# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The work of noted Michigan-based modern architect Robert Metcalf is now online. This digital collection spans the years 1942 to 2017, and was made possible by a generous gift from David Deromedi in honor of Nancy M. Deromedi, a pioneer of digital archives at the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history. (more on this site)

# data[].attributes.headline
National History Education Clearinghouse 

# data[].attributes.subject
National History Education Clearinghouse 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K-12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) has created Teachinghistory.org with the goal of making history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Request military records and learn about other services for yourself or a family member.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
History Lessons | Stanford History Education Group

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions by employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple perspectives on historical issues and learn to make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Full list of past and current PBS shows. Find show websites, online video, web extras, schedules and more for your favorite PBS shows.

# data[].attributes.body
History Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World history | Arts and humanities | Khan Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From the earliest civilizations to the modern world, geography, religion, trade, and politics have bound peoples and nations together - and torn them apart. Take a journey through time and space and discover the fascinating history behind the complex world we inhabit today

# data[].attributes.headline
Georgia Virtual Learning -- department of education lessons & unit guides 

# data[].attributes.subject
Georgia Virtual Learning -- department of education lessons & unit guides 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
HistoryWorld describes world history in interconnecting narratives and illustrated timelines. You can search for events by theme, place and year. You can even add your own material in HistoryClub.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
AP World History Course and Exam Description-Fall 2017

This is the primary document for teachers of this course. It lays out the course content, describes the exam, and includes a full practice exam.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
AP World History: The Course | AP Central - The College Board

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
AP World History Course and Exam Description-Fall 2017 This is the primary document for teachers of this course. It lays out the course content, describes the exam, and includes a full practice exam.

# data[].attributes.body
Links to Primary Sources

# data[].attributes.body
Primary Sources Links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Examine a famous 17th-century conspiracy trial involving Japanese mercenaries, Dutch officials and English merchants. Designed for teachers and students interested in European empire, the place of Japan in global history, and the politics of torture and waterboarding.
Visit the Site

Explore the history of children and youth through primary sources, website reviews, teaching modules, and case studies.
Visit the Site

This site offers a lively introduction to the French Revolution with an extraordinary archive of documentary evidence.
Visit the Site

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World History Matters " A Portal to World History Sites from the Center for History and New Media

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Examine a famous 17th-century conspiracy trial involving Japanese mercenaries, Dutch officials and English merchants. Designed for teachers and students interested in European empire, the place of Japan in global history, and the politics of torture and waterboarding. Visit the Site Explore the history of children and youth through primary sources, website reviews, teaching modules, and case studies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For all who have taken history courses in college, the experience of writing a research paper is etched indelibly in memory: late nights before the paper is due, sitting in pale light in front of a computer monitor or typewriter, a huge stack of books (most of them all-too-recently acquired) propped next to the desk, drinking endless cups of coffee or bottles of Jolt cola. Most of all, we remember the endless, panicked wondering: how on earth was something coherent going to wind up on the page - let alone fill eight, or ten, or twelve of them? After wrestling with material for days, the pressure of the deadline and level of caffeine in the body rise enough, and pen is finally put to paper. Many hours later, a paper is born - all too often something students are not proud to hand in, and something professors dread grading. "Whatever does not kill us makes us stronger." While Nietzsche may sometimes have been right, he likely did not have writing history papers in mind. On the contrary, I sometimes wonder if students' bad experiences writing papers does not drive some them away from history. How can we make this process less traumatic, more educational, and ultimately more rewarding for all concerned?

The assignment of preparing a research paper for a college-level history course is an important one which should not be neglected. In no other endeavor are so many history-related skills required of students. Just think of the steps required:

First, students must find a historical problem worth addressing. This is done most often by reading and comparing secondary history sources, such as monographs and journal articles. Simply finding relevant secondary materials requires its own particular set of skills in using the library: searching catalogs, accessing on-line databases, using interlibrary loan, and even knowing how to pose questions to reference librarians. Reading these sources, determining their arguments, and putting them in conversation with each other constitute another broad set of skills which are enormously difficult to master.

Second, having developed a historical problem, students must find a set of primary historical sources which can actually address the question they have formulated. Once again, this is no easy task. It requires another array of skills in using the library. Students must know how to message the on-line library catalog, and perhaps even (gasp!) use the card catalog. They must be willing to explore the stacks, learn to use special collections, travel off-campus to new libraries, or interview informants. This kind of primary source research demands a diligence and persistence rare in these days of easy Internet access.

