s s c assignment history

What Does It Mean to Think Historically?

Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke | Jan 1, 2007

Introduction

When we started working on Teachers for a New Era, a Carnegie-sponsored initiative designed to strengthen teacher training, we thought we knew a thing or two about our discipline. As we began reading such works as Sam Wineburg's Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts , however, we encountered an unexpected challenge. 1 If our understandings of the past constituted a sort of craft knowledge, how could we distill and communicate habits of mind we and our colleagues had developed through years of apprenticeship, guild membership, and daily practice to university students so that they, in turn, could impart these habits in K–12 classrooms?

In response, we developed an approach we call the "five C's of historical thinking." The concepts of change over time, causality, context, complexity, and contingency, we believe, together describe the shared foundations of our discipline. They stand at the heart of the questions historians seek to answer, the arguments we make, and the debates in which we engage. These ideas are hardly new to professional historians. But that is precisely their value: They make our implicit ways of thought explicit to the students and teachers whom we train. The five C's do not encompass the universe of historical thinking, yet they do provide a remarkably useful tool for helping students at practically any level learn how to formulate and support arguments based on primary sources, as well as to understand and challenge historical interpretations related in secondary sources. In this article, we define the five C's, explain how each concept helps us to understand the past, and provide some brief examples of how we have employed the five C's when teaching teachers. Our approach is necessarily broad and basic, characteristics well suited for a foundation upon which we invite our colleagues from kindergartens to research universities to build.

Change over Time

The idea of change over time is perhaps the easiest of the C's to grasp. Students readily acknowledge that we employ and struggle with technologies unavailable to our forebears, that we live by different laws, and that we enjoy different cultural pursuits. Moreover, students also note that some aspects of life remain the same across time. Many Europeans celebrate many of the same holidays that they did three or four hundred years ago, for instance, often using the same rituals and words to mark a day's significance. Continuity thus comprises an integral part of the idea of change over time.

Students often find the concept of change over time elementary. Even individuals who claim to despise history can remember a few dates and explain that some preceded or followed others. At any educational level, timelines can teach change over time as well as the selective process that leads people to pay attention to some events while ignoring others. In our U.S. survey class, we often ask students to interview family and friends and write a paper explaining how their family's history has intersected with major events and trends that we are studying. By discovering their own family's past, students often see how individuals can make a difference and how personal history changes over time along with major events.

As historians of the American West and environmental historians, we often turn to maps to teach change over time. The same space represented in different ways as political power, economic structures, and cultural influences shift can often put in shocking relief the differences that time makes. The work of repeat photographers such as Mark Klett offers another compelling tool for teaching change over time. Such photographers begin with a historic landscape photograph, then take pains to re-take the shot from the same site, at the same angle, using similar equipment, and even under analogous conditions. 2 While suburbs and industry have overrun many western locales, students are often surprised to see that some places have become more desolate and others have hardly changed at all. The exercise engages students with a non-written primary source, photographs, and demands that they reassess their expectations regarding how time changes.

Some things change, others stay the same—not a very interesting story but reason for concern since history, as the best teachers will tell you, is about telling stories. Good story telling, we contend, builds upon an understanding of context. Given young people's fascination with narratives and their enthusiasm for imaginative play, pupils (particularly elementary school students) often find context the most engaging element of historical thinking. As students mature, of course, they recognize that the past is not just a playful alternate universe. Working with primary sources, they discover that the past makes more sense when they set it within two frameworks. In our teaching, we liken the first to the floating words that roll across the screen at the beginning of every Star Wars film. This kind of context sets the stage; the second helps us to interpret evidence concerning the action that ensues. Texts, events, individual lives, collective struggles—all develop within a tightly interwoven world.

Historians who excel at the art of storytelling often rely heavily upon context. Jonathan Spence's Death of Woman Wang , for example, skillfully recreates 17th-century China by following the trail of a sparsely documented murder. To solve the mystery, students must understand the time and place in which it occurred. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich brings colonial New England to life by concentrating on the details of textile production and basket making in Age of Homespun . College courses regularly use the work of both authors because they not only spark student interest, but also hone students' ability to describe the past and identify distinctive elements of different eras. 3

Imaginative play is what makes context, arguably the easiest, yet also, paradoxically, the most difficult of the five C's to teach. Elementary school assignments that require students to research and wear medieval European clothes or build a California mission from sugar cubes both strive to teach context. The problem with such assignments is that they often blur the lines between reality and make-believe. The picturesque often trumps more banal or more disturbing truths. Young children may never be able to get all the facts straight. As one elementary school teacher once reminded us, "We teach kids who still believe in Santa Claus." Nonetheless, elementary school teachers can be cautious in their re-creations, and, most of all, they can be comfortable telling students when they don't know a given fact or when more research is necessary. That an idea might require more thought or more research is a valuable lesson at any age. The desire to recreate a world sometimes drives students to dig more deeply into their books, a reaction few teachers lament.

In our own classes, we have taught context using an assignment that we call "Fact, Fiction, or Creative Memory." In this exercise, students wrestle with a given source and determine whether it is primarily a work of history, fiction, or memory. We have asked students to bring in a present-day representation of 1950s life and explain what it teaches people today about life in 1950s America. Then, we have asked the class to discuss if the representation is a historically fair depiction of the era. We have also assigned textbook passages and Don DeLillo's Pafko at the Wall , then asked students to compare them to decide which offers stronger insights into the character of Cold War America. 4 Each of these assignments addresses context, because each asks students to think about the distinctions between representations of the past and the critical thinking about the past that is history. Moreoever, each asks students to weave together a variety of sources and assess the reliability of each before incorporating them into a whole.

Historians use context, change over time, and causality to form arguments explaining past change. While scientists can devise experiments to test theories and yield data, historians cannot alter past conditions to produce new information. Rather, they must base their arguments upon the interpretation of partial primary sources that frequently offer multiple explanations for a single event. Historians have long argued over the causes of the Protestant Reformation or World War I, for example, without achieving consensus. Such uncertainty troubles some students, but history classrooms are at their most dynamic when teachers encourage pupils to evaluate the contributions of multiple factors in shaping past events, as well as to formulate arguments asserting the primacy of some causes over others.

To teach causality, we have turned to the stand-by activities of the history classroom: debates and role-playing. After arming students with primary sources, we ask them to argue whether monetary or fiscal policy played a greater role in causing the Great Depression. After giving students descriptions drawn from primary sources of immigrant families in Los Angeles, we have asked students to take on the role of various family members and explain their reasons for immigrating and their reasons for settling in particular neighborhoods. Neither exercise is especially novel, but both fulfill a central goal of studying history: to develop persuasive explanations of historical events and processes based on logical interpretations of evidence.

Contingency

Contingency may, in fact, be the most difficult of the C's. To argue that history is contingent is to claim that every historical outcome depends upon a number of prior conditions; that each of these prior conditions depends, in turn, upon still other conditions; and so on. The core insight of contingency is that the world is a magnificently interconnected place. Change a single prior condition, and any historical outcome could have turned out differently. Lee could have won at Gettysburg, Gore might have won in Florida, China might have inaugurated the world's first industrial revolution. Contingency can be an unsettling idea—so much so that people in the past have often tried to mask it with myths of national and racial destiny. The Pilgrim William Bradford, for instance, interpreted the decimation of New England's native peoples not as a consequence of smallpox, but as a literal godsend. 5 Two centuries later, American ideologues chose to rationalize their unlikely fortunes—from the purchase of Louisiana to the discovery of gold in California—as their nation's "Manifest Destiny." Historians, unlike Bradford and the apologists of westward expansion, look at the same outcomes differently. They see not divine fate, but a series of contingent results possessing other possibilities.

Contingency demands that students think deeply about past, present, and future. It offers a powerful corrective to teleology, the fallacy that events pursue a straight-arrow course to a pre-determined outcome, since people in the past had no way of anticipating our present world. Contingency also reminds us that individuals shape the course of human events. What if Karl Marx had decided to elude Prussian censors by emigrating to the United States instead of France, where he met Frederick Engels? To assert that the past is contingent is to impress upon students the notion that the future is up for grabs, and that they bear some responsibility for shaping the course of future history.

Contingency can be a difficult concept to present abstractly, but it suffuses the stories historians tend to tell about individual lives. Futurology, however, might offer an even stronger tool for imparting contingency than biography. Mechanistic views of history as the inevitable march toward the present tend to collapse once students see how different their world is from any predicted in the past.

Moral, epistemological, and causal complexity distinguish historical thinking from the conception of "history" held by many non-historians. 6 Re-enacting battles and remembering names and dates require effort but not necessarily analytical rigor. Making sense of a messy world that we cannot know directly, in contrast, is more confounding but also more rewarding.

Chronicles distill intricate historical processes into a mere catalogue, while nostalgia conjures an uncomplicated golden age that saves us the trouble of having to think about the past. Our own need for order can obscure our understanding of how past worlds functioned and blind us to the ways in which myths of rosy pasts do political and cultural work in the present. Reveling in complexity rather than shying away from it, historians seek to dispel the power of chronicle, nostalgia, and other traps that obscure our ability to understand the past on its own terms.

One of the most successful exercises we have developed for conveying complexity in all of these dimensions is a mock debate on Cherokee Removal. Two features of the exercise account for the richness and depth of understanding that it imparts on students. First, the debate involves multiple parties; the Treaty and Anti-Treaty Parties, Cherokee women, John Marshall, Andrew Jackson, northern missionaries, the State of Georgia, and white settlers each offer a different perspective on the issue. Second, students develop their understanding of their respective positions using the primary sources collected in Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents by Theda Perdue and Michael Green. 7 While it can be difficult to assess what students learn from such exercises, we have noted anecdotally that, following the exercise, students seem much less comfortable referring to "American" or "Indian" positions as monolithic identities.

Our experiments with the five C's have confronted us with several challenges. These concepts offer a fluid tool for engaging historical thought at multiple levels, but they can easily degenerate into a checklist. Students who favor memorization over analysis seem inclined to recite the C's without necessarily understanding them. Moreover, as habits of mind, the five C's develop only with practice. Though primary and secondary schools increasingly emphasize some aspects of these themes, particularly the use of primary sources as evidence, more attention to the five C's with appropriate variations over the course of K–12 education would help future citizens not only to care about history, but also to contemplate it. It is our hope that this might help students to see the past not simply as prelude to our present, nor a list of facts to memorize, a cast of heroes and villains to cheer and boo, nor as an itinerary of places to tour, but rather as an ideal field for thinking long and hard about important questions.

—Flannery Burke and Thomas Andrews are both assistant professors of history and Teachers for a New Era faculty members at California State University at Northridge. Burke is working on a book for the University Press of Kansas tentatively entitled Longing and Belonging: Mabel Dodge Luhan and Greenwich Village's Avant-Garde in Taos . Andrews is completing a manuscript for Harvard University Press, tentatively entitled Ludlow: The Nature of Industrial Struggle in the Colorado Coalfields .

1. Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).

2. Mark Klett, Kyle Bajakian, William L. Fox, Michael Marshall, Toshi Ueshina, and Byron G. Wolfe, Third Views, Second Sights: A Rephotographic Survey of the American West (Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2004).

3. Jonathan D. Spence, Death of Woman Wang (New York: Viking, 1978); Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth (New York: Knopf, 2001).

4. Don DeLillo, Pafko at the Wall: A Novella (New York: Scribner's, 2001).

5. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation , ed. Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Random House, 1952).

6. Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).

7. Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents 2nd ed. (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005).

Tags: K12 Certification & Curricula Teaching Resources and Strategies

The American Historical Association welcomes comments in the discussion area below, at AHA Communities , and in letters to the editor . Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting.

Course Resources

Discussions and assignments.

The assignments in this course are openly licensed, and are available as-is, or can be modified to suit your students’ needs.

If you import this course into your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), the assignments will automatically be loaded into the assignment tool. The assignment pages within each module link to the live assignment page. You can view them below or throughout the course. There is at least one discussion and one assignment ready to be used in every module of the course. We do not recommend assigning them all, however, and recommend selecting those that work best for you . If you choose to assign the capstone project (explained below), we suggest excluding some of the other assignments so that students have sufficient time to prepare for their capstone work.

To make edits or customized versions of the assignments, we recommend copying and pasting the discussion or assignment text directly into your LMS discussion or assignment page in order to make changes.

Capstone Project

The capstone project is an optional comprehensive assignment that could be assigned to students to complete progressively through the course. The assignment is divided into 3 to 4 pieces and culminates in students creating a PechaKucha presentation.

For this capstone project, students will pick a reformer or activist involved with a progressive or social movement between 1877 and 2000. They will evaluate and analyze the ideas, agenda, strategies, and effectiveness of the work done by their chosen reformer or activist in order to make a claim and present on their findings in the form of a PechaKucha presentation (or another pre-approved format). PechaKucha presentations follow a 20×20 presentation format, meaning that a presenter chooses 20 images and speaks about each image for 20 seconds (totaling 6 minutes at 40 seconds).

The capstone project components are shared as assignments that link to Google Documents. You can make a copy of those documents to customize them. To do so, open the Google Doc and choose “File -> Make a copy” to create your own version.

Part 0: Social Media Activism (also found as an assignment in Module 5)
Part 1: Research and Annotated Bibliography
Part 2: Draft PechaKucha Outline
Part 3: Submit Final PechaKucha Presentation
Assignments. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
Pencil Cup. Authored by : IconfactoryTeam. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/pencil-cup/628840/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

Source Criticism

How to analyse historical sources

When using sources for evidence, you need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge of them by identifying their historical background.

To do this, you need to analyse your sources.

What is 'source analysis'?

Analysis is the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the elements that contributed to the creation of a historical source.

It answers the question: 'Why does this source exist in its current form?'

There are six analysis skills that you need to master:

How do you analyse a source?

In order to demonstrate a knowledge of the six analysis skills, you need to do two things:

Carefully read the source to find information that is explicit and implicit
Conduct background research about the creator of the source

After completing these two steps, you can begin to show your understanding about the six features of historical sources.

Based upon what you found in your reading and background research, answer the following questions for each of the six analysis skills.

Watch a video explanation on the History Skills YouTube channel:

Watch on YouTube

How do you write an analysis paragraph?

Once you have been able to answer all of the question above, you are ready to demonstrate your complete source analysis.

An analysis paragraph should demonstrate your awareness of all six analysis skills in a short paragraph.

This letter was written by John Smith to record the events of the battle for his family at home . It is from the perspective of an Australian soldier who had just experienced the Gallipoli landing on the 25th April, 1915 , and specifically mentions “running like hell” for survival.

What do you do with your analysis?

Your source analysis becomes a vital step in your ability to evaluate your sources in your assessment pieces .

This is most important in written essays , source investigations and short response exams .

You will use different parts of your analysis to help justify a source's usefulness and reliability .

Test your learning

No personal information is collected as part of this quiz. Only the selected responses to the questions are recorded.

Additional resources

What do you need help with, download ready-to-use digital learning resources.

Contact via email

U.S. History

(40 reviews)

P. Scott Corbett, Ventura, California

Volker Janssen, Fullerton, California

John M. Lund, Keene, New Hampshire

ISBN 13: 9781938168369

Publisher: OpenStax

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Thomas Little, Professor, Emory and Henry College on 7/17/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

"U.S. History" is a comprehensive textbook that does a good job of telling the whole story of American history. The authors effectively weave U.S. social and cultural history into the framework of political, military, and diplomatic events, recreating the American story in such a way that will benefit all students enrolled in college-level survey courses. An examination of the Index reveals that it is both thorough and easy-to-use, with all key terms being included. The Appendix provides a comprehensive bibliography, as well as important documents, a list of U.S. presidents, maps, and demographic data. There is also an answer key for the end-of-chapter questions, making this by far and away the best, most comprehensive openly licensed U.S. history textbook currently available.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book's content is free of mistakes and errors. Throughout there is real attention to historical accuracy and understanding so that the authors are able to offer complex yet clear explanations for particular events while not forcing them into a pre-cast mold. The authors seem altogether unbiased; they allow events to unfold in manner that does justice to the people and events that have shaped the American past. Importantly, all OpenStax textbooks are rigorously vetted.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

"U.S. History" is up-to-date and will definitely have a long-lasting shelf life. While originally published in December 2014, the book is periodically updated by the content contributors. The last update occurred in December 2022 as of this writing. The text is well organized and well written so that updates can be easily handled.

Clarity rating: 5

This is a book that reads exceptionally well and one that a wide variety of students will find stimulating. There is no dull writing in "U.S. History." Nor is the book filled with technical terminology or meaningless jargon. The style is appropriate for an introductory-level college survey course, and the chapters, paragraphs, and sentences are nicely handled. Students will love “U.S. History.”

Consistency rating: 5

This book is rock solid in its internal consistency, and this is true not only in terms of its terminology but also in terms of its framework. "U.S. History" is definitely a professional-grade, internally consistent textbook.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is designed for modularity and flexibility. As long as instructors attribute OpenStax and its content contributors, "U.S. History," which is openly licensed, can freely be remixed and built upon. Instructors can use the entire book or pick certain sections that are relevant to specific parts of their courses. Students can be assigned certain chapters or sections. As noted in the Preface, "Instructors also have the option of creating a customized version of their OpenStax book. The custom version can be made available to students in low-cost print or digital form through their campus bookstore."

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

"U.S. History" is a well-organized textbook. The material is presented in a clear and logical manner. My experience as a teacher of American history has shown me that students do best when the authors of their college textbook take pains at organization, which is clearly what the content contributors of "U.S. History" have done.

Interface rating: 5

I noticed no significant interface issues when reading "U.S. History."

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

There are no grammatical errors that distract the reader's attention from the content of the writing. The content contributors adhere to all of the grammatical conventions of written English.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This book is inclusive and culturally sensitive. Periodic updates since 2014 have enabled the content contributors to continue to highlight examples of the diversity of the American experience. "U.S. History" truly is a human story inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Reviewed by Charles Irwin, History Professor, Des Moines Area Community College on 12/20/21

The text works well for a survey-level course as it covers the major themes in U.S. history. The information is organized logically and easy for the students to follow the material. Since the text is basic in its interpretation of U.S. History it is important to incorporate more detail in your lecture and use of primary materials. The use of glossary terms is helpful for students at the end of each chapter. The auxiliary materials (PowerPoint slides, test banks, and instructor resources) provided are very basic and need to be further developed by the instructor using the textbook.

The text is accurate and does a good job of balancing different points of view in an organized format.

The text reflects the basic themes in U. S. History and provides a general foundation for the course. The general nature of the book means it will continue to be relevant in the future. I used my lecture and primary materials to incorporate current material into the class.

My students found the text to be engaging and were able to grasp the main points. The text uses little jargon so works well with survey classes. The learning objectives at the beginning of each section were helpful for students to focus on the main points.

The text is consistent in how the information is presented.

The text is divided into smaller segments with subheadings that are easily comprehended by students.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text tries to balance between chronological and thematic perspectives. This causes the material to overlap at times but not to the point it interferes with the organization of the text. I compensated for this by using the text as a framework and rearranging the order of the material to fit my teaching style.

No interface problems have been detected. The textbook makes good use of the links to connect students to primary sources.

No grammatical errors were noted.

The authors presented the material from different perspectives and generally succeeded in being culturally sensitive.

I liked the ease of making this book available to my students, just provide the link, and students have access to the book on day one of class. No dealing with bookstores, different editions, and no excuses for not having a textbook for the course. OER is an incentive for students to take your classes and generally for your institution by reducing your student’s costs of their education.

Reviewed by Laura Palmer, Adjunct Lecturer, New York City College of Technology on 4/7/21

This is a fairly comprehensive textbook that outlines the history of the United States, beginning with an overview of the forces that led to colonialist expeditions from European nation-states, outlining some general aspects of pre-colonial North America, then moving into the process and initial impact of settler-colonialism in North America in detail. The text then discusses the formation of the Unites States as a nation independent from colonial powers, and moves through the major political, cultural, and social developments that the nation experiences over the following 220 years. Each chapter includes key vocabulary terms and a timeline. The chronologically arranged chapters each have an introduction and subsections, and each term in the index is hyperlinked to the section where it is discussed. This textbook does a fine job of covering a broad period of time with a complex history, in my opinion.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

While overall, this text is fairly accurate, there are a few moments where language or interpretations from historical sources were incorporated into the texts without a critical framework. For example, section 1.3 notes that enslaved indigenous peoples of the Americas were not a "dependable source of labor" for Spanish colonists because "they tended to sicken or die from disease or the overwork and cruel treatment they were subjected to" and that Black laborers sent to the invaded indigenous lands "proved hardier." While that may technically not be a historically inaccurate fact, the language used to describe the difference in immunity between those enslaved from indigenous nations in what is now called North America, and that of those enslaved from African nations seems biased and rooted in racial narratives of Blacks. This could be easily resolved within the text by quoting a primary source or using more neutral terms. While issues like these were not widespread throughout the text, their presence was concerning to me, as an instructor.

I found this text to be fairly relevant. In particular, throughout most of the text I found the direct discussion of racism and racialized issues mostly up-to-date for teaching a course at the moment, as there are many American history texts that tend to obscure and minimize these issues as driving forces in political, cultural and social life. The text currently contains history up through the Obama presidency, I hope that it will be updated with material from 2016-2020, now that this chapter of American political life has ended. The chronological structure of the text will make recent history easy to incorporate, but I would encourage the authors to keep abreast of newly published research for the earlier time periods and revise their chapters when possible.

Overall, this text uses clear and easy-to understand prose. In my opinion, it is appropriate for students at the high school level, or for an introductory or survey course at an undergraduate institution. Vocabulary terms that would be unfamiliar to a modern reader are defined in text and are also highlighted at the end of each chapter.

Consistency rating: 4

The text is fairly consistent overall, although I found some chapters to be stronger than others, in terms of their historical objectivity, as noted in the "accuracy" section above. The framework and structure of the text was very consistent, and terms were relatively consistent throughout the text.

Each chapter's subsections were very readable, and the text overall is fairly modular. Although I think that the structure of this text lends itself best to courses that are taught chronologically. An instructor hoping to approach US history from a thematic perspective, with units on, for example, women's rights or labor rights, would not easily be able to isolate that material. This is common, though, for history texts, of course, but thematic sections might be something to consider for a future version of the text, or for an additional open-source US history book.

This text was very well organized, with each chapter covering a chronological period, and subsections with clear headings highlighting specific events or movements and their impact.

I read this book on a web browser and found the interface to be fine. In particular, I appreciated the inclusion of "click and explore" sections where students can link out and review primary sources a benefit for the online format/interface of this textbook. I think that there could be some additional critical thinking prompts around the historiography of some primary source links, but allowing the students to analyze some of these materials on their own certainly strengthens the learning experience of the subject matter.

I only noticed a few grammatical errors, and they did not detract from the reading experience in my opinion.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Overall, I got the sense that the authors of this text worked hard to compose a fairly culturally-sensitive history of the United States, and for the most part handled much of the material related to race and ethnicity accurately, for example, noting that racial hatred motivated some of the atrocities in the Vietnam War. Personally, I think that the text could have gone even further to construct an inclusive history, especially in regards to the discussion of native nations of what became known as North America. Certain terms used in this text, for example noting that, in what the text terms "native peoples of the eastern woodland" native peoples "did not construct the large and complex societies" like those of the peoples who inhabited lands west of the Mississippi River. While the social structures and cultural practices of nations like the Iroquois and Lenape were certainly very different from the Anasazi, terms like "complexity" have connotations of prestige and hierarchy, which can be seen as discounting the highly developed elements present in many eastern native nations, from precise agricultural methods and to fine art forms.

The links out to primary source material are excellent, and useful instruction tools. I also found that including many of the key documents in U.S. History, like the Constitution, in the appendix were helpful, so students can refer to these throughout the course. Some of the review questions I found to be overly simplistic, and I would also note that critical thinking prompts around historical revision, for example "Did the US make the right decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan" could cause some extreme tensions in classroom discussions, and may create challenges around cultural sensitivity for instructors. While its important to have students consider the impact of history, it's also critical to remember that students are likely to have personal or familial ties to these historical events, and debating what "should have" happened in the past does not alter the historical reality. Instructors should consider how a student with Japanese heritage might feel during such a discussion, and be sure that there is a clear learning objective before assigning the critical thinking prompt.

Reviewed by Greg Hansard, Instructor, John Tyler Community College on 1/20/21

The text is very comprehensive, and it covers all of the appropriate subjects for United States History I and II. The table of contents clearly illustrates the major themes and topics in United States History. read more

Content Accuracy rating: 3

I have found two errors in the textbook. I have submitted both of the corrections to OpenStax, and they have corrected the errors. (One was a date error and the other error was a geographic error.) Their support team was very receptive to my findings.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I believe the content (text) is up-to-date, and they add new content to ensure that the textbook stays relevant. I believe that some of the images are out-of-date. I understand that they are trying to use open source material, but I believe that there could be better image options to illustrate the content. They also need to update some of the hyperlinks used in the "Click and Explore" sections. These links sometimes take the reader to an out-of-date website or a broken URL.

The textbook is very easy to read. The text is very clear and appropriate. Any jargon/technical information is explained.

The entire textbook is consistent. The reader knows what to expect for each chapter. The framework is clear and does not alter throughout the book.

I believe that this is one of the strong suits of the textbook. The smaller sections are easy to digest. There is little disruption to the reader and the entire book has a nice flow to it.

Some chapters cover duplicate information. This can be frustrating when assessing students on a term or subject when they haven't read both of the chapters where the information is covered. I think it would be better for the students if there was a clearer break/cutoff from one chapter to another.

Interface rating: 4

My only issue with the interface is the "Click and Explore Section". I feel that these hyperlinks need to be better vetted. There should be more quality control measures for checking these outside links. I tell my students not to click on the links.

There are no signs of grammatical errors throughout the textbook.

The text is inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. The text sets the tone of cultural sensitivity/awareness in the first chapter and continues to follow this awareness throughout the entire book.

Reviewed by Susan Kwosek, Assistant Professor, South Carolina State University on 7/9/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book is extremely comprehensive and includes a glossary for the words selected to be defined and included in it. The problem is that the glossary at the end of each chapter is labeled "Key Terms," but it includes a mixture of what I would consider to be need to know terms (actual key terms) and nice to be able to look up if you don;t know them words (such as one would find in a glossary at the end of the book). The book would be greatly improved by moving the comprehensive glossary to the end of the book and limiting chapter key terms (which could them be looked up in the glossary if the definition is not clear in the text).

Overall the book is very accurate and error free. It could benefit from a few changes. For example, the book uses the term Atlantic World but does not define it according to the definition as it is put forth by Atlanticists. This book will most like be used in a survey course and students will go on to take additional history courses, one of which might be the Atlantic World. As much as possible the book should define terms like this in the way they are defined by historians in that field.

The content is up to date and presented in ways that will remain relevant for a fairly long time.

Clarity rating: 3

The book tends to be wordy in that much of the writing is in passive voice. The book would benefit from an overhaul to revise it using active voice. Additionally, there are always a number of words in each chapter that are not course specific, but are used under the assumption that the student will know what they mean. I am constantly needing to provide my own online glossary for my US History courses because many of my student do not have knowledge of many non-vocabulary words that are casually used in the text. Because they are not subject-specific words, they can be easily swapped out for simpler terms. Doing this will not "dumb down" the content of the book, but will make it more accessible to first-generation, first-semester, low-income, and ESL students.

I have had no problems with the book's inner consistency.

The book has easily identifiable modules and sub-modules that are easy to follow. They break up the long chapters, but do not interfere with the flow of the topics.

The book is clearly organized by topic and chronologically within each topic. Chapters may overlap chronologically, but that does not interfere with the student's ability to make connections between one chapter topic and the next. It also provides a good way for the instruction to review by helping students bridge the topic and chronology over 2-3 chapters.

The interface is excellent whether one is reading the book chapter by chapter or using a search feature to find specific information, especially if that information is not in the index.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

It is grammatically correct, but largely written in passive voice. We instruct students to use active voice in their own writing and it would be better if the book modeled this writing style.

I find the book to be written with cultural sensitivity. Images and text are inclusive of a wide audience of varied race and ethnicity.

I use this book in both of my US History survey courses, so my main message is: this book works very well. It was an easy swap form a print textbook to this no-cost OER. 77% of my students were not buying the print textbook. Beginning in Fall 2020 they will all have equal access to the material.

Reviewed by Judith Osborn, Instructor, Umpqua Community College on 6/23/20

In comparison with commercial textbooks, the range and coverage are good. The authors clearly worked diligently to include the major points of the history necessary for an introductory text. The Index needs to be more comprehensive, it is too abbreviated. There is no glossary and this is a problem. The text is light on definitions, for instance, imperialism is never defined, hegemony is never mentioned. The idea of the US as a nation that has never practiced imperialism is very strongly embedded in our national discourse and changing that mind set can only happen with a concentrated barrage of basic definitions and facts in our texts. Not to speak for anyone else, my students need basic definitions.

This is an essential demand of any academic text and certainly met by these authors. I did not find any errors.

It may just be the moment in which I am writing this, late June 2020. The call for more inclusive historical matter is loud. In the list of authors, I do not see a single African American historian, no Native Studies, no Women's History, no Gender Studies historian. I have to agree with the critique written by an earlier reviewer who said that this text shows a decided slant that the history of white men is the history of the US. Clearly, the authors made an effort to include voices and people outside the majority white and male historical record, yet this is also clearly an aspect of the text that will need to be further amended. We need to hear the voices that say, for example, race is at the center of US history, that say native people are the beginning and center of US history, that call for the centrality of women's history, of those of non-compliant sexual identity.

Clarity rating: 4

The text is lucid, sensible, well written, well organized. It will help students erect a framework of US history in their own minds. There is still work to be done to more adequately address the lack of robust use of definitions.

Usefully organized, consistent in style. Students seem to learn best when, over the course of a term, they can rely on a steady model of instruction so they can use their energies to absorb the information. The text does a good job of maintaining uniformity of structure over the chapters. Considering that there were several authors, the consistency is laudable.

This is an interesting criteria. The book does meet this criteria, the subject headings are certainly not followed by large blocks of text. There is hardly a page without some type of pictorial insert, hardly a subject matter that extends for more than a page or two. Henry James would not be impressed. This is a pedagogical point of view with which I do not agree but which is so widespread and imposing that it is not really worth an argument.

The historical chronology flows in an orderly manner. Historically, more than one or two things are happening at the same time so maintaining a clear narrative is essential. The organization of the material, even in complex situations such as when the US has both international as well as internal struggles is nicely done.

This is an aspect in which the book excels. Once the book is opened, it attracts readers as well as casual browsers. I have seen several generations glance at it, then turn a few pages and then sit down to read more. Far from confusing or distracting readers, the layout of the pages invites readers to delve into it.

I am very thankful for the well constructed, grammatically correct writing of this text. This is a necessity that cannot be over emphasized for my students. Modeling excellent writing is a tremendous help.

This is problematic. The authors did include instances of historical moments when non-white, non-male actors were the agents of history. However, the point of view is clearly white and male. This point of view has been very gradually becoming less and less acceptable over the last few decades and there is now a very concerted push to change it. How this will play out over the next couple of years will, at least, be interesting.

I am very excited to begin using this book. By its very existence, it offers a new modality of teaching that is less hierarchical and more inclusive. Too many students have been constrained from succeeding in class by the cost of the texts. I appreciate the work done by the authors. Thank you so much.

Reviewed by David Trowbridge, Associate Professor, Marshall University on 5/19/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

On its face, the text appears to mirror the topics one sees in a typical commercial textbook. However, when you dig a little deeper the book lacks the narrative and interpretive quality of recent commercial textbooks such as the popular text by Eric Foner. This might be a result of a modular approach with multiple authors. For students who pick up the book sporadically and read only a few sections, this might not be a problem. For students who enjoy reading, however, this book will surely disappoint. The most concerning aspect of the book is the casual and often sloppy nature of the text. There are so many times when the text makes an assertion that is not supported by recent scholarship that it is clear that professors are not reviewing this text in detail. I have provided an example of this from Chapter 17 at the end of this review.

Content Accuracy rating: 2

The book offers lots of facts and generally gets things right, but there are times when the book will leave any serious student of history scratching their head. Word choice and precision seem to be one of the Achilles heels, but students will still get an overview of the period, and hopefully, that will serve as background for understanding lectures and other parts of a course. Here is an example where word choice might lead students to an oversimplified dichotomy: "Many consider the Enlightenment a major turning point in Western civilization, an age of light replacing an age of darkness." The book also refers to nonwhite people as heathens several times without unpacking that term in historical context. This could be dangerous. Here is an example: "Slaves were cared for, supporters argued, and were better off exposed to the teachings of Christianity as slaves than living as free heathens in uncivilized Africa. " and again: "While much of the basis for westward expansion was economic, there was also a more philosophical reason, which was bound up in the American belief that the country—and the “heathens” who populated it—was destined to come under the civilizing rule of Euro-American settlers and their superior technology, " Referring to Native Americans and enslaved people of African descent as heathens so casually in the text seems problematic to say the least. I understand what the authors' intent is, and with some revision, these sections could be vastly improved.

