A Concise History of the United States of America

Abstract

Born out of violence and the aspirations of its early settlers, the United States of America has become one of the world's most powerful nations. The book begins in colonial America as the first Europeans arrived, lured by the promise of financial profit, driven by religious piety and accompanied by diseases which would ravage the native populations. It explores the tensions inherent in a country built on slave labour in the name of liberty, one forced to assert its unity and reassess its ideals in the face of secession and civil war, and one that struggled to establish moral supremacy, military security and economic stability during the financial crises and global conflicts of the twentieth century. Woven through this richly crafted study of America's shifting social and political landscapes are the multiple voices of the nation's history: slaves and slave owners, revolutionaries and reformers, soldiers and statesmen, immigrants and refugees. These voices help define the United States at the dawn of a new century.

The ionosphere: Undermining Britain's imperial power: Wireless and its impact on geopolitics and naval operations (1919–1927)

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A DBQ in a Multiple-Choice World: A Tale of two Assessments in a Unit on the Byzantine Empire

“…As the prevalence of high-stakes, multiple-choice assessments has grown over the past few decades, research has clearly documented how these tests have influenced the teaching and learning of history (Gerwin & Visone, 2006;Grant, 2006;Saye & the Social Studies Inquiry Research Collaborative [SSIRC], 2013). Pressure (real or perceived) from state standards and associated high-stakes tests has the ability to "complicate [teachers'] efforts to help students 'dig into' historical questions, evidence, and arguments" (Meuwissen, 2017, p. 249) and to control "the content, knowledge forms, and pedagogies at the classroom level" (Au, 2007, p. 264).…”

Citizenship Education Goes Digital

“…This response is certainly no surprise given the enormous pressures that teachers face in this era of high stakes accountability where civics education is pushed to the fringes. As Grant (2006) asserted, consequences of high stakes testing include the narrowing of the curriculum and the decrease of instructional time in favor of test preparation. According to the teachers in this study, iCivics held the promise of increased student engagement, understanding of civic content, and student ownership if teachers were given time to implement iCivics and collaborate with one another in order to better utilize iCivics in their classrooms.…”