Finally, students must put all this information together and actually produce knowledge. They must craft a paper wherein they pose a clear historical problem and then offer a thesis addressing it. In a well-structured, grammatically correct essay, they must work their way through an argument without falling into common historical fallacies. They must match evidence to argument, subordinate little ideas to big ones, and anticipate and pre-empt challenges to their argument.

Phew! It is little wonder that college history students, especially first-years and non-majors, can find the research paper assignment so traumatic. It doesn't help that history professors often have trouble teaching the essay-preparation process. This is understandable. History professors often represent that portion of the undergraduate population that "got it"; we are the students who somehow, often in spite of our professors, learned how to "do history." Having received the information virtually through osmosis, we often do not understand how we think about the history-writing process, let alone how to teach it. By and large, we follow the advice of shoe companies and "just do it."

Most students do not have it so easy. Many do not have the innate passion for the past which propelled history teachers over their steep learning curve. Many do not have learning styles which make them likely candidates for the "osmosis" technique many of us used. These students deserve every opportunity to succeed, and it is important that they do. Even those with little apparent interest in the past need to approach what they read with a critical, analytical eye. In this age of information overload, they need to know how to pose critical questions, uncover the data which can answer their queries, and present their findings to themselves, their employers, and to the world at large.

This set of guides was prepared with these thoughts in mind. In it, I have compiled a wide-ranging set of materials I share with my students at Bowdoin. Not all of the ideas here are my own: some are fairly standard bits of wisdom, others were offered by a very talented and generous group of colleagues, including Betty Dessants, Nicola Denzey, Liz Hutchison, and Susan Tananbaum. I have divided the material into several categories: there are chapters on reading primary and secondary historical sources, the nature of historical arguments, the research process, structuring history papers, writing papers, working with sources, and editing and evaluating our own historical writing. The last chapter includes handouts to accompany a presentation I give on the writing process. You'll find many of the ideas repeated in several sections - such as what makes a good thesis. The more I teach, the more it seems that good reading, writing, and evaluating and are deeply linked. I hope that this holistic approach comes through.

Please incorporate these guides into your own teaching or writing as you see fit. You may freely reproduce any part of this website for your students - I ask only that you properly cite the source. For those who wish to share parts of this guide with students, you can create .pdf versions of each handout, which may be printed out and xeroxed free of charge. And please let me know how the guides could be more useful. I would be happy to know what works for you.

Patrick Rael
Brunswick, Maine
July 2004

Preparing History Papers: the Short Version

Avoid Common Mistakes in Your History Paper

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading, Writing, and Researching for History:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For all who have taken history courses in college, the experience of writing a research paper is etched indelibly in memory: late nights before the paper is due, sitting in pale light in front of a computer monitor or typewriter, a huge stack of books (most of them all-too-recently acquired) propped next to the desk, drinking endless cups of coffee or bottles of Jolt cola.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher, is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more.

Best of History Web Sites has been recommended by The Chronicle of Higher Education, The National Council for the Social Studies, The New York Public Library, the BBC, Princeton University, - and many others.

See our Lesson Plans page for a curated list of sites offering quality resources ready for classroom use. Although there are many sites with good lesson plans, students are sure to enjoy the engaging ideas and primary sources offered by the Library of Congress and the U.K. National Archives, whose online offerings are generous.

Check out Games and Animations for links to historical simulations, educational video games, high-quality animations, online quizzes, and more! Learn about medieval water supply with the game Waterworks, or cook your way through the ancient world with Tasting History!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher, is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Public History Initiative | National Center for History in the Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Medieval and Renaissance themes continue to have a profound influence on contemporary comic books and graphic novels. Join Dr. Kristina Markman (History, UCLA) for a panel discussion featuring comic creators Conor McCreery ( Kill Shakespeare, IDW Publishers), GMB Chomichuk ( Midnight City, Infinitum, Rust and Water, Raygun Gothic) and industry veteran Howard Chaykin ( The Divided States of Hysteria, Image, Marvel, and DC Comics).

Hosted by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Read about the event in the DailyBruin.

A public lecture by PHI Program Coordinator Dr. Kristina Markman

Join Kristina on March 8 @ 7:30pm at Busby's East for Nerd Nite (must be 21 or
older) where Kristina will be giving a lecture on medieval drinking culture.

"Boozing in the Middle Ages": Drinking is both a physical and cultural act. The act of drinking as well as attitudes toward drinking have the power to reinforce community standards, establish socio-economic boundaries, and reaffirm gender categories. American beliefs toward alcohol are paradoxical: we grant it heroic status and often drink to excess, yet restrict its use and blame it for our misconduct. Was this always the case? How did people in the so-called "Dark Ages" feel about alcohol?

Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in more than 100 cities across the globe during which several folks give 20-minute fun-yet-informative presentations across all disciplines. Get tickets HERE.

A new book by NCHS Director Emeritus Gary B. Nash

Gary B. Nash's latest book Warner Mifflin: Unflinching Quaker Abolitionist, published by University of Pennsylvania Press,offers a dynamic history of key figure in the abolitionist movement before and after the American Revolution.

Gary B. Nash is Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is author of numerous books, including The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Last chance to purchase teaching units in print.

The UCLA National Center for History in the Schools (NCHS ) is proud to announce that we are gearing up to begin a new phase of development that will further our mission of enhancing and promoting K-12 education. As part of our next phase, we will be moving toward an e-book model for our teaching units. Read more on purchasing print units before December 1, 2017.

HIST 148: Introduction to Public/Applied History

PHI is proud to introduce a new course taught by PHI Director Dr. Karen Wilson. Come and learn how history is applied and interpreted across the world.

Celebrating 100 Interns!

HistoryCorps is proud to announce that in Summer 2017 we celebrated our 100th internship. This is a milestone in the continuing growth and success of the UCLA Public History Initiative. Our goal is to help students and scholars bring history alive in the classroom and the community.

Meet our first 100 interns.

New Edition

The 2017 edition of A Compact History of Humankind: The History of the World in Big Eras for grades 6-10 is now available purchase in print and e-book .

Written for middle school/early high school students, this reader offers an interpretive narrative of the human past from the origins of the universe through the twentieth century. Each of the units is organized into three sections: Humans and the Environment, Humans and Other Humans, and Humans and Ideas.

Forbidden Love (2017 revised edition)

The PHI/NCHS is proud to announce the publication of Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed Race America revised and expanded by UCLA Professor Emeritus and NCHS founder Gary Nash. Nash's groundbreaking work examines how Americans for two centuries tried to build social walls and legal fences to keep people of different racial ancestries from marrying each other and how these walls and fences have been dismantled in the last half-century. A number of new profiles on "racial renegades," or boundary-crossers, enliven the revised edition, which should resonate with younger students who themselves are the products of mixed-race marriages or have rejected racial categorizations entirely.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Homepage - Public History Initiative | National Center for History in the Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Medieval and Renaissance themes continue to have a profound influence on contemporary comic books and graphic novels. Join Dr. Kristina Markman (History, UCLA) for a panel discussion featuring comic creators Conor McCreery ( Kill Shakespeare, IDW Publishers), GMB Chomichuk ( Midnight City, Infinitum, Rust and Water, Raygun Gothic) and industry veteran Howard Chaykin ( The Divided States of Hysteria, Image, Marvel, and DC Comics).

# data[].attributes.body
Peer reviewed articles about history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Enter your email address below. If your address has been previously registered, you will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password. If you don't receive an email, you should register as a new user

# data[].attributes.body
Teaching lessons and resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Choose from a wide range of flexible, multimedia materials from primary sources and streaming video to teaching strategies, lessons and units, and more.

# data[].attributes.body
Howard Zinn's resource page for teaching and learning history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Zinn Education Project is my compass in a sea of corporate textbooks, packaged common core curriculum and standardized testing. My entire curriculum is based on lessons that can be found on the Zinn Education Project.

High School Social Studies Teacher, Portland, Ore.

Your support is needed to help more students learn people's history. 100% of Zinn Education Project funding comes from individuals like you. Donate today.

By Bill Bigelow

Apart from the noise pollution, air pollution, and flying debris pollution, there is something profoundly inappropriate about blowing off fireworks at a time when the United States is waging war with real fireworks around the world. To cite just one example, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London found recently that U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan alone have killed more than 200 people, including at least 60 children.

July 8, 1898: Hawai'i Annexation...

Teaching Activities (Free)

COINTELPRO: Teaching the FBI's War on the Black Freed...

I can UNDERSTAND pessimism, but I don't BELIEVE in it. It's not simply a matter of faith, but of historical EVIDENCE. Not overwhelming evidence, just enough to give HOPE, because for hope we don't need certainty, only POSSIBILITY.

-Howard Zinn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people's history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn's best-selling book A People's History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.

# data[].attributes.body
Powerpoints and resources pertaining to World History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
World History for Us All is a comprehensive model curriculum for teaching world history in middle and high schools

# data[].attributes.body
All the primary sources you could ever want for Ancient World History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Home | Ancient History Sourcebook | Medieval Sourcebook | Modern History Sourcebook | Byzantine Studies Page Other History Sourcebooks: African | East Asian | Global | Indian | Islamic | Jewish | Lesbian and Gay | Science | Women's