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The Alpha Teach Yourself style offers a clear promise: essential knowledge of American history in 24 one-hour long lessons.-- The strong tutorial element in this book makes it a perfect classroom supplement for teachers and students.This Alpha Tech Yourself title offers a concise step-by-step survey of the great events, personalities and ideas symbolizing American History, including the arrival of the first (native) Americans, the formation of the American colonies, our country's road to independence through the Revolution, westward expansion, slavery and the sectionalism of America, the Civil War, reform and the immigrant inflow to America, our darkest economic hour in the Depression and the promise of The New Deal, all the World Wars, Vietnam and the "Cold" one, the Civil Rights Movement, the counter-culture and environmentalism, the 80s new conservatism, the space shuttle, and coming to grips with the new terror now facing our nation. ... Read more

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Sooooo obviously written from the Republican point of view
Trying to refresh my memory on US History by accident bought this book obviously written by the Republican and representing history from the Republican Party point of view. I just wanted to refresh the facts. Instead was faced with pages of one party bashing another. Very annoying!!! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

elephants teach
Perfect condition, the past users underlines helped too!The book is an arduous read but I have to know it so I'm glad I can share the experience with those who have gone before me.

Great experience
Product was mailed immediately and arrived in great conditionThe Elephants Teach: Creative Writing Since 1880.

Useful for context, but dense
This book contains a thorough history of the teaching of creative writing, from its beginnings as a rebellion against the classical study of philology (examining the structure of language in texts) to the workshop-oriented MFA programs where it flourishes today.It begins its study in the 1880's, when scholars lamented what they saw as the suffocating restraints of philology, which at the time was the only type of English study offered at the college level.These students and professors wanted to develop a curriculum focused on the actual content of literature instead of its discrete parts.Eventually, a focus on teaching students how to actually create literature was seen as a way of better understanding it, by studying it "from the inside."The question of whether writing can or should be taught or not is brought up repeatedly but never quite answered, though in the end Myers begrudgingly defends the idea of creative writing for the sake of understanding literature.

Also of note are the accounts of how working writers discovered that teaching writing was a useful way to make a living that was accommodating to their art.In fact, the title refers to this phenomenon.When Vladimir Nabokov was proposed for a teaching position at Harvard, a fellow professor said, "Are we next to appoint an elephant to be Professor of Zoology?"

Myers tracks the development of writing instruction as it split into various branches: basic composition, journalism, literary criticism, and creative writing--the actual production of stories, poems, and essays--as we know it.

Best audience(s) for this book: teachers of any creative writing courses interested in the historical context of the subject, especially those at high school level and above.It certainly is comprehensive, which means something since it's packed into just 168 pages.Thoroughly researched, the book does well to place today's creative writing programs in the larger context of literary study.The writing is very dense and scholarly though, and at times can bog down in critical jargon and excessively long listing of names and places to provide evidence.

Very well researched, but rushed at the end
This book stands out as the only one tracing the history of the teaching of creative writing. Myers's research is very thorough, and his examination of the teaching of writing at Harvard was especially interesting to me. At times, though, the book plods along, fueled more by the devotion to facts of a historian than the keen eye of someone truly invested in creative writing. Ultimately, facts alone aren't enough--how can knowing this history shape the way creative writing is being taught now? I suppose this is a question Myers leaves to his readers, but I feel like it's one that needs to be answered.

The ending of the book felt very rushed to me. I'm most interested in how creative writing has evolved in the last 25 years, and I didn't feel like that chapter wasas thorough as the others. It seems surprising to me, for instance, that Myers didn't once mention John Gardner. The book provides excellent insight into how English (both literature and writing) came to be taught in colleges and universities, and it shows in a way no other book has how creative writing split from composition, but by the end I was still left wanting more.

Very Clear, Systematic History of Creative Writing
As a teacher of writing, I found this book extremely interesting and clear.Myers provides a lucid, organized history of the evolution of the teaching of creative writing in this country.While the book will likely not appeal to a layperson, anyone who plans to teach creative writing or enroll in an expensive creative writing program has a stake in what Myers is saying.I am surprised by other reviewers' comments about Myers' view of creative writing (MFA) programs.Unlike other reviewers, I did not find Myers' remarks venomous or even especially harsh; rather, I found them even-handed and common-sensical. ... Read more