I think the book does reasonably well here by blending political and social history. I can easily quibble with some choices, but that is true of all textbooks.

This is one of the strengths of the book - most times it is written in a way that should allow most students to move quickly through the text.

Consistency rating: 2

The book seems consistent when it comes to presenting history from a white, male, European perspective. When it comes to women's history, the book is consistent in offering only a brief and limited perspective. Take women's suffrage as one example. If a student missed a few special sections that cover women's history, they would not see many positive contributions of women. If a student read this book cover to cover, they would gain the impression that women's suffrage was only a moment in history instead of the culmination of generations of thoughts and actions.

Modularity rating: 4

The book is arranged similarly to other textbooks, so it should be easy to take what one needs should modularity be a concern. One possible area of concern for those seeking to adapt the text is the quality of the auxiliary materials such as the reading quizzes. These sorts of resources appear to be an afterthought for this open text just as they are often an afterthought for other publishers. Here is an example of a textbook question that needs to be reconsidered: 7. Which of the following groups was not impacted by the invention of barbed wire? ranchers cowboys farmers illegal prostitutes

I think the organization of the book is fine-mostly chronological with some thematic aspects similar to other U.S. history textbooks.

Again, this is fine. It is easy to move around in the book and it is digitally searchable. This is not a comment about the text, but please notice that most of the categories reviewers are given are not about the content of the book. So while this book might rank high in terms of stars, many other faculty have also pointed out issues about this book's content.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

The book seems to be written for a general audience and is straightforward, easy to read, and no obvious misspellings. Fans of the Oxford comma might be disappointed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 1

Coverage of race and gender is the fatal flaw of the text as it stands in 2020. Here is an example in Chapter 17 where the authors make the false and extremely racist assertion that most women in the West were prostitutes until the wives of wealthy white men arrived. "The few women who went to these wild outposts were typically prostitutes, and even their numbers were limited. In 1860, in the Comstock Lode region of Nevada, for example, there were reportedly only thirty women total in a town of twenty-five hundred men. Some of the “painted ladies” who began as prostitutes eventually owned brothels and emerged as businesswomen in their own right; however, life for these young women remained a challenging one as western settlement progressed. A handful of women, numbering no more than six hundred, braved both the elements and male-dominated culture to become teachers in several of the more established cities in the West. Even fewer arrived to support husbands or operate stores in these mining towns. As wealthy men brought their families west, the lawless landscape began to change slowly. Abilene, Kansas, is one example of a lawless town, replete with prostitutes, gambling, and other vices, transformed when middle-class women arrived in the 1880s with their cattle baron husbands. These women began to organize churches, schools, civic clubs, and other community programs to promote family values. They fought to remove opportunities for prostitution and all the other vices that they felt threatened the values that they held dear. Protestant missionaries eventually joined the women in their efforts, and, while they were not widely successful, they did bring greater attention to the problems."

There should be more review categories related to a book's content for books in the humanities.

Reviewed by Chris McGraw, History Instructor, Central Louisiana Technical Community College on 5/2/20

The text is very comprehensive, and its 32 chapters give a broad overview of American history from Pre-Columbian times to the end of Barack Obama's presidency. The chapters are organized both chronologically and thematically. The chapters do not delve into too much detail, and instead, consist of an overview. The review and critical thinking questions, at the end of every chapter, are a great way to assess students and check for understanding. While the book is mostly a political history, it also encompasses social and economic history.

The text is very accurate. I found no significant errors in my reading. While no history text can be completely unbiased, this text presents a balanced view. It consistently tries to tell both sides of the story. We hear the perspectives of both settlers and natives on the frontier, Patriots and Loyalists during the Revolution, and secessionists and abolitionists during the Civil War. The balance also extends to more recent and relevant political issues.

The book is generally up to date and represents the most recent scholarship. The nature of the text itself allows it be be easily updated with new information and developments.

The text is written very clearly. The language used is accessible to the vast majority of undergraduate students. It is well written and generally enjoyable to read. Some portions are rather dry, especially those dealing with political wranglings and legislation. However, some passages are very engaging and read almost like a novel. Although the narrative is broken up my many headings, it flows well. It does not have the complicated and politicized jargon of other history textbooks.

I also liked how the book consistently references and reiterates events and developments that had taken place in previous chapters. The chapters always provide a broad overview of themes, while not being afraid to delve into lesser known historical events and figures.

The chapters are organized by political, social, and cultural history. They are broken down into many subsections. Instructors that want to rearrange the material are easily able to do so without sacrificing clarity.

The chapters are very well organized. However, they are not organized in strictly chronological order. Chapters often overlap in terms of time period.

There are no issues with navigating the interface.

I did not notice any grammatical errors.

The text is inclusive and represents many different groups. Inclusion of women's history, black history, native history, and Asian history is consistent throughout the text. The text reflects the diversity that is characteristic of American history and society.

This is an excellent, free textbook. The language is easily accessible and engaging. I highly recommend this text for introductory US History courses.

Reviewed by Robert Carlock, Adjunct Instructor, Bowling Green State University on 12/22/19

This text breaks American history into typical chronological and thematic chapters. There are also consistent themes emphasized throughout the chapters, such as women's history, Black history, and Mexican-American history. read more

The book is constantly updated to resolve any inaccuracies.

The book's content extends (as of the end of 2019) to the end of the Obama administration. Throughout the semester, the book was continuously updated with corrections. There are also a number of online resources included that expand upon the information written in the text.

The book utilizes some jargon, but provides a glossary of important terms and their definitions at the end of each chapter.

Each chapter has consistent information, graphics, sub-sections, and resources.

Each chapter has specific sub-sections divided up into multiple subheadings as well, making for easily consumable readings about specific topics.

Each chapter is divided into multiple sub-sections, each with a separate topic, theme, or time period depending on how the chapter as a whole is organized. Each chapter is easy to navigate with sub-chapters divided further into sub-headings.

The book is simple to navigate, with in-text links being clearly marked and a navigation menu included in the left-hand side with clear titles for each chapter and sub-chapter.

Any grammatical errors are fixed consistently with updates.

The book specifically includes sections on women's history, Black history, and Mexican-American history. At times, these sections are small or lacking deeper analysis though.

This book is a useful survey course text that provides a succinct yet sweeping historical analysis of American history in a well-organized and accessible format, and includes plenty of online resources that expand upon the text itself.

Reviewed by Evan Casey, Assistant Professor, Marian University on 12/18/19

This text covers US History brilliantly. The depth of research and care in including pertinent information is well done. read more

This text covers US History brilliantly. The depth of research and care in including pertinent information is well done.

While there could have been more information on minority contributions to US History, this text was accurate and well-balanced when it came to telling different sides of the stories of History.

Because it was well written and comprised, this text will be used for a long time in this reviewer's classes.

Students will find this text easy to use because of the highlighted words of importance and the end of chapter questions.

When the book refers to certain topics, such as the presidency of Andrew Johnson and the turmoil that brought, the text was very down to earth as well as technical when explaining certain situations. This will help students be able to increase their historical acumen and not make it so difficult for them to learn.

Modularity rating: 3

The modularity of the book is rather linear. However, if one is able to TOPICALLY and not chronologically teach history, then this would boost the rating significantly.

Very logical presentation and thoughtful arrangement of the text.

Most everything in the text was very easy to read and understanding was aided by the comprehensive definitions given throughout the text.

No grammatical errors reported.

While the text was not personally offensive or insensitive, many aspects of the true telling of history are. The text gracefully handles this and allows the reader to dive into the "why" of things rather than dwell on the acts of bigotry and hatred themselves.

This textbook could be a welcome main reader in any classroom. Students will be able to relate to the information and synthesize what they learned by utilizing the comprehensive helps contained at the end of each chapter, as well as studying the important vocab words in each section. Well-written and this text will be utilized by this professor for years to come.

Reviewed by Ian Beamish, Assistant Professor, ULL on 11/10/19

The books covers the political narrative relatively thoroughly, but skews its attention to England and Europe over other areas of the Atlantic World in early chapters. The book is weakest in terms of coverage pre-1650 and post-1968. read more

Mostly free of major errors, though I would question some of the points of emphasis. There is generally a heavy focus on European viewpoints over indigenous viewpoints, with entire chapters dedicated largely to English/colonial understandings of economy, politics, and religion, while indigenous viewpoints are often in sub-sections framed by European/settler actions, like 3.4 "Impact of Colonization."

The book generally isn't focused in bringing the most current historical arguments into the text, which can at times make it feel a bit flat and free of argument. This does have the advantage that the book is unlikely to become dated in the short term.

The book is clearly written and the reading level is appropriate for high school and early college students. Professors will not have much work to do setting up the book or explaining difficult concepts. The disadvantage of having avoided jargon and technical terminology is that more complex concepts also seem to have been avoided.

The structure of chapters is consistent and the tone is fairly uniform throughout the text. The sections on the mid- to late-20th century seems a little different from the bulk of the book.

think these chapters could be used almost entirely modularly, almost to a fault. Unlike some standard texts (Foner, Give me Liberty or Cohen/Johnson/Roark, The American Promise) the book also does not have clear through lines that can be referred back to, either in terms of narrative or argument. This helps greatly with modularity, but limits what the text offers students in terms of connecting different aspects of US history.

There is a clear chronological approach to the text that students will find easy to follow and accessible. As mentioned above, there is an absence of connections between chapters/modules which somewhat limits the value of the chronological approach.

The interface is not particularly visually appealing, but is intuitive and easy to navigate. There are a number of excellent images that I haven't seen in other texts. These images could be presented in a larger format, rather than the default presentation being shrunk to a fraction of the width of the page.

I didn't notice any significant issues.

As at least one other review has noted, stating that Americanization "left them bereft of their culture and history" is not accurate and a potentially damaging statement. Asian American history is not dealt with in any sustained manner.

Reviewed by J Bates, Assistant Professor, Minnesota State University System on 10/28/19

This textbook does an exceptional job of providing a comprehensive though still nuanced portrait of US history. I was particularly impressed with the colonial era and the authors’ devotion to setting up the complex interplay between African, European and American societies. Within the colonial and national period, the author follows through in this promising beginning, emphasizing the changing history of gender and race and their larger connection to the “larger” political movements of the day. It also does a great job of introducing elements of environmental history. The authors’ written text places a larger focus on political history than it does cultural and social history. However, the primary sources integrated into the text would allow an instructor to consider cultural shifts with students in class.

There are some mention of Asian -Americans, Latinos and immigrants from the Middle East, but they are not woven deeply into the text the way African Americans and, at times, Native Americans are. I think moving forward this would be an ideal place for expansion. For example, the author might move away from only touching Native American “removals” at the famous times in history – Trail of Tears, Custer, Dawes Act and integrate a consideration of Native Americans as one of the core groups living in the United States through its history. They might also give more attention to the experiences of African Americans in the South post reconstruction and before the Civil Rights Movements of the 1950s. A complex history of a sizeable portion of the US population is summed over through the use of the phrase “Jim Crow.” But students would understand later development, as well as contemporary debates, better if the authors made it a point to integrate the racialized terror and structural and institutional racism that pervaded the United States history through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

For the most part, the text has no explicit bias and is relatively error free.

When the authors are outside the bounds of their expertise there tends to be more errors. For example, their coverage of pre-Columbian societies in Meso America includes outdated information regarding to Florentine Codex and the belief that Montezuma believed Cortes to be a god. The description of Central Mexico’s nation-states, urban spaces that often held populations of more than 60,000 people as “tribes” also gives a distorted view of the region’s past. Likewise, scholars view the Inca’s quipu as a system of writing. In other places, the lack of accuracy is more the stories that have been left out. These are relatively minor in an otherwise excellent history.

In those areas where the text provides, extensive coverage, it is up to date. Breaking up the standard narratives of history would make it far more applicable to the new ways that U.S. History is being taught. Necessary updates – as long as they stay within the general narrative structure– will be easy to incorporate.

Overall, the writing is clear and engaging. Moreover, by providing framing questions at the beginning of each chapter as well as a brief summary at the end of each chapter, the authors highlight the important take away for students.

When writing this review I had to look again and see if this was written by more than one author! The text is very consistent and keeps the same narrative focus and tone throughout.

Text is divided into reasonable chapters with subheadings. It is not overly referential. Chapters and sections could be rearranged, skipped and emphasized at will.

I also loved that the authors’ divided between key terms, short information based questions and larger critical thinking questions. I think this does an excellent job of emphasizing the many different ways historians think about the past, and different areas of students learning.

Within each chapter, I found the structure and flow excellent. The maps, images and primary sources and very well integrated into the text. In fact, this is perhaps the best integration of images and maps that I have seen!

I found no problems with the interface. Images are clear. Text is clear. Many of the primary sources are integrated into the text limiting how much students would need to have multiple browsers open at the same time.

Free from grammatical errors.

Within each chapter, the text is not culturally insensitive. Yet, there is considerable weight given to the traditional players in US history. The stories of Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans is often put into the sidelines. I would like to see this integrated into the text.

Reviewed by Kevin Rucker, Senior lecturer, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 10/24/19

I found that the text does broadly covers significant historical events and people in a broad overview. While there is not a lot of depth in the chapters, it makes a great overview do use if the instructor adds supplemental readings. The review and critical thinking questions are a great supplement, as well as the glossary. I teach multiple sessions of Multicultural America here at MSU-Denver and have been looking for a an inexpensive, if not free, supplement to my texts I require students to read, Ronald Takaki's "A Different Mirror" and Gary Nash's "Forbidden Love: The Hidden History of Mixed-Race America." The course covers from pre-Columbian American history through the present and have found myself having to lecture "filler" lectures to connect the different topics of the books. For example, U.S. History's first chapter's sections about Pre-Columbia America and pre-1500 Europe and Africa I will make required reading because it is important, but my students have had to rely on my lectures for this information. Multicultural America is required for all majors at MSU-Denver and over 90% of my students are not history majors. I can utilize "U.S. History" as supplemental assigned readings to reinforce my lectures on different important themes, such as the U.S. Constitution, the Civil War, American Imperialism, World War I, etc. I plan to incorporate portions of this text in my Spring 2020 classes.

I did not find any inaccuracies, but again, there could be more substance is some sections.

The text was written in 2013, so there is a gap of some of current issues facing America. But as for the rest of the text it is wll done.

The text is easily readable and does not use unnecessary complex words or jargon. Also, I was pleased to see the historic maps, illustrations and photographs included within each section. This helps keep the attention of the reader rather that having long stagnant readings.

Yes, the composition of the chapters are in a standard format that is consistent throughout the text.

I like how the chapters are broken into subsections without sacrificing the content's chronology. This will enable me to assign subsections of chapters for my students to read to supplement my lectures and other readings without compelling them to read the entire chapter.

Well organized and a chronological sequence as a good genral history text should be.

I had no problem with interface issues with navigating the text or distractions from images presented.

I did not encounter any grammatical errors.

The text is a great example of how today's "revisionist" history should be written. It is inclusive of a variety of peoples and their cultural and ethnic background.

Again, as I said at the beginning of this review, I will be using this text to supplement my lectures and other assigned readings in my Multicultural America courses in the Spring 2020. My students should find this text a welcome addition to the course.

Reviewed by Jeannie Harding, Adjunct Instructor, James Madison University on 7/8/19

One of the strengths of this text is its comprehensiveness. It covers all of US History, beginning with the status of Africa, the Americas, and Europe pre-Columbus. The text hits all of the major topics in American history that one can find in a... read more

That being said, the text is far more broad than it is deep. One example of this is the aforementioned first chapter on the pre-Columbian world. Europe gets an extensive treatment here, with a robust description of life as far back as the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. Some of this seems unnecessary, especially since Africa and the Americas do not get the same treatment. The American section is far too vague, mentioning no names of important leaders like Pachacuti and Montezuma. Africa is discussed mostly in terms of its history of slavery prior to the Triangle Trade Route’s development, and other elements of African history are largely ignored.

This is one of the major criticisms I have about the text. The depth of topics is varied; some topics are treated with great detail and nuance while other areas are glossed over too quickly.

I detected a good bit of bias in the latter sections of the text that deal with the politics of the last few decades. President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society receives a glowing commendation with his various programs described in great detail; a sentence or two at the end of the section briefly mentions that conservatives were critical of his programs, but the reader is left with the sense that this was an unmitigated success. The chapter on the Reagan years is also very detailed in terms of laws and programs, but much of Reagan’s work is discredited, and he is painted as disingenuous compared to LBJ.

Having examined many different texts for US History courses over the years, the bias I see here is nothing new or exceptional, but it is worth noting.

One of the greatest benefits of using an internet text like this is the supposed ability for revision and addition as needed, in a timely fashion. The text ends at 2013, and it seems the time has come for an update.

This is one of the most readable texts I have ever encountered for an American history course, but I also feel that it is perhaps too simplistic for some of my students. The language, vocabulary, and sentence structure seem more fitting for high school students than college students. For certain student populations, this would be a benefit, but instructors should be aware of this, especially if their goal is to get students to write and speak in more formal, academic terms. The glossaries at the end of the chapters reveal the simplicity of language.

The overall framework of the text is consistent, with review questions, glossaries, and learning objectives attached to each chapter. I found that the depth of coverage on topics is very inconsistent throughout the text, however, and this was a major drawback.

The modularity of the text was one of its strongest points, especially when compared to a similar online text for US History I have looked at in the past. I liked that the Table of Contents could be turned on to show continually in the margin so that the reader can move easily between sections. I did not have to scroll back up to the top of the page to get to another chapter of the text. I also found the search bar to be very helpful, pulling up a short excerpt from the text with each instance of the search term. All of these made this particular text very easy to navigate. The chapter titles were also generally well-labeled so that I could locate a specific section quickly.

The organizational structure makes sense. It is largely chronological, though some topics are grouped together instead of in a strictly chronological sense. For example, a president’s foreign policy might all be discussed in one section while domestic issues are grouped separately. This allows for continuity of ideas within topics.

I did not notice any issues with this. There are quite a few embedded links to outside resources, and the ones I looked at were all intact. I hope the editors maintain good links. I did notice a couple of links that took me to a general website instead of the specific article mentioned in the text; it would have been helpful to have the links go to the actual page mentioned.

There were no obvious grammatical errors that I noticed.

This text did an excellent job including a variety of voices, both within the text itself and through the use of sources from historically-marginalized groups. For example, there were links to slave narratives and a site about the Carlisle Indian School. I did find that the coverage of the women’s rights movements was too thin.

If your main criteria for a US History text are cost and readability, this is a text worth examining. It is most comparable to "brief edition" texts I have seen, and I often find those type of texts to be too brief to benefit my students very much. I do not think this is a text that would work for every U.S. History course, but for some student populations, it would provide a nice alternative to expensive textbooks.

Reviewed by Michael Garcia, Adjunct Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 5/24/19

The text addresses significant historical points, but without great depth. Though limited in content, the organizational framework/index of the text serves as a sufficient "guide" for a general survey course; however, it will need to be supplemented with outside materials. Content limitations do allow an instructor the flexibility to tailor each chapter's content. The links to ancillary materials are helpful for examining documents pertinent to chapter learning outcomes, but these are limited. Chapter glossaries provide an opportunity to discuss terms and phrases necessary to the historical context pertinent to the chapter topics. As for the learning objectives, they are directed to the content of the online text; at times the brevity of chapter content alone does not allow sufficient information for developing critical thinking responses. Finally, the review and critical thinking questions serve as a reasonable guide for considering chapter content. Additional questions will need to be developed respectively for those points deemed more important for understanding chapter topics.

The absence of historical details limits a broader understanding of the historical events discussed; thus, the accuracy of the material is limited in this context. There exists in spots some level of bias: for example, the terminology used in Chapter 22.2 about nineteenth century views toward Filipinos reads: "Neither the Spanish nor the Americans considered giving the islands their independence, since, with the pervasive racism and cultural stereotyping of the day, they believed the Filipino people were not capable of governing themselves." These modern inferences suggest that concepts such as "racism" and "cultural stereotyping" were understood the same then as they are today. In Chapter 17.1 an 1845 quote from John O' Sullivan speaks about the meaning of the phrase Manifest Destiny. Later, the discussion question for the quote reads: "Even then, consider how the phrase “anyone” was restricted by race, gender, and nationality." Here the word "anyone" was not even used in O 'Sullivan's quote but implies, implicitly, that it was used--leading the question's context. The summary in Chapter 16.4 suggests a goal for the Reconstruction that is suggestive as opposed to authentic: "Reconstruction had failed to achieve its primary objective of creating an interracial democracy that provided equal rights to all citizens." Was this the purpose of the Reconstruction specifically? Additionally, the same Chapter 32.4 "implies" that Mitt Romney's loss to Barack Obama's in 2012 was based substantially on Romney's remark about the 47 percent of Americans dependent on government assistance without verifiable documentation: "Romney’s remarks about the 47 percent hurt his position among both poor Americans and those who sympathized with them."

Chapter 32.4's discussion of the American stock market's health as of 2013 is outdated where data since 2013 indicates an even better performance of the market since 2013. Six years of history since 2013 has substantively impacted the American political dynamics that should be addressed for its contemporary value.

Overall, the composition of the text is easy to read and does not integrate complicated syntax or terminology. In places the brevity of the discussion can lead to questions, but this is not due to the language used itself. For example, in Chapter 10.3, the meaning of "nullification" is not substantively explained as it reads: "The theory of nullification, or the voiding of unwelcome federal laws, provided wealthy slaveholders, who were a minority in the United States, with an argument for resisting the national government if it acted contrary to their interests." The term nullification requires a broader understanding as used here and even a further constitutional application/implication regarding the concept of "state's rights."

Each chapter contains a standard format which establishes a logical/consistent approach for following the information, which for the most part is objective. The amount of discussion is roughly the same per chapter.

The "modularity" of the text is reasonable using four to five subsections that for some chapters can be reordered without jeopardizing the content chronology.

The topics for the course follow a logical and chronological order.

No particular problems were noted as far as navigating the online links for access to the appropriate information. Some of the chapter images could be displayed more clearly: for example, time-line images, such as the one in Chapter 12.1 and the painting in 12.4, are not clear or difficult to view making them less advantageous as visual aids.

No particular grammatical errors were noticed. The language is readable and should not present a problem for college level students.

The text makes an effort to address culturally related issues, focusing mostly on African Americans and women to the exclusion or coverage of other minority and racial groups. For example, Chapter 23.3 devotes its discussion to the implications of African Americans and women during WWI; Chapter 26.3 focuses considerable attention on the plight and conditions of African Americans during the Depression, but not on other minority groups. Chapter 27.2 is the first chapter to be more inclusive of other cultures by addressing WWII home-front aspects of Hispanics and Asians (with marginal mention of Native Americans). In its attempt to be culturally attentive, 27.2 does so at the expense of neglecting the broader implications of the American home-front during the Second World War.

Reviewed by Ben Alexander, Adjunct Associate Professor, New York City College of Technology on 4/8/19

While it's impossible to cover everything, this book does an admirable job of going into detail about important topics. The opening chapters provide a breathtaking panorama of the early origins of human life in the Americas and the global scene on the eve of transatlantic exploration; it proceeds to explain colonization with very meaningful emphasis on how it fit in with the larger context of global trade and comparative labor systems, free and unfree. In the chapter on the road to the Civil War, the sense of a compelling story with personalities and passions comes through clearly, and in the chapter on the Great Depression, its harsh ravages and the struggle to figure out what to do are expressed with suitable poignancy. The book is, in fact, so detailed that instructors of the two-semester sequence may need to do some selective trimming in what they assign, especially in colleges where students have full-time jobs and families as well as 15 credit hours of coursework. And in the context of the impossibility of being detailed enough about everything, and of all instructors having certain pet topics that they wish their textbook said more about, I would have liked to see more explanation of how the Salem witch trials fit in with the Puritan experience, on the family and community lives of the enslaved population in the pre-Civil War years, and a few other points here and there. In the discussion of both the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment, they might want to connect them with the impending revolution by pointing up their spirit (though affecting sharply divergent constituencies) of questioning traditional authority. Where the authors mention that there was talk in the early 1830s in the Virginia legislature of making manumission of slaves easier but that the idea was shot down, they might want to point out that the sentiment for regarding slavery as more trouble and danger than it was worth came largely from the state's western counties where land was less conducive to plantation agriculture, and that these counties would secede from the state and form West Virginia during the Civil War. Also, discussion of Henry George's single-tax theory is oversimplified to the point of being slightly misleading. They write that, according to George, there should be a land tax "in order to disincentivize private land ownership." Actually, George's intention was to disincentivize ownership of more land than one needed to make a productive living, ownership of land to charge rent on or to speculate on the western frontier. George believed that making land speculating in the West unprofitable would open up so much land for workers to migrate to that it would reduce the size of the urban workforce, thus giving those remaining in the cities greater bargaining power. Mentioning "Progress and Poverty" without some sense of the sweeping utopian vision, one that fits in with the general popularity of magic-bullet economic theories in those years, is a missed opportunity. I had the same reaction to the fleeting, teasing reference to Henry Ford's ill-fated attempt to open a factory in the Amazon jungle and impose Puritan morality on the workers. Speaking of Henry Ford, I also wonder whether any discussion of his life and work can be complete without some mention of what a prolific author of Jewish conspiracy theories he was. The description of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the New Deal correctly says that enrollees were paid $30 a month, but omits the fact that most of that money went home to their families rather than into their own pockets. In the discussion of the 1968 election, the significance of the George Wallace campaign and the conservative backlash could be given more value; merely calling him "segregationist George Wallace" leaves much out. But every textbook leaves a few things for instructors to impress their students by giving more detail about, so I still rate the book highly for thoroughness. Throughout the book, treatment of both the social and political dimensions of American life is meaningful and inclusive.

Every textbook has a few booboos here and there, and the ones I found in this one were mostly of a trivial pursuit variety rather than what would affect students' comprehension of concepts. In the section about the Stamp Act crisis of 1765, the book is imprecise about the specifics of when and how the Boston mob ransacked Lieut. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson's mansion, and also seems to treat the Sons of Liberty and the Boston mob as interchangeable terms for the same set of people. Also, it incorrectly states that Coxey's Army set out from Cincinnati. Actually, the marchers began their trek from Jacob Coxey's own town of Massillon. Cincinnati, being about 250 miles off in the other direction from where Coxey's Army was heading, played no part in the march. In the chapter on the New Deal, it gives the age range for enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps as 14-24. While some 14-year-olds did get into the CCC, they only did so by lying about their age; the intended minimum was never lower than 17. The National Youth Administration (another New Deal program) is depicted as having been terminated in 1939; it lasted until 1943. The book is also imprecise about what President Johnson and the Democratic National Committee offered to the Mississippi Freedom delegation at the 1964 party convention.

History textbooks need to be up-to-date in two ways: bringing the narrative up to the time of publication and keeping up with the latest scholarship on topics all through the chronology. This book does an admirable job on both counts.

The language is clear and readable. Paragraph length and placement of pictures and charts are quite suitable for making the work easy for undergraduates to follow. Concepts, for the most part, are explained meaningfully.

Consistency is strong. The book presents American history with a coherent throughline and shows connections between topics clearly. Many sections open with strong transition sentences that link what's coming with what has just been read.

Each chapter is divided into neatly labeled sections, and the table of contents allows for easy clicking into those desired sections. Instructors who want to adapt chapters to their own desired sequence will have an easy time doing so. Both the table of contents and the index have user-friendly links that maximize efficiency of topic browsing as well as of continuous reading.

Most of the organization is quite optimal, and as noted in the modularity rating, the organization is also adaptable to instructor preferences. By grouping the Missouri Crisis together with the Mexican War and the founding of the Liberty Party in the chapter on pre-1860 westward expansion, the authors effectively set the stage for the important role of the western frontier in the escalating North-South tensions that drove the country closer and closer to civil war. At the same time, it's interesting that the chapter on westward expansion after the Civil War spans 1840 to 1890 and includes Manifest Destiny and the Oregon Trail. Thematically, that makes sense, as those two topics are relevant to the romance of the frontier as a forerunner to the Turner thesis (which suitably gets mentioned at the start of the chapter on 1890s imperialism), but instructors of survey courses that use 1865 or 1877 as the semester break may find it inconvenient (but again, there is the modularity feature for that). The chapter on the years 1870 to 1900 refers to the Great Migration northward of African Americans as occurring "between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Great Depression," possibly giving the impression that a substantial proportion of that movement took place during the Gilded Age, when actually pre-1910 black migration to the North was small compared to what occurred during World War I. the years to which the term is usually applied. (The authors' reasoning seems to be a desire to juxtapose it with the section on European immigration which immediately follows.) In the chapter on World War I, the Great Migration is mentioned again, but in a manner that is slightly ambiguous when it comes to both numbers and timeframe. Historians more recently have emphasized the continuity of the black migration in the World War I years, not so much the decades before as with the decades after. The chapter on the 1960s very effectively shows the interconnection of issues involving Johnson's Great Society program, the civil rights and black power movements, and the tragedy of Vietnam. The confluence of the rise of the women's movement with the rise of multiple other rights struggles, the hippie counterculture, the failure in Vietnam, and the general chaos of 1968 and 1969 is also effectively shown.

No problems here.

Grammar is clean, as far as I can see, but it's slightly annoying that they refer to the 1800s rather than the nineteenth century, contrary to the habit we presumably want to instill in our young history scholars.

The lives and viewpoints of the different players, male and female, white and nonwhite, are meaningfully presented. Inclusiveness is strong with room in places to be even stronger. For instance, the section on African American cultural life under slavery has a fair amount of informative detail but could offer even more. The same is true of the family and community lives of Gilded Age immigrants in America's cities: good information with room for even more. Also, while that latter section mentions Chinatown alongside Little Italy, the subhead overlooks the Chinese by calling that section "The Changing Nature of European Immigration."

The book is worth considering as an option when teaching in any school where saving students money is an important priority. The book has its imprecisions and idiosyncracies here and there but is still solidly researched, constructed, and written.

Reviewed by Stuart Tully, Assistant Professor , Nicholls State University on 4/4/19

The book is comprehensive, perhaps to a fault. It covers a wide spread of concepts and historical elements but never goes into too much depth. This sort of surface-level examination of material is suitable for a survey-level course, but unless the... read more

The text is very accurate and in my examination of its contents, I have found minimal errors. The book also does not have too much of a bias, and tries to show multiple sides to historical issues.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

The book is somewhat relevant but is hamstrung by its lack of depth. For instance, in section 28.4 on Popular Culture and Mass Media during the 1950s, it gives a brief overview of Rock and Roll, Hollywood, and Television. It does not go enough into the racial dynamics of Rock and Roll but does give some passing comments to it. There has been good recent research on the topic, but it is not seen in the text. This is a general overview of US history, but not really keeping up with current scholarship.

The book is free of jargon and is easily accessible for readers. Although I often wished the book contained more information, I found no fault in the manner by which the information available was presented.

The book has a standard chronological framework intermixed with some thematic elements. It is adequate.

The book is divided up into smaller sections that aren't too overwhelming. Granted, this often comes at the cost of depth, but I understand why the authors made the decision. Although I might not have organized the information in such a manner, I understand why they did, and they are consistent with the practice.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 3

The topics are presented in a logical fashion, but the transitions and particularly the ends of the chapter are often choppy. Many times there is little to no rationale given as to why a particular section stops where it does.

The interface is fine, although I do wish literary primary sources had been incorporated in a less jarring manner. The pictures and navigation are nicely done.

The grammar is fine, and I did not see any major errors.

The book is as culturally inclusive as could be expected in a textbook. However, because of the lack of depth, it often felt that races, ethnicities, and backgrounds were merely given lip service instead of a true examination of their dynamics. For instance, the section of Gay Rights in 30.1 is woefully inadequate, mainly talking about Stonewall. The experiences of LGBT of color are not mentioned, despite a wealth of new research on the subject.

This is an adequate text and one I might assign for my in-person lecture courses so that I might be able to supplement the depth the textbook is lacking. I do not know if I would be as comfortable assigning it for my online classes since I cannot as easily provide context for the students.

