Teaching
History Online
Number
32: 3rd March, 2002
Introduction
1.
Virtual
Chat with Adolf Hitler
2.
Impeachment
of Andrew Johnson
3.
Iwo
Jima
4.
Trade Unions
in the USA
5.
Haymarket
Martyrs
6.
Chartism
7.
Heroes
and Villians
8.
The
Niztor Project
9.
ProQuest
History
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 17,635 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
Virtual
Chat with Adolf Hitler: In this innovative "artificial intelligence"
activity from Russel Tarr at ActiveHistory, users can type in questions
which Hitler answers. If you are stuck for a question, you can ask
the computer to suggest one from a variety of categories, and if Hitler
does not respond correctly it is possible to submit the question to
ActiveHistory so that his 'brain' can be updated. All people who contribute
in this way are given full recognition on a separate 'credits' page.
Lesson plans to make use of the resource in the classroom are also
provided, and this is an original and engaging way of learning about
Nazi Germany.
Impeachment
of Andrew Johnson: This excellent website uses articles that appeared
in Harper's Weekly to explain why President Andrew Johnson was impeached
in 1868. The material is organized under the headings: Reconstruction
Policy, Future Control of Congress, Tenure of Office Act and Personal
Considerations Affecting the Vote to Impeach. The website provides
biographies and portraits of 28 important figures in the drama and
an impeachment simulation game that can be used in the classroom.
Iwo
Jima: At the beginning of 1945 General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme
Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, decided to try and
capture the small volcanic island of Iwo Jima that
at the time was being defended by 20,000 veterans of the Japanese
Special Naval Landing Force. On
19th February, American soldiers began landing on the island. Over
250,000 men and 900 ships were involved in this
amphibious operation under the command of Admiral Richmond Turner.
The main objective was to capture the island's three airstrips and
to to obtain a forward air base for the planned Allied attack on the
Japanese home territories. Of
the 23,000 Japanese soldiers defending Iwo Jima, only 216 were taken
alive. The American forces also suffered during the bitter fighting
on the island with 5,391 Marines killed and 17,400 wounded. This website
provides a detailed
account of the campaign.
Trade
Unions in the USA:
An encyclopedia of the Trade Union movement in USA between 1800 and
1960. The website includes entries on important events and issues
(12) union journals and newspapers (8), union organizations (6) and
biographies of trade union leaders (52). The text within each entry
is linked to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way
it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail.
The sources are also hyper-linked so the student is able to find out
about the writer, artist, newspaper and organization that produced
the material.
Haymarket
Martyrs: On 4th May, 1886, a meeting was called by trade union
leaders in Haymarket Square, Chicago, in protest against the shooting
of several strikers in a recent industrial dispute over demands for
an eight hour day. The police chief ordered the crowd to leave the
area and soon afterwards a bomb was thrown by an unknown person in
the crowd, resulting in the deaths of seven people. Eight men involved
in organizing the meeting were arrested and in 1887 four of them were
hanged. This website provides a brief description the Haymarket Affair
and a list of links to other websites on the subject.
Chartism:
The People's Charter, drafted in 1838 by William Lovett, was at the
heart of a radical campaign for reform in Britain. This website produced
by Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English at the University
of Tennessee, and part of the Victorian Web Project, provides an overview
of the Chartist movement and a list of links to other useful websites
on the subject.
Heroes
and Villains: Learning Curve exhibitions provide in-depth information,
organized into galleries. Each gallery is an investigation into a
theme using primary material, linked to an overall question. Interactive
tasks and teacher's notes are included. This Learning Curve exhibition,
Heroes and Villains, looks at five case-studies: Winston Churchill
and Dresden, J. F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Mussolini
and Abyssinia, Stalin and the Industrialization of the USSR and Harry
Truman and the Atomic Bomb.
The
Niztor Project: A website dedicated to the millions of Holocaust
victims who suffered and died at the hands of Adolf Hitler and his
Nazi regime. Subjects covered include the Holocaust Camps, Nazi Conspiracy
and Aggression, The Nuremberg Trials, Techniques of Holocaust Denial,
Trial of Adolf Eichmann and Holocaust Revisionism.
ProQuest
History: This subscription service website is probably the most
comprehensive online resource of its kind, offering a vast and growing
collection of digitized materials. These include newspaper articles,
rare books, video clips and web links, plus a bookshelf of respected
reference titles and historical journals. Recent additions to the
service include schemes of work for Key Stage 3, student guides and
100 more widely studied curriculum topics.
Please email John Simkin at spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
if you have information you want included in next month's edition
of Teaching
History Online.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
