Category Archives: Methods

The most important thing about studying the study of history is to understand that doing so can sometimes lead to a series of difficult choices, especially for an undergraduate history major.  Here are some suggestions for senior history majors:   … Continue reading →

Historiography is the study of how historical interpretation has evolved.  Traditionally, this has meant an intense analysis of academic writings and a careful examination of how they tend to build on (or sometimes oppose) each other.  Modern-day undergraduates, however, can probably … Continue reading →

By Stephanie Kugler   “The Constitution is interesting – the slavery part I mean – how they never mentioned the word slavery and the inequality with the 3/5 compromise.” This is what makes the Constitution worth studying, according to some 14-year-old students in … Continue reading →

Why are some sources better than others?  There are many ways to answer this question, but for the historian, it begins with an understanding of the research playing field.  Aspiring historians learn to distinguish primary and secondary sources along a … Continue reading →

Historians are not necessarily known as a creative bunch, but good history requires plenty of creativity.  Historical researchers must often become quite ingenious when seeking out documents in archives or through online databases. History teachers or museum curators must always be clever … Continue reading →

Objective By Friday, October 16, students are required to post a short multi-media exhibit on the framing of the US Constitution that draws upon Beeman’s Plain, Honest Men at its principal secondary source. The goal of each exhibit should be … Continue reading →

There are many, many challenges to the successful teaching of American history in 21st-century America.  Especially for K-12 educators, this has been a particularly turbulent pedagogical era.  Besides the usual suspects of complaints (such as about increasing pressures to “teach … Continue reading →

If you know the name Jacob Shallus, then you are a true Constitutional maven.  He was the clerk who engrossed the final handwritten copy of the U.S. Constitution for the 1787 delegates to sign.  Shallus prepared the 4,500 words of … Continue reading →

By Matthew Pinsker The recent fracas over whether or not the US was founded on “racist principles” has generated plenty of comment, which this course blog has summarized here and here.  The heart of the matter (for academic historians) has become a … Continue reading →

[View the story “Slavery and the Constitution” on Storify]