Teaching History Online
Number 112: 16th November, 2003
4. D-Day Museum
5. History Sourcebook: Russian Revolution
6. Joseph Stalin Biographical Chronicle
7. Clara Collet
9. World War II Medal of Honor Recipients
Introduction
Spartacus Educational publishes Teaching History Online every week. The newsletter includes news, reviews of websites and articles on using ICT in the history classroom. Members of the mailing list are invited to submit information for inclusion in future editions of Teaching History Online. In this way we hope to create a community of people involved in using the Internet to teach history. Currently there are 31,900 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
Assessment in History: Drawing a number of interesting discussion threads already undertaken on the school history forum, and the author's belief in the wisdom of the Manx soothsayer who once told him "you can't make a pig any fatter by weighing it every day", this seminar seeks to open a debate on the role of assessment in the school history classroom and outlines some aspects of what the author regards as sound practice with examples from his own practice being cited. Issues for debate and discussion include, how best to use the National Curriculum attainment target for history, how to communicate the attainment target to students, when to assess and in what context. There is also scope for the debate to widen to how we use ICT for testing and assessment. If you have views on this subject, register with the History Forum and join the debate.
Premier History: This site, developed by Gideon de Leventhall-Airley, Head of History, King David High School, Manchester, is dedicated to providing free online resources, essays, notes and support for all KS3 (development), GCSE, AS and A2 Level pupils, teachers and parents. This site is designed and led by students using content from classes at King David High School and the collective resources of the History Department. All content is supervised and is made freely available to all.
Tudor Encyclopedia: A collection of articles on the Tudor period. As well as 42 biographies there are articles on the Battle of Bosworth, Act of Union, Agriculture and Enclosures, Anglicans and Puritans, The Babington Plot, Catholics and Protestants, Elizabethan Theatre, Elizabeth and Marriage, Henry VIII and the Pope, Kett Rebellion, Poverty in Tudor England, The Protestant Reformation, Pilgrimage of Grace, The Ridolfi Plot, The Spanish Armada, Sports and Pastimes, The Throckmorton Plot, Tobacco in Tudor England, Tudor Artists, Tudor Heretics, Tudor Monasteries, Tudor Parliaments, Tudor Wales and the Tyndale Bible.
D-Day Museum: A new website has been launched about the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D-Day, 6 June 2004. The city of Portsmouth, England, was at the centre of the preparations for D-Day. In 2004, Portsmouth will be at the centre of Britain's D-Day 60 commemorations. The ferry to Normandy leaves from Portsmouth, making the city (and Portsmouth's D-Day Museum) an ideal starting point for visits to the Normandy beaches. The website gives more information about commemorations, exhibitions and other events that will take place during May - September 2004 in Portsmouth. It also includes material from the archives of Portsmouth's D- Day Museum, such as the memories of veterans and local people who witnessed the D-Day preparations. The website will be further developed over the coming months.
Internet History Sourcebook: Russian Revolution: Another of the great websites produced as part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project based at Fordham University in New York. The website, edited by Paul Halsall, provides a large collection of documents organized under the headings: The Tsarist State, Lenin, 1905 Revolution, 1917 Russian Revolution, Bolshevik Rule to 1924 and Stalinism.
Joseph Stalin Biographical Chronicle: Lenin wrote in December 1922 that "Comrade Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated enormous power in his hands: and I am not sure that he always knows how to use that power with sufficient caution. I therefore propose to our comrades to consider a means of removing Stalin from this post and appointing someone else who differs from Stalin in one weighty respect: being more tolerant, more loyal, more polite, more considerate of his comrades." This advice was not taken and Stalin became one of the most detested dictators in history.This website provides a detailed biography of Joseph Stalin. It also includes numerous photographs and a collection of his speeches.
Clara Collet was a leading economist, statistician and champion of women's employment. Her success was always firmly of her own making. An early female university graduate, later a postgraduate and then teacher, she campaigned for the secondary education provision of girls at a time when it was negligible. Her other major contribution was in raising the status and position of working class women, becoming a Commissioner for the Royal Commission on Labour (!892). Collet later carved out a career as a civil servant at the Board of Trade and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Of equal importance and interest to social and economic historians is the wide range of friendships and relationships she conducted in her life. She was close to the family of Karl Marx from an early age, particularly with Eleanor Marx, and with Beatrice Webb. Her working relationships with Charles Booth, Lloyd George, Ramsay MacDonald and Winston Churchill are also celebrated on this website.
Greatest Military Leaders: This website provides biographies of the most influential military leaders of all time. This includes biographies of George Washington, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Ceasar, Gustavus Adolphus, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando Cortés, Cyrus the Great, Simon Bolivar, William the Conqueror, Frederick the Great, Attila the Hun, George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Oliver Cromwell, Sun Tzu, Hannibal, Eugene of Savoy, Horatio Nelson, Vo Nguyen Giap, Scipio Africanus, John Pershing and the Duke of Wellington.
Book Section
World War II Medal of Honor Recipients: The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be awarded to personnel in the United States' Armed Forces. From the early fighting in the Philippines through the D-Day landings in Northwest Europe to the final assaults in the Pacific, this book looks at the brave US soldiers and airmen who were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions in the face of danger. It tells the exciting combat stories of such famous figures as the film star Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated US soldier of WWII, alongside less well-known awardees. (Robert Hargis & Starr Sinton, Osprey, ISBN 1 84176 614 3, £10.99)