Reviewed by Daniel Morales, Assistant Professor, James Madison University on 2/13/19

The textbook covers most of the areas of US history, perhaps too much as some points and not enough in others but overall is comprehensive in covering political history. It is limited though in a lot of social history and history of the Southwest... read more

The book is accurate in the vast majority of what it is trying to do. The book, however, does a poor job of covering the "edges" of US history, especially other parts of the world. As other reviewers mentioned- the history of Africa is not well told, especially compared to European history. A similar problem is present in the history of indigenous people before Europeans and the history of the Spanish empire, both of which are poorly covered and in some cases completely wrong statements are made.

Like all history textbooks relevance is a moving target. As a general textbook I feels like it is trying to be all things to all people but that mostly results in a book that does not have the focus of others. It is also missing as much cultural history as I would like. By far the biggest problem of the book is its cursory treatment of Latino and Asian history. These are major fields which the author does not cover at all.

Yes, it is very clearly written in simple prose and free of jargon.

Yes the book is consistent. The book is longer on the 18th and 19th century than the 20th, so that is a concern. The 20th century portion should be expanded. It offers a lot of modules and short tests and other supports for easy reading.

Yes it is very modular and works well in a classroom where there are daily reading assignments. There are many sign posts and subheadings.

yes the book is presented in a logical clear fashion. It is history so things generally follow a chronological order.

Interface rating: 2

The interface works but it is not aesthetically pleasing. Other textbooks like american ywap offer a better online layout with more documents, more pictures and material. While "Give me Liberty" are better productions on the page.

The text contains few grammatical errors that I could see.

No. The book shoots for the middle ground in US history and hits it well. It also does a fair job of covering African American history. It does a poor job of covering indigenous history, Latino/Borderlands History, and Asian American history. These fields have grown tremendously in the past 30 years and it is disappointing that few of the lessons are trickling down into textbooks.

The book is relatively comprehensive in its coverage of US history but it also feels dated in what is covers. This is especially the case in covering Latinos and Asians.

Reviewed by Jessica Taylor , Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech on 1/10/19

This textbook hits all the major points necessary for a US survey class, with particular emphasis on political history. The key terms demonstrate a commitment to all the "Greatest Hits" no survey would miss (carpetbaggers, the Sons of Liberty, the Roosevelt Corollary) alongside some relevant and inclusive new content I never learned about in college (charter schools, executive privilege, commodification). Particularly in the nineteenth-century chapters, illustrations like mugshots, blueprints, and book covers do a wonderful job of showing students the spectrum of primary sources available to historians. As a professor used to seeing the same 50-100 pictures in a textbook, I plan to use this textbook as a multimedia resource for its unusual photographic finds. The appendix mostly contains America's "founding documents" and adds very little you can't find already online.

I found the textbook accurate within my own field (colonial history). The authors clearly put effort into acknowledging the continental presence of Native people and their continuing power into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The section on the rise of Chesapeake slavery is comprehensive, and I found the chapter on the Revolutionary War highly engaging. I did hope for more non-English history after the "Colonial Powers" chapter, and found that political and elite intellectual history (think the Interregnum and Enlightenment, but without how they affected average folks) dominated social and cultural history. Additionally, the small case study sections meant to highlight historical individuals ("Americana" and "Defining American") referenced often white, male leaders that students are already familiar with, like James Madison and Walt Whitman. Although there were great ones later on (Women Democrats in the 1930s), I'd like to echo a previous reviewer who hoped to see average individuals highlighted throughout.

This book will continue to be useful, particularly if the authors are able to update their final chapters. New information about organizing history, like the Molly McGuires, Cesar Chavez, and the Working Man's Party reflects its growing importance in the field. The textbook goes up to the twenty-first century, and could use an update when it comes to the short section on America and the World- there's a lot to say there! I'd also be interested in seeing more on the continuing feminist or Civil Rights movements that will resonate with students.

The prose is very consistent and simple throughout. Even though there will be new terminology for readers, the narrative of key events, like the Battle of Wounded Knee, will make larger concepts memorable for students. The "Americana" and "Defining American" sections also use individuals to illustrate the more abstract ideas discussed, like Malcolm X and the concept of the "New Negro."

Although the textbook was written by several different authors, I found the framework consistent throughout. The simple terminology used might take time to break down something complex, but it adds substantially to the clarity of the piece. The timelines, which bring together abstract or disparate concepts (Battle of Fallen Timbers and Treaty of Ghent on the same timeline), will help students find where each piece fits chronologically as they learn about them separately. I also found it useful that each chapter ends with a summary paragraph explaining how the changes just discussed will affect the events covered in the next chapter.

Each chapter is organized into units with multiple sections about a page apiece, and concludes with sample multiple choice practice, critical thinking questions, and useful key terms. It seems to flow best to break down the chapters by units, which run anywhere from 3-12 pages, than by the page-long sections. Some of the chapters are considerably shorter than others, but I doubt students mind.

The organization is clear. I will add that, because the time periods covered in each chapter overlap substantially, you may find it difficult to find a discrete event. (For example, the nineteenth-century representation of Native peoples is in the Age of Jackson chapter and not the Westward Expansion chapter.) Depending on how you structure or periodize your class lectures or assignments, you may want to familiarize yourself with the unit headings and assign components of multiple chapters to your students.

I am reviewing the hardcover book- and it is very large! It is good quality and seems like it can take a beating. The images might seem a little small compared to the online interface, but there's nothing here to confuse or distract a reader.

The textbook is overall inclusive. Some teachers might find unusual the fact that African-Americans and Native people sometimes have their own separate sections in each chapter. Some of the language, like "Hispanic" or "Indian" might need more specificity. The only specific problem I have is with the "Americanization of Indians" section which says that forced assimilation of Indians "left them bereft of their culture and history." Many folks would disagree!

Reviewed by Dan Allosso, Assistant Professor, History, Minnesota State (Bemidji State University) on 12/14/18

Like most contemporary US History textbooks, this text begins before 1492, setting the scene for Iberian and later French, Dutch, and English colonization of the Americas. As an environmental historian, I think magnitude of the native depopulation caused by the Columbian Exchange is not given quite enough attention. This early under-representation of environmental influences upon history continues throughout the text, as does a more general lack of attention to the stories of regular people. Most of the text, like most survey textbooks, focuses on political history with an occasional foray into cultural or intellectual history (such as brief looks at the Second Great Awakening or Alexis de Tocqueville’s critique of American democracy. The general outline and construction of the text makes sense (it’s mostly chronological with some overlap between chapters), and sections generally contain Review Questions that test factual retention and Critical Thinking Questions at the ends of chapters that encourage students to analyze and synthesize.

The text is comprehensive in the sense that it is a skeleton of major events in (mostly) political and (partly) cultural history. This is sufficient as a foundation for additional layering by the instructor and additional (especially primary) readings – and for some instructors may be preferable to a “one stop shop” textbook that tries to stuff everything into a single volume and inevitably makes interpretive choices that drive the resulting course. The text is comprehensive in its coverage of most major events

The text accurately portrays the history it covers. Other reviewers have criticized omission of particular elements of US History (Japanese internment, US response to the Holocaust, etc.), much as I have criticized what I considered inadequate coverage of environment. I think these issues are more about comprehensiveness than accuracy; the events and people covered seem to be portrayed accurately.

Since I think the strength of this text is its “skeletal” coverage of major events, I don’t envision the need for regular updates or fears of becoming irrelevant. Interpretations change more rapidly than consensus on the major events of US History. Also, the ability to continuously update and enhance an electronic text should allow the authors (or remixers) to contribute to a growing “body” of history built on this “skeleton”.

This text seems quite readable while maintaining a sense of narrative authority.

The modular design of the text is very helpful and probably mitigates the slight variation in style and focus from section to section. I don’t think a student reading the text in a linear fashion from start to finish will encounter any jarring instances of shifting style or emphasis. The text appears to have a single narrative voice.

The text is logically organized and easy to navigate in electronic format (which is all I’ll be using). The addition of hyperlinks to outside sources is helpful, appropriate, and timely throughout the text. This is an advantage of any electronic text, but it is well implemented here and unusually valuable since the links are open-source rather than existing behind a corporate paywall.

Fewer errors or rough patches than most other textbooks I've reviewed.

The text seems to try to respect cultures and avoid offense, as well as making an attempt to critique the dominant culture when appropriate. An increased focus on the voices of underrepresented populations would enhance multicultural perspective, but this seems beyond the scope of the text as I plan to use it.

My criticisms regarding coverage should not be taken as disqualifying the text as a foundation for a survey course. If US History surveys are envisioned as addressing the dual goals of acquainting students with the broad outlines of our history (what happened, when?) and encouraging them to think critically about the past and relate the past to the present (why did these things happen? why do we care now?), then I think this text will be a valuable foundation and skeleton on which I can build a structure that includes more diverse voices, views from below, and critical perspectives. I’ll update this review in a few months, after I’ve had a chance to use the text in a class and have seen students interact with it.

Reviewed by Gwen Tarbox, Professor, Department of English, Western Michigan University on 12/11/18

US History is certainly comprehensive: the task of tracing the development of the United States from pre-colonial times to the second term of President Barack Obama is a daunting one. I think that the text might work better in a history course that ended in 1914, since the sections that covered the colonial, Civil War, and Progressive eras were lengthier and more developed. However, with some supplements, the text could certainly be used in a survey course in American History or American Studies.

A text can be factually accurate, but it can avoid topics, minimize topics, and underdevelop topics, and this was something that I found to be a problem with US History. For instance, in the scant section that covers differing philosophies of land ownership, the authors simplify or ignore the differing philosophies of land stewardship held by indigenous peoples, while definitely eliding over the imperialistic and nascent capitalistic impulses of the Europeans whose ideas of land ownership derived from much more than just, as the authors put it, the colonizers' fealty to land ownership ideas contained in "the Christian Bible." Obviously, the intended audience for this text may not possess the knowledge set to engage with highly advanced analysis, but therein lies the issue: for uninformed readers, this introduction needs to encourage greater critical thinking about the motivations of historical figures and movements.

The text is set out in such a way that it can be easily updated with 21st-century developments, and the chapters and sections are set out so that they could be enhanced without disturbing the overarching structure of the text. The content itself is relevant; what would be helpful, though, would be the inclusion of terminology that is being used in the work of progressive social, cultural, and political movements.

The text, for the most part, is lively and engaging; the inclusion of pictures and of links to museum collections is a wonderful aspect of this text. Often, I will ask students to do that sort of enhanced reading and research, so having the resources available as links is very helpful. As I mentioned above, though, I would have liked to have seen the authors engage with issues such as "whiteness studies" and other critical race theory terms.

Although there is some mild variation among sections, for the most part US History remains consistent in its chapter structure and selection of content. For instance, Chapters 18-20 provide ample background for readers to understand the impulses that led to what was termed "the Progressive era," and I also appreciated inclusion of a glossary in each chapter.

One of the greatest strengths of US History is its listing of objectives and goals at the beginning of each section. This is helpful for syllabus, assignment, and test construction, and it also encourages students to understand, up front, what they are to be looking for in the content. I also liked how each chapter was sufficient in terms of length, while also providing resources for further research and reading. I could see excerpting chapters on the movement from east to west in order to create a course on that subject matter; it would also be possible to focus solely upon wartime in the US via the use of selected chapters. This aspect of the text is also very helpful.

Given that US History is a survey text, the choice of chronological organization makes sense; as I mentioned above, it would be possible to develop a thematically-based syllabus, with the use of excerpted chapters.

Each chapter is easy to access, has clearly marked sub-sections, and includes well-designed and situated maps, charts, graphs, and images. The inclusion of museum links, and other informational links, was a highlight of this text.

The text was conveyed in lively, consistent, and lucid prose. I did find that the passive voice was used a great deal, especially in sections that deal with "sensitive" subject matter. In those instances, it would have been helpful for the authors to take ownership of their own analysis.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

The authors do attempt to show the viewpoints of a number of factions, societies, or cultural groups, though I sometimes felt that the terminology was a bit outdated and that the detail in terms of explanations could have been stronger. Motivation is a significant aspect of historical writing, and sometimes the motivations of peoples rested upon generalizations that needed refinement. As an example, Chapter 4 on English internal politics and colonial aims was extremely useful in providing context for the development of many of the colonies; a similar level of background would have been helpful in Chapter 23 so that students would understand the complex causes of WWI. Moreover, critical race theory and other 21st-century interpretative lenses are less evident than I would have liked. I would probably feel the need to supplement this text with a series of contemporary essays.

If I were editing a second edition of this text, I would suggest including more excerpts from contemporary historians. Problematizing the study of history itself would also be a good addition to an enhanced introduction for students, as would updating the terminology. I could see using this text in an American Studies course, with the inclusion of supplemental essays and excerpts from primary texts.

Reviewed by Beth Fowler, Senior Lecturer, Wayne State University on 12/1/18

Overall, this is one of the most comprehensive and engaging textbooks I have ever read! The vast majority of events, issues, and themes that I introduce in class and want my students to think about were covered, or at least introduced. The way the book integrates histories of underrepresented groups, for instance--especially those of Native Americans, African Americans, and women--are, with few exceptions, intertwined with the rest of the historical record rather than presented as separate "niche" subjects. One major exception is that the experiences of enslaved peoples during the Middle Passage, in Northern areas, and even in the South prior to the Civil War, are largely overlooked. Slavery is consistently mentioned as a political issue, but students are not really introduced to people's lived experiences until Chapter 12, which focus entirely on plantations in the Deep South leading up to the Civil War. The book also does a great job of presenting the United States within a global framework. This begins right from the start, as the American colonies are examined within the context of European power struggles, and the creation of racialized chattel slavery is presented as the result of political and religious struggles among European nations, and with the Middle East and Africa. This excellent global context continues with Southern struggles during the Civil War linked to the English decision to purchase cotton from India rather than engage with a rebellious nation, and in the chapter on World War Two, which does a much better job than most texts of explaining the road to war in Germany and Italy. Two places where the historical record seems oddly confined to the United States are the various sections on labor movements and on immigration in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. Although the book does a good job of examining the many branches of labor politics in the United States (including the Communist Party's support of civil rights), I was surprised that it did not contextualize these struggles by discussing similar movements in Germany, Italy, and England. Indeed, clearer references to Karl Marx's writings as a whole would be helpful, especially given the lack of knowledge so many students have about Communism and other forms of Leftist politics. Similarly, the sections on immigration do a great job of explaining what life was like for people once they came to the United States, and how their cultural traditions impacted the United States in early 20th-century America. But students so often assume that people made this journey for "a better life" or strictly for economic purposes that it would help to make clear the war and discriminatory policies in Ireland, Italy, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire that informed people's decisions. I really appreciated the last two chapters, which look at recent history, especially since it is often so difficult to teach. I often find that historical patterns are not yet obvious, but these chapters do a great job of identifying some of the connections back to major themes, particularly how September 11 set into motion many current challenges, and the entire section on "New Century, Old Disputes." Section 31.2, which includes a look at the War on Drugs and the Road to Mass Incarceration, is also an exemplary way to get students to think about current problems, but could be expanded by including a look at Stop-and-Frisk programs and the rise in privatized prisons.

Overall, the book's historical accuracy is very high--I had few complaints with the content, even in areas, like the civil rights movement, that my own research focuses on. The connections that the book makes between several themes are particularly well done. An explanation of how corruption and neglect in Gilded Age-politics led to demands for reform during the Progressive Era, for instance, really helps students understand how change occurs, while the G.I. Bill is presented not only as a catalyst for a growing middle class in post-World War Two America, but as a means of systematically reinforcing racial segregation by working with racially-discriminatory banks, insurance offices, and school admissions departments. Although the HOLC and FHA should also be mentioned to let students know how the Federal government ensured racially-segregated housing patterns, these connections, along with a look at how Japanese Americans re-entered society after being forced into internment camps during the war, really help students see the limits of democracy during this period. There are a few particular areas that do need clarification or revision, however. Woodrow Wilson receives a fairly traditional treatment as a "liberal" president whose "enlightenment" led him to support the suffrage movement and global democracy, while his entrenched racism and sexism is overlooked. A few characterizations of Henry Ford are also inaccurate, although I may be particularly sensitive to this, being from Detroit, and often teaching Urban Studies classes. Not all workers received five dollars a day--the process for approval was actually strenuous and intrusive--and black and white workers were almost never paid equal wages. Finally, Ford only implemented fair working hours because the AFL had fought for this for years, and he did not want workers to unionize. Finally, 28.4, which looks at 1950s culture, was excellent--this is my particular area of research specialization, so I was thrilled to see an examination of teenage culture and consumerism, as well as explanations of how rock and roll music broached the color line during the civil rights movement. As much as I appreciate the subject's inclusion, however, the section puts too much emphasis on white rockabilly performers and Alan Freed, when black R&B artists and independent radio stations were just as crucial in creating and popularizing this music. Finally, the student and anti-war movements are covered quite thoroughly--I have never seen a textbook acknowledge ERAP and JOIN before!--and I particularly loved how the text parallels the connection between abolitionism and the suffrage movement with how the women's movement was shaped heavily by the civil rights movement. The one thing missing from this section is an examination of COINTELPRO--students should be aware of the fact that the federal government was responding to this movement in harmful ways, and what many activists were up against when they fought for these causes.

The book's focus on consumer and popular culture is very engaging, and in keeping with social and cultural historical trends. The chapter on advertising, for instance, explains how "access to products became more important than access to the means of production," which draws students in while simultaneously explaining a massive shift in how people related to the economy. One of my favourite sections in the entire book (as well as the accompanying primary source website link) is about Yuppie culture in the 1980s. It engages students who are currently intrigued by the fashion and culture of this time period, but is not so self-aware that it becomes dated. The summary indicating how Reaganomics hurt many vulnerable people while allowing yuppies to prosper puts this cool and fun examination into broader and more crucial historical perspective. The only caveat here is that a few of the links connect to articles that, while timely now, could become dated in the future. But since this is an open text, instructors could link to new articles if they so choose.

One of the book's best features is that many sections begin by reiterating prior information to provide context for what is to come. In section 28.5, for instance, the Double "V" campaign and the G.I> Bill's reinforcement of redlining in urban areas are both re-stated as framing mechanisms for civil rights struggles in the 1950s. Students do not necessarily remember the information they read about in prior weeks, or are able to see how one thing leads to or causes another. I love how this structure not only reminds students of what they have previously read, but shows how history does not occur in a vacuum, and that flow exists from week to week, and year to year. This is how I try to structure my classes, asking students for context at the start and end of each session, so it is ideal that the book is set up this way.

As previously stated, many sections begin by reiterating what has been learned earlier. Most chapters are broken down into political, social, and cultural issues, with particular examinations of distinct identity groups. Most presidents are given a brief biography and discussion of their importance within particular historical periods. And the country's global significance, while not evident in each chapter, is prominent enough that it may be deemed consistent throughout the text.

I actually used this review as an opportunity to break down reading assignments for next semester's class, and was pleased to discover that this was fairly easy to do. With the exception of Vietnam (which is discussed throughout three chapters rather than in one), separate chapters line up quite well with particular classes, and where they do not, they are broken down by sections fairly easily. Within sections, the text is nicely broken up by images with captions and/or analytical questions, brief primary documents with follow-up questions, and links to outside materials. It was fairly easy to get through each section since paragraphs tended to focus on narrow subjects, and were almost always followed by alternative sources and questions to immediately reflect on the text.

Overall, the book is very clear. Chapters are mostly divided in a way that mirrors my class syllabus, and the text maintains a clear historical thread of cause and effect throughout. There are a places, however, where the subject matter crops up in an odd place. An examination of life among enslaved people is confined mostly to the chapter preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, for instance. Even though slavery is discussed as a political issue throughout almost all of the preceding chapters, waiting until this point in the book to include a look at people's lives may mislead students into thinking that slavery only existed on Southern plantations, or that people did not begin resisting until the eve of the Civil War. The section on the Great Migration is also in a weird spot. The text introduces this topic in Chapter 19, which spans from 1870 to 1900, when migration patterns really did not begin to shift until World War One. It makes sense to identify push factors for migration at this point in time, but it would have made more sense to move the actual section to the chapter on World War One. Redlining is also mentioned in this section, which is again odd since this was not introduced until the 1930s. I actually liked how the text divided sections on the Vietnam War among three different chapters--doing so may help students understand this war's long history, as well as its many shifts under three different administrations. This is not how I teach my class, though--I usually devote a class or two to Vietnam alone. This is not unmanageable, since students will have been prepared for discussion by the time we get to the war, but I am not sure how much of it they will remember by this point. Finally, section 31.2, which focuses on the growth of the New Right, should come earlier, and be expanded to include a deeper look at the culture wars, especially how abortion became a focal point. The brief mention included here does not quite do enough to explain Reagan's political ascendancy.

Another of the book's best attributes are the many online links to primary sources, museum and government websites, artwork, and articles. I was planning on assigning a primary source reader to complement this book, but I think I will instead try to make use of these links. One of the major problems I have is getting students to complete assigned readings so that we can engage in discussion. Even if students do complete the readings, they often forget what they read about, or did not engage deeply enough to really analyze them. Having students examine the Federal Slave Narrative database, new immigrant oral histories from the Library of Congress, or exhibits at the National Cowboy Museum, however, may engage their interests, be completed more rapidly online, and also be useful for in-class activities. The only issue with these links is that, after clicking on them, you cannot navigate back to where you were in the text. I started opening links in a separate tab instead, so this is not much of a problem, but I could see students getting frustrated if they do not think to do so.

No glaring errors.

This book does an excellent job of intertwining the stories of underrepresented groups throughout U.S. history. The first chapter is a great example--it goes into much greater detail about the lives and traditions of distinct American tribes than I have seen in any other textbook. The book also presents events that have been obscured because of their effect on people of colour, like the police shooting at Jackson State College, alongside similar events, like the shooting at Kent State, to underscore how the race of those involved affects how we remember them. Overall, cultural competency is not merely an attribute of this book--it seems to have been a defining feature right from its inception. The one group that does not receive this treatment throughout most of the book is people who identify as LGBTQ. Sexual and/or gender identity is not even mentioned until the section on McCarthyism, and even then only for a brief moment. Subsequent sections on the Stonewall uprising, the Gay Rights Movement, AIDS and ACT UP, and the Defense of Marriage Act are far more detailed, but they seem to come out of nowhere for students if the actions and contributions of LGBTQ people are not mentioned in earlier chapters.

Overall, this was a comprehensive and entertaining book--I actually enjoyed reading most sections, and even learned new things about a subject I have been teaching for years. The outside links, images, and primary source excerpts make this an ideal book for teaching from all perspectives. Most importantly, the book presents the histories of women, African Americans, Native Americans, and other underrepresented groups as inextricable to the nation's story as a whole, and examines culture and everyday life almost as closely as larger political and economic shift. I am very excited to assign this book to my students!

Reviewed by Brian Leech, Associate Professor, Augustana College on 11/18/18

Periods: Overall, good work by the authors. The text does fairly well with the pre-European contact period, although I’d still prefer more attention to North American Indians. The text is not unusual in this respect. It also would sure be nice if the authors paid a bit more attention to areas west and south of the growing United States before they join the U.S. proper. We get good tales of why and how they join the union, but not much about what happened there before. Chapter 20 does cover populism fairly well, although it neglects recent scholarship on how important populism was in the mountain West, not just on the prairie/plains. Chapter 21: good coverage on progressivism overall, even if conservation seems a bit underplayed by the authors. I quite liked the split in the period of the Great Depression—starting with Hoover’s administration in chapter 25, followed by FDR in chapter 26. Hoover and his administration get more fleshed out in this way than in typical textbook coverage of the Depression. Themes: The key political events gain effective coverage. Although political history clearly serves as the organizing factor of this book, it does, at times, do well with social life—the urban life of chapter 19 being a good example. Race is dealt with properly as an important driver to many key events. Women’s lives also gain a decent place in the text, even if there are a few times when we get “women” sections (e.g., page 177, page 490). I’d rather have women more integrated into the narrative. The topics of work, workers, and socio-economic class show up when you’d expect them to. There are a few really effective moments when the textbook considers environmental history (the “selection of hats for the fashionable gentleman” on page 306 is a nice example), even if I’d personally prefer there to be even more attention to the theme. Unfortunately, by the time we get to chapter 29 (the 1960s), politics starts to dominate coverage more and more so that by chapter 31 (the 80s and 90s), it’s essentially all politics. I'd like more attention to other areas of American life--social, cultural, even environmental--in these later periods.

As a historian, I reject the idea that anything, including a textbook, can be “unbiased” (don’t we all hold biases?), but, yes, this textbook does a nice job of trying to look at the topics accurately and it is essentially error-free. A good example is the violence in the wild west section of chapter 17, which provides a nicely balanced view coming out of recent scholarship.

Yes, the textbook does a good job at tackling many topics with the use of the latest scholarship. I’d actually prefer if it was more up front about what kind of scholarship it’s using when, but that’s more of a pet peeve I have with all textbooks.

The text is well-written. Many sections are actually quite effective, even gripping, for a textbook. There are other times when it heads more into a bit drier textbook style, but it’s still always easy to read, quite accessible to the average reader.

The overall format of each book chapter is strong and includes well-written summaries of the key messages for each chapter at the end.

Yes, the textbook is easy to break up into sections so that they can be assigned at different points in the term. I’ve never thought it a good idea to have a book that doesn’t refer back to or build upon earlier materials in the book (wouldn’t that give the narrative more drive?), so I'm actually not sure "modularity" is a good aspect to a book.

Overall, this textbook follows the format of many previous textbooks--it's clear why each choice is made. There are a few periodizations that I found unusual—like westward expansion from 1800-1860 in chapter 11, then westward expansion, 1840-1900 in chapter 17. Given the overlap between the two periods, I’m not exactly sure why the authors decided on those breaks (certainly the issue of free soil versus slavery expansion is a good reason, although there’s much more in chapter 11 than those topics). I do very much appreciate the fact that the American West doesn’t just get confined to a single chapter, which happens in most other textbooks.

Nice “click and explore” elements, like the link to “virtual Jamestown” or the erie canal map, for instance. I’d like to encourage future editions to do even more work at providing links to documents, maps, and other elements that would enliven the text. Why not make the online accessibility of an OER textbook a way to truly standout from other textbooks?

Great work!

The textbook does well with race throughout. Gender is also dealt with fairly well.

The short selections from primary sources are a nice touch. I’d actually like more of them as a way to break up the big chunks of narrative text.

Reviewed by Kathleen Pannozzi, Assistant Professor of Educational Studies, Rhode Island College on 6/19/18

This US History text is certainly comprehensive. In its 32 chapters all phases of the development of the American nation are addressed. In some cases there are multiple chapters on one era. The period of 1760-1790 is explored in chapters 5, 6 and 7. Additionally the ante-bellum period is discussed in chapters 11, 12, 13 and 14. There are a variety of primary sources embedded in the text, as well as maps and other illustrations.

By checking throughout the text, I found no glaring inaccuracies. The discussion of some issues, like the controversy over European's horrific actions in the New World, reflect good scholarship. However, the section on the US and the European Holocaust is assigned to "Further Reading". Also, a discussion of the Fred Korematsu case about Japanese Americans being interned during WW 2, does not get sufficient exposure. Is this inaccuracy? Perhaps this is more about comprehensiveness, but it needs to be addressed.

With any history text, there is always the question of updating after a period of a few years. The nature of this text would be easily updated with an addenda that addressed recent events. The very nature of an OpenStax source like "US History" allows for reworking of the basic text either by an individual teacher, or if needed, by the original authors/editor.

This is an eminently readable text. After many years (over 40) of reading history texts and teaching from them at both the secondary and college levels, I found this book both accessible and clear. There are not overly long sentences or awkward descriptions that tend to numb the attention of the reader.

Despite the fact that multiple authors are listed as contributors to this text, there is a consistency throughout the text regarding its framework. The use of primary sources, which are embedded into the text and the questions at the end of each section are very helpful. The summary at the start and finish of chapters are also an excellent feature.

From my perspective this text lends itself to the kind of modularity that I need in my college freshman course. I am not teaching a survey, so it is essential that the book be easily divisible into not only chapters, but in some cases, sub-headings within chapters. In the introduction, this modularity is made clear!

"Because our books are openly licensed, you are free to use the entire book or pick and choose the sections that are most relevant to the needs of your course. Feel free to remix the content by assigning your students certain chapters and sections in your syllabus, in the order that you prefer. You can even provide a direct link in your syllabus to the sections in the web view of your book. Instructors also have the option of creating a customized version of their OpenStax book. The custom version can be made available to students in low-cost print or digital form through their campus bookstore. Visit your book page on OpenStax.org for more information.

This text is well organized. Moreover, considering its modularity, it allows any instructor to create their own structure. If an instructor wants to consider a theme like human rights - philosophy, development, legalization and abuses of those rights in the American story- they can do this with ease. The inclusion of so many "extras", like links to sources, puts students at a distinct advantage. The richness of this text far surpasses other US History texts I have used in the past.

My review of this text indicates that there are no significant issues with navigating its various features such as maps, photos, and relevant primary sources. In fact, the links embedded in the online version make exploring primary sources both easy and convenient. The location of maps, charts, other images or features are appropriately located to increase access and understanding.

Reading through many sections with an eye to error is a common practice of mine after many (47) years of teaching. I am surprised by its grammatical accuracy, which is an important quality when reaching students and hoping to assist them in their own communication skills.

Generally speaking, I am pleasantly surprised by the culturally inclusive nature of this text. For example, there is a good explanation of the US internment of 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans starting in 1942. However, there is no solid description of the horrendous war against Philippine Independence which the US waged for close to 14 years (1900-1913). The only reference in the stories of WW 2 to the US refusal to assist Jews fleeing Europe in the 1930s and 1940s is in one source in "Further Reading". For me, that is not sufficient.

Like many other general US History texts for college courses, this text is both sufficient and makes a good effort at representing a wide variety of important and controversial issues Its features make for an adaptable textbook for a particular focus within a course. However, I find certain holes concerning what I would call the darker side of US history, like my mention of the scarce coverage of the Philippine-American War and the rather hidden account of the failure of American government to help rescue those fleeing from Hitler. Despite these "holes", it is a text I would adopt for my freshman level US History course!

Reviewed by Morten Bach, Associate Lecturer, Ohio University - Zanesville on 2/1/18

The text certainly aspires to be comprehensive with thirty-two chapters moving from the pre-Columbian context to Barack Obama’s second term. For the most part, it compares favorably to the commercial text I’ve been using in my U.S. history survey in recent years. For the 20th century – the area with which I am most familiar – the text seems well-balanced and without glaring omissions. The most important exception to that rule is the chapter on World War II. The section on pre-war neutrality ignores much of the debate over intervention. The discussion of the Pacific War mentions the naval component of that conflict, but barely. It mentions kamikaze (attacks) without explaining what they were. It discusses the atomic bomb missions in detail (down to secondary targets), but merely alludes to the massive conventional bombing campaign. Similarly, there is no mention of the air war against Germany at all. Beyond WWII, elements of the Cold War such as propaganda get short shrift as does the issue of Berlin past the blockade in the late 1940s. The latter seems like a detail but becomes a potential source of confusion when the Berlin Wall shows up (obviously symbolic, but unexplained) at the end of the 1980s.

In the parts of the text that pertained most directly to my area of expertise, I found the text to be generally reliable and accurate on matters of fact. I did find a couple of exceptions: In the section on “The American Dream,” massive retaliation is conflated and confused with Mutual Assured Destruction which, in turn, is wrongly attributed to Eisenhower. In the following chapter, President Kennedy’s health problems are incorrectly attributed to his wartime service. The latter point is trivial, the former easily fixed.

Given its broadly chronological organization and the absence of a particularly strident or controversial perspective, this text should be relatively easy to update. The final chapter is exactly the kind of insta-history that will likely need constant attention.

The text is quite good on this point. The writing is clear and accessible throughout. The text is free from excessive jargon and usually provides a clear definition of unfamiliar terms. For the most part, titles of chapter sections have sensible and self-explanatory titles.

In general, the text is consistently organized in thematic chapters within a general chronology. There is a notable (and odd) exception with the 1960s where the “presidential synthesis” seems to sneak in with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. There’s a lot of Hoover in the Depression, too. The reason for those emphases isn’t clear.

The text appears relatively easily divided into reading assignments that could be used in isolation. Frequent subheadings and brief sections should facilitate the process.

The organization is fairly conventional for a survey text of this kind. Nothing seems obviously out of place within the general organization of the text.

I only looked at the e-book, using a desktop PC and a tablet. I had no problems navigating the text or using the various links. Images and other graphics appeared as expected.

Here, too, the text seemed most problem-free. There were no obvious grammatical problems. Typos, too, seem rare. I noticed only a couple: George Percy is misidentified as “Henry” in the section on early Jamestown and West Berlin's Tempelhof Airport is misspelled as “Templehof” in a picture caption of the section dealing with the Berlin Blockade.

