Website Spotlight: National Humanities Center (Toolbox Library)

 

Website URL: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/index.htm

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students (I also used this particular website extensively in an upper-division course on Colonial America) at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

This site has been absolutely incredibly useful to me, as it offers numerous "collections of primary resources — historical documents, literary texts, and works of art — thematically organized with notes and discussion questions."

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I built an entire semester course on Colonial America around these two particular modules:

American Beginnings: European Presence in North America, 1492-1690
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/index.htm

Topic 1: Contact
Topic 2: Exploration
Topic 3: Settlement
Topic 4: Permanence
Topic 5: Power

Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/index.htm

Topic 1: Growth
Topic 2: Peoples
Topic 3: Economies
Topic 4: Ideas
Topic 5: American

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I have used selections from these other modules with profit:

Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/index.htm

Topic 1: Predicaments of Early Republican Life
Topic 2: Religion
Topic 3: Politics
Topic 4: Expansion
Topic 5: Equality

The Triumph of Nationalism / The House Dividing: America, 1815-1850
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/triumphnationalism/index.htm

Topic 1: Culture of the Common Man
Topic 2: The Cult of Domesticity
Topic 3: Religion
Topic 4: Expansion
Topic 5: America in 1850

The Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870-1912
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/gilded/index.htm

Topic 1: Memory
Topic 2: Progress
Topic 3: People
Topic 4: Power
Topic 5: Empire

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~~For reviews of this website

Richard Byrne (Free Tech 4 Teachers)
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/11/national-humanities-center-toolbox.html
TeachingHistory.org (National History Education Clearinghouse)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/23598

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post can fit within several of the U.S. History survey course modules on my wiki, but most usefully on this one:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Colonial+Era

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT