Teaching
History Online
Number
84: 4th May, 2003
Introduction
1.
History
Seminars
2.
National
SHP Conference
3.
Tudor
Hackney
4.
Art
and the First World War
5.
Peterloo
Massacre
6.
Red
Clydeside
7. Welsh
Political Archive
8. Economic
History Services
9. Landscapes
of Memory
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 27,225 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
History
Seminars: The first of the history seminars hosted by the History
Forum started this week. The first seminar looks at research carried
out by the US National Learning Lab that suggests that the most effective
learning strategy is when students teach other students. The author
supports this view and provides evidence from his own teaching. Most
contributors to the seminar have so far agreed with this proposition
and have provided further examples of how this can be achieved. If
you have views on the best way that students learn, register
with the History Forum and join the debate.
National
SHP Conference: Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education
and Skills, will open this year's SHP Conference, by two-way video-link.
The SHP Conference is held at Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds
(4th-6th July) and will include workshops covering the whole 11-19
History curriculum, stimulating plenaries (Denis Shemilt, Christine
Counsell, Andrew Chater, Ian Dawson), up-to-date information on issues
of the moment and a large resource exhibition. You can register online
or by writing to Anne Bean, Trinity & All Saints College, Horsforth,
Leeds, LS18 5HD.
Tudor
Hackney: This website enables you to explore the world of 1601
through a virtual reality reconstruction of the Rectory House, which
once stood on the west side of Hackney's Mare Street. Much of the
information on the Rectory comes from an inventory of the house taken
when the owners, John and Jane Daniell, fell foul of the law, and
their house and goods were seized by the Crown. Their story is told
here in the form of a video drama. Other parts of the site will tell
you what Hackney was like in this period, when it comprised three
parishes - Hackney itself, Stoke Newington and Shoreditch, on the
edge of the City of London, home to two theatres and an up and coming
playwright, William Shakespeare.
BBC:
Art and the Front: The Western Front was a short train journey
away from central London. The British government took advantage of
this by commissioning the leading artists of the day to make eye witness
accounts of the events of the war. Initially, the intention was to
reproduce images for propaganda purposes, then to commemorate and
record the service and events of the war. This BBC website enables
you to explore the battleground terrains through artists' eyes and
to find out how events of international significance were recorded.
Peterloo
Massacre: After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, the government
introduced legislation - the 'Corn Laws' - to limit the amount of
cheap wheat that could be imported, so that the price of cereals and
bread would be kept artificially high and so protect farmers' profits.
In 1816, a bad harvest pushed prices so high that there were strikes
and food riots all over the country. The Corn Laws fuelled the clamour
for parliamentary reform. Again, rather than make any concessions,
the authorities tried to suppress the anger of those who had no legitimate
way of making their demands. The Corn Laws and electoral reform were
the main issues to be discussed at a meeting organised at St Peter's
Field in Manchester on 16 August 1819. This website supports Channel
4's documentary on what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.
Red Clydeside:
During the period between 1910 and 1932 the city of Glasgow was witness
to an unparalleled wave of working class protest and political agitation
which challenged the forces of capitalism and also, on occasion, directly
challenged the state itself. The events and people who shaped this
period forged an enduring legacy which still remains part of the political
and social fabric of the city to the present day, and which is known
quite simply as Red Clydeside. This turbulent period of industrial,
social and political upheaval reinforced Glasgow's reputation as the
centre of working class struggle in Britain in the early years of
the twentieth century. This website provides access to digital copies
of original source materials from the Red Clydeside period, as one
of the digital collections of the Glasgow Digital Library.
Welsh
Political Archive: This website presents social and political
campaigning in Wales during the twentieth century through the use
of digitised images of original documents, photographs and sound and
video files. The campaigns voice the rights of various groups, for
example the right of women to vote, or the right of miners and quarrymen
to fair wages and decent working conditions. The material has been
selected from various collections in the National Library of Wales.
The material can
be accessed directly from the site map, the search facility, or the
time-line. It is also possible to access the material thematically.
The site is divided into six themes - The Ballot Box, Labour Struggles,
War and Peace, The Welsh Language, Devolution and The Water Industry.
Economic
History Services: This website includes a collection of essays
on twentieth-century economic history. The purpose of these essays
has been to survey the works that have had the most influence on the
field of economic history and to highlight the intellectual accomplishments
of twentieth-century economic historians. Each review essay outlines
the work's argument and findings, discusses the author's methods and
sources, and examines the impact that the work has had since its publication.
Other features on this website includes "What Was the Interest
Rate Then?" that looks at the short and long-term annual interest
rate series for the United Kingdom and the United States from as far
back as the 18th century. Here is a place where you can ask questions
of comparative values covering purchasing power, interest rate, and
other variables between the past and today.
Book
Section
Landscapes
of Memory: Ruth Kluger is one of the child-survivors of the Holocaust.
In 1942, at the age of eleven, she was deported to the Nazi "family
camp" Theresienstadt with her mother. They would move to two
other camps before the war ended. Landscapes of Memory is the story
of Ruth's life. Of a childhood spent in the Nazi camps and her refusal
to forget the past as an adult in America. On publication in Germany,
where it is a bestseller, Landscapes of Memory sparked renewed discussion
about the Holocaust. (Ruth Kluger, Bloomsbury, ISBN 0 7475 6005 6,
£12.99)
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
