22 results for "American History"

God's Harvard A Christian College on a Mission to Save America

Hanna Rosin
Since 2000, America s most ambitious young evangelicals have been making their way to Patrick Henry College, a small Christian school just outside the nation s capital. Most of them are homeschoolers whose idealism and discipline put the average American teenager to shame. At "God s Harvard" they are groomed to become tomorrow s elite. Diplomas in hand, they are dispatched to the front lines of politics, entertainment, and science, where they will lead the battle to take back a godless nation. Hanna Rosin spent a year and a half embedded at the college, following students from the campus to the White House, Congress, conservative think tanks, Hollywood, and other centers of influence. Her account captures this nerve center of the evangelical movement at a moment of maximum influence and also of crisis, as it struggles to avoid the temptations of modern life and still remake the world in its own image. "
HarperCollins Publishers 2008-09-08 312 pages

Beyond the university: why liberal education matters

Roth, Michael S.
From the president of Wesleyan University, an eloquent defense of liberal education, seen against the backdrop of its contested history in America Winner of the 2016 Frederic W. Ness Book Award sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities Contentious debates over the benefits--or drawbacks--of a liberal education are as old as America itself. From Benjamin Franklin to the Internet pundits, critics of higher education have attacked its irrelevance and elitism, often calling for more vocational instruction. Thomas Jefferson, by contrast, believed that nurturing a student's capacity for lifelong learning was useful for science and commerce while also being essential for democracy. In this provocative contribution to the disputes, university president Michael S. Roth focuses on important moments and seminal thinkers in America's long-running argument over vocational vs. liberal education. Conflicting streams of thought flow through American intellectual history: W. E. B. Du Bois's humanistic principles of pedagogy for newly emancipated slaves developed in opposition to Booker T. Washington's educational utilitarianism, for example. Jane Addams's emphasis on the cultivation of empathy and John Dewey's calls for education as civic engagement were rejected as impractical by those who aimed to train students for particular economic tasks. Roth explores these arguments (and more), considers the state of higher education today, and concludes with a stirring plea for the kind of education that has, since the founding of the nation, cultivated individual freedom, promulgated civic virtue, and instilled hope for the future.
Yale University Press 2015 228 pages

America-Lite How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered In the Obamacrats)

David Gelernter
America-Lite (where we all live) is just like America, only turned into an amusement park or a video game or a supersized Pinkberry, where the past and future are blank and there is only a big NOW. How did we come to expect no virtue and so much cynicism from our culture, our leaders—and each other? In this refreshingly judgmental book, David Gelernter connects the historical dots to reveal a stealth revolution carried out by post-religious globalist intellectuals who, by and large, “can’t run their own universities or scholarly fields, but are very sure they can run you.” These imperial academics have deployed their students into the top echelon of professions once monopolized by staid and steady WASPs. In this simple way, they have installed themselves as the new designated drivers of American culture. Imperial academics live in a world of theory; they preach disdain for mere facts and for old-fashioned fact-based judgments like true or false. Schoolchildren are routinely taught theories about history instead of actual history—they learn, for example, that all nations are equally nice except for America, which is nearly always nasty. With academic experts to do our thinking for us, we’ve politely shut up and let second-raters take the wheel. In fact, we have handed the keys to the star pupil and teacher’s pet of the post-religious globalist intellectuals, whose election to the presidency of the United States constituted the ultimate global group hug. How do we finally face the truth and get back into the driver’s seat? America-Lite ends with a one-point plan.
Encounter Books 2013-10-14 200 pages

American Exceptionalism A Double Edged Sword

Seymour Martin Lipset
"American values are quite complex," writes Seymour Martin Lipset, "particularly because of paradoxes within our culture that permit pernicious and beneficial social phenomena to arise simultaneously from the same basic beliefs."Born out of revolution, the United States has always considered itself an exceptional country of citizens unified by an allegiance to a common set of ideals, individualism, anti-statism, populism, and egalitarianism. This ideology, Professor Lipset observes, defines the limits of political debate in the United States and shapes our society.American Exceptionalism explains why socialism has never taken hold in the United States, why Americans are resistant to absolute quotas as a way to integrate blacks and other minorities, and why American religion and foreign policy have a moralistic, crusading streak.
W.W. Norton 1998 354 pages