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Wright breathes life into our nation's history while spotlighting little know events and rest of the story details from the decade of the sixties. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Like a bad acid trip, the 60s keep coming back
Summary: Like a bag of junk food - high in fat, low in nutrition, but you just can't put it down.
Mike Wright discovered a successful formula with his What They Didn't Teach You About ... series: Pick an epoch most Americans remember from their high school history classes, research some of that period's basics, uncover some of its trivia, write it all down in a breezy style and voila!You have a sure-selling pop history book that presents its topic in an entertaining manner that isn't too brain-straining for the average reader.
After covering the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II and the Wild West in previous books, Wright has now tackled a somewhat more contemporaneous subject: the legendary decade of the 20th century that, like a bad acid trip, just keeps coming back.Yes, folks, it's the Sixties.
And yes, in spite of its weaknesses, this is a book that you can't put down.Wright seems to cover it all - from the Space Race to the Cuban Missile Crisis, from the Civil Rights Movement to the Vietnam War, and from one acronym to another.These acronyms include such memory-stimulating abbreviations of the period as LSD, SDS, JFK, NASA, LBJ, NAACP, RFK, SNCC, MLK, SCLC, and, for all I can remember of the alphabet soup, CSNY.
To give Wright his due, the book doesn't just assume the Sixties erupted as an effect without cause.He covers the era's antecedents, as well as its results.The narrative thus goes back as far as the 1930s and the red diaper babies to explain the origins of the New Left, and goes forward to the year 2000 to answer the question "Whatever happened to ... ?".He compares World War II statistics with those of the Vietnam War.In addition, his prelude looks at the 1950s, while his final chapter - appropriately titled "Hangover" - gives a detailed account of the 1970 Kent State shootings.
Wright's narrative, however, is a bit clunky.It goes off into too many tangents and unrelated subjects.Also, his chapter titles seem arbitrary, and often don't fit their contents.For instance, why is the story of Motown in the chapter on civil rights, rather than the chapter on music?
The book would have been better served if it had sidebars or boxes containing the secondary material, so that the continuity and flow of the main narrative wouldn't be interrupted.
What They Didn't Teach You About the Sixties comes with an 11-page bibliography and an eight-page index, but don't let those fool you into thinking this is a scholarly work.I can't vouch for the bibliography, but the index is incomplete and inaccurate.
For instance, on page 314 you'll find mention of James Bond, the fictional super spy, along with his creator, Ian Fleming, and his greatest screen portrayer, Sean Connery.But you'll search in vain through the index for any reference to either Bond or Connery.Fleming you'll find, but how many readers will know who he is, or of his connection to 007?
The text itself is full of mistakes and misprints.Just for an example, Boris Karloff died in 1969, not 1962, as the book says.Also -- and maybe I'm quibbling -- Karloff wasn't a "three-role actor in the classic The Mummy."As I recall, he played the same role of the title character at three different stages of his life (or after-life).
A bigger mistake is an anecdote about JFK's dad, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.(And by the way, the index is both incomplete and inaccurate in its references to Old Joe.)On page 131, Wright says that "in the final days of Joe Kennedy's ambassadorship to England" Kennedy enraged President Franklin Roosevelt by urging him to "cut a deal with Hitler to end the war."
The problem with that anecdote is that, according to Wright's own text, Joe Kennedy was ambassador to England from 1937 to 1940.The United States didn't enter World War II until the last month of 1941.So the alleged "cut a deal" conversation either never occurred, or took place after Kennedy left the ambassador's office.Either way, Wright is wrong.(And as a side note, you won't find Franklin Roosevelt listed anywhere in the index.)
It would behoove Wright -- or his editors -- to hire better proofreaders and a more meticulous indexer for his next book.
But to reiterate, this is a book one can't put down.For those who missed the Sixties, it serves as a good introduction to a decade that helped mold, for better or for worse, the society in which we now live.
And for those who lived through the Sixties, Wright's book serves as a refresher.After all, to paraphrase LSD guru Timothy Leary, if you can remember the Sixties, you probably weren't there.

History Primer - A fun read.
Let's face it this is not a book for a history buff. They should be out there writing their own book.

This book, however, is a great primer for those out there who would like a broader overview of the subject covered. The author, Mike Wright covers things in a breazy and fun way. Actually this book lead me to want to explore certain subjects in greater detail to which I owe it thanks.

My verdict: A good subway read for adults, great to give to younger people as a primer to the period covered in the book, the 1960's. Not a good gift for the dusty old history buff.

History Lite: Good Stories, Well Told
Wright's latest book is an agreeable tour of the 1960s.Despite the title, the book covers a lot of the same ground as conventional histories of the period.The style, however, is breezy and approachable--there aren't any shocking revelations, but Wright is a capable writer who knows how to tell a good story.

