I realized that these students are interested in the world in all its multiplicity; they don’t know where to start. The history of exploration provides a path for them to engage with the world through a familiar lens without entirely leaving their comfort zone. So now I try to complicate and expand rather than to dismiss.
Category: History
Exploring Wild Girls: A Q&A with Tiya Miles
The Norton Shorts team sat down with award-winning historian Tiya Miles to discuss her new book Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation. Tiya discusses the inspiration behind the project, what she hopes students will take away from the book, and more, below. How did your personal and academic journey …
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From Spectators to Participants: Using Videos to Promote Engagement in the History Classroom
Malia McAndrew is an educator based in Cleveland, Ohio. She has taught introductory history material to a range of audiences, including middle and high school students, undergraduates, medical students, and incarcerated women. Malia believes that studying the American past can help us to think about the future we want to co-create together. Malia McAndrewImage Credit: …
Active Learning in the Online Classroom: Apply Knowledge Activities
Dr. Julia M. Gossard is associate dean for research in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, associate professor of history, and distinguished associate professor of honors education at Utah State University. Dr. Gossard is a proponent of high-impact, innovative teaching, and her teaching portfolio at the graduate and undergraduate levels is expansive with specialties …
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Arguing with American History
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, where she teaches classes in evidence, historical methods, the humanities, creative writing, and American history. She is the author of many books, including the best-selling These Truths, which she has expanded into a two-volume textbook edition (publishing December 2022). She …
Teaching the Fault Lines in a Divided America
Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer, the authors of Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974, are award-winning scholars of twentieth-century American political history. Fault Lines grew out of the hugely popular course that they cocreated at Princeton University, The United States Since 1974. Julian ZelizerPhoto by Meg Jacobs The 2020 election has been …
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Behind the Scenes: How Do You Make a Map?
Acclaimed historian John McNeill and Charlotte Miller, a cartographic specialist, discuss how they collaborated to create over 150 original maps for McNeill’s new world history survey text: The Webs of Humankind: A World History. John, in your eyes, what makes a good map? What were your goals for the maps in your new textbook? John …
Developing the History Careers Poster
Last summer Norton’s team of history editors and specialists were thinking through a concern we frequently hear about on campus: students (and sometimes parents) wonder whether what they’ll learn as history majors can apply to future career pursuits. We decided to answer this evergreen question—“What Can I Do with a History Degree?”—with a poster our …
Is “Western Civ” Still Relevant in Our Global Era? A Q&A with Author Carol Symes
Carol Symes, co-author of Western Civilizations, talks about recent shifts in teaching history survey courses, and how Whiggish ideas of European history have been co-opted by white nationalist groups. She gives a more expansive view of Western Civilizations, and discusses how her research informs her global approach to the textbook. You regularly teach a survey of …
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