American history is a story of the actions of the political leaders of our country, and the actions of the ordinary people, because the common people and racial and ethnic minorities have actually built our country . I believe that history is not just one event after another, but that people make history. As Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, history is the “course of human events.” Americans have expanded across the continent, intervened overseas, built a world-dominating economy and developed a world-dominating culture, yet our history has been based on immigration and the acculturation resulting from that immigration. As you are well aware, only a small minority of Americans today are descendants of the Native Americans because they have suffered at the hands of the whites who have dominated our social and political events.
One of the key themes of American History has been change through conflict. These conflicts, include those over the land, when the Europeans crossed the Atlantic and conquered the Native Americans, slavery and the rights of the freed people and the rights of the workers, including ethnic LGBTQ and religious minorities to vote and gain equal opportunity. These struggles have been at the heart of the American dream. Our common creed that “All Men Are Created Equal”sums up our hopes and our nightmares. To understand that creed in all its complexity is our most important task in understanding American history.
Education is one avenue to address the problems we have to face in politics and social equality. My essays and lessons will concentrate on how we can teach our students to think for themselves about the events and the problems we faced in the past. Preparing students to deal with our crises today is one goal of my teaching. Nevertheless these ideas present history and the ideas of history in a challenging and, I hope, exciting way. This site is for teachers and students and anyone interested in education. It is an intellectual approach If I convey something of the content and intellectual excitement I felt teaching.I will consider my work here to be a success.