I did not find the text insensitive or offensive. Like most other recent texts with which I am familiar, it strives to present a variety of perspectives.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this text. In the right kind of setting, I think it could be a very useful alternative to existing commercial texts. It’s obviously meant for an introductory-level student in search of an overview, not for advanced students focusing on some particular subject or era.

On that note, though, I would like to add that the principles behind the selection of “further readings” is anything but clear to me. In the section “World War, Cold War and Prosperity,” there is one volume on the Ruhr Crisis of the 1920s, two popular works on Ronald Reagan, a memoir by a Russian ambassador, six books on World War II, one volume tangentially related to prosperity, a memoir of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and a book on Richard Nixon’s campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas. If there’s some sort of selection criterion at work here, I am not sure what it is.

Reviewed by Jonathan Rees, Professor of History, Colorado State University - Pueblo on 2/1/18

It's comprehensive, but the depth of coverage is uneven. There is far more detail on the pre-1945 period than the post-1945 period. In the earlier period, the same years are (rightfully) covered in multiple chapters. In the post-1945 periods, whole decades only get half a chapter. With respect to kinds of history, it's very good in giving race and gender sufficient attention.

Generally good. I have some problems with the chronologies in some cases, like running the Progressive Era up to 1920,

It reflects the last twenty or so years of scholarship very well in its inclusiveness. Personally, I don't feel the need to cover presidential elections in this depth, but I understand the decision.

I think it is written well. I worry about students trying to read long blocks of uninterrupted text on their computers, though.

Consistency rating: 3

It's not. I mentioned the post-1945 split. Another problem is the tendency to start the early chapters in different years, particularly subjects like the West that begin well before 1877. I know some second half survey classes begin in 1877 and some in 1865, but I've never heard anyone starting in 1870. In a large department where the starting dates need to be clearly defined, this would be a problem.

I never thought about modularity as a thing before, but yes I do think they've done a good job with that. I'd be more likely to extract and mix sections of this text than assign the whole text itself because some parts of this text are just lovely. The 1920s chapter, for instance. The maps are also really, really well-done.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 2

Here I have serious problems. I mentioned dating problems in the early chapters and the speed with which post-1945 decades are dispensed. I'd add a few chapter divisions. Breaking up Populists and Progressives is just never done elsewhere. Limiting the Depression decade to 1932 is also unheard of elsewhere. I really hate the fact that the 1980s and 1990s are crammed into one chapter too. And then, most of the material there is political.

Perhaps the print is a bit small in .pdf, but then again I didn't bother to try to fix it. I might gather more pictures for the later chapters (despite copyright issues) just to break up the text more for students.

I didn't notice any issues.

It's mostly very good. A very nice balance of race, class, gender and more traditional historical issues. This changes though after the 1960s as the more modern organizational ideas are what get passed over in the latter chapters.

As you may have noticed by now, I concentrated exclusively on the post-1877 chapters because that's the period I teach. It should be an absolute no-brainer to break this up into two separate .pdf files because every single university I've ever encountered breaks US history up into two courses broken somewhere in the later half of the nineteenth century. Even if a student wanted to take both halves, there's no assurances that they'd get the same teacher assigning the same open textbook. Save the students the trouble of downloading half a huge file they won't need!!!

Reviewed by Arlene Reilly-Sandoval, Associate Professor, Colorado State University-Pueblo on 2/1/18

This text covers Pre-Colombian U.S. to the 21st Century. It is comprehensive in that it covers not just the major wars or conflicts, but also the industrialization, struggles of indigenous populations, and the development of a nation. This book... read more

This text appears accurate and unbiased. It does describe situations from different viewpoints, including racial, ethnic, and religious populations.

This book definitely has longevity. It might need more chapters added throughout the years, or some edits based on new information about the past, but it appears to have made a strong effort to describe history from other viewpoints and not just the western European viewpoint.

This book is fairly easy to read and written in a way that most students will no problem understanding.

The book is consistent in describing different viewpoints and the historical record. It strives to be culturally competent while imparting important information about historical events.

This book contains 32 chapters, which can be reorganized and allows for a selection of specific chapters as needed. It appears to be very adaptable into modules.

The book is primarily presented in chronological order, which makes the most sense for a history book. The authors do look at several aspects of history, from a social, economic, political, and culture viewpoint, which makes it very interesting. History is a topic that usually taken by students who are history majors or who must take a history general education course. This book contains information that would interest students from several different majors because of the breadth of information.

No major navigation problems, even when clicking links for more information within the chapters. The images and links serve to pique interest rather than distract from the information provided.

The book is well-written and understandable. I did not notice glaring grammar or typographical errors.

One of the strengths of this book is that it attempts to address the viewpoint of different cultures, or at least describe non-European cultures and history. The links provided in the text direct the student to additional information.

I enjoyed reading this book! It reminded me of some historical facts I had forgotten and I was pleased to read about different indigenous populations in a historical context.

Reviewed by Matthew Whitlock, Adjunct Instructor, Tidewater Community College on 8/15/17

The textbook is very comprehensive, covering pre-contact to the 21st Century in 32 chapters. The authors provide thorough details in 1052 pages. Providing some additional primary sources into some of the chapters would be great. read more

The textbook is accurate and unbiased. It is well-balanced and relatively error-free.

Focusing primarily on the last two chapters, the textbook is written in a way that updates might not be easily implemented. I worry that with the constant changes in technology and terminology, the author(s) might have to re-write the final chapters.

The text is clear and presented at a high-school and college level. The key terms in each chapter help with the terminology that some might find challenging. The problem still exists with new terminology that rarely appears in the text.

The text is very consistent. I believe that students will be able to quickly adapt to the textbook's setup.

The text is easily divisible and I like the available navigate bar.

The text is structured well and has a great flow chronologically.

I found no problems with the interface of the text. The hyperlinks used in the text are a great addition.

I could not find grammatical errors in the text.

I believe the text is respectful and inclusive. Again, I worry about the terminology.

This is an excellent OER text for the introductory U.S. History classes at the college or university level and for an upper-level high school U.S. History class. A few more primary sources would not hurt the text.

Reviewed by Leah Hagedorn, Professor of History, Tidewater Community College on 8/15/17

Comprehensiveness rating: 2 see less

This promising textbook would benefit from greater comprehensiveness and greater depth. The book is easily searchable. In considering the text for community college use, at least twenty percent of community college students have disabilities and it would have been wonderful if the authors had incorporated more disability history into the text. Too, the book needs more intellectual history, with fuller coverage of republicanism, for example. More attention to the history of the development of technologies would broaden the appeal of this text to twenty-first century students.

I hope that in subsequent revisions the authors will do more with American isolationism.

This text appears easily updateable.

This text is clearly written, although some word choices (for example, "tripwire") will be unfamiliar to twenty-first century students.

The text is internally consistent.

The modularity will be helpful to those who need small reading units.

The text is clearly organized.

Interface rating: 1

The interface needs improvement for accessibility; the free versions need variable line spacing and enlargeable fonts (features that the free PDF didn't offer).

The book is clearly written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 2

The text needs greater coverage of people with disabilities as historical actors and more attention to the experiences of members of immigrant groups.

This work, particularly if revised, has the potential to replace many U.S. survey texts. It needs more people; the text seems to offer a bird's eye view of U.S. history. It would be wonderful to have more accounts of individuals whose experiences embody historical movements and moments. The linked resources are well-chosen but marginalize digital divide students.

Reviewed by John Haymond, Adjunct Instructor of History, Riverland Community College on 6/20/17

I was most interested in the portions of this text that dealt with events from mid-19th century to the First World War, but I still read through sections bracketing that date range. In its aim to cover the entire sweep of American history from before European contact to the 21st century, this text is ambitious. So broad a scope, however, pretty much guarantees one of two outcomes -- either the book will be so long and ponderous in its attempt to cover all the worthwhile history that it would be simply too bloated to use; or, it will have to settle for incomplete discussions of major events while completely skipping over relatively minor ones. In the case of this text, the second outcome is clearly the result. It touches on the highlights of U.S. history without ever really engaging in the sort of deep contextual discussion that truly engages with the history it is discussing. That being said, however, this text still serves as an accessible, clearly written introduction to the big picture questions of American history. It will not serve as a detailed examination of particular eras of that history nearly so well.

Speaking specifically of this text's treatment of American westward expansion, the period of frontier conflict with Native Americans, and the latter half of the 19th century, I found it to be highly problematic. In simplest terms, this text's discussion of European American -- Native American conflict is one-dimensional, overly assumptive, prone to bias, and shallow. A student with no other knowledge of American frontier history would likely come away from this book thinking that the conflicts between Indians and whites were always precipitated by white settlers and "militias," a term the text seems particularly fond of using. Quote: "Although the threat of Indian attacks was quite slim and nowhere proportionate to the number of U.S. Army actions directed against them, the occasional attack—often one of retaliation—was enough to fuel the popular fear of the 'savage' Indians. The clashes, when they happened, were indeed brutal, although most of the brutality occurred at the hands of the settlers." Several problems with this sort of writing immediately strike me. First, it is not accurate. A straightforward tally of simple numbers -- the incident rate of Indian depredations vs. army actions -- would lead to a markedly different conclusion (the annual returns of the army departments of the western territories 1866-1890 make this very clear, as do reliable secondary sources such as Robert Utley, Edward Coffman, Peter Cozzens, etc.). Second, it castigates the U.S. Army without ever acknowledging the fact that the army itself was on record as frequently stating that settler fears of Indian threat were exaggerated and overblown. Third, it makes declarative conclusions on controversial history without ever presenting any source evidence in support of those conclusions. It is, frankly, a far too one-dimensional depiction of a very complex period of American history. In rejecting the European-American biases of older histories of U.S. expansion, it errs on the other side of the coin by resorting to inaccurate over-generalizations. There is a notable lack of balance in this text's handling of this particular history, an assessment which is also supported by the books listed in the "Further Reading" section pertaining to this chapter -- the cited texts are mostly of a particular slant. There are some excellent compendiums of primary source materials which would offer students a chance to gain both historical context and personal insight into the events discussed so summarily in this text, some of which would actually support the textbook's conclusions but provide ample historical evidence in the process.

As history, the material is written in language that will probably not be outdated anytime soon. The perspectives are, for the most part, worded in such a way that they will not fall out of scholarly fashion in the next few years. Organized as the text is, any changes or additions to the material would probably be very easy to implement.

The narrative here is extremely accessible, not needlessly academic in tone, language, or style, and easy to follow. I would say that this makes it a very good text for first or second year college history students. At the same time, there were sections where I felt the writing was almost too simplistic. Not a problem of dumbing-down, by any means, but neither was there much depth or challenge in it. Ideally, a history text should be accessible enough to allow students to engage with its material, but also written so as to challenge their preconceptions (if they have any), stimulate their analytical thinking, and encourage further exploration. This text, I feel, fails on the first point, is not sufficiently robust to meet the second point, but does have the potential to achieve the third point.

I found the writing, organization, and presentation of the text to be very consistent throughout the book.

Very easy to navigate, with sections and sub-sections all clearly delineated and easily found. Starting with the table of contents, the organization of the text made it very simple to move through the entire book without disorientation.

As is true of most history books, this text is laid out in chronological order, with the events of one chapter leading to those in the next. While this is a time-proven method that is undeniably user-friendly and good for students who may not yet be ready for more complicated scholarly writing, it does leave me feeling that it is a little too simplistic for detailed examinations of the subject or for analytical discussion.

I did not find any navigation problems at all. All images were clear.

There were no grammatical errors of any kind that I noticed. The writing style itself was perhaps far too passive-voiced, but that's an entirely different matter.

If there is a fault with this text in this particular area of assessment, it is that it is so determined to be culturally sensitive and inoffensive to the traditionally maligned / marginalized / mistreated groups (Native American peoples, in particular) that it swings too far to the other extreme and has a tendency to make broad, sweeping generalizations about white American society that are themselves far too broad to ever be completely accurate. Castigating an entire race or ethnicity without citing specifics is always problematic, no matter which race or ethnic group is being painted with the broad brush. That being said, I think the text does a good job of trying to include elements of the stories of almost all quarters of American society in the eras it discusses. The problem is that its approach is too one-dimensional and overly broad to allow for real discussion of these different perspectives.

I think this text would be particularly useful for an introductory course in American history that is geared toward first or second year students. It is not deep enough, nor intellectually robust enough, to serve as a text for more advanced studies of American history.

Reviewed by Tom Nejely, Instructor, Klamath Community College on 6/20/17

I am reviewing this text from the viewpoint of a community college survey course, whose students may or may not be at college level writing. This population has certain needs and behaviors that influence the way I'm going to review the text. Student requests for an OER text have become overwhelming just in the last year and a half. However, they have made it clear that a good text must have certain things: 1. ease of navigation. If they have to scroll, they won't use it. 2. It must be "used." That means assignments, quizzes, or tests must cause them to open the text and refer to certain parts while taking or preparing for the assignment/quiz/test. 3. Students will generally not use the text on their own motivation to come prepared for class. 4. It needs to be interesting. Students would rather spend 3 hours Google searching rather than just 15 minutes reading a boring text.

About this text's comprehensiveness: It is a very traditional text modeled on many editions that I have sitting on my shelves. Its focus is very clearly on Europe and the "lower 48." Therefore, America's role in the 19th century westernizing of Japan, conquest of the Hawaiian islands, or any mention of the international grab for imperial dominance around the Pacific is/are missing. If an instructor wishes to expand the horizons of the class, this text will not be sufficient. On the other hand, that's an opportunity to have students reach further abroad for sources instead of just one textbook.

Is the text comprehensive enough to be useful? Yes, with some caveats that include a limited number of primary sources, a tight focus on the lower 48 and a lack of a global viewpoint. That doesn't mean its a poor book, it's just on the instructor to know what supplementation they'll need.

The "click and Explore" function in each section is worth mentioning. If an instructor sets this up right, these can be very useful class or group projects. I liked exploring them, but not enough for them to be self-motivating.

I didn't find the same degree of inaccuracy that other reviewers refer to. I find it - appropriate to the student population I deal with - reasonably accurate, error-free, and unbiased.

For this comment I read with interest the last sections of the text which are the most modern. The author(s) present the war on terror matter-of-factly, and do not mention the concerns of privacy and surveillance that have arisen. Since this is an ever-increasing issue, and the current generation of students is entirely focused on their electronic devises, this lack means that the end of the text will become rapidly insufficient.

Baby boomer historians have fallen into an unfortunate trap: they write in a language that the next generation doesn't speak. There is an abundance of language that renders many textbooks inaccessible to students, and this text is no different.

Very consistent. Once students and faculty have become accustomed to what the text has to offer, they are good to go.

The text does in fact divide easily and the navigate bar on the left makes things work very well.

Clear enough; I didn't notice it. The absence of annoyances means it will work adequately for a class.

The interface works well once the reader understands the need for an initial click to enable the sidebar navigation tool.

I didn't find any editing problems that would interfere with student learning.

For this comment I looked specifically at the South before the Civil War and the Civil Rights movements of the 60s sections. These narratives were stock-in-trade so far as I could tell avoiding most insensitivities or offensiveness. the civil rights section focused almost exclusively on the African-American experience. Some mention of the Mexican-American movement was made, but the Amerindian experience is completely missing.

This is basically a traditional text that will need instructor creativity and thoughtfulness to make it into an effective learning experience for students. It does not at all pretend to be global in its perspective. I found the chapter end review questions to be disappointing and any instructor should not rely on these to help students learn. Its navigation is easy to use, once a reader understand the need for the initial button click that enables the left side bar.

Reviewed by Thomas Woodhouse, Instructor, Riverland Community College on 6/20/17

This textbook is comprehensive. It covers events from pre-1492 through the last years of President Obama's administration. It looks at social, economic, cultural, political, racial, gender and military history, and it often goes beyond those... read more

It covers topics in more depth than most other history texts. For example, the book spends much more time on the background history leading up until the European conquest of the New World than is common in other textbooks.

It has a good index and glossary as well as a good review section at the end of each chapter.

I found no factual inaccuracies in the text. As for interpretation of events, the authors are very thorough in looking at events from many different perspectives. For example, though the authors interpret the Mexican-American War as a war of aggression by the United States, they, nevertheless, include a good discussion of why the United States went to war and even include a discussion of the American claims of the Rio Grande River as the border with Mexico. I have read few other survey texts that include that later information. As with any text, one can quibble with interpretations and with the choices of which information to include and which to exclude. For example, in discussing the reasons for the Japanese surrender in the Second World War, they discussed the dropping of the atomic bomb but did not mention the impact of the Soviet declaration of war on Japan in the final days before the surrender. With interpretation of events, the book overs very little to criticize and much to praise.

The book is fresh but is not faddish. It will have a long shelf-life and can easily be updated should the need arise.

The authors write in a clear style that should be accessible to the average college student.

The book is consistent in its use of terminology.

The authors have a sound division of chapters which will make the book easy to break up into smaller teaching units.

The book is well organized and has a nice flow. The authors usually stick to a chronological approach, but they sometimes step away from that organization and look a a single subject over a longer period of time than is covered in any one chapter.

The authors have many hyperlinks built into their book that will take the reader to much more information than is included in the actual text itself.

The text is well written. William Strunk Jr. would be pleased with the books elements of style.

The text is very inclusive.

This text is a gem. I will use it in all my survey U.S. history classes.

Reviewed by Kurt Kortenhof, History Instructor, Saint Paul College on 4/11/17

The US History text is organized into 32 chapters that adequately present an outline of American history from pre-contact to 2014. The book is also easily adaptable to the two US History survey structure most colleges and universities follow. While no two instructors will agree on the level of detail aspects of US history should receive, this text does to a nice job of presenting a useful narrative supported by ancillaries that include: brief chapter timelines, sidebars (Americana, Defining America, and My Story), images, maps, web links, section-level objectives (that correspond to lower level of Bloom’s Taxonomy), bold-faced key terms, section summaries, and objective and essay review questions.

The appendices include: The Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution, Presidents of the US, a political and topographical map, a population chart, and a list of suggested readings. In all, the appendices offer significantly less than many traditional US History textbooks provide.

The text also includes a glossary with hyper-links to the terms’ mention in the text. The glossary is, however, significantly less robust than many other textbooks provide.

The text reflects a middle-of-the-road contemporary interpretation of US history. I did not see any glaring factual errors in the text (nor would I expect to). I think that people can argue about the balance and emphasis of any text, but I thought overall this book is balanced. Having said that, in places I did question the emphasis of certain aspects of the interpretation. For example, in discussing the home front during World War I, a lot of space is devoted to discussing those who opposed the draft and the ramification of doing so, while little was mentioned of the overwhelming support of the war illustrated by a general compliance to the selective service act (and other factors).

This book is current as of 2014. Like any history text that runs up to contemporary times, the last chapter of the book will need to be continually updated.

I thought the writing in the text is one of the strong points. Although the writing is broken up by ancillaries, headings, and subheadings an engaging narrative still drives the book. The book is easy to follow and has a nice flow to it.

The text is written at what appears to me to be a higher reading level than the book I am currently using (Faragher, OUT OF MANY – Brief edition). Because I teach in an open-enrollment community college environment, this might present challenges for me and others teaching in a similar environment.

I did not note any changes in writing styles of significant variations in chapter length (although like all textbooks, some chapters are a bit longer than others). I also thought that the ancillaries brought a consistency to the text from chapter to chapter.

I do think that the authors do a nice job providing context where needed to allow students to pick up in 1877 and make sense of the content. Further, many of the chapters or sections can stand on their own if an instructor wanted to assign parts and pieces of the text.

I did notice that this books appears dense in places and there are multiple examples of pages of text not broken up by images or interactives. In this sense, my current text does a nice better job of providing a presentation that is not intimidating for students.

For the most part the text is logically organized and well suited to work for institutions that split the US survey in 1877. The first 16 chapters run from pre-contact to Reconstruction, while the remaining 16 chapters run from 1877 to 2014. If your course is split in 1865, as it currently is at my institution, the chapter organization presents a problem with 15 chapters in the first half of the survey and 17 in the second half. If we adopt this book, we will likely adjust our survey courses so they splint in 1877.

At the chapter level, the content is organized into the 32 chapters in a logical fashion for the most part. There are, however, some curiosities. The most puzzling to me is the treatment of Manifest Destiny. While the text does discuss 1840s expansion in chapter 11: “A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 1800-1850,” nowhere in that chapter is the term Manifest Destiny introduced even though it was coined in connection with a debate to annex Texas in 1845 (which is addressed). Later in chapter 17: “Go West Young Man! Westward Expansion, 1840-1900,” the term Manifest Destiny is introduced and rightly – although briefly – associated with the acquisition of Texas. The issue is that this mention comes in a chapter that falls in the second half of the course and not associated in the section of the course that covers the 1840s (a period more commonly associated with the concept of Manifest Destiny in US history). Further, students using the index to search for “Manifest Destiny” are taken to Chapter 17, and not chapter 14.

Additional aspects of the organization that I question include: separating out the Revolutionary War into a separate chapter from the larger Revolution, and dividing the treatment of the Great Depression into a chapter focusing on the Hoover administration and one focusing on Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The organization within chapters is driven by well-designed sections and subsections and will, in my opinion, serve students well. I did think it is odd, however, that the chapters have introductions that sit before and outside of the chapter sections, but no conclusions.

By far the most disappointing aspect of this text is the interface. Students can view the text online, as a PDF, or download an iBook for a minor charge. I reviewed the interface in all three versions of the text and feel that the iBook version offers the best user experience, but one that still falls below basic expectations. Here are a couple of frustrations: • Key Terms: while the iBook offers pop-up definitions to bold-face key terms, the PDF and online version do not. To find the pull-out definition in these other formats, students must scroll to the end of the chapter. • Images and Maps: More disappointing are the images, cartoons, and maps. In most cases the images are too small to see important details. In the online and PDF versions of the text, they cannot be expanded. In the iBook version students can click to expand the images by 50% - but it only stretches the image and makes it less legible. While the authors have selected useful political cartoons, the images are reproduced in such a way that make it impossible to students to read the text to fully understand the messages. Two of many examples of this short coming are: figure 11.19 (page 328) and figure 12.18 (page 363). An example of a map that cannot be read at all, see figure 23.16 (page 682). • Look and Feel: The look and feel of this text is bland and will not compare well to other fee-based print or online textbooks. Further, it may feel dated and clunky to our students who are often times use to slick, interactive interfaces in other aspects of their lives. • Interactives: Beyond the chapter review questions (of which only ½ have answers), and the option to be launched into content-related web sites, there is no interactivity in this text.

On the positive side, students are able to highlight section of text in both the PDF and iBook version of the text. Additionally, the iBook version offers its standard functionality that allows readers to create note cards.

I did not notice any grammatical issues.

This text does a nice job of reflecting a relatively current and inclusive interpretation of US history. In all places where I expected to see inclusive discussions, I found them.

I think that the cost saving students will realize with this book are significant and clearly the most compelling reason to adopt this text. Doing so, however, brings some draw backs and perhaps challenges for our students.

Reviewed by Gerd Horten, Professor of History, Concordia University--Portland, Oregon on 2/15/17

The coverage of this textbook is very comprehensive. The 32 chapters are very similar to many other textbooks which are commercially available, and they are well suited for two-semester and three-term surveys of US history. Especially in the opening chapters, the textbook also provides a helpful global perspective on the developments and factors influencing the conquest and the settlement of the Americas as well as the American Indian cultures and societies already in existence. The wide-angle lens of this narrative does a fine job in terms of contextualizing especially early American history, but the textbook very ably and comprehensively covers later historical eras as well.

The textbook provides an accurate and rather well-balanced portrayal of US history. This attempt to objectively reflect American history comes through in a few ways. For one, the portrayal of post-World War II and especially also post-1960s movements is presented in a fair and even-handed manner. In addition, the many opportunities to dig deeper in sections such as "Click and Explore" or "Americana" highlight various angles and perspectives on important historical events and developments.

The authors of the textbook make a concerted effort to connect historical events and developments from the past with current-day concerns and controversies. Thus, a section on "environmental changes" is seamlessly inserted in early colonial history (Chapter 3) and the controversies surrounding slavery are connected to developments in colonial consumer society (Chapter 4). The document selections also do a valiant job in terms of connecting past and present in similar ways. More such synthesis segments might further enhance the overall strength of this textbook.

The writing is very accessible and clear. There are few overly long sentences, and the use of language and terminology seems well within the range of most undergraduate students. Every chapter in addition concludes with a section of key terms which will help to identify and explain some of the most important concepts and the most challenging terminology. A section of review questions at the end of each chapter allows students to instantly check their understanding of the most important material covered in the respective chapters.

As in most textbooks, some chapters are clearly stronger and more in-depth than others, which is often dependent on the areas of specialties of the authors. This textbook is no exception to this general rule. For example, issues of gender and race are covered more comprehensive in the chapters surrounding the American Revolution (Chapters 5 & 6) than in the chapters leading up to the Civil War. Also, while many chapters are thematically centered, some topics in modern US history, such as the Vietnam War, is interspersed over several chapters (Chapters 28-30). While certainly defensible in its approach, this might provide somewhat of a challenge for many lower-level undergraduate students. But in general, the chapters are dealt with in a very even-handed and consistent manner.

The division of the chapters and sub-headings is very clear and appropriately handled. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the number of chapters and sub-divisions will align very well and smoothly with most survey courses. Chapters 1-16 cover the first half of the survey up through the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. The second 16 chapters move all the way up to the election and presidency of Barack Obama (up until 2014). I think the book is also rather effective in concisely covering postwar US history in seven clearly written chapters. If one were to follow this textbook outline, chances of reaching the 21st century would greatly increase, which is something most instructors (including yours truly) struggle to accomplish.

The textbook is very clearly and effectively organized, and central topics are clearly identified in the headings as well as the sub-headings of each chapter. I think that the textbook also clearly identifies specific watersheds, such as the years 1774/75 in terms of the lead-up to the American Revolution (Chapters 5 & 6). In addition, especially the antebellum chapters are thematically divided in a clear manner. which seems appropriate especially for such topics as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the reform movements of the early 19th century (Chapters 9-13).

The interface works very smoothly and effectively. The hyperlinks in particular allow for quick detours and explorations, which lend themselves either for in-class discussions, homework assignments or starting points for small research projects. I think this online version and the ease of clicking and connecting to bonafide websites and historical information might further encourage students to distinguish more clearly between useful and less useful internet sources.

The textbook is very well written. I have to admit that I did not read every word of it, but I did not detect grammatical errors in the sections which I read or surveyed.

The textbook makes a very valiant effort to be culturally relevant. There are no offensive or culturally insensitive segments which I noticed. It does use the term "American Indian" rather than "Native American", which might deter some instructors from using it, but the authors also provide a very well-reasoned rationale for the choice. In addition, similar to most textbooks, women, American Indians and other racial minorities are highlighted in specific chapters, but this coverage is not carried through for all chapters in an even manner (which is admittedly very difficult to accomplish). I think the textbook deserves relatively high marks in terms of cultural relevance.

This is a very strong textbook overall and certainly can compete with those that are commercially available. The ease and frequency of the "Click & Explore" and the "Americana" sections as well as the documents inserted between sub-headings provide ample opportunities for additional study and exploration. I also think that the condensed post-World War II chapters provide a helpful road map for instructors who attempt to reach more recent decades of American history in their survey classes--and maybe even venture into the 21st century of US history by the end of the final course.

Reviewed by David Jamison, Visiting Assistant Professor, Miami University -- Middletown on 8/21/16

At 1052 pages, "U.S. History" is nothing if not comprehensive. Maybe comprehensive to a fault. Although it fulfills its duty as a history textbook by including fairly detailed recountings of events (with some exceptions to come), the editors are guilty of including large chunks of information in the precolonial and colonial eras that are tangential at best to the story of U.S. History. One example is the entirety of Chapter 2. It’s called “Early Globalization in the Atlantic World,” but it’s not. The entire chapter is largely background information on contemporary European political and cultural history in order to give us context for when we later read about what was happening in the Americas.

There were some glaring inaccuracies, mostly concentrating in the section on “West Africa and the Role of Slavery.” The text mentions that “West Africa . . . was linked to the rise and diffusion of Islam.” This statement is wildly vague and inaccurate. How can a region be "linked" to a religion that doesn’t reach it until the 8th Century? Are the editors not aware of the rise of the pre-Islamic Nok civilizations and their terra cotta figures and ironworking? The state of Ghana likewise exploited the gold-for-salt trade using Berber and Tuareg intermediaries before Islam had made it to West Africa. And what of the powerful non-Muslim states of West Central Africa, Kongo and Angola? Do they not merit a mention?

A few sentences down, the text claims “Until about 600 CE, most Africans were hunter-gatherers.” This sentence was actually flabbergasting. The Agricultural Revolution hit West Africa at least as early as the second millennium B.C.E., and the Bantu peoples began their spread from Cameroon to over the entirety of southern Africa -- bringing agriculture and iron-working technology -- soon after, eventually replacing the hunter-gatherer culture of southern Khoisan speakers. There were large groups of people who were hunter-gatherers in 600 CE to be sure, as there large groups of pastoralists, but this sentence seriously decontextualizes the actual on-the-ground reality.

There are more. In the very same paragraph, to say that “Sub-Saharan Africans had little experience in maritime matters. Most of the population lived away from the coast, which is connected to the interior by five main rivers” robs the teacher of the chance to teach students about the Liberian-area Kru people, who ferried African American colonists back and forth from the coasts because their ships couldn’t face the rocky shore. And this would be a direct tie-in to American history. Of course there were hundreds of groups who lived near the ocean, but there was never economic or population-pressure motivation to explore transoceanic exploration. Suffice it to say, the research on this section left quite a bit to be desired and is in need of a general rewrite. I would say that this is one of the book’s more immediate concerns. The following section on African slavery, however, is excellent, particularly the connection between the construction of race with slavery. Although a section on parallel social institutions among Amerindian groups and on serfdom in Europe in this chapter would give the chapter more overall thematic balance.

Much as the text gives too much primacy to the role of Islam in the construction of political and cultural cohesion in West Africa, it gives too little credit to Muslim culture in the contribution it made to European culture, particularly the Renaissance, in its treatment of the events in sections 2.1 and later in the flowering of the Enlightenment in section 4.4. It ignores how the Moors brought algebra and Greek and Roman philosophy back to Europe, which led to the Enlightenment. This is inaccurate in that it gives students a warped view of the role Islamic culture has played in American culture.

The text calls the Dutch Republic “Holland” on page 50. Holland was but one province in the Netherlands, although people of the time called the Dutch Republic “Holland” in the same way some people think Manhattan is “New York City.”

I was very impressed that the book gave the definition of the word “slave” on page 15. That is a rarely mentioned but important history.

The text is largely up-to-date, using the most accurate terminology for its historical referents. It uses the word “tribe” rather carelessly,(p. 16) though, without going into the history of that term, given that it was used by European anthropologists to (often inaccurately) classify and compartmentalize the ethnic groups they encountered in Africa and the Americas. A more useful term for classification would be “ethnic group.”

The wording of the text is clear, and achieves a not-unreasonable level of grammatical and syntactical complexity for college students.

The framework and terminology are consistent.

The modularity is fine, but the section titles are more confusing than helpful. It would be preferable to have section titles that use terms students will be familiar with. Rather than titling chapters “Religious Upheavals in the Developing Atlantic World,” title it “Protestant Reformation and Catholicism.” Instead of “The United States Goes Back to War,” use “The War of 1812.” That way when students are looking for a topic they want to find in the Table of Contents, they’ll be able to navigate it faster.

The organization of the first four chapters is inexhaustingly Eurocentric. Pages 34 - 39 and 42 - 46 are completely out of place in a U.S. history book, for instance. All of the information on those pages can be explained with quick in-text references in the sections that really have to do with America rather than long paragraphs in their own section. Chapter 4 on the British Empire is completely unnecessary. This is definitely a way the text can cut down on its word count. The chapter just seems like an excuse to tell European history. All that needs to be said in a U.S. history book about that period is covered in Chapter 3, which, by the way, is excellent, particularly the attention given to St. Augustine, Santa Fe, and Bacon’s Rebellion. The text sings when focusing on regional histories. The section on New France is extraneous, however.

The breaking up of the 1960s Countercultural Movement into two eras seems to rob the moment of its full contextual impact. The political issues from, say, p. 866 “Kennedy the Cold Warrior” directly led to the social upheavals covered right up to page 903, the beginning of Nixon’s story. That period represented a significant break with previous notions of American identity and should have its own chapter with a distinctive thematic focus.

There were great delights. I loved the inclusion of a section on transcendentalism and was pleasantly surprised to see a section on the flowering of antebellum Utopian communities.