Wright is at his best when he talks about television, sports, "culture shock," and other experiences that tend to be ignored in mainstream history books.He has a good eye for an amusing story (not a surprising talent for an Emmy-winning television writer), and there are plenty of these sprinkled throughout the book.For instance, when Secretary of State Dean Rusk commented that the United States had gone "eyeball-to-eyeball" with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile crisis, Soviet foreign minister Andrei Gromyko replied that "I am looking forward to talking with you balls to balls."As Wright points out, it's obvious that a lot was lost in the translation.

If you like a lot of rigorous analysis and chronology in your history, this is not the book for you.Wright reviews the sixties in broad chapters like "TV or Not TV: That is the Message" and "Shots Ring Out: JFK, RFK and MLK." You may find yourself getting dizzy going from one end of the sixties to the other and then back again--on the other hand, maybe that's just Wright's metaphor for the whole decade.

If you are looking for an informative and amusing book that you can enjoy on an airplane, as I did, "What They Didn't Teach You About the 60s" is a good place to start.

For those who enjoy this sort of thing, Wright has also written "What They Didn't Teach You About" books for the American Revolution, Civil War, Wild West and World War II.I've read and enjoyed Wright's book about WWII, and I look forward to reading the rest. ... Read more

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This indispensable volume contains more than 1,000 entries on the people, politics, and events that have shaped the United States. Helpful cross-references and time lines are included. ... Read more

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A gripping and inspiring book, Civic Passionsexamines innovative leadership in periods of crisis in American history. Starting from the late nineteenth century, when respected voices warned that America was on the brink of collapse, Cecelia Tichi explores the wisdom of practical visionaries who were confronted with a series of social, political, and financial upheavals that, in certain respects, seem eerily similar to modern times. The United States--then, as now--was riddled with political corruption, financial panics, social disruption, labor strife, and bourgeois inertia.

Drawing on a wealth of evocative personal accounts, biographies, and archival material, Tichi brings seven iconoclastic--and often overlooked--individuals from the Gilded Age back to life. We meet physician Alice Hamilton, theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, jurist Louis D. Brandeis, consumer advocate Florence Kelley, antilynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, economist John R. Commons, and child-welfare advocate Julia Lathrop. Bucking the status quo of the Gilded Age as well as middle-class complacency, these reformers tirelessly garnered popular support as they championed progressive solutions to seemingly intractable social problems.

Civic Passions is a provocative and powerfully written social history, a collection of minibiographies, and a user's manual on how a generation of social reformers can turn peril into progress with fresh, workable ideas. Together, these narratives of advocacy provide a stunning precedent of progressive action and show how citizen-activists can engage the problems of the age in imaginative ways. While offering useful models to encourage the nation in a newly progressive direction, Civic Passions reminds us that one determined individual can make a difference. ... Read more

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ABCTE United States History & Professional Teaching Knowledge Exam Flashcard Study System uses repetitive methods of study to teach you how to break apart and quickly solve difficult test questions on the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence Exam. Study after study has shown that spaced repetition is the most effective form of learning, and nothing beats flashcards when it comes to making repetitive learning fun and fast. Our flashcards enable you to study small, digestible bits of information that are easy to learn and give you exposure to the different question types and concepts. ABCTE United States History & Professional Teaching Knowledge Exam Flashcard Study System covers all of the most important topics that you'll need to know to be successful on test day. ... Read more

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ABCTE United States History Exam Flashcard Study System uses repetitive methods of study to teach you how to break apart and quickly solve difficult test questions on the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence Exam. Study after study has shown that spaced repetition is the most effective form of learning, and nothing beats flashcards when it comes to making repetitive learning fun and fast. Our flashcards enable you to study small, digestible bits of information that are easy to learn and give you exposure to the different question types and concepts. ABCTE United States History Exam Flashcard Study System covers all of the most important topics that you'll need to know to be successful on test day. ... Read more

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ABCTE United States History & Professional Teaching Knowledge Exam Secrets helps you ace the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence Exam, without weeks and months of endless studying. Our comprehensive ABCTE United States History & Professional Teaching Knowledge Exam Secrets study guide is written by our exam experts, who painstakingly researched every topic and concept that you need to know to ace your test. Our original research reveals specific weaknesses that you can exploit to increase your exam score more than you've ever imagined. ABCTE United States History & Professional Teaching Knowledge Exam Secrets includes: The 5 Secret Keys to ABCTE Success: Time is Your Greatest Enemy, Guessing is Not Guesswork, Practice Smarter, Not Harder, Prepare, Don't Procrastinate, Test Yourself; A comprehensive General Strategy review including: Make Predictions, Answer the Question, Benchmark, Valid Information, Avoid Fact Traps, Milk the Question, The Trap of Familiarity, Eliminate Answers, Tough Questions, Brainstorm, Read Carefully, Face Value, Prefixes, Hedge Phrases, Switchback Words, New Information, Time Management, Contextual Clues, Don't Panic, Pace Yourself, Answer Selection, Check Your Work, Beware of Directly Quoted Answers, Slang, Extreme Statements, Answer Choice Families; Along with a complete, in-depth study guide for your specific ABCTE exam, and much more... ... Read more