Howard Zinn on democratic education

Zinn, Howard
Perhaps no other historian has had a more profound and revolutionary impact on American education than Howard Zinn. This is the first book devoted to his views on education and its role in a democratic society. Howard Zinn on Democratic Education describes what is missing from school textbooks and in classrooms-and how we move beyond these deficiencies to improve student education. Critical skills of citizenship are insufficiently developed in schools, according to Zinn. Textbooks and curricula must be changed to transcend the recitation of received wisdom too common today in schools. In these respects, recent Bush Administration and educational policies of most previous US presidents have been on the wrong track in meeting educational needs. This book seeks to redefine national goals at a time when public debates over education have never been more polarised--nor higher in public visibility and contentious debate. Zinn's essays on education-many never before published--are framed in this book by a dialogue between Zinn and Donaldo Macedo, a distinguished critic of literacy and schooling, whose books with Paulo Freire, Noam Chomsky and other authors have received international acclaim.
Paradigm Publishers 2005 213 pages

What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know Fundamentals of a Good Sixth-Grade Education, Revised Edition

E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
What should your child learn in the sixth grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that thousands of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American sixth graders. Featuring sixteen pages of full-color illustrations, a bolder, easier-to-follow format, and a thoroughly updated curriculum, What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know, Revised Edition, is designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children. Hundreds of thousands of children have benefited from the Core Knowledge Series. This revised edition gives a new generation of sixth graders the advantage they need to make progress in school today, and to establish an approach to learning that will last a lifetime. Discover: • Favorite Poems—old and new, from Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Raven” to Maya Angelou’s “Woman Work” • Literature—from around the world, including Homer’s epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper • Learning About Language—he rules of written English, including the four kinds of sentences, common English sayings and phrases, plus an introduction to Greek and Latin roots • History and Geography—world history from ancient Greece and the fall of the Roman Empire to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution; American history of the post—Civil War era, including the Industrial Revolution, immigration, urbanization, and reform • Visual Arts—a brief history of art, stretching from the classical period through the Renaissance, Baroque, and Romantic periods all the way to the age of realism, with full-color reproductions and discussions of great works by artists such as El Greco, Rembrandt, and Winslow Homer • Music—understanding and appreciating music, including musical notation, chords, and scales—plus biographies of great composers such as Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin • Math—challenging lessons, ranging from probability and statistics, geometry, ratios and proportions to basic pre-algebra • Science—fascinating discussions of plate tectonics, oceans, astronomy, the environment, the human body, and the immune system—plus short biographies of great scientists such as Marie Curie
Random House Publishing Group 2007-06-26 416 pages

How to Educate a Citizen The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation

Jr. E. D. Hirsch
"Profound, vital and correct. Hirsch highlights the essence of our American being and the radical changes in education necessary to sustain that essence. Concerned citizens, teachers, and parents take note! We ignore this book at our peril."-- Joel Klein, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools Now in paperback, the bestselling author of Cultural Literacy delivers a powerful manifesto on the failures of America's early education system and its impact on our current national malaise, advocating for a shared knowledge curriculum students everywhere can be taught--an educational foundation that can help improve and strengthen America's unity, identity, and democracy. In How to Educate a Citizen, E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America's public schools, particularly at the elementary level, to educate our children more effectively to help heal and preserve the nation. Since the 1960s, our schools have been relying on "child-centered learning." History, geography, science, civics, and other essential knowledge have been dumbed down by vacuous learning "techniques" and "values-based" curricula; indoctrinated by graduate schools of education, administrators and educators have believed they are teaching reading and critical thinking skills. Yet these cannot be taught in the absence of strong content, Hirsch argues. The consequence is a loss of shared knowledge that would enable us to work together, understand one another, and make coherent, informed decisions. A broken approach to school not only leaves our children under-prepared and erodes the American dream but also loosens the spiritual bonds and unity that hold the nation together. Drawing on early schoolmasters and educational reformers such as Noah Webster and Horace Mann, Hirsch charts the rise and fall of the American early education system and provides a blueprint for closing the national gap in knowledge, communications, and allegiance. Critical and compelling, How to Educate a Citizen galvanizes our schools to equip children with the power of shared knowledge.
HarperCollins Publishers 2021-09-07 224 pages