Interface rating: 3

On the online version, there should be page numbers. The only way to refer a student to a particular sentence is by section number, and those are too long. If going over a passage in class, it will take too long for everybody to find it.

In the pdf version, the table contents have hyperlinks that take you right to the section, but there’s no way to go back to the Table of Contents from the different section. This will cause a delay, particularly if a student goes to the wrong section, they can’t go right back up to the Table of Contents. There should be a way back.

The text contains this sentence on page 20: “In 1054, the eastern branch of Christianity, led by the Patriarch of Constantinople (a title that because roughly equivalent to the western Church’s pope), established its center in Constantinople and adopted the Greek language for its services.” I think the word “was” was supposed to go there instead of the word “because.”

Rather than devoting so much of Chapter 2 to European history, there were relevant things happening in the Americas that the editor could have chosen to include. What about the legendary battles between maroon/Carib confederations against both the French and the British on Saint Vincent and Dominica? What about Spanish and Portuguese encounters with Arawaks and Caribs in the Lesser Antilles and the construction of racial characteristics amongst these ethnic groups? These are events that had actual cultural impact in Americas, as those populations directly comprised the American cultural mosaic. In Chapter 1, black and brown leaders are consistently left out of the narrative. In the one sentence discussing the inheritors of the gold-for-salt trade, the Songhay, where is the mention of Askia Muhammad Toure, who founded it, or Sunni Ali Ber, who led its hostile takeover? What of Amerindian heroes like Tupac Yupanqui, Pachacuti, or Montezuma? Do they not merit a mention? And, not unimportantly, why is it that only European leaders get honorifics? The text makes the effort the mention that Richard was named the “the Lionheart,” Charles Martel “the Hammer,” and Henry “the Navigator.” More information on Songhay or the Kongo would have allowed for mention of Askiya the Great or Affonso the Great. Black and brown leaders have cool nicknames, too. This is exactly why we see so many studies of black and brown children in America who don’t feel they have role models. We force feed them navigators and hammers with whom they have trouble identifying. Eurocentrism is about seeing the world from one perspective, and ignoring the possibility that your reader does not share it. Opening up a section with a sentence like “The year 622 brought a new challenge to Christendom” (page 29) immediately puts “Christendom” in the role of protagonist and Islam in the role of antagonist. As if it were Islam’s mission to destroy Christianity. The text does not explore at all Muhammad’s attempts to bring his vision to both Jewish and Christian leaders in Mecca, that he wanted to unify the faiths. The text is largely graphic in its depictions of horrors on both sides of the Crusades, but it continues an ugly narrative in American society that Islam is a force to be conquered by Christians.

Please address the issues on African and Amerindian history and I will be happy to re-review!

Reviewed by Caryn Neumann, Lecturer, Miami University of Ohio on 8/21/16

This book is an acceptable replacement for any U.S. History textbook by a major publisher. To save costs, the publisher used open source material for images. The book is not as polished-looking as a "normal" textbook. However, the quality of the text is high. Full disclosure: I was one of many reviewers who looked at chapters for any possible errors or weaknesses. The quality control procedures of OpenStax matched that of traditional publishers.

I have listed this book on my syllabus as suitable for my students in U.S. History.

The textbook has been proofread by many eyes and I can find no errors.

The vast majority of historians regard anything that has happened in the past 20 years as current events. It is not possible to have historical distance on a topic until a generation, at least, has passed. Therefore, I do not regard this question of longevity as relevant to this book.

It is quite readable.

The book has no readability problems at all. It is consistent and easy to digest.

The table of contents matches the pattern of most history courses. Historians typically move chronologically. The chapters are broken into easily digestible parts. I read each chapter in one sitting without any difficulty.

The chapters match the flow of the vast majority of history courses.

The book is fairly straightforward and basic.

I would have a fit if the book contained grammar errors. It has none that I saw.

It is quite inclusive and respectful.

Reviewed by Charles Young, Associate Professor, Umpqua Community College on 8/21/16

The textbook is quite comprehensive in covering key ares and ideas. For example, I was quite impressed with the well written and broad details concerning "John Winthrop and the Puritans" in Chapter 3 and with "The New Nixon," "The Domestic Nixon," and "Nixon the Diplomat" in Chapter 30. When I first began reading the textbook I felt there was was too much interruption and space given to the illustrations, maps, charts, and first person narratives (as engaging and colorful as they are) at the expense of narrative flow and needed textual content but by the second chapter I realized how well written and to the point the test is. I did feel that the extent given to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War was excessive (I served during this period). With that aside, because of this excellent focus the content does give sufficient depth to the issues and events in relatively short textual spaces.

I am also impressed with the accuracy of the information given. Only in a few areas do I feel the content on certain subjects to be too simplistic or indeed somewhat inaccurate. To be specific, in Chapter 1, "The Maya," the fall of the Classic Maya by 900 C.E. is far more complex than simply to say, "Because of poor soil and a drought that lasted nearly two centuries their civilization declined . . . and they abandoned their large population centers." A major increase in endemic, continuous warfare, raids by non-Mayan peoples, an urban population too large to be sustained by their agriculture, and the loss of faith in their rulers and the ceremonies centered in these urban ceremonial centers were also key factors in the decline. I also feel the reasons given for using the atomic bombs in WWII, especially why a second bomb was dropped to be missing key factors and far too abbreviated. Otherwise, however, i give this textbook high marks for accuracy and depth.

The content is quite up to date and relevant. The treatment of the rise of the conservative movement politically is outstanding in both its relevancy to today and in its depth of detail. In particular I praise in Chapter 31 the sections on "Creating a Conservative Policy" and "Conservative Christians and Family Values." I did not see where the textbook would be out of date anytime soon. The last chapter is excellent in bring us up to the last few years of history.

This textbook is exceptionally well written and to the point. As I shared earlier, at first I thought that the text was too often broken up by the maps, pictures, and first person sections but soon came to realize that the authors do zero in well on the key information needing to be shared in a wonderfully engaging writing styles. For example, the labor systems used in early New Spain is so well written, as is the material on Anne Hutchinson and the early Puritans.

The text is consistent in spite of the multiple authors (which is surprising) Whoever had some editorial input did an outstanding job blending the no doubt different writing styles into a coherent, engaging, and always to the point brevity. I am particularly impressed with the Civil War narrative in its consistency, and all through the book the repeated framework works well.

The division of the chapters into sections, readings, maps, illustrations, first person accounts, review questions, glossaries, critical thinking questions, on line sources all worked very well. Yes, such modularity does lend itself to easy reorganization to better fit individualized teaching methods, highlighting key sections, and an overall variety that I believe would be very engaging to students.

At first I felt the many different section breaks, especially the extensive maps and pictures/illustrations, caused too much interruption of the narrative reading flow. By the second chapter, however, I became aware of how well written the text was and how well chosen, perfectly paired, and visually attractive were the illustrations and maps (the color alone added to the engagement). By the the third chapter I was even more impressed with the organization and flow and that view remained throughout the rest of the textbook reading. Your choices of illustrations, maps, charts, and pictures are outstanding. The "Colombian Exchange" map and text are examples of impressive and appropriate pairing and reinforcement.

navigation of the interface is straightforward and easy. I did not notice distortion or any issue here that would confuse the reader.

I did not notice problems with grammar. In fact, I am very impressed with the level of writing, particularly its ability to explain rather complex ideas in an engaging, to the point way.

I believe this textbook is culturally sensitive and relevant. It certainly includes many first person accounts of discrimination and intolerance (an example being the attention to our past slavery and to the rounding up of Japanese- Americans at the beginning of WWII) in our history so as to remind us of how far we have come and to be ever more sensitive to equal treatment of peoples.

I am very impressed with this textbook, especially in its engaging use of appropriate and colorful maps and illustrations, its well chosen use of photographs, and, most of all, its well written narrative that I believe will greatly involve the reader in the story telling aspect of what good history is all about. I would highly recommend this book to others!

Reviewed by Joe Austin, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee on 8/21/16

NOTE: My comments apply ONLY to the post-1865 chapters (16-32). I'd judge this book's comprehensiveness to be about average or a little better. The chapters prior cover the material prior to the 1960s (chapter 29) are more comprehensive than those... read more

I found no errors in the material. In my view, the book could have used a more critical viewpoint; it's "bias" as primarily a kind of uncritical blandness. Otherwise, I saw no consistent viewpoint across the chapters. The viewpoints across some of the chapter sections seemed to vary quite a bit.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 2

I thought the book was about 10-15 years behind the times in terms of terminology. For instance, there was no serious discussions of "whiteness" or "settler colonialism" or even the intellectual history of race that would have helped to conceptualize and unify some of the material. The material is fairly modular (perhaps to a fault -- it seems fragmented in places), so it shouldn't be too difficult to add these sorts of conceptual tools with minimal editing.

Jargon-less to a fault: lacks the kinds of conceptual tools that might challenge students to engage more deeply and critically with the material (see above). Very accessible language, but also very bland overall (this varied quite a bit). This book is unlikely to inspire anyone to become more interested in history, but it is also unlikely that many students will misunderstand the textbook's intended meanings.

With rather little terminology or framework, one could call this textbook consistent. The "side bars" did not add significant thematic consistency. In general, the textbook navigated a middle road, the most consistent focus on political, military, economic/business, and diplomatic subfields across chapters.

In my opinion, this was a weakness in this textbook. I understand that modularity is important for this textbook format, but it works against narrative and critical/analytical consistency, and in this case, also results in an inconsistency in the authorial voice. Yes, it would be relatively easy to add new sections without major disturbances in the existing flow of the text. Is that a good thing in a narrative presentation? Doesn't this suggest that any new sections had little significant impact or importance?

The chapters prior to WW1 (chapters 16-22) are organized thematically across broad, overlapping periods, while those that follow (23-32) are arranged in a stricter chronological order. The post-1945 chapters (chapters 28-32) tend to cover longer periods of time (15-20 years). The organization seems to have an implicit argument that the last 100 years (and certainly the last ~50 years) are less well understood or important than the last half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. That said, this one does not seem too far out of the standard range among US history textbooks.

These seemed to be about standard quality. These "side bars" generally were well written and worthwhile, but more seemed like "spice" rather than "nourishment."

The only major grammar problem in the text is the use of the passive voice, which is noteworthy in some sections. Given my emphasis on causation and action in student writing, this is a problem for me. Some sections would seem to encourage a kind of vague, "zeitgeist" thinking that seems more appropriate to entertainment venues (e.g., the History Channel) as opposed to an academic textbook. I noticed the repeated use of the word "spirit" (e.g., "the progressive spirit").

I found nothing that was identifiably offensive, but there was a notable turn away from critically examining the reproduction of long-term inequalities. Thus, racism was primarily caused by "racists" rather than everyday embedded racial ideals, presumptions, bad science, or unrecognized "special privileges." There is no critique of modernity nor a serious challenge to "Western Civilization." Likewise, there was no critical examination of the inequalities generated by capitalism, aside from a few bad actors. Even when examining the Gilded Age, the textbook repeated the long-outdated "debate" about the virtues of the Robber Barons. No conservative K-12 school board would be offended by this textbook.

As you may have detected if you have read this far, I am not a fan of US textbooks. That said, I am a big fan of Eric Foner's textbook, particularly in its least-expensive form. No, by no means is it perfect, but my students consistently rate it highly, and it avoids most of the flaws of the genre.

In my experience, standard US history textbooks do little to challenge the patriotic, "glorious past" propaganda that is pushed on our K-12 students. Historical thinking and critique tend to be episodic and anecdotal -- although inequalities seem to "reappear" in textbook narratives, there is rarely any sense that inequality is systematic or structural. US history textbooks are more likely to damage any enthusiasm students display in understanding US history than to nurture it.

This general description of US history textbooks fits this particular textbook quite well. It seems to be "standard" in every way, with its primary distinction being its blandness. As I mentioned before, this textbook is very unlikely to win new converts to historical thinking, though it will likely satisfy the History Channel enthusiasts.

The supposed virtue of open source textbooks at this historical moment seems to be price, and I have strong sympathies with attempts to reduce the outrageous costs that students in the US must pay for higher education. However, this textbook does little to challenge unexamined, "commonsense" assumptions about the US past that could as easily be acquired (and affirmed) from television programming or Hollywood. We have to do better than this. Otherwise, the ~$50 price for Foner's textbook is a far better choice.

Reviewed by Matthew Lindaman, Professor, Winona State University on 8/21/16

Very comprehensive in scope and coverage. If possible, I would like to see a few more primary sources. However, perhaps they could be located in an appendix as the flow is strong "as is." read more

Very comprehensive in scope and coverage. If possible, I would like to see a few more primary sources. However, perhaps they could be located in an appendix as the flow is strong "as is."

The content is accurate. There are no errors found in the text. The text is unbiased. Organizationally, it does not favor an overtly political, diplomatic, social, or cultural approach, which in turn might lend to bias. Instead, it is a nice blending of approaches.

It is a history book and therefore will stand a longer test of time. Any relevant changes should be easy to make. I will comment on the images elsewhere. Fur purposes of evaluating longevity however, I will note that the historical images are sharp or crisp in appearance. By largely staying away from photos, these will stand the test of time. A few contemporary photos were used in the early chapters, but they are not many in number and should not look dated. In any case, they could be easily replaced. Thus, as far as images were concerned, I found the selections strong and ones that look sharp in a contemporary setting. Second, I thought the authors did a masterful job of including hooks to current or contemporary cultural references that were embedded in the materials of the past. This inclusion piqued my curiosity as a reader and will provide an number of great avenues of discovery and discussion for student readers.

The clarity was solid throughout. IT was not overly filled with jargon. Paragraph structures were the appropriate length, While on the subject of clarity, I want to underscore my appreciation for the clarity associated with the labeling of the images. They were not only neat in appearance, but also including the appropriate materials (in a succinct manner) to allow student to practice historical sourcing as a skill.

There were no issues in this area. I have more to say under the theme of modularity which I see as a great strength of the book.

If I could, I would give this a five plus rating!! I found this to be a very pleasing aspect of the open source platform. Without worry of page number or length impacting printing prices, the authors were able to assemble a great number of chapters, or at least a greater number of sub-themes within the chapters. Three examples stand out: the Crusades, greater coverage of Africa, and deeper coverage of the European Reformation; all of these allowed greater depth to the historical story, with the option of covering them on the assigned readings, or not, without missing the flow. Likewise, within the chapters, the modularity was a strength, allowing a fluent reading experience between themes. It appears the book is driven by theme or key vocabulary concepts as opposed the "the great individual" in history approach. As stated under the bias theme, this means it does not come across favoring any one approach to hisoty.

All topics were logical. The flow was sound, I appreciated the opening hook and the lead prompts or questions under the sub-chapter sections.

I was very impressed with the interface of the text. Approaching this review, I was skeptical, or though one of the main things I like about texts, the infusion of images, might be lost in an open source platform. This was not the case. I came away very impressed with the interface. The paragraphs were embedded with images, or use of primary sources. This kept the flow of the chapters lively and provides many opportunity to go into a deeper discussion of the images or primary sources in relation to the context of the material covered.

I did not find any issues with the grammar.

This was generally good. With the vast use of images, the authors may consider using a bit more cultural diversity over the last half of the text.

Entering with an open mind, though somewhat skeptical of open source as a platform, I came away very impressed. The modularity and interface of the text were definite strengths. The material is solid, but definitely enhanced with the use of images, embedded primary sources, and links to additional open source materials. This will allow the students opportunity to gain coverage of materials, while also providing the opportunity for the flipped classroom in that great discussions can take place surrounding the images and primary documents, including the opportunity to practice historical thinking skills of sourcing and contextualization. Along these lines, I want to applaud the authors for the use of lead images to introduce each chapter. This was something I thought would e lost on an open source platform. Instead, as I was reviewing, I could not wait to get to the next chapter to see what the authors included as the image-hook-historical context opening. Well done, creative, and I would love to use in the classroom!

Reviewed by Robert Maloy, Senior Lecturer, University of Massachusetts Amherst on 1/7/16

The book is impressively comprehensive. Its 1052 pages include 32 chapters, beginning with the “Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492” and ending with the “Challenges of the 21st Century.” The first eight chapters explore colonial America, the War for Independence and the formation of a new republic. Chapters 9 through 16 focus on early industrialization, the contrasting economies of the North and South including the divisive impact of slavery, territorial expansion, political reform, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. Chapters 17 through 22 deal with post-Civil War industrialization, westward expansion, Progressivism, and American imperialism. Chapters 23 through 30 continue the narrative through the 20th century with material on World War I, the 1920s, the Depression and the New Deal, World War II, the Cold War, the changing American society and economy from the 1950s to the 1980s, including the struggle for African American civil rights. The final two chapters focus on contemporary history from 1980 to the present.

The book reflects the latest scholarship, blending political, social and economic history very effectively. The authors discuss seminal events, dramatic moments, and hidden histories from every time period in the past. Readers learn about different time periods from the perspectives not only of leaders and elites, but individuals and groups who are often neglected or omitted by more traditional texts. Throughout, the lives and stories of famous and ordinary people are used to reveal the pressures and patterns of life during different time periods.

Given its treatment of seminal events, dramatic moments, and hidden histories, the book is highly relevant to the lives of students and teachers today. Teachers and students can use the book to generate a present-to-past-to-future teaching methodology where contemporary issues are discussed and then explored historically, all to generate opportunities to envision better futures for all people. Teachers and students can also use the book in a more traditional format, moving chronologically from the past to the present.

The book is well written, in an engaging and informative style that should appeal to students and teachers alike. Importantly, the use of interactive web links, primary source excerpts, and photographs and other visual material support the book’s approach without distracting readers from main ideas.

The book has a consistent approach throughout, balancing the larger historical context of key developments and important people with explorations of less-known, but still important events along with the stories of lesser-known historical figures.

The inclusion of 32 separate chapters creates a book that will be read and understood effectively by both students and teachers. Students can read a chapter and follow the historical narrative without becoming overwhelmed in factual detail. Teachers can assign chapters or sections of chapters to complement what they are discussing in class. The size of the book is therefore an advantage because some sections can be explored in more depth using primary sources and other materials while other sections can be read mainly for historical background.

The book has logical organization and an engaging narrative flow. It is easy to navigate and to read. The chapters present the major periods of United States history chronologically. Every chapter title includes dates so readers can follow the flow of events. For example, Chapter 8 dealing with events leading to the War for Independence is entitled “Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774.” Similarly, the chapter on the New Deal era is entitled “Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1941.” Maps, pictures, charts, timelines, primary source readings, and web links are placed in the center of the page, calling the reader’s attention to the information. Figures and Tables are numbered by chapter and linked so readers can move seamlessly to the visual material. The Table of Contents is interactive so clicking on a chapter title immediately brings readers to that chapter in the text.

Every chapter in the PDF and Read Online version of the book has a live web link feature called Click and Explore. This feature takes readers to a website where they can explore a topic in more depth by viewing primary source material, viewing video on the site or accessing other resources. For example, a figure of showing Alexander Graham Bell’s patent of the telephone is followed by a Click and Explore link to “Everyday Mysteries,” a Library of Congress site that lets readers explore competing claims for Bell, Elisha Gray or Antonio Meucci as the phone’s inventor. Most Click and Explore links take readers to sites maintained by government agencies, museums, historical organizations, libraries, and news network sites (“Tocqueville C-Span: Retracing the Steps of Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1831 Journey” is one such example). Occasionally, the link goes to dot.com site where readers will find pages that include advertisements for commercial products and services.

While the vocabulary is mainly geared for college students, with scaffolding by teachers, the book can certainly be used in high school classes as well.

Cultural Relevance: The book incorporates the diverse histories and herstories of different races, ethnicities and backgrounds throughout. Three features—“Defining ‘American’ “, “My Story” and “Americana”—present a wide-ranging multicultural view of the past. “Defining ‘American’ “ uses short selections from documents, speeches, photographs and other writing to uncover hidden histories and untold stories of what it means to an American, including a selection from Sarah H. Bradford’s 1869 book Scenes from the Life of Harriet Tubman; Chief Justice John Marshall’s 1832 ruling on the principle of Native American tribal sovereignty in Worcester v. Georgia; the photography of Jacob Riis documenting urban slums and tenements during the Glided Age; the story of African American soldiers during the Spanish American War; and a letter from Mary Childs Nearney, a secretary of the NAACP, requesting racist scenes be cut from the film, Birth of a Nation. “My Story” uses diaries, interviews, letters and other sources to set a context for important events and dramatic moments in American history, including Solomon Northup remembrance of the New Orleans Slave Market; a selection from Andrew Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth, a first person account of World War I trench warfare, a selection from a colonial Virginia planter, and a woman’s account of the devastation of farm lands during the 1930s Dust Bowl. “Americana” explores artifacts from pop culture to highlight the values and philosophies of different time periods, including Walt Whitman’s 1855 poem, “Song of Myself;” Joseph Glidden’s 1873 invention of barbed wire that changed land use patterns in the American West; lyrics from the Depression-era song, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, and pro-World War I propaganda posters in English and Yiddish.

There is a list of key terms, a short summary of key content, a set of multiple choice Review Questions, and several critical thinking questions at the end of each of the book’s 32 chapters. An Answer Key at the back of the book provides succinct explanations for the correct answers to the Review Questions making that a very useful feature for classroom instruction. Questions can be given in paper format or entered into a student responses system where students can discuss the questions and analyze the answer choices.

The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492
Early Globalization: The Atlantic World, 1492–1650
Creating New Social Orders: Colonial Societies, 1500–1700
Rule Britannia! The English Empire, 1660–1763
Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests, 1763-1774
America's War for Independence, 1775-1783
Creating Republican Governments, 1776–1790
Growing Pains: The New Republic, 1790–1820
The Industrial, Market, and Transportation Revolutions, 1800–1850
Jacksonian Democracy, 1820–1840
A Nation on the Move: Westward Expansion, 1800–1860
Cotton is King: The Antebellum South, 1800–1860
Antebellum Idealism and Reform Impulses, 1820–1860
Troubled Times: the Tumultuous 1850s
The Civil War, 1860–1865
The Era of Reconstruction, 1865–1877
Go West Young Man! Westward Expansion, 1840-1900
Industrialization and the Rise of Big Business, 1870-1900
The Growing Pains of Urbanization, 1870-1900
Politics in the Gilded Age, 1870-1900
Leading the Way: The Progressive Movement, 1890-1920
Age of Empire: American Foreign Policy, 1890-1914
Americans and the Great War, 1914-1919
The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation, 1919-1929
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? The Great Depression, 1929-1932
Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1941
Fighting the Good Fight in World War II, 1941-1945
Post-War Prosperity and Cold War Fears, 1945-1960
Contesting Futures: America in the 1960s
Political Storms at Home and Abroad, 1968-1980
From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000
The Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

Ancillary Material

About the book.

U.S. History covers the breadth of the chronological history of the United States and also provides the necessary depth to ensure the course is manageable for instructors and students alike. U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most courses. The authors introduce key forces and major developments that together form the American experience, with particular attention paid to considering issues of race, class, and gender. The text provides a balanced approach to U.S. history, considering the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience).

OpenStax College has compiled many resources for faculty and students, from faculty-only content to interactive homework and study guides.

About the Contributors

Senior Contributors

P. Scott Corbett , PhD - Ventura College

Volker Janssen , PhD - California State University-Fullerton

John M. Lund , PhD - Keene State College

Contribute to this Page

HISTORY SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE

HISTORY SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER GUIDE

Guidelines for Learners and Teachers: Exemplar Responses

1. INTRODUCTION Assessment is a continuous, planned process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about the performance of learners, using various forms of assessment. It involves four steps: generating and collecting evidence of achievement; evaluating this evidence; recording the findings; and using this information to understand and assist with the learners’ academic development. Assessment should be both informal (assessment for learning) and formal (assessment of learning). In both cases regular feedback should be provided to learners to enhance the learning experience. School-based assessment (SBA) is a purposive collection of learners’ work that tells the story of their efforts, progress or achievement in a given area. The quality of SBA tasks is integral to learners’ preparation for the final examinations. This booklet serves as a resource of exemplar SBA tasks to schools and subject teachers of History. SBA marks are formally recorded by the teacher, for progression and certification purposes. The SBA component is compulsory for all learners. Learners who cannot comply with the requirements specified according to the policy may not be eligible to enter for the subject in the final examination. The formal assessment tasks provide you with a systematic way of evaluating how well learners are progressing. The booklet contains information on how to undertake research assignments, source-based tasks and essay questions. Formal assessment tasks form part of a year-long formal programme of assessment. These tasks should not be taken lightly and learners should be encouraged to submit their best possible efforts for final assessment. The educators are expected to ensure that assessment tasks are relevant and suitable to the context in which learners are being taught. However, all SBA should be aligned to the requirements prescribed in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document. This publication comprises four tasks that address the demands of the Grade 12 History curriculum. It is expected that these tasks will serve as a valuable resource for:

History teachers, in providing examples of the types and standard of school-based assessment tasks that would be appropriate for their learners;
Grade 12 History learners, in providing material that will assist them in their preparation for National Senior Certificate examinations in History.

2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT

School-based assessment serves to provide a more balanced and trustworthy assessment system because it includes a greater range of diverse assessment tasks than is possible in external examinations.
The exemplar tasks are aimed at reflecting the depth of the curriculum content appropriate for Grade 12.
It reflects the desired weighting of the cognitive demands as per Bloom’s revised taxonomy: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating.
School-based assessment improves the validity of assessment by including aspects that cannot be assessed in formal examination settings.
It improves the reliability of assessment because judgments are based on many observations of the student over an extended period of time.
It has a beneficial effect on teaching and learning, not only in relation to the critical analysis and evaluation of History information and creative problem-solving, but also on teaching and assessment practices.
It empowers teachers to become part of the assessment process and enhances collaboration and sharing of expertise within and across schools.
It has a professional development function, building up teachers’ skills in assessment practices which can then be transferred to other areas of the curriculum.
The tasks focus on the prescribed content as contained in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) effective from 2014.

The distinctive characteristics of SBA (and its strengths as one relatively small component of a coherent assessment system) have implications for its design and implementation, in particular the nature of the assessment tasks and role of the teachers’ standardisation procedures. These implications are summarised as follows:

The assessment process should be linked to and be a logical outcome of the normal teaching programme, as teaching, learning and assessment should be complementary parts of the whole educational experience (i.e. the SBA component is not a separate one-off activity that can be timetabled or prepared for as if it were a separate element of the curriculum).
The assessment process should provide a richer picture of what learners can do than that provided by the external examination by taking more samples over a longer period of time and by more closely approximating real-life and low-stress conditions (i.e. the SBA component is not a one-off activity done under pseudo-exam conditions by unfamiliar assessors).
The formative/summative distinction exists in SBA, but is much less rigid and fixed than in a testing culture, i.e. learners should receive constructive feedback and have opportunities to ask questions about specific aspects of their progress after each planned SBA assessment activity, which both enhance History skills and help learners prepare for the final external examination (i.e. the SBA component is not a purely summative assessment).
The SBA process, to be effective, has to be highly contextualised, dialogic and sensitive to learners’ needs; i.e., the SBA component is not and cannot be treated as identical to an external exam in which texts, tasks and task conditions are totally standardised and all contextual variables controlled. To attempt to do so would be to negate the very rationale for SBA. Hence schools and teachers must be granted a certain degree of trust and autonomy in the design, implementation and specific timing of the assessment tasks. However, every effort must be made to comply with the Programme of Assessment as contained in CAPS.

Teachers should ensure that learners understand the assessment criteria and their relevance for self- and peer assessment. Teachers should also have used these criteria for informal assessment and teaching purposes before they conduct any formal assessment so that they are familiar with the criteria and the assessment process. The project provides exemplar tasks that are aimed at:

Reflecting the depth of History curriculum content appropriate for Grade 12
Reflecting the desired cognitive demands as per Bloom’s revised taxonomy: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating;
Containing questions and sub-questions that reflect appropriate degrees of challenge: easy, medium and difficult
Focusing on the content of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) effective in 2013 and contain exposure to certain aspects of new content of the Curriculum & Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) effective from 2014

3. ASSESSMENT TASKS AS OUTLINED IN CAPS The final Grade 12 mark is calculated from the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination that learners write (out of 300 marks) plus school-based assessment (out of 100 marks). The curriculum policy document stipulates SEVEN formal tasks that comprise school-based assessment in History.

4. PROGRAMME OF ASSESSMENT AND WEIGHTING OF TASKS

5. QUALITY-ASSURANCE PROCESS FOLLOWED To ensure that there is compliance with the requirements of SBA in History, an example of how to undertake research is given below. Introduction The research assignment in Grade 12 accounts for 20% of the total school-based assessment (SBA). It is, therefore, essential that this be a significant piece of work. This assignment offers learners the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understanding of History which they have acquired during the course of the FET phase. The research assignment can be written on any section of the Grade 12 curriculum. There are, however, two sections in the curriculum, which are not formally examined in the final Grade 12 examination:

An overview of civil society protests
Remembering the past: Memorials

It is recommended that one of these topics be investigated as a research project. Some points to consider when planning a research assignment:

The choice of research topic needs to be made, taking into consideration the context of your school and the available resources to which learners have access.
This assignment provides learners with an opportunity to embark on a process of historical enquiry. Conducting original research involves the collection, analysis, organization and evaluation of information, and the construction of knowledge.
Clear, written instructions with due dates and the assessment criteria must be given to learners at the beginning of the school year to allow adequate time for the preparation and completion of the assignment.
The progress of learners, with regard to the research assignment, must be monitored on an on-going basis.
It is essential that learners submit original work. To reduce the likelihood of plagiarism, the key question or research topic should be changed every year.

Learners are expected to fulfil the following requirements in their research assignment:

Analyse and answer the key question.
Identify a variety of relevant source materials to help answer the key question.
Select relevant examples from the source material which can be used to substantiate the line of argument.
Organise relevant information in order to write a coherent and logical answer to the key question.
Write an original piece of work, using your own words.
Correctly contextualise all sources, including Illustrations and maps, which have been included.
Reflect upon the process of research and consider what has been learnt.
Include a bibliography of all the resources which have been consulted in the course of researching and writing the assignment.

Some suggestions of what can be done with the research assignments when they are completed:

The research assignments should be displayed at your school, community hall or local library. Exhibiting the learners’ work is very important. It gives learners a sense of purpose and shows them that their ideas and efforts are of value to their school and community.
Learners could give an oral presentation of their research projects to the class, grade, school or local community. This gives learners the opportunity to speak about their research and share their ‘new-found’ knowledge.
Organise a class debate on the key question.
Hold a History evening at which learners could be given an opportunity to present their work to friends, family and members of the community. Further, this will be an ideal platform to showcase the work of the school’s History department in an endeavour to promote the subject History at the FET level.

TABLE SHOWING HOW TO STRUCTURE AND CARRY OUT RESEARCH KEY QUESTION: How was the role of women in the struggle against apartheid different from that of men?

SUGGESTED RUBRIC TO ASSESS A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT TOTAL MARKS: 100

ANNEXURE A: EXAMPLE OF A COVER PAGE FOR A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY: I hereby declare that ALL pieces of writing contained in this research assignment, are my own original work and that if I made use of any source, I have duly acknowledged it.

