Teaching
History Online
Number
76: 9th March, 2003
Introduction
1.
The
Vietnam War
2.
GCSE
History
3.
Peace
Pledge Union
4.
Nazi
Propaganda
5.
The
Illustrated Enemy
6.
Scottish
History Online
7. Thomas
Paine
8. Local
History Trail
9. Cuban
Missile Crisis
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 25,646 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
The
Vietnam War: This website provides a detailed account of the Vietnam
War. There is also an interview area where 12 Vietnam veterans are
willing to answer questions from students on their experiences of
the war. As well as thirty biographies of individuals who played an
important role in the conflict there are entries for Buddhism, Cambodia
and Laos, Chemical Warfare, Dien Bien Phu, Domino Theory, Eisenhower
Doctrine, Guerrilla Warfare, Gulf of Tonkin, Ho Chi Minh Trail, Mass
Media and the War, My Lai, National Liberation Front, Negotiated Peace,
Operation Rolling Thunder, Strategic Hamlet Programme, Tet Offensive,
Vietnam Protest Movement, Vietnam Revolutionary League and Vietnamization.
GCSE
History: Andy Walker's excellent website contains a large collection
of revision resources for students studying GCSE history. This includes
information on using historical sources, top revision tips and exam
practice. At the moment the website specializes on the subject of
medicine and features activities on Roman Public Health, Medieval
Public Health, Renaissance Medicine, Louis Pasteur, Edward Jenner,
Surgery, Women in Medicine and Florence Nightingale.
Peace
Pledge Union: Educational materials produced by the Peace Pledge
Union. Subjects covered include Pacifism, Conscientious Objection,
Conscription, First World War Christmas Truce, Treaty of Versailles,
Armistice Day, Just War, War and the Environment, Poetry and War,
Landmines, Arms Trade, Chemical Weapons and Biological Weapons. The
website also includes biographies of peace campaigners such as Vera
Brittain, Dick Sheppard, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Siegfried Sassoon,
Fenner Brockway, George Lansbury and Albert Einstein.
Nazi
Propaganda: The story of the Nazi rise to power in the Germany
of the 1930s is often seen as a classic example of how to achieve
political ends through propaganda. The Nazis themselves were certainly
convinced of its effectiveness, and Adolf Hitler devoted two chapters
in his book Mein Kampf, to an analysis of its use. He saw propaganda
as a vehicle of political salesmanship in a mass market, and argued
that it was a way of conveying a message to the bulk of the German
people, not to intellectuals. This illustrated article by Professor
David Welch takes a detailed look at the methods Hitler's government
used to manipulate public opinion.
The
Illustrated Enemy: This website looks at graphic depictions of
national leaders and military and civilian life, as illustrated by
artists both before and during World War I. These images were originally
published in magazines, books, posters and postcards. The artists
are French, German, Italian, Dutch, British and American. Many are
unabashedly patriotic, even jingoistic; others are just as firmly
anti-war.
Scottish
History Online: The Scottish History Club was originally formed
during 2001 to allow visitors who have a serious interest in Scottish
History to be able to interact with each other and share their knowledge,
research, theories, photographs and general enthusiasm for Scottish
History with others within a website that was ‘password protected’.
The Club has basically two elements the ‘Club Web Site’
and the ‘Club Community Site’. The Community is by far more
interactive with the ability to post your own images, contributions
and have online discussions with other members, whether in the chat
room or posted up on the site.
Thomas
Paine: Between his birth in 1737 and his death in 1809, enormous
political upheavals turned the Western world upside down - and Thomas
Paine was in the middle of the biggest ones. His writings put his
life at risk in every country he lived in - in America for rebellion,
in England for sedition, in France for his insistence on a merciful
and democratic revolution. At the end of his life, he was shunned
by the country he helped create, reviled as an infidel and forced
to beg friends for money. His grave was desecrated, his remains were
stolen. In this article Jon Katz points out that Thomas Paine was
one of the first journalists to use media as a weapon against the
entrenched power structure and should be resurrected as the moral
father of the Internet.
Local
History Trail: Take part in the National Grid for Learning's local
history trail and explore the people, places and events that have
made your community what it is today. The trail features online activities
to show you how to get started in local history, how to explore further
and how to use the internet to help you discover the past. You can
try out your new skills by investigating the history of your local
area - and return to the trail to share your discoveries with others
in the online gallery. Everyone who sends in a contribution will be
entered into a prize draw to win a year's family membership of either
English Heritage, Historic Scotland or Heritage in Wales.
Book
Section
The
Cuban Missile Crisis: The series History Through Newsletters looks
at key events in history through the newspaper stories of the time.
Each book contains twelve contemporary newspaper articles together
with background information and an evaluation panel which looks at
how valuable the article is as a piece of historical evidence and
what insights in provides into events of the past. The Cuban Missile
Crisis focuses on the series of events in 1962 that brought the world
to the brink of nuclear war, and how they were reported by the newspapers
of the day. (ISBN 0 7502 4182 9: £10.99)
.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
