Summer Reading - Part II
Posted on 13 August 2009
On now to books that I’ve read.
I’m terrible at sticking to reading lists! I often pick up whatever I like along the way. However, I did read two of the texts from my original list that are worth sharing.
Kyle Ward’s History in the Making is a collection of excerpts from U.S. history textbooks from across the decades retelling their accounts of specific events in our past. Ward introduces each selection with a few key observations and then allows the reader to analyze the pieces for his or her self. This book would make a wonderful classroom resource for any discussion regarding how students should use their textbook as a resource, not the resource.
Ward also writes a powerful introduction detailing the failings of the history classroom, textbooks and the potential strength of the discipline. He writes:
After a number of years of researching, studying, and teaching history, I can say with a great deal of confidence that history is an incredibly fascinating and important subject, which should not be studied for civic and societal reasons but also because it can help develop critical thinking and other cognitive skills necessary for people to live a full life. It should therefore be an easy sell to convince people to learn about the past, since the subject of history is filled with stories of political intrigue, murder, scandal, mysteries, conspiracies, sexual liaisons, war, genocide, torture, romance, corruption, heroism and much, much more. (xvii)
He then goes on to explain how many of the people he meets regard history as boring and useless.
Part of the problem, I believe, is that many young people do not understand how history is researched and written about, nor do they see or understand the impact past decisions have on their lives today. Sadly, even fewer students have any concept that history is constantly being affected by individual historians as well as our society’s own biases, prejudices, perspectives and interpretations. All too often, I meet people who believe that history is written in stone and that it never changes – that it is just a series of dates and names one is forced to memorize. (xix)
The selections in his book support this idea of history as being both intriguing and fluid. This text is an interesting read both for its historiography but also for its potential as a discussion piece around the analyzing sources.
The second text that I wanted to mention was Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. Now, if there ever was a book that makes you want to pick a random historical topic (presidential assassinations for instance) read all you can about them and travel to every related historical site, this book is it.
The book is a light read, mixing history and Vowell’s travels as she weaves together the stories of the deaths of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. This book could serve as both a history lesson, and an entertaining tale for those of us who wish we could travel more!
I just started David McCullough’s John Adams. I loved the mini-series and am enjoying the original book! It’s getting me in the mindset for the first unit that I’ll teach in the fall.
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