LEARNER’S SIGNATURE:____________________________________________

DATE:_____________________________________________________________

ANNEXURE B: AN EXAMPLE OF A MONITORING LOG

Teacher’s name:_______________________

Teacher’s signature:___________________

Learner’s signature:____________________

ANNEXURE C: LIST OF SUGGESTED RESOURCES WITH A SYNOPSIS (IN ITALICS) BOOKS: Berger, I ., Threads of solidarity: Women in South African industry, (Indiana University Press, 1991) . This book details women’s changing place in formal and casual work. It explores the relationship between women across the colour lines as workers and members of trade unions. Bernstein, H. , For their triumphs and for their tears. Women in Apartheid South Africa. (IDAF, 1985 ). This booklet gives a great deal of very useful information about how women lived, worked, struggled and survived in apartheid South Africa. Bozzoli, B. with Nkotsoe, M., Women of Phokeng (Ravan Press, 1991) . This book traces the life histories and experiences of 22 black women from the small town of Phokeng. Cock, J., Colonels and cadres. War and gender in South Africa, (OUP, 1991 ). This book contains interviews with women who served in both the SADF and MK and analyses their experiences. Cock, J., Maids and madams . A study in the politics of exploitation , (Ravan Press, 1989). An investigation into experiences of women domestic workers during apartheid. Du Preez Bezdrob, A.M. Winnie Mandela a life. (Paarl: Paarl Printers. 2003). Gordon, S., A talent for tomorrow. Life stories of South African servants (Ravan Press, 1985). A book that contains the life stories of 23 people, most of whom are women, who worked as domestic labourers under aparthei d. Human, M.; Mutloatse, M. & Masiza, J. The Women’s Freedom March of 1956. (Pan McMillan (Pty Ltd), 2006). Luthuli, A. , Let my people go, The Autobiography of Albert Luthuli. (Paarl Printers, 2006). Mashinini, E., Strikes have followed me all my life (The Women’s Press, 1989). The autobiography of Emma Mashinini who was secretary of one of South Africa’s biggest black Trade Unions, the CCAWUSA (the Shop and Distributive Workers’ Union). Naidoo, P. , Footprints in Grey Street. (Ocean Jetty Publishing, 2002). Platzky, L. & Walker, C., The surplus people. Forced removal in South Africa (Ravan Press, 1985). The creation of racially separate areas was the cornerstone of apartheid policy. The majority of people who were forcibly removed in order to create this artificial separation were women and children. This book documents their experiences and their struggle to survive. Vahed, G. & Waetjen,T., Gender modernity and Indian delights. The Women’s Cultural Group of Durban 1954- 2010 (HSRC, 2010). Part social history part biography, this book shows how the women in the Durban Cultural Group creating an identity for themselves in the context of apartheid. Walker, C . , Women and gender in Southern Africa to 1945. (New Africa Books, 1990). Gives valuable background information about the experience of women in South Africa. It sets the scene for a discussion of the 1950s–1970s. Walker, C ., Women and resistance in South Africa. (Onyx Press, 1991). This remains the most detailed historical account of women’s resistance during apartheid. Walker has chapters on the Federation of South African Women, Anti-Pass protests, the Women’s Charter of 1954, among others. South African History Online, ‘ For freedom and equality’, Celebrating women in South African history (DBE, no date). This booklet contains information about women’s involvement in the liberation struggle. There are a number of biographical profiles of great South African women. I t can be downloaded from the South African History Online website at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/aids-resources/freedom-and-equality-celebrating-women-south-african history-booklet Malibongwe Igama Lamakhosikama. Praise be to women. Remembering the role of women in South Africa through dialogue (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2007). The text in this booklet is the edited version of the Malibingwe Dialogue which took place on 30 May 2007 at the Nelson Mandela Foundation. It can be downloaded from the following website: http://www.nelsonmandela.org/uploads/files/Malibongwe_WEB.pdf

WEBSITES: www.blacksash.org.za Full digital texts of the Black Sash publication Sash is available from 1960-1990. http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/womens-struggle-1900-1994 South African History Online. This site has a wide range of information about women’s struggles in South Africa 1900-1994. http://www.anc.org.za/themes.php?t=Women`s%20Struggles This site, maintained by the ANC, has documents concerning women in the liberation struggle

ORAL INTERVIEWS There is a saying in Mozambique that ‘our old people are our libraries’. If you are living in an area where it is difficult to access the Internet, or do not have a local library, then remember that the people living in your community have a wealth of information in their memories. You may consider conducting interviews with women and men in your community and recording their stories as evidence to answer your key question.

ANNEXURE D: EXAMPLE OF A TEMPLATE FOR NOTE-TAKING DURING RESEARCH

ANNEXURE E: GUIDELINES ON HOW TO WRITE A BIBLIOGRAPHY

For a book: Author (last name, initials). Title of book (Publishers, Date of publication). Example: Dahl, R. The BFG . (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982).
For an encyclopaedia: Encyclopaedia Title , Edition Date. Volume Number, ‘Article Title’, page numbers. Example: Encyclopaedia Britannica . 1997. Volume 7, ‘Gorillas’, pp. 50-51.
For a magazine: Author (last name first), ‘Article Title’. Name of magazine . Volume number, (Date): page numbers. Example: Jordan, Jennifer, ‘Filming at the top of the World’. Museum of Science Magazine . Volume 47, No 1, (Winter 1998): p 11.
For a newspaper: Author (last name first), ‘Article Title’. Name of Newspaper. City, state publication. (Date): edition if available, section, page number(s). Example: Powers, Ann, ‘New Tune for the Material Girl’. The New York Times . New York, NY. (3/1/98): Atlantic Region, Section 2, p 34.
For a person: Full name (last name first). Occupation, date of interview. Example: Smeckleburg, Sweets. Bus Driver. 1 April 1996.
For a film: Title , Director, Distributor, Year. Example: Braveheart , Director Mel Gibson, Icon Productions, 1995.

6. ASSESMENT TASKSSOURCE- BASED QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 WHY DID SOUTH AFRICA BECOME INVOLVED IN THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR IN THE 1980s? SOURCE 1A

SOURCE 1C This is part of an interview that was conducted with the former South African Prime Minister, BJ Vorster, by Clarence Rhodes of UPITN-TV (United Press International Television News) on 13 February 1976.

The following is a transcript of a news bulletin that was presented by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on 10 August 1982.

*Barbarian: a negative word used by the apartheid regime to refer to activists from the liberation movements which operated in exile. ** Terrorist: a word used by the apartheid regime to refer to freedom fighters.

SOURCE 2B The following extract focuses on the assassination of anti-apartheid activist and attorney, Griffiths Mxenge, on 20 November 1981.

SOURCE 2C The following statement was issued by the Amnesty Committee of the TRC. It focuses on the reasons for the granting of amnesty to Dirk Coetzee, Almond Nofemela and David Tshikilange for the murder of Griffiths Mxenge.

SOURCE 2D The following report by the South African Press Association (SAPA) outlines the reasons for the Mxenge family’s opposition to the process of amnesty.

SOURCE 2E The following is part of an interview that Shaun de Waal, reporter from the Mail and Guardian, conducted with Mahmood Mamdani about South Africa’s TRC process. Mamdani is an African academic and current director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research.

QUESTION 3 WHAT IMPACT DID GLOBALISATION HAVE ON THE NEW WORLD ORDER? SOURCE 3A The following extract focuses on the phenomenon of globalisation.

SOURCE 3B The following source is a diagrammatic representation of the different features of globalisation.

SOURCE 3C The following article by the World Economic Forum Survey focuses on how people from 25 countries viewed globalisation.

SOURCE 3D The following article by Prabhakar Pillai is entitled ‘The Negative Effects of Globalisation’. It focuses on his views about globalisation.

SOURCE 3E A photograph showing activists protesting against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Washington in 1999.

QUESTION 1 WHY DID SOUTH AFRICA BECOME INVOLVED IN THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR? Study Sources 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D to answer the questions that follow. 1.1 Refer to Source 1A.

1.1.1 Which organisation did the apartheid government support during the Angolan civil war? (1 x 1) (1) 1.1.2 List FOUR Angolan economic installations that were targeted by the South African Defence Force. (4 x 1) (4) 1.1.3 Using the information in the source, explain THREE reasons why the apartheid government felt threatened by the MPLA leadership in Angola. (3 x 2) (6) 1.1.4 In the context of the Angolan civil war, explain why the MPLA requested assistance from Cuba and the USSR. (1 x 3) (3)

1.2 Study Source 1B.

1.2.1 What message does the cartoon convey regarding the Soviet Union’s support for the MPLA in Angola? Explain your answer using the visual clues in the cartoon. (2 x 2) (4) 1.2.2 Explain to what extent this cartoon may be regarded as biased. (2 x 2) (4)

1.3 Consult Source 1C.

1.3.1 According to Kaunda, which TWO communist countries supported the MPLA? (2 x 1) (2) 1.3.2 Define the term communism in your own words. (1 x 2) (2) 1.3.3 Explain why Prime Minister Vorster did not consider Angola as ‘an independent black African country’. (2 x 2) (4) 1.3.4 Comment on Prime Minister Vorster’s reference to the word ‘communists’ in the context of the Angolan civil war. (1 x 2) (2)

1.4 Use Source 1D.

1.4.1 Quote TWO negative words that were used to describe the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) on the SABC news bulletin. (2 x 1) (2) 1.4.2 How did the SABC justify the deaths of the 15 SADF airmen and soldiers who were killed in Angola? (2 x 2) (4) 1.4.3 Explain to what extent the information in Source 1D would be useful for a historian researching the use of propaganda during South Africa’s participation in the Angolan civil war. Use relevant examples from the source to support your answer. (2 x 2) (4)

1.5 Use the information in the relevant sources and your own knowledge, to write a paragraph of about 8 lines (about 80 words) explaining why South Africa became involved in the Angolan civil war. (8)

QUESTION 2 HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TRC) IN HEALING OUR PAST? Study Sources 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D to answer the questions that follow. 2.1 Study Source 2A.

2.1.1 When and where was South Africa’s first TRC hearing held? (2 x 1) (2) 2.1.2 Define the concept reconciliation in your own words. (1 x 2) (2) 2.1.3 Explain why the TRC chose to use the slogan ‘Healing Our Past’ during its hearings, as shown in the photograph. (1 x 2) (2) 2.1.4 Comment on why you think the TRC was considered to be a significant event in South Africa’s history. (1 x 3) (3)

2.2 Consult Source 2B.

2.2.1 Name the THREE apartheid operatives who were charged with the murder of Griffiths Mxenge. (3 x 1) (3) 2.2.2 How, according to Nofemela, was Griffiths Mxenge murdered? (2 x 2) (4) 2.2.3 Why, do you think, were the three apartheid operatives found guilty of the killing of Mxenge but not sentenced? Support your answer with relevant evidence. (2 x 2) (4)

2.3 Use Source 2C.

2.3.1 Explain why the THREE apartheid operatives were granted amnesty. (1 x 2) (2) 2.3.2 ‘It will not be necessary for the trial court to proceed with the question of sentence.’ Why, do you think, was this statement made? (1 x 2) (2)

2.4 Refer to Sources 2B and 2C. Explain to what extent an historian would consider the information in Sources 2B and 2C useful when writing about the granting of amnesty to those responsible for the death of Griffith’s Mxenge. (2 x 2) (4) 2.5 Read Source 2D.

2.5.1 How did Griffiths Mxenge’s family react to the application for amnesty of the three apartheid operatives? (1 x 2) (2) 2.5.2 Explain why the Mxenge family responded in this manner to the granting of amnesty to the three apartheid operatives. (2 x 2) (4)

2.6 Consult Source 2E.

2.6.1 How does Mamdani view the manner in which the TRC dealt with the victims of apartheid? (1 x 2) (2) 2.6.2 Mamdani suggests that the TRC process was flawed. What change did he propose that might have made the TRC more successful in its attempt to ‘heal’ the past? (1 x 2) (2) 2.6.3 Comment on the meaning of Mamdani’s statement: ‘The TRC was only interested in, ‘Did you give the orders in this case, that case?’ ‘ (2 x 2) (4) 2.7 Use the information in the relevant sources and your own knowledge, to write a paragraph of about 8 lines (about 80 words), explaining to what extent the TRC was successful in healing our past. (8)

QUESTION 3 WHAT IMPACT DID GLOBALISATION HAVE ON THE NEW WORLD ORDER? Study sources 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D and 3E and answer the questions that follow. 3.1 Use Source 3A.

3.1.1 Define the term globalisation in your own words. (1 x 2) (2) 3.1.2 Quote the TWO types of integration mentioned in the source in the context of globalisation. (2 x 1) (2) 3.1.3 According to the information in the source, what might be the negative effects of removing tariffs on the economies of developing countries situated on the African continent? (2 x 2) (4)

3.2 Study Source 3B.

3.2.1 Using the information in the source, identify THREE features of globalisation. (3 x 1) (3) 3.2.2 Explain whether you think these changes (as identified in QUESTION 3.2.1) have had a positive or a negative impact on the various countries of the world. Support your answer with relevant evidence. (3 x 2) (6)

3.3 Refer to Source 3C.

3.3.1 According to the information in the source, why did an increasing number of people favour economic globalisation? (1 x 2) (2) 3.3.2 Quote any TWO positive aspects that the global survey revealed about globalisation. (2 x 1) (2) 3.3.3 As a historian, explain the limitations of using this source when researching the effects of globalisation. (1 x 3) (3)

3.4 Consult Source 3D.

3.4.1 Identify FOUR negative effects of globalisation. (4 x 1) (4) 3.4.2 Explain how globalisation contributed to the negative effects (as identified in QUESTION 3.4.1). Support your answer with a valid reason. (1 x 2) (2)

3.5 Refer to Sources 3C and 3D. Explain how the information in these sources would be useful to a historian studying globalisation. (2 x 2) (4) 3.6 Refer to Source 3E.

3.6.1 What TWO factors, do you think, prompted activists to embark on protest action? (2 x 1) (2) 3.6.2 Comment on the significance of the words, ‘Global Injustice’, as shown on the banner, in the context of globalisation. (1 x 2) (2)

3.7 Consult Source 3D and Source 3E and explain how the information in these sources support each other regarding the negative effects of globalisation. (2 x 2) (4) 3.8 Use the information from the relevant sources and your own knowledge, to write a paragraph of about 8 lines (about 80 words), explaining how globalisation has created a new world order from 1989 to the present. (8)

6. ASSESSMENT TASKS: ESSAY QUESTIONS 1. TOPIC 1: CHINA OR VIETNAM QUESTION 1A: CHINA Discuss to what extent Mao transformed China from an underdeveloped country to a super power between 1949 and 1976. [50] QUESTION 1B: VIETNAM ‘ ... All the military might of a superpower could not defeat a small nation of peasants.’ Critically discuss this statement in the light of United States of America’s involvement in Vietnam between 1965 and 1975. Use relevant examples to support your answer. [50] 2. TOPIC 2: INDEPENDENT AFRICA QUESTION 2: CONGO AND TANZANIA Write a comparative essay on the political successes and challenges that post-colonial leaders of both the Congo and Tanzania faced between the 1960s and the 1980s. [50] 3. TOPIC 4: CIVIL RESISTANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA: 1970S TO 1980S QUESTION: 4: THE CRISIS OF APARTHEID IN THE 1980S Explain how internal mass civic resistance and international pressure contributed to the demise (fall) of the apartheid regime in the 1980s. [50]

4. TOPIC 5: THE COMING OF DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST QUESTION: 5: THE NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY Allister Sparks argues that the process of negotiation ‘was always a crisis-driven process’. Critically assess Allister Spark’s statement with reference to the process of negotiation in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. [50]

7. GUIDELINES FOR LEARNERS AND TEACHERS: EXEMPLAR RESPONSES: RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT GRADE 12: RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY I HEREBY DECLARE THAT ALL PIECES OF WRITING CONTAINED IN THIS RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT, ARE MY OWN ORIGINAL WORK AND THAT IF I MADE USE OF ANY SOURCE, I HAVE DULY ACKNOWLEDGED IT.

LEARNER’S SIGNATURE:________________________________________

DATE:______________________

A POEM PAYING TRIBUTE TO SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN Praise to our Mothers

MONITORING LOG OF LA DUMA – GRADE 12C

TEACHER’S NAME: Mrs BA Starr

TEACHER’S SIGNATURE:___________________________________

LEARNER’S SIGNATURE:_____________________________________

INTRODUCTION This research project examines the role played by women during the liberation struggle and attempts to answer the question of how different the role of women was to that of men during the struggle against apartheid. Albertina Sisulu, one of the most important leaders of the anti-apartheid resistance, has argued that women fought ‘side-by side’ with men; but she also suggested that they were particularly vulnerable to oppression because of their role as mothers and wives. This research assignment presents evidence which supports Albertina Sisulu’s statement. In answering this question, I have studied a variety of sources. These sources include books by historians, documents, oral sources, the Internet and other media. My approach is to look at the strategies employed by a selection of dedicated women who played a key role in the liberation struggle. In The Women’s Federation March of 1956, Lilian Ngoyi, is singled out as one of the significant leaders who represented the struggle of millions of black South African women.

‘She found herself, as do millions of black women across the land, the victim of both race and sex discrimination. She demonstrated that it was possible not only to transcend the limits imposed on her in this way, but that the struggle in South Africa could not be successfully waged unless women and women’s issues constituted a central part of liberation strategy. Neither the state with all its might, nor morality could really silence these phenomenal women’

(Human, M., Mutloatse, M. & Masiza, J. 2006:62).

This statement is the starting point of my research assignment. It has been said that during apartheid millions of black South African women faced the triple oppression of being black, being women and being poor. This research assignment shows how some women challenged the social convention that women should look after the home, and men should be the authority figure and play a central role in politics. The women discussed in this assignment demonstrated that during the apartheid years, women not only played a key role as wives and mothers but also as political activists and anti-apartheid campaigners. In addition, although there was no feminist movement in South Africa in the apartheid period, sometimes black and white women did unite to fight against apartheid, for example, the anti-pass protest in 1956 organised by the non-racial Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). I seek to identify how South African women fought to overcome the many challenges and limitations imposed on them because of their gender as well as by the repressive policies of the National Party government.

BACKGROUND The resistance by black women to racial inequality in South Africa began long before apartheid was officially introduced in 1948. As early as 1912, women were involved in a passive resistance campaign in support of the black and Indian miners who were striking for better wages and improved working conditions. Also, in 1913, in the Free State, black and Coloured women resisted the carrying of passes. In 1918, Charlotte Maxeke established the Bantu Women’s League to resist the pass laws. The reason they joined the Bantu Women’s League and not the ANC was due to the fact that women were not allowed to be members of the ANC at that time. The resistance of women to the racially discriminating laws continued into the 1930s. The activism of women took on a new dimension when women were finally permitted to join the ANC in 1943. In addition, they formed the ANC’s Women’s League and Ida Mtwana became the first president. In 1948, the National Party government came to power and introduced the policy of apartheid in South Africa. During the apartheid years (1948–1994), South Africa was a divided society where people’s status and rights were determined by their race. It was a country where the minority white government passed laws to segregate and discriminate against the majority black population. This policy included laws such as the Population Registration Act that classified all South Africans according to race and the Group Areas Act that forced people to live in racially segregated areas. There were many women who reacted with anger, frustration and outrage at these unfair and unjust laws. Many of these women became anti-apartheid activists and their resistance to apartheid cost them dearly. During the 1950s, women became more militant and in 1952, the Defiance Campaign drew many women into civil disobedience and activism against the unjust apartheid laws. Partly in response to their experiences during the Defiance Campaign, a new women’s organisation was established in 1954. The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) united women of all racial groups, from various organisations, including the ANC, the SAIC (South African Indian Congress), the Non-European United Front, various trade unions and civic associations. This was a multi-racial women’s organisation which included teachers, nurses and factory workers as well as housewives. These women pledged to draw up a Women’s Charter to end inequality. This Women’s Freedom Charter began with the words:

‘We, the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives, African, Indian, European and Coloured, hereby declare our aims of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women and that deprive us in any way of our inherent right to the advantages, responsibilities and opportunities that society offers to any one section of the population.’

In 1956 FEDSAW jointly organised a 20 000 strong march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the extension of the pass laws to African women. Although this campaign did not lead to a repeal of the pass laws, the show of strength and unity by women encouraged other women to continue the struggle. In the decades that followed women continued to persevere and pursue the dream of equality and a democratic South Africa.

BODY OF ESSAY

The men and women involved in the liberation struggle paid a heavy price for democracy and freedom:

‘These were people who sacrificed families, homes, communities and incomes. They weren’t home for bedtimes and quality time. They weren’t there to talk after a bad day. They missed their parents’ funerals and cousins’ weddings. Freedom was won by those that dreamt up a maybe, an element of uncertainty, a risk’ (Naidoo, P., 2002:12).

This research assignment focuses on ‘these people’. In particular, it focuses on the women who sacrificed time with their children and families to pursue the struggle against apartheid. I intend to show how these women stepped out of their conventional domestic roles to play an important part in the liberation movement in South Africa. Through their experiences we can better understand that political freedom in South Africa has come at a cost. Women played many different roles in the struggle. They raised their own children and the children of others, held down jobs and maintained households. They also defended the oppressed, established new organisations, supported the families of political prisoners and those in detention. They helped to establish organisations, hospitals, colleges and institutes, assisted the unemployed, obtained scholarships for the underprivileged, organised protests, attended conferences, travelled abroad, lectured. They were banned, placed under house arrest, detained, imprisoned and in some cases were killed for demanding democracy and equal rights for all South Africans. Albertina Sisulu, was one such woman. She was a nurse, a mother, a wife and became one of the most important anti-apartheid political activists, earning her the title ‘Mother of the Nation’ for her selfless dedication to the liberation struggle. She took on leadership positions in both the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women. Albertina Sisulu became the first woman to be arrested under the General Laws Amendment Act and was jailed for two months, during which she was harassed and taunted psychologically. She was placed in solitary confinement in 1981 and 1985, banned and subjected to house arrest. The book, Winnie Mandela, A Life, recounts Albertina Sisulu’s support of Winnie Mandela in prison:

‘As a result of the appalling conditions and the shock of her situation, she started haemorrhaging. Terrified that she was having a miscarriage, Winnie sank to her knees and buried her head in her hands. Albertina Sisulu, a trained midwife, realised that something was terribly wrong, and pushed the women surrounding Winnie out of the way so that there was enough room for her to lie down. Albertina took off her own jacket and wrapped it around Winnie to keep her warm, and gave strict instructions that she was not to move. The simple, basic care paid off, and Winnie’s baby was saved’

(Du Preez Bezdrob, 2003:78)

This was an unwavering act of compassion. It also shows the vulnerability of women activists during their fight for freedom. As a ‘negotiator’ in the political arena, Albertina Sisulu established international networks and support bases for the anti-apartheid movement. In the late 1980s she led a delegation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders to Europe to meet British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and to the USA to meet US President, George Bush Sr. to gain support for the liberation movement. In 1994, Albertina Sisulu served as a member of parliament in South Africa’s first democratic government. These examples from Sisulu’s life story illustrate the role that women played as activists, but also show that at times women experienced their oppression differently to men. Another woman who played a key role in the liberation struggle was Fatima Meer. Born in Durban, Meer was the daughter of an ordinary shop assistant, journalist and editor of Indian Views. Durban is a multi-cultural city and Meer established the Durban and District Women’s League to promote good relations between Indians and Africans and through this organisation initiated a number of social-welfare projects. In 1946 Fatima Meer participated in the passive resistance campaign organised by the South African Indian Congress against apartheid laws. In 1952 she took part in the Defiance Campaign which had been inspired by SAIC’s earlier campaign and four years later in the women’s anti-pass campaign. Fatima Meer was also a close friend of Nelson and Winnie Mandela and served six months in detention with Winnie Mandela because of her involvement with the Black Women’s Federation. In her book, Higher than Hope, Fatima Meer recalled that Nelson Mandela did not even discuss some of his decisions with his family, but took it for granted that their support would be unconditional. Therefore, women also need to be acknowledged for the supporting role they played and the way they suffered as a result of their husbands’ and fathers’ involvement in resisting the apartheid government. Like many of her male comrades, Fatima Meer was banned from 1952 to 1954 under the Suppression of Communism Act. Her banning orders restricted her movements and she could not publish or engage in any political activity. During the 1960s Fatima Meer lectured in the sociology departments at the Universities of Natal and the Witwatersrand (this in itself was a noteworthy achievement for a woman at that time), and took a particular interest in education. In 1953 the Black Education Act was introduced by HF Verwoerd. This Act had a devastating impact on the South African black population as it delivered an unequal, inferior education system. Black children were educated to become unskilled labour and to remain inferior in apartheid society. Meer was aware that there was a high illiteracy rate among Africans, both in townships and rural schools where children had little access to formal education. In order to address the desperate need for education among the African population, she initiated school building programmes in Umlazi, Port Shepstone, Phambili and Inanda. She also established a craft centre in Phoenix and later founded the Khanyisa school project for African children and the Tembelihle Tutorial College to train African students in secretarial skills and established a craft centre for the unemployed to teach them sewing and knitting. Meer’s projects helped to empower black women by teaching them skills that allowed them to become self-sufficient and self-employed in order to better support their families. It is clear that Meer channelled much of her human resources into trying to improve the quality of education amongst black South African children and saw that this was important to help realise the dream of a South African democracy. Another great woman activist was Lilian Masediba Ngoyi. She was the daughter of a miner and a domestic worker. She played a significant role in the struggle as a teacher, an activist, a treason trialist, a trade unionist, a founding member of FEDSAW and later became president of the ANC Women’s League. Ezekiel Mphahlele described her as ‘the woman factory worker who is tough granite on the outside, but soft and compassionate deep down in her...’ (Human, M.; Mutloatse & Masiza,J., 2006:63). Lilian Ngoyi also played a pivotal role during the Defiance Campaign when she was arrested for using a post office reserved for whites only. The prominent presence of women during this campaign, alongside their male counterparts, strengthened the unity that existed in the struggle against repression in South Africa. As a founding member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), she played a key role in organising the anti-pass demonstration to Pretoria in 1956. The introduction of passes for women was an attack on women’s domestic roles, their ability to look after their children and their homes, which forced many into political activism. In a letter to government, FEDSAW stated the following:

‘At a Congress of Mothers held in Johannesburg in August 1955, the many women present unanimously passed a resolution that a mass deputation of women of all races should be sent to the Union Building … As women, we shall protest particularly against the proposed extension of the pass system to African women and against the housing conditions in which many thousands of African families must live.’

During the women’s march to the Union buildings on 9 August 1956, the women famously told the Prime Minister Strijdom:

‘WATHINT’ ABAFAZI, WATHINT’ IMBOKOTHO YOU’VE TAMPERED WITH THE WOMEN YOU’VE KNOCKED AGAINST A ROCK’ HISTORY SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS – 47 CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER GUIDE

Albert Luthuli, former president of the ANC, described the strength of women during the anti-pass march to Pretoria by saying:

‘Our women have played a major part in conferences and demonstrations. Furthermore, women of all races have had far less hesitation than men in making common cause about things basic to them’ (Luthuli, A., 2006:188).

This was an example where women of all races united to resist the repressive apartheid government. This point of view was reinforced by Albertina Sisulu when she said:

‘Well, the 9th of August to us was an eye-opener. In the sense, that we thought that men could really be the people to carry reference books. But when it turned to us, we felt it’s something else now. So, all we had to do was to rally the women against you, you know accepting the reference books for women. Because we said, you know, we have got our reference books, our children to look after we just had no business and did not have any business to carry passes like men. We have seen the problem, what the passes have done to our men – being arrested at work and you are waiting for him. Let us say no to the reference books’

(Human, M.; Mutloatse & Masiza, J., 2006:113).

Lillian Ngoyi was arrested in 1956 for high treason. She spent a significant amount of time in solitary confinement. An extract from her biography highlights the price that she paid for her activism against the apartheid regime:

‘The authorities were determined to silence Lillian and, in 1962 she was given further restrictions, confining her to her suburb of Orlando in Soweto. She survived as best she could, sewing from home. The Special Branch (Security Police) would try to scare away her customers by threatening them with prison, or accusing them of subversive activities …’

(Quoted in Bottaro, J.; Visser, P. & Worden, N., 2012:206).

For Ngoyi’s selfless struggle in fighting against the apartheid regime the ANC awarded her the prestigious Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe Award. One of the other leaders in the 1956 women’s march to Pretoria was Helen Joseph. Born in England, Joseph came to South Africa as a teacher in 1931. After leaving to serve in the Air Force in World War II, she returned and worked with the Garment Workers Union as a Social Welfare Officer. Here she met Solly Sachs, who was a communist hated by Afrikaner nationalists for organising young Afrikaans women into a multi-racial Garment Workers’ Union. Joseph also joined the South African Congress of Democrats (SACOD), an organisation that was affiliated to the ANC and encouraged white activism against apartheid. Before moving to South Africa, Joseph had worked as a teacher in India and came to embrace the meaning behind the Hindu greeting ‘namaste’ (the God in me honours the God in you). If God is in everyone, how could we ever discriminate, or fail to help those who are harmed? This philosophy influenced her to act against the inequalities of apartheid. Helen Joseph had the opportunity to read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People and played a key role in the formation of FEDSAW and the women’s march in 1956. Alongside other anti-apartheid activists, Joseph was arrested and charged with high treason and banned in 1957. While in prison she suffered great hardship and humiliation at the hands of the government officials, which she faced with courage, and single minded determination. The evidence below illustrates the strength and commitment of these women in the struggle for freedom.

From the police cells, the women were moved to the Fort, the prison in Braamfontein which was totally unprepared for the sudden influx of so many awaiting-trial prisoners. There were not enough blankets, sleeping mats, toilets or food for the women, who milled around in the main hall and on a second-floor balcony while waiting to be processed. They were lined up in groups, ordered to undress, and told to squat so that warders could conduct vaginal searches for contraband. Then the women were told to dress again and shown to the cells – filthy, stinking and lice-riddled. (Du Preez Bezdrob, 2003:77)

In the book, Winnie Mandela A Life, we come across the strength shown by Helen Joseph and others who endured difficult circumstances in their fight for liberation. She became a good friend of Winnie Mandela and was regarded as a mother figure. She provided advice and support for others. Therefore, we can appreciate her role as adviser and friend. Helen Joseph, together with the Anglican Church, arranged for those who could not be visited to be sent money by postal order from family members. Her role can be seen as a humanitarian reaching out to those in distress. Helen Joseph was awarded the ANC’s highest award Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe medal to symbolise integrity and courage. The youngest leader of the 1956 Woman’s march was Sophie Williams. Born in Port Elizabeth, she went to work in a textile factory as a young girl. She soon became known for her negotiating skills and was appointed as shop steward within the Textile Workers’ Union. She was identified as a leader while still a teenager and in 1955 was appointed as the full-time organiser for the Coloured People’s Congress in Johannesburg. In the 1960s Williams followed her husband, Benny de Bruyn, into exile where she worked for the ANC in Zambia and Tanzania. After years of activism in exile, Williams returned to South Africa in 1990 when opposition parties were unbanned. Her role in the struggle had taken a different path to that of those women who had remained in South Africa but she continued to play a role in the struggle for a democratic South Africa.

CONCLUSION In answering the key question on how different the role of women was to that of men during the apartheid struggle, I have highlighted the roles played by some of the most significant South African women. In attempting to do this, I looked at the strategies they employed and the different forms of protest undertaken by women as compared to that of men. There were many other women who played an important role in the liberation struggle, for example Ray Alexander, Elizabeth Mafekeng, Frances Baard, Mabel Balfour, Mary Moodley, Liz Abrahams, Viola Hashe, Rita Ndzanga and Phylis Naidoo. Many other women, ordinary mothers, wives and workers who were not known outside their communities, the unsung heroines of the struggle, also played a very important role. Due to space constraints I have been unable to discuss more examples in this research project. I have identified how various South African women challenged the National Party government and, in the end, succeeded. In his book, Let My People Go, Albert Luthuli portrays African women as ‘a formidable enemy of the oppression’ (Luthuli, A., 2006:187). In my research assignment, it is evident that the strength and determination shown by women, inspired and encouraged their husbands, brothers, sons and comrades who fought alongside them during the struggle for freedom and challenged the National Party government. Luthuli made the prophetic observation:

There will be enormous, peaceful change in South Africa before the end of this century. People of all races will eventually live together in harmony because no one, white, black or brown wants to destroy this beautiful land of ours. Women must play an increasingly important role in all areas of the life of the future. They were and remain the most loyal supporters in all our struggles. (Luthuli, A, 2006: p.xxii)

This quotation is from of one of our four South African Nobel Prize winners and acknowledges the significant role played by women in all spheres of life. During the apartheid years women undertook various multi-tasking roles – as wives, mothers, workers and activists. Their roles played in the liberation struggle must never be forgotten. South Africa salutes all women.

EVALUATION AND REFLECTION I have learnt a lot from writing this assignment. I did not know that women had played such a large role in the struggle or that they had suffered so much. Writing this research project was very difficult and I had to organise my time very well. I used the local library and it took a long time to read and organise my notes. My teacher made useful comments on both my first and second drafts of this project which gave me direction and focus. I reorganised material and tried harder to use the life stories of the women I had chosen to study to answer the key question. I think I should have said more about these women’s family lives as well but it was quite difficult to find information and I ran out of space and time. I enjoyed researching and writing this assignment, although it took up a great deal of time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Angier, K. (et al), Viva History Grade 12: Learner’s Book. (Johannesburg: Vivlia, 2013). Bottaro, J.; Visser, P. & Worden, N., In Search of History. Grade 11. Learner’s Book. (Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman (Pty) Ltd, 2012). Du Preez Bezdrob, A.M., Winnie Mandela a life . (Paarl: Paarl Printers, 2003). Friedman, M.; Saunders, C.; Jacobs, M.; Seleti, Y.; & Gordon, J., Looking into the Past. Grade 11 Learner’s Book. (Cape Town: CTP Printers, 2011). Human, M.; Mutloatse, M.; Masiza, J., The Women’s Freedom March of 1956. (Johannesburg: Pan McMillan (Pty Ltd), 2006). Light, J. & Johanneson, B., Celebrating Women in South African History (www.sahistory.org.za,) (DBE, 2012). Luthuli, A., Let My People Go, The Autobiography of Albert Luthuli. (Paarl: Paarl Printers, 2006). Naidoo, P., Footprints in Grey Street. (Durban: Ocean Jetty Publishing, 2002). Pillay, G. (et al), New Generation History Grade 12: Learner’s Book . (Durban: Interpak Printers, 2013). Shaw, G., Believe in miracles, South Africa from Malan to Mandela - and the Mbeki era . (Paarl: Paarl Printers, 2007). Retrieved from: http://heritage. The times.co.za/memorials/gp/Lilian Ngoyi/article on 4 June 2013. Retrieved from: http:// www.sahistory.org.za/people/professor Fatima Meer on 4 June 2013. Retrieved from: http:// www.sahistory.org.za/people/lillian-masediba-ngoyi on 4 June 2013.

