Teaching
History Online
Number
52: 22nd September, 2002
Introduction
1.
History
News Network
2.
Huey
Long
3.
Nicola
Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
4.
Crime
Library
5.
Military
History Encyclopedia on the Web
6.
Eyewitnesses
to History: The Old West
7.
Legendary Warriors
8.
The British Empire
9.
History of Warfare
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 20,160 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
History
News Network: George Mason University's History News Network (HNN)
is the only history website on the Internet wholly devoted to current
events. Created in June 2001, the website features articles by historians
about current events and keeps readers up to date about the latest
controversies. The site, which is updated daily with news of breaking
stories, includes an exciting range of articles by historians on both
the left and the right. The HNN website attempts to expose politicians
who misrepresent history; point out bogus analogies; deflate beguiling
myths; remind readers of the irony of history and to remind us all
of the complexity of history.
Huey
P. Long: In February, 1934, Huey P. Long launched
his Share Our Wealth Society. He told the Senate: "Unless
we provide for redistribution
of wealth in this country, the country is doomed." He added the
nation faced a choice, it could limit large fortunes and provide a
decent standard of life for its citizens, or it could wait for the
inevitable revolution. Long's plan involved taxing all incomes over
a million dollars. On the second million the capital levy tax would
be one per cent. On the third, two per cent, on the fourth, four per
cent; and so on. Once a personal fortune exceeded $8 million, the
tax would become 100 per cent. James Farley, they man who ran Franklin
D. Roosevelt's presidential campaign in 1932, estimated that Long,
running as a third-party candidate in 1936, would win between 3,000,000
to 4,000,000 votes. Long looked like he would prevent Roosevelt from
winning a second-term until his assassination in 1935. This website
looks at the life and career of one
of the most interesting political figures of the 20th century.
Nicola
Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti:
Seventy-five years ago Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian-born
anarchists living in Boston, were executed for allegedly murdering
two men during a 1920 bank robbery. The controversial verdict at the
end of their six-year-long trial incited international protest - the
evidence seemed to point away from Sacco and Vanzetti, and it was
clear that both the judge and jury were prejudiced against immigrants
with radical political beliefs. The Atlantic Monthly website includes
three articles about the case.
In "The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti" (March, 1927) Felix
Frankfurter laid out the saga of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial from
the day of the defendants' alleged crime to the day of their execution.
As he interpreted it, the trial represented a tragic failure to uphold
the American ideals of tolerance, equality, and justice for all and
was ultimately a travesty of justice. "Vanzetti's
Last Statement: A Record," by W. G. Thompson (February, 1928),
consists of a transcription by Sacco and Vanzetti's lawyer, William
Thompson, of the final conversation between himself and Vanzetti on
the day before his clients' scheduled execution. Finally,
in "The Never-Ending Wrong" (June, 1977) Pulitzer Prize-winning
novelist Katherine Anne Porter described the Sacco-Vanzetti verdict
as the event that destroyed her idealism.
Crime
Library: Mark S. Gado is a police detective with the City of New
Rochelle Police Department, where he has been employed for 23 years.
He is also a freelance writer and over the last 20 years his articles
have appeared in many publications, including Strange Days magazine
and The Law Enforcement Journal. This Crime Library website includes
articles such as, The Ku Klux Klan, The History of Lynching, Lynchings
in America and Lynchings in the Press.
Military
History Encyclopedia on the Web: John Rickard's website currently
concentrates on the middle ages, the First World War, the Seven Years
War and the Thirty Years War. However, in recent months it has produced
material on the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and the Second World
War. At the moment the website has 631 articles, 49 pictures, 80 maps
and over 310,000 words on military history.
Eyewitnesses
to History: The Old West: This website, produced by Ibis Communications,
provides what it calls a "ringside seat to history" by publishing
eyewitness accounts of past events. The Old West section includes
Buffalo Hunt (1846), Crossing the Plains (1865), Battle with the Apache
(1872), Custer's Last Stand (1876), Death of Billy the Kid (1881),
A Cowboy in Dodge City (1882), Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890), Dalton
Gang's Last Raid (1892) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1899).
Book
Section
ISBN 1 85753 370 4
|
In this book Daniel Mersey investigates the stories behind
some of the great myths and legends. Deeply researched,
with illustrations from diverse sources, and written in
a style that will suit historians as well as the newcomer
to the subject. Characters studied include King Arthur,
Dracula, Achilles, Beowulf, Robin Hood, Hiawatha, Roland,
Cuchulain and William Wallace.
Author:
Daniel Mersey
Publisher:
Chrysalis Books
Price:
£20.00
|
ISBN 0521 00254 0
|
Modern western attitudes towards the imperial past tend
either towards nostalgia for British power or revulsion
at what seem to be the abuses of that power. The Cambridge
Illustrated History of the British Empire adopts neither
of these approaches. It aims to create historical understanding
about the British empire on the assumption that such understanding
is important for any informed appreciation of the modern
world.
Edited:
P. J. Marshall
Publisher:
Cambridge University
Press
Price:
£19.95
|
ISBN 0 521 79431 5
|
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare provides a
unique account of Western warfare from antiquity to the
present day. The book treats the history of all aspects
of the subject: the development of warfare on land, sea
and air; weapons and technology; strategy and defence; discipline
and intelligence; mercenaries and standing armies; cavalry
and infantry; guerrilla assault and nuclear arsenals.
Edited:
Geoffrey Parker
Publisher:
Cambridge University
Press
Price:
£19.95
|
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