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ABCTE United States History Exam Secrets helps you ace the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence Exam, without weeks and months of endless studying. Our comprehensive ABCTE United States History Exam Secrets study guide is written by our exam experts, who painstakingly researched every topic and concept that you need to know to ace your test. Our original research reveals specific weaknesses that you can exploit to increase your exam score more than you've ever imagined. ABCTE United States History Exam Secrets includes: The 5 Secret Keys to ABCTE Success: Time is Your Greatest Enemy, Guessing is Not Guesswork, Practice Smarter, Not Harder, Prepare, Don't Procrastinate, Test Yourself; A comprehensive General Strategy review including: Make Predictions, Answer the Question, Benchmark, Valid Information, Avoid Fact Traps, Milk the Question, The Trap of Familiarity, Eliminate Answers, Tough Questions, Brainstorm, Read Carefully, Face Value, Prefixes, Hedge Phrases, Switchback Words, New Information, Time Management, Contextual Clues, Don't Panic, Pace Yourself, Answer Selection, Check Your Work, Beware of Directly Quoted Answers, Slang, Extreme Statements, Answer Choice Families; Along with a complete, in-depth study guide for your specific ABCTE exam, and much more... ... Read more

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Title: How to Study and Teach History, With Particular Reference to the History of the United States, With Additional Matter, Including a Bibliographical IndexPublisher: New York, AppletonPublication date: 1909Subjects: History -- Study and teachingNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

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Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and companyPublication date: 1894Subjects: History -- Study and teachingNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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In his preface to this work, Henry Louis Gates,Jr. writes, "...if you want insight into what's right and what's wrong about the current debate over standards, you'd be well advised to start with the redoubtable Ralph Tyler." Finder's work is the first to chart the career of the man who developed the nation's report card, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Ralph W. Tyler, one of the most influential educators of the 20th century, held strong and closely argued views on issues we debate today, e.g., tracking, class size, and how the school can cope with the demands of the public. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Ideal Introduction to Tyler
Tyler is helped reinvent twentieth-century education in America, but is too little known. This book offers a graceful, clear, and concise account of Tyler's life and achievements: it's to the point, and free from the woolly and jargon-ridden prose that afflicts so many books in the field of education. And there are some fascinating byways (including Tyler's explanation of how Bruno Bettelheim was rescued from Nazi Germany) into the broader history of America before and after the Second World War. "Educating America" restores Tyler to his rightful centrality -- a fitting tribute to a remarkable figure. ... Read more

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Teaching History began in 1976 with the goal of providing history teachers at all levels with the best and newest teaching ideas for their classrooms. We invite you to join us as a contributor, a reviewer, and a subscriber, and to share your best ideas with other teachers who care for the future of history. CONTENTS: 1) Medieval Connections-Active Learning and teh Teaching of the Middle Ages 2) Teaching the Middle East-The Perspectives Method 3) If Teachers Would Only...How Students View Their College Experience 4) Teaching With On-Line Primary Sources-Documents From NARA (Buffalo Bill-A Life I THree Reels) 5) Reviews of various books. 6) Guidelines for Teaching History ... Read more

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From the early national period to the present day, American Jews have devised an expanding array of educational frameworks for the Jewish education and enculturation of successive generations.Concomitantly, Jewish education, once viewed as a family responsibility in the United States, has come to be seen as a matter of community concern."And you Shall Teach Them Diligently": A Concise History of Jewish Education in the United States, 1776-2000 examines the trend toward communal responsibility for Jewish education and sxplores in historical context the origins and growth of such institutions as Jewish day schools, Talmud Torah programs, congregational supplementary schools, early childhood education centers, residential summer camps, Jewish community centers, bureaus of Jewish Education, youth groups, Jewish studies courses at universities, campus-based programs for Jewish college students, adult education, Israel experience programs, colleges of Jewish studies, and rabbinical seminaries.This book provides essential background for understanding contemporary Jewish educational realities and more effectively addressing twenty-first century needs. ... Read more