold rush period is provided. (DE)

The origins of public support for libraries in Massachusetts during the early to mid 1800's is discussed. Records indicate that the origins of the public library movement stem from a public feeling of need rather than elitism, philanthropy, or preservation of the status quo. (JPF)

Traces the development of the cotton industry on the North American mainland with emphasis on how it grew to prominence and then waned in importance in Scriven County, Georgia. (JDH)

Describes the use of a study of cemetery headstones to give students a feeling for their community's social history. Looks at the kinds of information that can be gathered from the markers about the dead people and ways of analyzing the data. Presents an outline of project procedures. (AYC)

This select annotated bibliography is designed to assist patrons of the Langworthy Public Library (Hope Valley, Rhode Island), which has a varied collection of books and materials on Rhode Island history. Specifically featured is the area of Chariho (Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton). Some items concerning nearby Exeter and West Greenwich have…