So what’s the big idea about Flag Day? Tomorrow, June 14, is Flag Day here in the United States. Of our several, official days of national recognition for patriotic themes, Flag Day is one of the lesser. Unlike President’s Day, which amalgamated the honoring of Lincoln’s February birthday with what had been exclusively George Washington’s …
No, history doesn’t repeat itself I’m as guilty as the next person of having blithely stated something no history teacher should ever accept, let alone utter. History does not repeat itself. Period. So what’s the purpose, the value of studying history if not to avoid making the same mistakes in the future? The answer has …
More teaching American history well Watching an educational film on the human body reminded me once more what makes for good instruction. While the practices displayed in the film apply to more than teaching American history, they underscore the them in a recent article in The Atlantic, High School History Doesn’t Have to be Boring. …
A Constitution free of slavery A great many American historians, it seems to me, have accepted that the many compromises made to create an acceptable constitution were, however distasteful, necessary. Most unfortunate among these, so the narrative goes, were the bargains struck over the issue of slavery. While unproductive to consider even the possibility of nine …