Teaching
History Online
Number
42: 9th June, 2002
Introduction
1.
Virtual
Victorians
2.
London
At War
3.
Destruction
of Lidice
4.
Lidice
and Oradour: Remembering the Nazi Massacres
5.
Samuel
Grompers Papers Project
6.
History
of Harlem
7.
Encyclopedia
of 1848 Revolutions
8.
The
Great War in Flanders Fields
9.
Flames in
the Field
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 19,400 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
Virtual
Victorians: This website, created by Tiverton Museum and the Telematics
Centre at the University of Exeter, explores the themes of childhood,
education, housing, domestic life, transport, leisure, factory working
life and agricultural life by following the daily lives of Elizabeth
and John Poslett, two Victorian Tiverton factory workers, across one
week in September 1874. The website includes a facility that allows
children to send questions to the Poslett family. The Object Galleries
allow virtual handling of original Victorian artefacts. All the objects
and photographs in the gallery are in the collections at Tiverton
Museum.
London
At War: A comprehensive website on London during the Second World
War. The material is organized under four headings: Children and the
War (Winter 1939, Schools & Evacuation, Barbara Male, George Knott);
Air Raids (London Prepares, ARP, Civil Defence, An Incident, The Blitz);
Shelter (Going Underground, Eastenders, Westenders, Shelter Life,
Home Shelters, Rev. James Mackay); Women at War (Daily Life, Business
as Usual, Dig for Victory, Rationing, Spam and Spives).
Destruction
of Lidice: In 1942 Lidice, a village in Czechoslovakia, was the
scene of a violent reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
The village was razed to the ground and all its inhabitants murdered.
This is the official site of the Czech government dedicated to events
in Lidice. Produced in German, Czech and English it tells the story
of both the events of 1942 and efforts to commemorate the massacre.
Lidice
and Oradour: Remembering the Nazi Massacres: The 10th June marks
the anniversary of the Nazi massacres of 340 citizens of the Czech
village of Lidice in 1942 and 642 citizens of the French village of
Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944. Both villages were completely destroyed
by the SS, but for reasons of memorial neither was rebuilt on their
original site. At Lidice the visitor finds an empty valley with only
a low stone wall to mark the position of the barn where villagers
were shot. At Oradour the ruins have been carefully preserved to create
France's village martyr. This website, produced by the International
School of Toulouse, is an interesting example of how websites might
be used to support the learning of students undertaking history fieldwork.
Samuel
Gompers Papers Project: In 1974, Stuart B. Kaufman, the author
of Samuel Gompers and the Origins of the American Federation of
Labor and the founding editor of Labor's Heritage, established
the Samuel Gompers Papers Project at the University of Maryland. Under
Kraufman's direction, a crew of historians and graduate students plowed
through Gompers' letterbooks, located and microfilmed union records,
and searched for evidence of Gompers' family, friends, and associates
in newspaper reports, government documents, and vital records. This
material is now available from this website sponsored by the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission, the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the AFL-CIO.
History
of Harlem: That part of New York known as Harlem embraces the area
of Manhattan north of 96th Street, and joins the narrow northern handle
of Manhattan known as Washington Heights. The original village of Harlem
was established in 1658 by Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant and named
Nieuw Harlem after the Dutch city of Harlem. Harlem
suffered economic decline in the 1830s when many of the farms, depleted
from decades of cultivation, were abandoned and the great estates were
sold at public auctions. The area became a refuge for those desiring
cheap property and housing, including newly-arrived and destitute immigrants
who gathered in scattered shantytowns. This website provides a history
of Harlem and biographies of several people who have lived in this part
of New York.
Encyclopedia
of 1848 Revolutions: In 1848 a series of revolutions took place
in western and central Europe. They sprang from a shared background
of autocratic government and economic unrest, as well as from the
failure of conservative governments to grant representation to the
middle classes, and the awakened nationalism of minorities in Europe.
The Encyclopedia of 1848 website, located at the Ohio University,
has contributions from historians in the United States, England, Germany,
France, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Canada, Australia and New
Zealand.
The
Great War in Flanders Fields: From 1914 to 1918 the 'Westhoek',
the western part the Province of West-Flanders, i.e. the area of Nieuwpoort,
Diksmuide, Leper (Ypres), Poperinge, was the scene of the Great War.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers of more than 20 nationalities fell
in this conflict. After the often pointless battles and vast destruction,
the Westhoek rose from its ashes. This interactive website gives you
the opportunity to learn more about World War I in the Westhoek. The
central database includes all monuments, sites, locations, cemeteries,
etc. in the Westhoek. Furthermore you will find all important events
referring to the Great War, a reading list, the museums, accommodation,
a number of interesting websites and extensive historical information.
Book
Section
Flames
in the Field: During July 1944, four women agents, Andrée
Borrel, Vera Leigh, Diana Rowden and Sonya Olschanezky, met their
deaths at Struthof-Natzweiler concentration camp at the hands of the
SS. Members of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), they had been
sent to Nazi-occupied France in 1943. Was the arrest of these four
women the result of incompetence, or were they betrayed? Were they
sacrificed because M16 wanted to protect a double agent, or to use
them to disinform the enemy with deliberately misleading information?
These are some of the questions that are answered in this fascinating
book. (Rita Kramer, Penguin, ISBN 0 14 024423 9)
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
