Category: historians
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Weighing the Pros & Cons of being part of the British Empire
I was bored with the usual lessons about the Causes of the American Revolution. For many years when teaching the Causes, I’ve talked about taxes, taxes, taxes with a smattering of protest and violence, and an ultimate break from the British Empire. I wanted to be more creative. I wanted my students to think about…
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How do historians know history?
Sometimes my students ask me “How do historians know what happened in the past?” I feel like there are many answers to this question, and I begin my explanation with a children’s puzzle. A puzzle is the perfect symbol for history. Historians make use of many accounts of an event including primary sources like peoples’…