[Image from a recent news item out of Austin, Minnesota]
Whose Civil War?
May 10, 2009 By 11 Comments
Civil War Memory
Reflections of a High School History Teacher & Civil War Historian
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The Future of the Confederate Flag
My recent post on the unveiling of another large Confederate flag in Tennessee generated a number of comments. It’s an emotional issue on all sides and it is unlikely that the interested parties will ever fully agree on whether it should be displayed in public as well as its meaning. But that’s the way it
75 Comments — 13814 Views — June 11, 2009
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Is the Richard Kirkland Story True?
The following guest post by Michael Schaffner examines the wartime evidence for the Kirkland story. It is a thoroughly researched essay and is well worth your time. I should point out that Mr. Schaffner did not set out to write a piece debunking this particular story. Like many of us he was curious about the
38 Comments — 7817 Views — December 22, 2009
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Nat Turner Lived 40 Miles From the Crater
I‘ve been thinking quite a bit about the images of slave rebellions and miscegenation that shaped the world view of white Southerners throughout the antebellum period. In the case of Nat Turner’s Rebellion newspapers throughout Virginia and beyond offered extensive coverage and attempted to offer an explanation that would assuage the concerns of what white
17 Comments — 7363 Views — June 26, 2009
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Family Fun With Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth
[Hat-Tip to Steve West] How would you like to attend a reenactment of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. On March 7 the Sovereign Majestic Theater in Pottsville, Pennsylvania will be transformed into Ford’s Theater. Booth will be played by Charles Sacavage, a retired Pottsville Area School District history teacher who now teaches history part-time at Alvernia
18 Comments — 6840 Views — February 25, 2009
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Patrick Cleburne and Black Confederates Take Hollywood
[Hat-Tip to Lee White] Back in 2008 I commented on a graphic novel that tells the story of Patrick Cleburne’s plan to arm slaves in exchange for their freedom. I expressed a number of concerns in that post and I appreciate the author of the novel for offering his own perspective. Now it looks like that
75 Comments — 5663 Views — February 5, 2010
Random Posts
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Use “War Between the States”
Today I received a letter for an essay contest sponsored by the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy here in Charlottesville. I have to say that I got a kick out of it. The contest offers students in three different grade levels the opportunity to compete for a prize of $50. Students
38 Comments — 1695 Views — March 18, 2010
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Today I Discovered That…
my school’s library has subscribed to JSTOR. My life just got easier. Tweet
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Was Grant a Drunk? (Part 3)
“If Grant had a drinking problem, the answer to your question could be that he was willing to sacrifice thousands of more men due to the fact his judgment was impaired by alcohol.” – Richard Williams [scroll down for comment] Thousands of more men compared to what exactly? Compared to someone who is best remembered as
26 Comments — 268 Views — June 29, 2009
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Who Is Responsible For The BackWash?
How about some more irrational ranting from Dimitri? This time he attributes a conversation that an Antietam NPS historian had with a visitor about the motivations of Civil War soldiers to McPherson and Sears. Click here for the conversation and here is Dimitri’s take on all of this: Now where on earth do you think they
4 Comments — 67 Views — October 5, 2006
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David Reynolds Reviews The State of Jones or Why Blogging Matters
It could have been one of those “teachable moments” where the authors of two very different studies of Civil War Mississippi discuss the problem of competing historical interpretations. Instead, the authors of The State of Jones have done all they can to avoid addressing what are clearly serious problems with their book. You can find
14 Comments — 443 Views — August 15, 2009
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That is a great Idea to get them out of the classroom and to feel what it was like to be a soldier in small section of the daily life of a Soldier.
Sure, but I am much more interested in the ethnic profile of this particular class.
Defiantly not the make up of either army in the war.
That’s right and it raises interesting questions about the place of the Civil War in our culture and how we go about introducing it to a student body that reflects a broader ethnic swath.
I never thought about it Kevin when I taught’ I just presented the facts as laid out under the TEKS ( Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills ) which mandates the basic information we have to teach down here.
Those kids are Americans, regardless of where their families came from. The Civil War is part of the story of their country, and an essential part in understanding our history.
I teach in a school with students from all over the world (In fact in my department of less than an dozen, there are three foreign born teachers). It’s an opportunity, not a problem.
Although my aide, from Albania, did ask me why Americans are lazy and weak. I told her it was because of xbox.
Interestingly enough, looks like six girls and two boys, which would be fairly ahistorical in its own right!
But in terms of (a loaded word) “race”, it looks like four with (mostly) “European” ancestry, three with mixed “European/native American” ancestry, and one (based on the scarf) of mixed “European/African” or (southwest) “Asian” ancestry – which might not have been all that far off from the historical ratios on the Minnesota frontier in the 1860s, honestly…
tf,
Good point.
Kevin:
This does present a unique perspective to take into account as I begin to teach my American Government/Civil War Studies elective next year. While we are not a greatly diverse school, I have not, until now, thought about how I would approach the study of both topics with a racially and ethnically diverse group.
Mike:
You are right. The TEKS do limit how information can be presented in the standard US history class in Texas. That is one of the reasons I suggested the more in-depth elective I mentioned above. In my opinion, the TEKS do not require enough for students to have a good working knowledge of these topics, much less an understanding of the complexity of issues related to them.
Greg,
You hit the nail on the head, though I do wonder whether the racial/ethnic profile adds much more to the generational divide. In other words, for most teenagers the Civil War is perceived as distant past. Our job than as teachers is to present the history in a way that engages students in the big issues such as slavery/race along with the brutal facts of war, and their long-term consequences. I find it just as much a challenge to teach my white students who know of ancestors who fought in the war as I do with our foreign students. Actually, it’s quite often the foreign students who are more engaged in the study of American history.
Kevin:
The truth is, what I’ve learned through teaching about the Civil War over the last two years leads me to believe that the Civil War section of the course will prove to be a cross-between “Civil War ‘Myth Busters’” with my white students and _Don’t Know Much About the Civil War_ with minority and foreign students. My apologies to the Discovery Channel and Kenneth C. Davis for these comparisons.
I have been pleasantly surprised that my students, all of them, have been way more open to questioning established Civil War historical interpretation than adults I’ve encountered. While some may not shift their personal views, the debate has always remained lively and respectful. Usually, the “agree-to-disagree” approach is taken, but some have changed their views. Others have followed my lead by going and acquiring their own resources for further study or borrowing mine.