An American Saga The Story of Helen Thomas and Simon Flexner

James T. Flexner
This tale of two families is set on a grand scale, as James Thomas Flexner brings his talents to bear on his own noteworthy heritage. An American Saga is an historical narrative, grounded on documentary sources, which ends with the marriage of Helen Thomas and Simon Flexner. The account deals equally with the lives and the backgrounds of husband and wife, the author's parents. Simon Flexner was the famous medical investigator, discoverer of the "Flexner vacillus" and the "Flexner serum," who became the creating director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) and eventually acknowledged leader of American medical science. The Kentucky-born son of impoverished German Jewish immigrants, he grew up in penury. As he never completed the eighth grade, he was almost completely self-educated when he appeared at the Johns Hopkins University before its celebrated medical school had been founded. Almost instantly he began making the discoveries that soon made him the leading younger medical scientist in the United States.
Fordham University Press 1993 494 pages

The knowledge deficit: closing the shocking education gap for American children

Hirsch, E. D. Jr.
Hirsch shows why American students perform less well than students in other industrialized countries. Drawing on classroom observation, the history of ideas, and current scientific understanding of the patterns of intellectual growth, he builds the case that our schools have indeed made progress in teaching the mechanics of reading, but do not convey the more complex and essential content needed for reading comprehension. Hirsch reasons that literacy depends less on formal reading 'skills' and more on exposure to rich knowledge. His argument gives parents specific tools for enhancing their child's ability to read with comprehension; shows how No-Child-Left-Behind tests and SATs are measuring a kind of knowledge that is not being taught in our schools; and maps out how American schools can become a strong antidote to poverty and to the race-based achievement gap, and thus fulfill our democratic ideal for our children.--From publisher description.
Houghton Mifflin 2006 169 pages

Fortunate sons: the 120 Chinese boys who came to America, went to school, and revolutionized an ancient civilization

Leibovitz, Liel
In 1872, the Qing Empire sent 120 boys to America in the hope that they would unlock the mysteries of Western innovation. They studied at New England's finest schools, befriended luminaries such as Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, and exchanged ideas with their American peers that would change the course of both nations. But when anti-Chinese fervor forced them back home, the young men faced a new set of obstacles, having to overcome a suspicious imperial court and a culture deeply resistant to change. Filled with colorful characters and vivid historical detail, this book unearths the dramatic stories of these young men who led China at the pivotal moment when it teetered between modernity and tradition.--From publisher description.
W.W. Norton 2011 319 pages

The Assault on American Excellence

Anthony T. Kronman
“I want to call it a cry of the heart, but it’s more like a cry of the brain, a calm and erudite one.” — Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal The former dean of Yale Law School argues that the feverish egalitarianism gripping college campuses today is a threat to our democracy. College education is under attack from all sides these days. Most of the handwringing—over free speech, safe zones, trigger warnings, and the babying of students—has focused on the excesses of political correctness. That may be true, but as Anthony Kronman shows, it’s not the real problem. “Necessary, humane, and brave” (Bret Stephens, The New York Times ), The Assault on American Excellence makes the case that the boundless impulse for democratic equality gripping college campuses today is a threat to institutions whose job is to prepare citizens to live in a vibrant democracy. Three centuries ago, the founders of our nation saw that for this country to have a robust government, it must have citizens trained to have tough skins, to make up their own minds, and to win arguments not on the basis of emotion but because their side is closer to the truth. Without that, Americans would risk electing demagogues. Kronman is the first to tie today’s campus clashes to the history of American values, drawing on luminaries like Alexis de Tocqueville and John Adams to argue that our modern controversies threaten the best of our intellectual traditions. His tone is warm and wise, that of an educator who has devoted his life to helping students be capable of living up to the demands of a free society—and to do so, they must first be tested in a system that isn’t focused on sympathy at the expense of rigor and that values excellence above all.
Simon and Schuster 2020-08-11 288 pages

The test: why our schools are obsessed with standardized testing - but you don't have to be

Kamenetz, Anya
"[The anti-testing] movement now has a guidebook. . . . Kamenetz shows how fundamentally American it would be to move toward a more holistic system." - New York Times Book Review The Test is an essential and critically acclaimed book for any parent confounded by our national obsession with standardized testing. It recounts the shocking history and tempestuous politics of testing and borrows strategies from fields as diverse as games, neuroscience, and ancient philosophy to help children cope. It presents the stories of families, teachers, and schools maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. And it points the way toward a hopeful future of better tests and happier kids.
PublicAffairs 2016-01-05 272 pages

Studyguide for American Economic History by Jonathan Hughes, Isbn 9780137037414

Cram101 Textbook Reviews,Cram101 Textbook Reviews Staff,Jonathan Hughes
Never HIGHLIGHT a Book Again! Virtually all of the testable terms, concepts, persons, places, and events from the textbook are included. Cram101 Just the FACTS101 studyguides give all of the outlines, highlights, notes, and quizzes for your textbook with optional online comprehensive practice tests. Only Cram101 is Textbook Specific. Accompanys: 9780137037414 .
Cram101 Incorporated 2012-07 275 pages

Historical Fiction and Other Reading References for Classes in Junior and Senior High Schools

Hannah Logasa
Text extracted from opening pages of book: HISTORICAL FICTION and other Reading References for Classes in JUNIOR AND SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS Compiled by HANNAH _ LOGASA The University of Chicago Home-Study Department Author of The High School Library, The Study Hall FOURTH REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION Philadelphia McKinley Publishing Co. 1949 SYMBOLS USED IN THIS WORK * Especially valuable x Junior high school level Copyright, 1949 McKinky Publishing Co. Made in the United States [ 2] TABLE OF CONTENTS'-PACE Symbols usecrm tms woric _ r v .. A . K, .... r: --. 2 Preface to the Fourth Revised and Enlarged Editioi.: .....: ..: .*.: .*..: ....: .. r.: .?... $ Introduction ., .*...... 5 ANNOTATED LIST OF HISTORICAL MATERIAL ANCIENT HISTORY I. Primitive life 13 II. Oriental life '. 17 III. Ancient Greece and her civilization 21 IV. Early Rome and the Roman Empire 25 MEDIEVAL AND MODERN EUROPE I. Traditional and legendary history: Empire of Charlemagne and the invasion of the Northmen, 600-1000 31 II. Medieval life institutions, 1000-1400 35 III. Renaissance and the Reformation to 1643 44 IV. Absolutism and the struggle for colonial and commercial supremacy, 1643-1786 56 V. French revolution and the Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1789-1815 61 VI. Reaction, revolution and the nationalizing of the European states, 1815-1871 66 VII. Democracy, Liberalism, and the nineteenth-century expansion of Europe, 1871-1914 70 VIII. The World War, 1914-1918 73 IX. Post-War Europe, and Spheres of Influence, 1918-78 X. World War II and after 86 CANADA I. Discovery, exploration, colonization, 1000-1673 91 II. Anglo-French rivalry, 1673-1867 93 III. Confederation, and after, 1867-97 LATIN AMERICA I. Discovery, exploration and conquest, 1400-1808 102 II. Struggles for independence, 1808-1867 106 III. Experiments in democratic government, and development, looe-luv UNITED STATES HISTORY I. Discovery and exploration, 1400-1607 v .......... 116 II. Colonization and the struggle for supremacy in North America, 1607-1753 118 III. Revolution and the establishment of the American Nation, 1763-1789.... 127 IV. Nationalism and democracy, 1789-1829 135 V. Expansion, 1829-1861 } g VI. Conflict, 1861-1865 -* * J* i VII. Reconstruction and consolidation, 1865-1897 lol VIII National expansion and the new democracy, 1897-1914 loo IX. The World War, 1914-1918 #] X. The United States since the World War, 1918-1942 174 XL World War II and after 179 APPENDIX I. Islands of the Sea 183 II. Selected List of Source Books Ancient History; v { JJ Medieval and Modern European History --.. *&* United States History } Jg World War II and after * j Author and title index iyD [ 3] THE FOURTH REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION The present revision consists of over 900 new titles. Three hundred of the older titles were omitted, not because they were no longer useful, but in order to make room for the newer material. A new section, Islands of the seas has been added to the Appendix. These small land areas have become of increasing importance because of their geographic location, political influence, and economic possibili ties. The larger islands, and continents that play a world role were not included in this section. Added also, were two sections of World War II, and after. These will be found in their chronological order. For different reasons compiling this work has presented problems. A few might be mentioned: ( a) The periodcovered by this revision coincided with the world conflict. Few books on various periods, and phases of history were published, e. g., Ancient history; World War I. This had its effect on the proportion of material in the list. ( b) The book output was marked by a change of format in many books. The binding, margins, paper, and print was not up to pre-war standards. This has a bearing on the life of the physical book, and its possible rebinding. ( c) The language in some of the books was frank, and in other cases crude. In each such case the book had to be judged
Literary Licensing, LLC 2012-04 282 pages

An American Orthodox dreamer: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Boston's Maimonides School

Farber, Seth
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, born in 1903 and scion of a preeminent Lithuanian Orthodox family, was one of the most towering intellectual figures of American Orthodoxy in the twentieth century. After receiving rabbinic ordination and completing his studies toward a Ph.D., he immigrated to America where he served as the Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University. As the leader of centrist Orthodoxy in America for more than fifty years, his many accomplishments included his founding of the Maimonides School in Boston in 1937. Rabbi Soloveitchik served as the intellectual and spiritual force behind the Maimonides School from its founding and was responsible for its innovative curriculum. Synthesizing American educational methodologies and European Orthodox approaches to education, the Maimonides School became a prototype for an American Orthodox educational institution. Unique among contemporary Orthodox day schools, the coeducational nature of the classes at Maimonides, and to some extent the curriculum, was groundbreaking. Characterized by academic excellence in both Judaic studies and other subjects, the school offered boys and girls exactly the same education. Rabbi Soloveitchik’s school was particularly innovative by offering Talmud classes to girls on the same level as boys. The Maimonides School became a paradigm for the fledgling Orthodox Jewish day school movement nationwide. The character of the education there influenced later developments in the Orthodox community, such as the emphasis on higher level Torah study for women. By articulating a philosophy that advocated both traditional Orthodoxy as well as modernism and Americanism, the school gradually affected Boston’s Orthodox community, which came to be guided by its principles. As Seth Farber points out, the school, once rejected by the Jewish establishment in Boston, was eventually embraced by it. A community that saw no contradiction between democratic values and traditional Orthodox lifestyle emerged in Boston. This modern Orthodox community ultimately represented a significant voice in Boston’s Jewish and America's Orthodox cultures.
University Press of New England 2004 201 pages

Berkeley The Student Revolt

Hal Draper
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels ... upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop!" These fiery words of protest, spoken by Mario Savio during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, became a call to action that helped galvanize an entire generation of radicals during the 1960s. Led by student politicized through the fight for Civil Rights, the movement would reshape the American left and influence a generation of protesters across the globe. In this rousing and insightful participant's account, Hal Draper recounts the now iconic events of the FSM. From the impromptu speak out atop a police car after the administration decided to clamp down on students "distributing communist literature," to the inspiring Student Strike that shut down the entire campus, Draper's narrative captures the energy and dynamism of each twist and turn in the struggle, and offers invaluable analysis along the way. Brimming with lessons still relevant for today's activists, Berkeley: The Student Revolt is a classic of on-the-ground historical reportage.
Haymarket Books 2020-06-02 280 pages

Family matters: Jewish education in an age of choice

Jack Wertheimer
In recent years, the high rate of intermarriage and other demographic factors have created a challenge for American Jewry: How can rabbis, policy planners, educators, and parents transmit most effectively Jewish religion, culture, and values to their children? Prior research shows that Jewish education is the one area in which communal leaders and lay people can act to make a positive difference in the future cultural transmission of Judaism. Family Matters offers groundbreaking essays on Jewish education by scholars drawn from anthropology, education, history, and sociology. Essays by Steven M. Cohen, Sylvia Barack Fishman, Shaul Kelner, Jeffrey S. Kress, Alex Pomson, Riv-Ellen Prell, and Jack Wertheimer range from interviews about educational decisions with families, teenagers, and Jewish educators to sweeping new statistical data about the actual state of Jewish education in American cities. Making new links among parents, community, and Jewish schools, Family Matters is a vital study in the sociology of the contemporaryAmerican Jewish community.
Brandeis University Press in association with the AVI CHAI Foundation 2007 292 pages