ASSESSMENT RUBRIC

TOTAL = 85/100

NAME OF LEARNER:_____________________________________

GRADE: ________________________

FINAL MARK ALLOCATION

COMMENTS: This is a well-researched and well-written piece of research – excellent work. You made a very good attempt to formulate and sustain a line of argument with regard to the key question. You used a variety of sources to substantiate the line of argument, which is excellent. However, this research assignment could have been strengthened if relevant visual sources were used, at the appropriate points, to supplement your historical narrative. Finally, although you link back to the key question in places, you tend to focus on the separate struggles of women and not when they fought ‘side-by-side’ with men as stated in the question. I am glad that you enjoyed this research project. Well done!

TEACHER’S SIGNATURE:____________________________________

DATE: ___________________________________________________

7. GUIDELINES FOR LEARNERS AND TEACHERS: EXEMPLAR RESPONSES: SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 1.1

1.1.1 The apartheid government supported UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) during the Angolan Civil War. ✔ 1.1.2 Angolan economic installations targeted by the SA Defence force were the oil and railway and port installations; iron mines and electricity lines and factories.✔ ✔✔✔ 1.1.3 The apartheid government felt threatened by the MPLA because it was multi-racial, therefore undermined the social and racial policies of apartheid. ✔✔ Secondly, it supported ANC training bases openly, thereby supporting the SA liberation groups which sought to destroy the apartheid regime, i.e. supported the enemies of the SA apartheid government✔✔. Thirdly, the MPLA supported SWAPO, the Namibian liberation group which was fighting the SA forces in South West Africa and seeking political liberation from the domination of SA✔✔ 1.1.4 During the Angolan Civil War, the SA army invaded Angola in support of the UNITA (Pro-capitalist) rebel group which sought to overthrow the governing MPLA government. The SA army reached an area close to the capital and UNITA forces followed behind them, capturing towns where the SA forces had overthrown and defeated the local MPLA ruling groups. Therefore, the country was in danger of a total coup by the SA backed pro-capitalist UNITA forces. In this context, the MPLA government had no choice but to seek aid from the Communist bloc in order to stop the invasion of SA troops and the defeat of the MPLA by UNITA. ✔✔✔

1.2.1 The message conveyed by the cartoon is that the USSR, portrayed as SANTA in his sleigh, is generously supplying arms to the MPLA as SANTA generously brings presents at Christmas time. ✔✔ These weapons will be used to destroy the UNITA and FNLA forces in the Angolan civil war - as there is a pun on the word ‘sleigh’-it is written as ‘slay’, i.e. to kill✔✔. 1.2.2 It may, to a large extent, be regarded as biased as it comes from the cartoon archives of Great Britain, who supported capitalism and democracy during the Cold War era when the Angolan civil war took place ✔✔. It therefore portrays the USSR in a negative light as an ‘evil SANTA’ bringing weapons to cause death and destruction in its bid to spread communism in Africa in its support of African political groups. ✔✔

Related Items

PHYSICAL SCIENCES SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 LEARNER'S GUIDE
PHYSICAL SCIENCES SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE
ACCOUNTING SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 LEARNER'S GUIDE
ACCOUNTING SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE
ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE
ENGLISH FIRST ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 LEARNER'S GUIDE
GRADE 12 MATHEMATICS SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS LEARNER'S GUIDE
LIFE SCIENCES SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE
LIFE SCIENCES SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 LEARNER'S GUIDE
GEOGRAPHY SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 LEARNER'S GUIDE

1.3.1 The Soviet Union ✔and Cuba✔ 1.3.2 It is an economic system whereby the government controls all the means of production, where free enterprise is forbidden and individual freedom is less important than the interests of the community. ✔✔ 1.3.3 Vorster felt that black Angolans were being exploited by the desires of communist Cuba to spread communism in Angola ✔✔ and therefore were not being supported in their bid for independence as black Angolans. He felt the Cubans would be likely to stay in Angola in order to use Angola as a springboard or basis from which to spread communism to other African countries in the region and so continue to influence Angola’s policies. ✔✔ 1.3.4 The Angolan Civil War took place during the Cold War when capitalist and Communist ideologies were in conflict in various parts of the world. In South Africa the government represented SWAPO and ANC as communists, and communism was portrayed as anti-Christian and undemocratic. Vorster uses the term ‘communist’ repeatedly in this interview to justify South African involvement in the Angolan civil war. ✔✔

1.4.1 ‘terrorists’ ✔; ‘barbarian’ ✔ 1.4.2 The SABC justified their deaths by making it appear as though they had died fighting a ‘holy war’ in order to protect and maintain civilisation and preserve Christian values ✔✔ and prevent the take-over of SWA by the ‘barbarian’ SWAPO ‘terrorists’, bent on causing death and destruction. ✔✔ 1.4.3 Source 1D would be very useful to a historian researching the use of propaganda, as the source shows the use of negative, emotive words such as ‘terrorist’ and ‘barbarian’ when describing SWAPO. ✔✔ It also shows how the SA defence force’s participation and invasion of Angola is justified as a ‘holy war’ fought to protect Christian values and maintain civilisation. It shows how the SA public was indoctrinated to support the actions of the SA defence forces as morally correct ✔✔ (rather than revealing their main aim to be defence of the white minority rule in South Africa and Namibia).

1.5 South Africa became involved in the Angolan Civil War in an attempt to remove the Marxist MPLA party which had established themselves as the government after the Portuguese colonists withdrew from Angola in 1974. SA wanted to create a pro-capitalist independent African country on its border as it would not be likely to support the ANC and SWAPO and allow their training bases on Angolan soil. Therefore, SA invaded Angola after independence, supporting UNITA in the civil war which had broken out before elections could be held. South Africa wanted to establish a pro-capitalist government in Angola which would support the capitalist apartheid government in SA. A conventional war was waged in Angola and its economic infrastructure was destroyed in order to weaken the MPLA government and allow the UNITA movement to take over. As the MPLA approached the communist Eastern bloc for help in this situation, SA promoted itself as the bastion of Christian values and civilisation and its invasion of Angola as a legitimate war to protect the Southern African region from ‘terrorists’ and ‘barbarians’, as the MPLA was openly supportive of ANC and SWAPO bases in Angola. ✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔

Uses relevant evidence e.g. demonstrates a thorough understanding of why South Africa became involved in the Angolan civil war.
Evidence relates well to the topic.
Uses evidence very effectively in an organised paragraph that shows an understanding of the topic. [50/50]

QUESTION 2 2.1

2.1.1 From 15 to 18 April 1996. √ In East London.√ 2.1.2 It means to bring people of different races together after the atrocities of apartheid. √√ 2.1.3 The TRC chose the slogan ‘healing the past’ because the gross human rights violations that many, especially, black South Africans had experienced could not be forgotten. It had to be investigated so that ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ could face each other, which would ultimately bring about a process of healing. √√ 2.1.4 It was significant because for the first time in post-apartheid South Africa a real effort was made to deal with South Africa’s painful past so that a united nation could be formed. √√√

2.2.1 Dirk Coetzee√, Almond Nofomela, √ David Tshikilange√ 2.2.2 Griffiths Mxenge was beaten, stabbed and struck on the head with a wheel spanner. √√ He fell to the ground and died because of these serious wounds. √√ 2.2.3 In terms of the law, the sentencing of the three apartheid operatives was postponed because the TRC had not made a final decision. √√ The TRC was waiting for the Amnesty Committee to tell it what to do regarding the three apartheid operatives. √√

2.3.1 The TRC was satisfied with the reasons given by the three apartheid operatives for committing heinous human rights violations because they were politically motivated. They were acting under direct orders from a few National Party leaders and further that they were engaged in the struggle against the ANC. √√ 2.3.2 Amnesty was granted to all three policemen and it was therefore not necessary for the trial court to proceed with the question of sentencing. √√

2.4 The sources would be useful for the following reasons:

Source 2B gives information about the men who were actually responsible for the killing of Mxenge. √√
Source 2C outlines the role of the Amnesty Committee in conducting thorough investigations into the actions of the three apartheid operatives and how their superiors issued the order to have Mxenge killed. √√

2.5.1 They opposed Coetzee’s application for amnesty, saying that it would be a travesty of justice. √√ 2.5.2 They felt that Coetzee and his co-accused did not meet the criteria for amnesty. √√ They also felt that there was no evidence to suggest that killing their political opponents fell within the course and scope of their duties as members of the security police. √√

2.6.1 Mamdani felt that the focus of the TRC was too narrow and it did not take the sufferings of the ‘victims’ seriously. √√ 2.6.2 The TRC could have informed white South Africans that many of them had actually benefitted from apartheid. √√ 2.6.3 For Mamdani, the TRC was not concerned about real reconciliation and nation building. It only focused on individual cases and therefore lost its relevancy for uniting South Africa. √√ He also felt that the emphasis of the TRC was on who gave the orders to kill apartheid activists rather that educating all white South Africans on how they had benefitted from apartheid. √√

2.7 The TRC was not entirely successful in healing South Africa’s past. It was set up by the government to hear testimonies from the perpetrators of human rights violations which had been committed during the apartheid era. This mandate was not fulfilled in its entirety. The TRC did not adequately heal South Africa from its divided past, for example the Mxenge family felt that the granting of amnesty to their brother’s killers was a travesty of justice. They felt that the act of killing Griffiths was reason enough to prosecute them in a court of law. The amnesty committee felt that the apartheid operatives were acting under instructions at the time. Finally, many families of victims were not satisfied with the TRC’s attempt to bring closure to their painful past, hence it was not successful. √√√√√√

Level 2 – Evidence is mostly relevant and largely relates to the topic. Uses evidence in a basic manner. Some gaps in knowledge. [47/50]

QUESTION 3 3.1

3.1.1 Globalisation refers to an integrated system whereby various countries of the world trade with each other to boost their economic and political ties. This is influenced largely by technological advancement.√√ 3.1.2 Negative integration√ Positive integration√ 3.1.3 This will lead to many developing African countries importing goods such as electronic car parts, clothes, etc. which can be imported at a cheaper price than would be paid for similar goods produced in Africa. √√ The importation of cheap goods would lead to increased unemployment in industries located in African countries. √√

3.2.1 Free trade√; communication√; outsourcing√ 3.2.2 Free trade – For developing economies ‘free trade’ would have a negative impact because governments would not be able to protect the local industries from monopolisation, labour brokers and low wages. √√ Communication and the use of technology – positive effect. It has ensured that international sporting events such as the Soccer, Rugby or Cricket World Cup tournaments that were held in South Africa could be broadcast across various countries throughout the world. √√ Outsourcing - negative impact. Big companies in their quest to increase profits and cut expenditure usually employ non-permanent staff. This leads to the casualisation of labour with negative consequences for workers. √√

3.3.1 They felt that globalisation would deliver several positive benefits in a number of economic and non-economic areas. √√ 3.3.2 Free trade√ Benefits in a number of economic and non-economic areas. √ 3.3.3 This survey was only conducted in the mainly ‘Group of 20’ countries which are in Europe, North America and Asia. The views of people from many other countries have not been considered. √√√

3.4.1 Increase in child labour and slavery√; high pollution levels√; the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer√; fast food is making people unhealthy√ 3.4.2 Globalisation has led to the creation of monopolies and this has resulted in an unfair distribution of wealth among developed and developing countries. √√

3.5 These sources would be useful to a historian studying globalisation for the following reasons: Source 3C is an opinion poll on globalisation and it provides the views of people from a variety of countries. It provides insight into the views that people in developed and developing countries hold on globalisation. √√ Source 3D offers an insight into the negative aspects of globalisation. √√

3.6.1 The absence of trade unions in some countries, hence reference to ‘workers voices’ on banner. ‘free economies’ referring to the removal of trade barriers by the WTO which entrench poverty√; global injustice. √ 3.6.2 ‘Global injustice’ refers to the injustices faced by people living mainly in developing countries in Africa and elsewhere which they say was caused by the WTO. √√

3.7 The sources 3D and 3E support each other in the following ways: Source 3A – speaks of the negative impact of globalisation in all countries of the world √√ and Source 3D supports this point of view by showing a visual image of activists protesting against the WTO. √√ 3.8 Globalisation involves a worldwide integration of the various economies using the advances made in technology. After the fall of communism in 1989, Russia joined the key developers like USA, Japan and Western Europe in the world of trade and economy. Globalisation has both positive and negative effects on the world. On the positive side, some, mainly developed countries, have benefitted from communication and trade. They have made advances in technology and infrastructure. However, not all countries have benefited from globalisation. Poor and developing countries have not really benefitted from globalisation. They face poverty, exploitation, child labour and under-development. There is a growing digital divide between countries with access to new technology and those without. Hence the new world order that globalisation has created has both positive and negative effects. √√√√√

Level 2 – Evidence is mostly relevant and mainly relates to the topic. Uses evidence in a basic manner. Some gaps in knowledge [47/50]

7. GUIDELINES FOR LEARNERS AND TEACHERS: EXEMPLAR RESPONSES – ESSAY QUESTIONS QUESTION: 1B: VIETNAM ‘ ... All the military might of a superpower could not defeat a small nation of peasants.’ Critically discuss this statement in the light of the United States of America’s involvement in Vietnam between 1965 and 1975. Use relevant examples to support your answer. When the USA became involved in Vietnam, it was for all the right reasons in terms of the opinions America held about communists. Because of the USA’s superior resources and technology, they expected that it would be quick victory over North Vietnam. The outcome was very different from their expectations. This essay explains the reasons for the USA’s unexpected defeat. America became involved in the war against North Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism. As a capitalist country, the USA was against anything communist. They had set it as one of their objectives to do what they could to protect smaller weaker countries from being infiltrated by the communist ideology. The USA feared the domino effect and believed they had a responsibility to protect capitalist South Vietnam from being overtaken by communist North Vietnam, which was being supported by China and the USSR. The USA believed that it would be an easy war against North Vietnam. They had superior resources at their disposal, sophisticated weapons, and innovative technology. It was meant to be over and done with quickly. No one could have foreseen what awaited them. One reason for the USA’s defeat was that Vietnam is a dense, jungle country, which didn’t give the Americans much opportunity to use their highly advanced weapons, let alone move along smoothly. The North Vietnamese adopted tactics and warfare that used this to their advantage. The North Vietnamese were fighting to maintain their independence. They wanted to unite North and South Vietnam into one communist country. Many people in South Vietnam supported the North Vietnamese – these were called the Viet Cong. The Vietnamese were seasoned veterans, having fought a successful war against French colonialism and Japanese occupation during World War II. They used guerrilla tactics against the US troops such as booby traps, hit-and-run, and their ability to blend with the civilians frustrated the US troops greatly and led to much loss of life for the US. In contrast, the US army had mostly inexperienced conscripted soldiers. The average age of a US soldier fighting in Vietnam was 19 years. The US troops soon lost hope and morale, because they were fighting a war for a country that didn’t belong to them and for a cause they did not believe in. The great loss of life and the hopeless situation, also resulted in criticism and lack of support back home. There were protests to end the war and return the young men home. The Vietnam war was the first war to be televised. Images of burning villages and dying civilians were broadcast into ordinary Americans homes and they lost support for the war. Demonstrations and rallies were held across the USA, which criticised the war and the government. The US, in their frustration, employed unorthodox measures to gain the upper hand. They used things like napalm on enemy soldiers. Civilians at home were also on the receiving end, as this napalm burned to cinders whatever it came into contact with. They used chemicals like Agent Orange which was a defoliant to clear the leaves off trees to prevent the Viet Cong from using them as cover. It was later proved that this Agent Orange was the cause of cancers and birth defects that became widespread in Vietnam. For all these things America received much criticism from the world and people lost respect for them as a country that stood for good, especially as a result of brutal scenes involving citizens. America eventually lost the war and so their objective to curb the spread of communism was not realised. The war effort had cost a great deal, not only in material resources but also in lives lost. The war having been lost, many people were critical of America and its involvement. They saw the loss of lives and resources to have been part of the atrocities committed in Vietnam and many veterans regretted having fought in Vietnam. The USA had expected to win a quick victory against North Vietnam, but despite superior weapons they lost to one of the smallest countries in the world. There were a number of reasons why the USA lost this war but the loss of support from the American population and the determination of the Vietnamese people to win their independence played a significant role. Comments:

The question has been answered and the content selection is relevant to the line of argument.
The essay has been planned and a line of argument developed.
Evidence has been used to defend the argument.
This essay could be improved by planning more carefully before writing. Each paragraph should contain one clear idea of why the USA lost the war against North Vietnam. Relevant evidence must be used to substantiate the line of argument.

QUESTION 5A: THE NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY Allister Sparks argues that the process of negotiation ‘was always a crisis-driven process’. Critically assess Allister Sparks’ statement with reference to the process of negotiation in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. Allister Sparks’ assertion that the process of negotiations was ‘crisis-driven’ is to a large extent accurate. The years 1990 to 1994 were a turbulent political journey. The release of Mandela and political prisoners (1990) in conjunction with other positive social reforms set the negotiating process in motion. However, for every achievement of the negotiating process, there was a violent event that jeopardised its foundation. Yet negotiations and settlement persevered and in just four short years the country moved from a policy of division to one of democracy. The ANC and the NP were the main role-players in the process but many other organisations were involved as well. Talks began on 2 May 1990 between Mandela (ANC) and De Klerk (NP). The main aim of these talks was to outline the principles for the release of political prisoners and the granting of indemnity for those in exile. A working group was established and a broad agreement known as the Groote Schuur Minute was signed. Talks would continue later. However, violence occurred at Sebokeng when the Inkatha hostel dwellers planned a raid on ANC supporters. Thirty people were killed. The police were warned about the attack but did nothing to stop it. There was evidence of ‘third force’ involvement. This threatened to break down talks completely. However, the negotiating process forged ahead and the Pretoria Minute was subsequently signed. Mandela announced the suspension of the armed struggle and the NP would lift the state of emergency in South Africa. However, violence among the ANC, NP and Inkatha continued. The Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) was established in 1991 and pertained to the principles of the new constitution. Talks were held at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park (19 groups represented) and agreement was reached. The interim constitution would be drafted by a multi-party conference, and the final constitution by the first elected parliament. The Declaration of Intent was signed to pledge all parties’ commitment to the negotiating process. CODESA 2 was held in 1992 but talks failed as parties could not agree to the interim government in terms of the new constitution. Another violent event occurred. The Boipatong massacre occurred when Inkatha hostel dwellers again attacked ANC supporters. Forty-nine people were killed and it was alleged that Inkatha members were helped by the police. The ANC decided to walk out of CODESA 2 and began a campaign of ‘rolling mass action’ in order to put pressure on the government to agree to its conditions. The fear of civil war now became a reality and it became clear to political role players that there was an urgent need to restart negotiations. This led to the Record of Understanding. Secret talks were held between the NP and the ANC but violence again flared up, in Bhisho (Ciskei). Unarmed ANC protestors were attacked by the Ciskeian government’s soldiers. Twenty-eight people were killed, resulting in mass action against the NP government. The deadlock between the NP and the ANC was broken, with the multi-party negotiating process being set up to pick up from where CODESA 2 had left off. This illustrates the level of commitment to reform with which Mandela led the ANC. It symbolised that the ANC was assertive and resolute in their will for positive change in South Africa. Violence jeopardised the goodwill of the agreement once again. On 10 April 1993, the Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Chris Hani, was murdered. The country was thrust into violent rampages and 70 people were killed in the resulting violence. Mandela was called to address and pacify the nation. This indicates Mandela’s power and presence for peace and stability in the country. Hani’s death created an urgency for negotiations to be finalised. The negotiated settlement then occurred and resulted in democracy. It stated that parties who won more than 20% of the eligible votes could choose a deputy president and the president would be obliged to consult with the deputies. The election date was decided upon and the appropriate structures were put in place for the approaching general elections. However, not all South Africans accepted the transition to democracy. The Afrikaner weerstandsbeweging (AWB), a right-wing, conservative organisation stormed the World Trade Centre in armoured vehicles and threatened to break down the process of negotiations and demanded a volkstaat. The commitment of the key role players, in particular Nelson Mandela, was the backbone of the negotiations process. Despite violence and disruption, democracy was achieved. On 27 April 1994, South Africa experienced its first democratic election. Over 20 million people voted. The ANC represented hope and change for the majority of South Africans. The ANC won the elections and Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the president of South Africa. It is therefore evident that Mandela, being a man of peace and quiet strength, was able to change the country for the better and to embrace democracy. The final constitution was ready for implementation in 1996. It can therefore be concluded that the years 1990 to 1994 were a mixture of negotiations (Pretoria Minute, CODESA, etc.) and violence (Sebokeng, Boipatong etc.). Yet the country was miraculously able to transcend obstacles and become a rainbow nation with an advanced constitution. While some of the role-players had tried to undermine the negotiations, others had worked hard throughout to bring about a new democratic South Africa. Comment:

The question has been answered and the content is fully relevant to the line of argument.
This is a well-planned and well-structured essay.
This essay could be improved through developing an original, well-balanced and independent line of argument with evidence used to sustain and defend the argument throughout.

8. MARKING GUIDELINES AND RUBRIC SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS QUESTION 1 WHY DID SOUTH AFRICA BECOME INVOLVED IN THE ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR IN THE 1980s? 1.1

1.1.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 1A – L1]

UNITA (1 x 1) (1)

1.1.2 [Extraction of evidence from Source 1A – L1]

Oil Installations
Electricity lines
Iron mines
Factories (any 4 x 1) (4)

1.1.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1A - L2]

Angola was a multi-racial democratic country (South Africa’s apartheid ideology was based on the principal of racial separation).
The Angolan government followed a Marxist ideology (SA government was capitalist and anti communist).
Angola allowed the ANC to establish training camps (SA government feared that these would be bases from which South Africa would be attacked).
Angola offered support for the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) who were fighting for liberation from South African control. (any 3 x 2) (6)

1.1.4 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1A – L2] Yes, the MPLA was justified.

South Africa had invaded Angola.
The MPLA felt threatened by South Africa and was unable to defend its rule without calling for external support.
South Africa offered military training and support to MPLA’s Opponents, UNITA and FNLA. Any other relevant answer. (any 1 x 3) (3)

1.2.1 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1B – L2]

The Soviet’s support caused destruction (bombs falling off the sleigh and exploding on the ground).
The Soviets sent a large quantity of weapons to Angola. (The cartoon shows the sleigh piled high with different weapons)
Any other relevant response. (2 x 2) (4)

1.2.2 [Evaluation of bias in Source 1B – L3] To a large extent because:

The title of the cartoon ‘Slay Bells’ implies that the weapons being sent to Angola would cause death (slay means to kill)
The cartoon shows a town being destroyed by the weapons being carried by the Soviet Union sleigh. Any other relevant answer.

To a lesser extent because:

It was accurate to show that the Soviet Union sent large quantities of weapons to Angola.
The weapons sent to Angola from the USSR caused a great deal of death and destruction. Any other relevant answer. (2 x 2) (4)

1.3.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 1C – L1]

The Soviet Union
Cuba (2 x 1) (2)

1.3.2 [Definition of concept from Source 1C – L1]

A society based on the principals of communal ownership of property, the redistribution of wealth, no production for profit and no class structure. (1 x 2)(2)

1.3.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1C – L2]

He believed that Angola was being controlled by communists.
He stated that there were tens of thousands of Cuban troops in Angola.
Any other relevant answer. (2 x 2) (4)

1.3.4 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 1C – L2]

He referred to the Cuban forces that fought on behalf of the MPLA.
He used the word communist repeatedly because he saw the Cuban presence in Angola as a communist threat.
He was anti-communist.
Any other relevant answer. (1 x 2) (2)

1.4.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 1D – L1]

Terrorist (2 x 1) (2)

1.4.2 [Extraction of evidence from Source 1D – L1]

They died to ‘maintain civilisation’.
They died for the ‘preservation of the norms and values of a Christian society’. (2 x 2) (4)

1.4.3 [Ascertaining the usefulness of Source 1D – L3] Very useful because it shows that

The public broadcaster was not neutral – highly emotive and negative language was used to describe the liberation movements (‘terrorists’, ‘barbarians’).
The South African public was given a one-sided version of the civil war in Angola and the Namibian liberation movement was referred to as ‘SWAPO terrorists’.
The death of soldiers in the border war was portrayed as a just cause – a ‘sacrifice’ to ‘preserve’ ‘civilisation’ and ‘Christianity’.

1.5 [Interpret, analyse and evaluate information from Sources 1A-D - L3] Learners need to include the following points in their answer:

Angola was seen as a threat to South Africa.
Angola was a multi-racial, Marxist country. Its success would undermine the capitalist apartheid South African state.
Angola supported liberation movements such as SWAPO.
Angola received military aid from communist countries.
Vorster (SA Prime Minister) believed there was a communist conspiracy to dominate the world and Angola was of strategic importance.
Angola was supporting SWAPO in their attempt to liberate Namibia from South African control.
Vorster feared that it was important to win the war in Angola to preserve South African ‘civilisation’, and ‘Christian values’, which were under threat from liberation movements who were supported by Angola. Any other relevant answer.

Use the following rubric to allocate a mark:

QUESTION 2 HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TRC) IN HEALING OUR PAST? 2.1 2.1.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2A – L1]

15 April 1996
East London (2 x 1) (2)

2.1.2 [Definition of historical concept from Source 2A – L1]

The act of reconciling or the process of making compatible.
To endeavour to reconcile differences of the past in order to heal the nation. (any 1 x 2) (2)

2.1.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2A – L2]

The TRC chose ‘Healing our Past’ so that it would be able to ensure that the truth concerning the human rights violations in South Africa was not erased or forgotten but investigated, recorded and exposed.
Through the TRC process people who suffered the injustices of the past might find closure and be able to move on with their lives.
Any other relevant answer. (any 1 x 2) (2)

2.1.4 [Interpretation and evaluation of evidence from Source 2A – L3]

The TRC was a significant event in SA’s history as it focused on healing the past and building a united nation.
It provided support with regard to amnesty, reconciliation and reparation.
Any other relevant answer. (any 1 x 3) (3)

2.2 2.2.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2B – L1]

Dirk Coetzee
Almond Nofemela
David Tshikilange (3 x 1) (3)

2.2.2 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2B – L1]

He was struck on the head with a wheel spanner.
Fell to the ground and was repeatedly stabbed. (2 x 2) (4)

2.2.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2B – L2]

Sentencing was postponed until the TRC committee had reached its decision.
The TRC was waiting for the Amnesty Committee to make its final decision
Any other relevant response. (any 2 x 2) (4) 2.3

2.3.1 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2C – L2]

The TRC was satisfied that their motives were politically motivated - taking orders from a higher authority, the Security Branch of the South African Police.
They applied for amnesty, attended the hearing and the Commission was satisfied that they had disclosed the truth.
Any other relevant response. (any 1 x 2) (2)

2.3.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2C – L2]

Because they had been granted amnesty by the TRC they could not be tried in a criminal court. (1 x 2)(2)

2.4 [Ascertaining the usefulness of evidence from Sources 2B and 2C – L3] Learners need to make reference to both Sources 2B and 2C in their responses:

Source 2B is useful as it focuses on the assassination of Griffiths Mxenge and provides details as to when and how he died as well as who killed him.
Source 2C provides valuable information as to who gave the instructions and orders to kill Mxenge.
Both sources are useful because they give insight into the workings of the TRC and the process of granting amnesty.
Any other relevant answer. (any 2 x 2) (4)

2.5 2.5.1 Extraction of evidence from Source 2D – L1]

The Mxenge family opposed the amnesty application. (1 x 2) (2)

2.5.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2D – L2]

The family of Griffiths Mxenge felt that the granting of amnesty was a travesty of justice.
They felt that Coetzee and his co-accused did not meet the criteria for amnesty as contained in the Promotion of National Reconciliation Act.
As policemen they stepped into the arena of politics which was not within their jurisdiction of maintaining justice, the protection of citizens and the duties of policemen. (2 x 2) (4)

2.6 2.6.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 2E – L1]

Mamdani views the manner in which the TRC dealt with apartheid as if ‘it did not exist’ and it did not take the sufferings of the victims seriously. (1 x 2) (2)

2.6.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 2E – L2]

Mamdani suggests that the TRC could have informed white South Africans that many of them were beneficiaries of the apartheid system.
The focus could also have been on those who suffered because of apartheid and not only on those who broke the law. (any 1 x 2) (2)

2.6.3 [ Interpretation of evidence from Source 2E – L2]

The TRC was intent on exposing who gave the orders for political crimes.
It required them to be transparent. The TRC wished to extract the truth by saying ‘Did you give the orders in this case, that case?’
Any other relevant answer. (any 2 x 2) (4)

2.7 [Interpret, analyse and evaluate information from Sources 2A-D - L3]

Learners need to include the following points in their answer:

The success of the TRC contributed to healing the past, and building a united SA.
It acknowledged the pain, humiliation and suffering of people, allowed for amnesty for families who had suffered trauma, they forgave perpetrators, provided stability for SA.
Reparation provided R30 000 for victims, listened to stories of how police activists had killed others.
Acknowledged mistakes that were made which were never to be repeated, led to the birth of a culture of human rights, violence was not to be tolerated.
In 2006, Adrian Vlok asked for forgiveness and repented by washing the feet of Frank Chikane and the feet of the mothers and widows of the Mamelodi 10.
In some cases the acceptance of unconditional apologies had improved relationships between the perpetrators and the victims.
Some families of victims (e.g. Mxenge, Goniwe, Hani) refused to accept the TRC process of amnesty and wanted the perpetrators to be tried in a criminal court.
Mamdani felt that the TRC did not go far enough – it was only interested in those who had committed gross human rights violations but not in those who had benefitted from apartheid. Any other relevant point.

Use the following rubric to allocate a mark:

QUESTION 3 WHAT IMPACT DID GLOBALISATION HAVE ON THE NEW WORLD ORDER? 3.1 3.1.1 [Definition of concept from Source 3A – L1]

Globalisation refers to the integration of various economic, social, technological, political and cultural structures and processes that allow for the economic and political relations between the different countries of the world.
These are influenced by the development in communication, transportation and infrastructure. Any other relevant response. (1 x 2) (2)

3.1.2 [Extraction of evidence from Source 3A – L1]

Negative integration
Positive integration (2 x 1) (2)

3.1.3 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 3A – L2]

Removing tariff protection which allowed cheap imports from outside Africa to flood the market.
Cheap imports may result in the loss of jobs in industries located in African countries. Any other relevant answer. (2 x 2) (4)

3.2 3.2.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 3A – L1]

Shrinking world
Technology
Free trade
Any other relevant answer. (any 3 x 1) (3)

3.2.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 3B – L2]

Shrinking world – negative e.g. an investment in Indonesia can mean unemployment in London; or positive e.g. Internet allows for rapid communication across the world.
Technology – positive e.g. a change in how the world communicates, learns, does business and treats illness; or negative e.g. countries without access to technology are poorer and unable to compete (the digital divide).
Free trade - negative e.g. national governments are unable to protect their own industries and workers’ jobs are lost due to cheap imports; positive e.g. consumers benefit from being able to buy cheaper imported goods such as clothing made in the Far East.
Any other relevant answer. (any 3 x 2) (6)

3.3. 3.3.1 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 3C – L2]

They believed it would be positive (1 x 2) (2)

3.3.2 [ Extraction of evidence from Source 3C – L1]

Benefits (economic and non-economic areas).
In low GDP countries citizens believed that they benefitted from free trade and globalisation. (2 x 1) (2)

3.3.3 [Ascertain the limitations of Source 3C – L3]

The survey was limited to 25 000 citizens in 25 countries.
It may not have included countries negatively affected by globalisation.
Supporters of globalisation were mainly from Europe and North America.
Any other relevant answer. (any 1 x 3) (3)

3.4 3.4.1 Extraction of evidence from Source 3D – L1]

Loss of jobs in developed nations
Increase in child labour and slavery
High pollution levels
Negative impact of fast food on people’s health
Unequal distribution of wealth
Any other relevant answer. (any 4 x 1) (4)

3.4.2 [Interpretation of Source 3D – L2]

Loss of jobs in developed nations – outsourcing of manufacturing to ‘third-world’ countries.
Increase in child labour and slavery – many countries lack adequate accountability.
High pollution levels – new industrial development.
Negative impact of fast food on health – spread of global food chains.
Unequal distribution of wealth – corporate greed and corrupt governments.

3.5 [Ascertain the usefulness of Sources 3C and 3D – L3]

Source 3C provides valuable information on slavery, the bribing of officials to force children to work and on how people felt about globalisation.
Source 3D provides evidence of the negative effects of globalisation.
Read together, Sources 3C and 3D provide multiple perspectives on globalisation. (any 2 x 2) (4)

3.6 3.6.1 [Extraction of evidence from Source 3E – L1]

Global injustice
March against World Trade Organisation (WTO) (2 x 1) (2)

3.6.2 [Interpretation of evidence from Source 3E – L2]

Presumably the people in Greece, Ireland, and Spain would disagree, as would mainly African American workers in Detroit and other US cities who had lost jobs to people living in Taiwan, etc.
The demonstrators believed that the policies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) caused increased injustice across the world. (1 x 2) (2)

3.7 [Compare evidence from Sources 3D and 3E – L2]

Source 3E highlights global injustices as mentioned in 3D
Source 3D gives clear examples of the injustice which is mentioned in the source; e.g. Source 3D explains how under-developed countries have been exploited, suffered injustice, e.g. low labour costs, child labour, slavery, terrorism, criminals, increase in industrial waste, pollution, negative health issues, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, corporates continue to exploit the poor, emergence of corrupt governments. (2 x 2) (4)

3.8 [Interpret, analyse and evaluate information from Sources 3A-E - L3] Learners need to include the following points in their response:

Globalisation creating a new order
Technology increasing
Transport, computer, telecom industries progressing very fast, making it difficult and challenging to keep up
Communication has grown exponentially e.g. global accessibility of cellphones
Internet access is essential in business, schools, homes, offices, information and capital being traded
Changes in monetary policies
Global issues combating international terrorism, HIV/AIDS, challenges to globalisation
Travel has become easier and more affordable - enhancing communication
Any other relevant response.

ESSAY QUESTIONS QUESTION 1A: CHINA Discuss to what extent Mao transformed China from an underdeveloped country to a super power from 1949 to 1976. SYNOPSIS National strength and the status of nations are measured in economic capacity and military hardware – those countries with the greatest amount of both are considered to be ‘super powers’. Candidates should, therefore, determine to what extent Mao succeeded in developing these two areas between 1949 and 1976. Clear examples must be used to substantiate their argument. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should outline very briefly the main line of argument – in this case making a statement expressing the extent to which Mao had transformed China from an underdeveloped country to a superpower by 1976.

ELABORATION Land Reform 1949–1976

The majority of China’s population in 1949 were landless peasants.
1949: Land Reform Law – land was taken from landowners and redistributed to peasants. Every peasant now owned a very small plot - just enough to live on but not enough to produce a surplus.
1952–1956: Peasant land was re-grouped into collectives (by 1956 95% of peasants were in collectives) – this allowed for mechanisation, modern farming methods and greater production.
From 1958: Collectives joined into larger units called communes. The aim was that communes would be self sufficient: able to control their own education, health, welfare service and have a small industry. Communes were part of Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward - an attempt to develop China into a modern industrialised country. (Initial bad weather and poor harvests resulted in widespread famine.)
(NB: After Mao’s death peasants were allowed to own their land again and grow crops for profit. As a result of this ‘responsibility system’ as it was called, China has seen far greater increases in grain harvests.)
Grain produced in China increased (million tonnes) – 1949: 111; 1957: 191; 1976: 285; 1984: 407.

The economic and industrial development 1949–1976

China had very little industry in 1949 (cheap manufactured goods from Europe and Japan in the early 20th century had economically ruined Chinese craftsmen).
From 1952 industrial development was centrally planned with a target fixed (followed USSR’s model).
Plan 1: 1952–1957 – Industrial development exceeded targets.
Plan 2: 1957–1960 – ‘Great Leap Forward’. Popular slogan in those years was ‘20 years in a day’. Over ambitious, poorly managed, harvest failures resulted in famine in which millions died – GLF abandoned
Plan 3: 1960–1966 – No plans agreed upon – chaos in countryside due to Cultural Revolution as traditional methods of farming were attacked as ‘backwards’ and untrained workers sent from the cities to work in the fields
Plan 4: 1971–1976 – this was a period of rapid industrial growth
GNP grew on average 13% per year between 1949–1975 (but very unevenly: 1949=57 + c.22% but 1960s = 7%)

Foreign policy

Mao wanted to re-establish the borders of the ‘Old China’ (this led to border wars with a number of neighbouring countries) and make sure that China was never threatened by any foreign power.
Tibet 1949: Tibet was an independent priest-led country which Mao saw as part of ‘Old China’. In 1950 the Chinese Red Army entered Tibet – land redistributed, attacks on Buddhism, monasteries destroyed. In 1965 Tibet became a full province of China. Tibet is still fighting for independence today.
Other examples such as India, Vietnam or Taiwan could be used to illustrate Mao’s foreign policy which aimed at showing the world that China under communist rule was no longer a weak and insignificant power.

Military power

Until 1960 China received a great deal of assistance from the USSR. After the Sino-Soviet split, China adopted a policy of self-reliance.
China developed nuclear power.
Any other relevant point.
Conclusion: Candidates should sum up their argument with a relevant conclusion. [50]

QUESTION 1B: VIETNAM ‘... All the military might of a superpower could not defeat a small nation of peasants.’ Critically discuss this statement in the light of United States of America’s involvement in Vietnam between 1965 and 1975. Use relevant examples to support your answer. SYNOPSIS Candidates must critically discuss the various reasons why the USA failed to win the war against Vietnam despite their superior military might. Clear examples must be used to substantiate their argument. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction : Candidates should outline very briefly the main line of argument – in this case the main reasonswhy the USA failed to win the war against Vietnam.

ELABORATION USA’s military tactics

The US was ill-equipped and trained to fight a guerrilla war in Vietnam. They lost out to the more experienced Viet Cong who knew the jungles and had the support of local people
The US used ‘search and destroy’ tactics, destroying whole villages of Vietnamese civilians but failing to destroy the Viet Cong
The US used aerial bombing and chemical weapons to deforest the jungle and napalm to intimidate and destroy the Vietnamese people.
These tactics lost the USA a great deal of support among Vietnamese people (North and South) but also fuelled the anti-war feeling back in the US.

Opposition to war in USA

A growing number of people (especially young students on USA campuses) opposed USA involvement in Vietnam.
Rallies, demonstrations and marches were held across the USA (4 students killed by state troops at Ohio State University, 1971) - many young people did not want to be conscripted to fight a war they did not believe in (ideologically they did not agree with the USA’s policy of containment).
Due to the media coverage (Vietnam was the 1st televised war), many Americans were opposed to the destruction of villages and the murder of civilians that took place in the name of ‘democracy’.
The anti-war movement undermined support for the USA government to such an extent that President Johnson did not stand for re-election – Richard Nixon stood for election promising to end the USA’s involvement in the war.

Chinese and USSR support of Viet Cong

Although the Viet Cong did not have the chemical weapons and sophisticated weapons that were used by the USA, they did receive weapons, aid and support from the USSR and China.
Support from China and the USSR made it very hard for USA troops to disarm the guerrillas.

Unpopularity of South Vietnamese regime

The USA tried to prop up an unpopular regime that many of the South Vietnamese people (whom the USA was supposed to be ‘liberating’ from the communists) did not support.
The South Vietnamese government was essentially a military dictatorship and the ruling elite were hated by the majority of the peasant class.

Determination and skill of Viet Cong compared with US conscripts.

The Viet Cong were highly disciplined and dedicated guerrilla soldiers fighting to free their country (Vietnamese saw it as a war of liberation).
They also had the support of the majority of the Vietnamese people.
In contrast, the US army was made up mainly of very young, conscripted soldiers.
Any other relevant point.
Conclusion: Candidates should sum up their argument with a relevant conclusion.[50]

QUESTION 2: CONGO AND TANZANIA Write a comparative essay on the political successes and challenges that post-colonial leaders of both the Congo and Tanzania faced between the 1960s and the 1980s. SYNOPSIS Candidates should undertake a comparative discussion of the political successes and challenges that faced the Congo and Tanzania. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should focus on the nature of the post-colonial leaders in both the Congo and Tanzania by undertaking a comparative discussion.

ELABORATION Leadership in the Congo:

Patrice Lumumba (Prime Minister 1950–1961). An anti-colonial liberation leader and a nationalist. Some historians have argued that he lacked diplomatic experience (e.g. in his handling of the Katanga secession) and that he acted without judgment; while others saw him as charismatic, uncompromising and having a strong set of values for which, ultimately, he was killed.
Mobutu Sese Seko (President 1965–1997) A colonel in the army; a capitalist who was supported by the USA, an Africanist (changed name from Congo to Zaire and demanded people use their African names, Western clothes were banned), he was an elitist and established a kleptocracy (rule by a very few); a ruthless and authoritarian leader who used violent methods to silence all opposition.

Leadership in Tanzania:

Julius Nyerere (President 1961–1985) One of the few African leaders to voluntarily retire, known for his personal integrity. He was opposed to elitism and extravagance, a socialist, a dictator (banned all opposition parties); he used the 1962 Preventive Detention Act to imprison those who opposed him; committed to economic as well as political independence (although Tanzania came to depend heavily on foreign aid due to the failure of his policies).

Legacy of Colonialism

Congo : Colonised by King Leopold II of Belgium; colonial regime exploited people, stripped Congo of its rich natural resources and was known for its brutality (slavery existed in Belgian Congo into the 20th century), colonial powers did not develop an infrastructure, they did not provide health facilities or education for the local population (at independence only 2% of the population attended high school), local industry was not developed, no local people were involved in government during the colonial period; political parties where allowed from 1955, but were formed on an ethnic basis. This resulted in ethnic rivalry (e.g. attempt by the mineral-rich region, Katanga, to secede which was supported by USA).
Tanzania : Colonised by Germany, Britain took control after World War I. Nyerere emphasised the importance of unifying the nation and developing a Tanzanian identity – he made Kiswahili the official language. Britain did not develop secondary industries, Tanzania was exploited for natural resources and cash crops, infrastructure built for export of raw materials. Britain allowed Tanzanians some participation in local government structures, but they were not allowed to form political parties.

Types of government

Congo: Military dictatorship, kleptocracy, capitalist (private ownership of wealth created great divisions between rich and poor); one-party state; Mobutu had all power within the party and membership was compulsory for all citizens; the party was devoted to the cult of Mobutuism; supported by USA; encouraged foreign capitalists to invest in Zaire.
Tanzania: African socialist (all land and industry was nationalised), one-party state (although membership of TANU was voluntary and open to people of all languages, ethnicities and regions). Attempted to remain non-aligned in Cold War; initially did not allow foreign investment but was forced to accept privatisation and foreign investment in return for loans and debt relief from IMF and World Bank.

Political stability and instability

Congo : Relatively stable after Mobutu came to power in a military coup d’état but mainly because all opposition was banned, silenced and executed;
Tanzania : Relatively stable with Nyerere remaining leader until mid-1980s; fought a war against Uganda over border dispute.
Any other relevant point.

QUESTION: 4: THE CRISIS OF APARTHEID IN THE 1980S Explain how both internal mass civic resistance and international pressure contributed to the demise of PW Botha’s apartheid regime in the 1980s. SYNOPSIS Candidates need to explain how both internal mass civic resistance and international pressure contributed to the demise of PW Botha’s regime in the 1980s. Relevant examples must be used to support their argument. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should focus on the reasons for internal mass civic resistance and international pressure against the apartheid regime in the 1980s.

ELABORATION

Botha’s regime embarked on repression and later undertook ‘reform’ (1983 constitution).
‘Reform’ measures by Botha’s regime in the form of the tri-cameral parliamentary system led to intense internal resistance by civic organisations.
Internal resistance in the form of ‘rolling’ mass action/programme of defiance led by the UDF, the National Forum, the Black Consciousness Movement, AZAPO, community/ religious organisations, student organisations in schools/universities, End-Conscription Campaign, Black Sash, etc.
The imposition of the states of emergency by Botha’s regime (reasons and reaction).
The emergence and role of the Mass Democratic Movement in 1985 against Botha’s regime.
International pressure by the anti-apartheid movement in Africa, Britain and Ireland.
Impact of the sports/cultural/academic/consumer boycotts; sanctions and disinvestment by the international community on the apartheid state’s economy.
Conclusion: Candidates should sum up their argument with a relevant conclusion. [50]

QUESTION 5: THE NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL UNITY Allister Sparks argues that the process of negotiation ‘was always a crisis-driven process’. Critically assess Allister Sparks’ statement with reference to the process of negotiation in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. SYNOPSIS Candidates should indicate whether they agree with Sparks’ statement. They should highlight the various challenges that South Africa’s political role players faced during the process of negotiation such as violence, opposing views and political intolerance between 1990 and 1994. MAIN ASPECTS Candidates should include the following aspects in their response:

Introduction: Candidates should explain the historical context and take a line of argument with regard to the statement that ‘the process of negotiation was always a crisis-driven process’.

In March 1990, the ANC Executive met the NP government for ‘talks about talks’. (Meeting suspended due to the Sebokeng Massacre on 26 March 1990; the ANC threatened the continuation of the armed struggle if government did not commit to the process of negotiation; Government wanted ANC to commit to power-sharing and not majority rule).
May 1990: ANC and government met at Groote Schuur/Groote Schuur Minute accepted.
Third meeting in Pretoria (Pretoria Minute accepted; ANC suspended armed struggle; violence continued despite progress in talks; Third Force was blamed for the increase in violence).
ANC tried to befriend Zulu king to create political stability and peace in Natal; (IFP resisted and violence increased for e.g. ‘Seven Day’ War during March 1991. Two hundred people were killed in Pietermaritzburg.
Violence spread to Johannesburg (train violence claimed at least 500 lives between 1990 and 1993;Inkathagate Scandal came to the fore; ANC made 14demands to government as a prerequisite for continuednegotiations).
20 December 1991 CODESA began – boycotted by the PAC, AZAPO and the Conservative Party; Declaration of Intent signed/South Africa on threshold of democracy.
CODESA 2 began in May 1992 but ANC walked out because of the Boipatong massacre in June 1992.
October 1992 Joe Slovo proposed the ‘Sunset Clause’ as a compromise - NP government and ANC later signed the ‘Record of Understanding’; IFP rejected this agreement.
7 September 1992 almost 80 000 ANC supporters marched to Bhisho and demanded the reincorporation of Ciskei into South Africa. Soldiers from Bantustan leader Oupa Gqozo. Government opened fire on unarmed protestors leading to the death of 28; the tri-partite alliance responded by embarking on ‘rolling mass action’.
Violence erupted again. Third Force implicated; Goldstone Commission confirmed the involvement of police/SADF.
Assassination of Chris Hani on 10 April 1993 was an attempt by the right-wing to derail the process of negotiation.
AWB invaded the World Trade Centre to stop negotiations – 25 July 1993.
APLA launched an attack on the St James Church in Cape Town – 25 July 1993 killing 11 and wounding 58 worshippers.
IFP and COSAG rejected ‘Record of Understanding’ and favoured federalism while the AWB and CP wanted a volkstaat.
Lucas Mangope, Bantustan leader of Bophuthatswana, called on the AWB to resist reintegration into SA – led to 63 AWB members being killed.
28 March 1994 members of the IFP marched to the ANC headquarters at Shell House – resulted in the Shell House massacre about 300 people were killed.
Multi-party talks resumed in April 1993.
South Africa’s first democratic elections held on 27 April 1994.
Conclusion: Candidates should sum up their argument with a relevant conclusion. [50]

COGNITIVE LEVELS USED TO SET SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY Visual sources and other historical evidence were taken from the following:

BOOKS: Angier, K. (et al), Viva History Grade 12: Learner’s Book. (Johannesburg: Vivlia, 2013). Frederikse, J. South Africa: A different kind of war. (London: James Currey, 1987). Hanlon, J. Beggar your neighbours: Apartheid power in Southern Africa. (London: James Currey, 1986). Pillay, G. (et al), New Generation History Grade 12: Learner’s book. (Durban: Interpak Printers, 2013). INTERNET SITES: http://www.cartoons.ac.uk/search/cartoon_item/angola. http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/interview-south-african-prime-minister-mr-b-j-vorster-mr-clarence-rhodesupitn- tv-13-february. http://qu301southafrica.com/tag/recon. www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/ . www.info.gov.za/speeches/1997/08050w13297.html. www.justice.gov.za/trc/media/1996/9611/s961105h.html. http://hubpages.com/hub/Definition-of-Globalization. http://globalisation.pen.io. www.globescan.com/news_archives/press_inside.htm. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/negative-effects-of-globalization.html. http://content.lib.washington.edu/wtoweb/images/wto-protest.jpg.

News and Media

News & Media Home
Research Stories
School's In
In the Media

As the nation prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education , a new report from researchers at Stanford and USC shows that racial and economic segregation among schools has grown steadily in large school districts over the past three decades — an increase that appears to be driven in part by policies favoring school choice over integration.

Analyzing data from U.S. public schools going back to 1967, the researchers found that segregation between white and Black students has increased by 64 percent since 1988 in the 100 largest districts, and segregation by economic status has increased by about 50 percent since 1991.

The report also provides new evidence about the forces driving recent trends in school segregation, showing that the expansion of charter schools has played a major role.

The findings were released on May 6 with the launch of the Segregation Explorer , a new interactive website from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. The website provides searchable data on racial and economic school segregation in U.S. states, counties, metropolitan areas, and school districts from 1991 to 2022.

“School segregation levels are not at pre- Brown levels, but they are high and have been rising steadily since the late 1980s,” said Sean Reardon , the Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project. “In most large districts, school segregation has increased while residential segregation and racial economic inequality have declined, and our findings indicate that policy choices – not demographic changes – are driving the increase.”

“There’s a tendency to attribute segregation in schools to segregation in neighborhoods,” said Ann Owens , a professor of sociology and public policy at USC. “But we’re finding that the story is more complicated than that.”

Assessing the rise

In the Brown v. Board decision issued on May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and established that “separate but equal” schools were not only inherently unequal but unconstitutional. The ruling paved the way for future decisions that led to rapid school desegregation in many school districts in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Though segregation in most school districts is much lower than it was 60 years ago, the researchers found that over the past three decades, both racial and economic segregation in large districts increased. Much of the increase in economic segregation since 1991, measured by segregation between students eligible and ineligible for free lunch, occurred in the last 15 years.

White-Hispanic and white-Asian segregation, while lower on average than white-Black segregation, have both more than doubled in large school districts since the 1980s.

Racial-economic segregation – specifically the difference in the proportion of free-lunch-eligible students between the average white and Black or Hispanic student’s schools – has increased by 70 percent since 1991.

School segregation is strongly associated with achievement gaps between racial and ethnic groups, especially the rate at which achievement gaps widen during school, the researchers said.

“Segregation appears to shape educational outcomes because it concentrates Black and Hispanic students in higher-poverty schools, which results in unequal learning opportunities,” said Reardon, who is also a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and a faculty affiliate of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning .

Policies shaping recent trends

The recent rise in school segregation appears to be the direct result of educational policy and legal decisions, the researchers said.

Both residential segregation and racial disparities in income declined between 1990 and 2020 in most large school districts. “Had nothing else changed, that trend would have led to lower school segregation,” said Owens.

But since 1991, roughly two-thirds of districts that were under court-ordered desegregation have been released from court oversight. Meanwhile, since 1998, the charter sector – a form of expanded school choice – has grown.

Expanding school choice could influence segregation levels in different ways: If families sought schools that were more diverse than the ones available in their neighborhood, it could reduce segregation. But the researchers found that in districts where the charter sector expanded most rapidly in the 2000s and 2010s, segregation grew the most.

The researchers’ analysis also quantified the extent to which the release from court orders accounted for the rise in school segregation. They found that, together, the release from court oversight and the expansion of choice accounted entirely for the rise in school segregation from 2000 to 2019.

The researchers noted enrollment policies that school districts can implement to mitigate segregation, such as voluntary integration programs, socioeconomic-based student assignment policies, and school choice policies that affirmatively promote integration.

“School segregation levels are high, troubling, and rising in large districts,” said Reardon. “These findings should sound an alarm for educators and policymakers.”

Additional collaborators on the project include Demetra Kalogrides, Thalia Tom, and Heewon Jang. This research, including the development of the Segregation Explorer data and website, was supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Get the Educator

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Stanford Graduate School of Education

482 Galvez Mall Stanford, CA 94305-3096 Tel: (650) 723-2109

Contact Admissions
GSE Leadership
Site Feedback
Web Accessibility
Career Resources
Faculty Open Positions
Explore Courses
Academic Calendar
Office of the Registrar
Cubberley Library
StanfordWho
StanfordYou

Improving lives through learning

Stanford Home
Maps & Directions
Search Stanford
Emergency Info
Terms of Use
Non-Discrimination
Accessibility

My Library Account
Articles, Books & More
Course Reserves
Site Search
Advanced Search
Sac State Library
Research Guides

History (General)

Assignment #2
Find Articles
Find Dissertations
Borrowing Material from other Libraries
Written Sources
Oral Sources
Visual Sources
Electronic Sources
Searching for Primary Sources
Power Point on Primary Sources
Microfilm (selected list)
Citing Sources
Assignment #1
Assignment #3
Assignment #4
Primary Sources Power Point
Wilson History 100
Numark History 100
History 17B Dr Lupo
Finiding Newspapers This link opens in a new window

Rose's Assignment #2: Secondary, Periodical and Reference Sources

+ This assignment must be typed. You will need to use online resources ( http://library.csus.edu ) AND visit the library in person. + DO NOT ask reference librarians for help with these questions. They have been instructed not to help, which goes against the very core of their being. Instead, you can ask me, or, Ben Amata has developed a webpage to help you if you get stuck on something.

In the library, please return all materials to their original and upright position as a courtesy for students who will follow in your footsteps.
Sloppiness in citations—misspellings, incorrect titles and punctuation, lack of capitalization, and failure to underscore or italicize book, journal, and newspaper titles—will be marked down.
When asked to make a Xerox, it must be readable for research purposes or it will not count.

1. A) Name two academic journals devoted to California history (NO newsletters). B) Pick one of them and Xerox an issue’s (not a volume’s) table of contents (NOT cumulative or yearly index that lists all the articles for the entire year) from the 1980s. Include it with this assignment. C) Pick an article from that Xeroxed table of contents and make both a footnote and a bibliographic entry for it (see Turabian, 17.2).

HINT: As in Assignment 1, you can search for periodicals by keyword and/or Library of Congress Subject Heading and limit your search by Location to just Periodicals. For example, using the subject heading: United States Foreign Relations Periodicals will find the journal Diplomatic History . If you don't know the subject heading, you can do a keyword search and again limit by "Location" to find journal titles.

Note that in this question you are being asked to find articles from a specific time range. The EUREKA record indicates the locations for material and format.

2. Give full bibliographic entries (see Turabian, 17.1) for any two historical monographs that are from the Washington State local history section of the library, F 886-900. Make sure these are historical monographs (history books written by professional scholars on a particular topic) and NOT novels, edited collections of essays, biographies, bibliographies, autobiographies, government documents, diaries, travelogues, oral histories, etc. Remember, an historical monograph will have an author and NOT an editor. It is best to actually visit the books in person to determine this.

3. Give full bibliographic entries (see Turabian, 17.1) for any two historical monographs that are from the Georgia local history section of the library, F 286-294 . Make sure these are historical monographs (history books written by professional scholars on a particular topic) and NOT novels, edited collections of essays, biographies, bibliographies, autobiographies, government documents, diaries, travelogues, oral histories, etc. Remember, an historical monograph will have an author and NOT an editor. It is best to actually visit the books in person to determine this.

HINT: You can check the preface and/or introduction to possibly determine the author's background. Otherwise, doing a Google search or looking for book reviews can help.

3. A) On which floor are the hard copies of the CSUS master’s theses held at the Library? B) Using Eureka and searching the CSUS Theses Collection, cite, in BOTH bibliographic and footnote form (see Turabian, 17.6.1), a CSU Sacramento master’s thesis that is about Sacramento and baseball’s Pacific Coast League.

4. Go to the HQ750-755.5 section of the library and provide, in both footnote and bibliographic format (see Turabian, 17.1), a book that addresses eugenics history in the United States.

HINT: Library floor maps might be useful. http://library.csus.edu/content2.asp?pageID=118

5. Go to the library webpage and click on Database and Article Searching. Now click on “O” and then click on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). (A) When is the first instance of “buffalo wing” in writing? B) True or false: “LOL” did not exist in English language until the advent of electronic communication in the 1980s. (C) When do hippies first appear in print?

For questions 6-9 you will need to work in the reference section of the library (ALL the answers MUST come from this section or they will be marked wrong). It is located on the second floor, right behind the reference librarians. But begin on Eureka. And remember, just because a book has a bibliography, that does not make the book a bibliography.

HINT: You can use the Advanced Keyword Search feature in EUREKA and LIMIT to a specific Location. Click on EUREKA: Library Catalog at the Library's webpage under Resources and Collections on the left side of the page. http://library.csus.edu/ On the right side, click on Advanced Keyword Search. Type in your keywords AND use the box below, LOCATION, and highlight Reference. Then do your search.

6. Locate two bibliographies that deal with the California. List authors or editors, titles and call numbers.

Hint: You can use the word " bibliography " in a keywowrd or SUBJECT search to locate this specific type of publication.

7. Locate two bibliographies on women. List authors or editors, titles and call numbers.

8. Name two scholarly encyclopedias that focus on business. List authors or editors, titles and call numbers.

HINT: You can use the word " encyclopedia " in a keyword or SUBJECT search to locate this specific type of publication - e.g. United States History Encyclopedia.

9. A) Locate two prominent biographical dictionaries on Americans. List authors or editors, titles and call numbers. B) Xerox one page of an entry on a person whose last name begins with “P” and include it with this assignment.

HINT: You can use the word " dictionary " in a keyword or SUBJECT search to locate this specific type of publication -e.g United States History Dictionaries .

10. From the F868 section, give me a footnote entry for a book on the history of a California county or region.

<< Previous: Assignment #1
Next: Assignment #3 >>
Last Updated: Jan 17, 2024 11:43 AM
URL: https://csus.libguides.com/histgen

The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

Research Guides

HIST 1301 | American History Before 1877

Signature Assignment

Loftin - Mid-Term Essay (Signature Assignment)
Loftin - Final Essay
Research Tools
Find Articles
Citation Help This link opens in a new window

If Chat is offline, you can email questions to [email protected]

This assignment generally requires you to analyze opposing perspectives on an American historical issue set before 1877 . Your professor may have changes to this requirement, so always make sure to check the intructions they give you.

Some instructors require you to use a scholarly historical periodical . This means a peer-reviewed article(scholarly) focused on history (historical) from a recognized academic journal (periodical). You can find these using the reccomended databases below. Some instructors may want you to specifically use a newspaper article from the time period you're sudying. AAS Historical Periodicals is a good source for that.

You may also need to use a book. You can search for a book at any of our campus libraries, including ebooks, using the search box below.

Find books and more!

All San Jacinto College Library Databases

<< Previous: Vogel
Next: Research Tools >>
Last Updated: May 10, 2024 1:00 PM
URL: https://sjcd.libguides.com/hist1301

https://www.sanjac.edu/library | Central Library: 281-476-1850 | Generation Park Campus: 281-998-6150 x8133 | North Library: 281-459-7116 | South Library: 281-998-6150 ext. 3306

You must enable JavaScript in order to use this site.

Election 2024
Entertainment
Newsletters
Photography
Personal Finance
AP Investigations
AP Buyline Personal Finance
AP Buyline Shopping
Press Releases
Israel-Hamas War
Russia-Ukraine War
Global elections
Asia Pacific
Latin America
Middle East
Election Results
Delegate Tracker
AP & Elections
Auto Racing
2024 Paris Olympic Games
Movie reviews
Book reviews
Personal finance
Financial Markets
Business Highlights
Financial wellness
Artificial Intelligence
Social Media

‘The Fly’ has become notorious in France after a brazen escape. What’s his criminal history?

This picture provided by Interpol shows Mohamed Amra, a convict that escaped from prison on Tuesday. May 14, 2024. A massive manhunt is underway in France on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, for an armed gang that ambushed a prison convoy, killing two prison officers, seriously injuring three others and springing the inmate they were escorting. (Interpol via AP)

Copy Link copied

PARIS (AP) — A prisoner nicknamed “The Fly” has become notorious in France overnight after a daring and bloody escape from a prison convoy in Normandy in which two guards were killed.

Mohamed Amra, 30, has a long and violent criminal history that has now culminated in a high-profile search .

Known as “La Mouche” (The Fly), Amra has also been referred to by other aliases such as “Yanis,” “Momo,” and “Schtroumpf” (Smurf). According to French media, these nicknames reflect his elusive nature and extensive activities.

Amra was born on March 10, 1994, in Rouen, a port city on the Seine River. His adolescence was a colorful one, marked by early run-ins with the law. His first offenses occurred between the ages of 11 and 14, involving violence, theft and extortion, according to the Paris public prosecutor. Growing up in a troubled environment in Normandy, he quickly became entangled in a life of crime.

By age 15, Amra was already infamous among local law enforcement. Recently sentenced for burglary by the judicial tribunal in Evreux on May 10, he is also under investigation for an attempted organized homicide in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and a kidnapping that resulted in death. Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau stated that Amra had significant connections with Marseille’s organized crime syndicates and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.

FILE - Arizona graduate student Murad Dervish sits in Pima County Superior Court, May 8, 2024, in Tuscon, Ariz. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday, May 20, in the trial of Dervish, who is accused of killing a professor on campus two years ago. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)

He was recently detained at the Val de Reuil prison center near Rouen following his recent sentencing for burglary. Previously, he was incarcerated at La Sante prison in Paris and Les Baumettes in Marseille. Despite not being classified as an inmate of the highest level of risk, he did require high security during his transfers, necessitating an escort of three guards, which was recently increased to five, according to officials.

Just days before his escape on Tuesday, Amra attempted to saw through the bars of his cell, leading to his placement in isolation, officials said. Guards had discovered he was using tape to conceal his actions, according to French media reports.

Amra’s extensive criminal record reads like a dark novel — armed violence, extortion, drug trafficking, and organized crime. He has been described as “versatile and opportunistic” by police, engaging in a range of criminal activities to bolster his income. This includes, according to Le Monde, orchestrating kidnappings and extortions from his cell using encrypted messaging apps like Signal.

Amra’s escape and violent history have made him a symbol of the challenges faced by French law enforcement in combating organized crime and ensuring the security of high-risk prisoners. The national search for “The Fly” continues as authorities remain determined to bring him back into custody, and the assailants to justice.

SI SWIMSUIT
SI SPORTSBOOK

Aaron Judge in the Midst of a Stretch Like He's Never Had Before

Brady farkas | may 18, 2024.

May 17, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) hits a solo home run.

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees continued their great season on Friday night by beating the Chicago White Sox, 4-2, at Yankee Stadium.

With the win, the Yankees are now 31-15 on the year. They are one of three teams in baseball with 30 wins, joining the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers.

In the win, Aaron Judge went 1-for-1 with a home run and three walks. After a slow start, he's now hitting .267 with 12 homers and 30 RBI. He's also in the midst of a stretch like he's never had before.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Aaron Judge’s 2.239 OPS in his last 5 games is the highest in any 5-game span of his career only other Yankees with an OPS that high in at least one 5-game span, min 20 PA: 2007 Alex Rodriguez 2006, ’05 Jason Giambi 1966, ’62, ’61, ’57, ’56 Mickey Mantle 1957 Bill Skowron 1950 Johnny Mize 1948, ’37 Joe DiMaggio 1940 Charlie Keller 1936 Tony Lazzeri 1934 Lou Gehrig 1932, ’26, ’24, ’23, ’21, ’20 Babe Ruth

Aaron Judge’s 2.239 OPS in his last 5 games is the highest in any 5-game span of his career only other Yankees with an OPS that high in at least one 5-game span, min 20 PA: 2007 Alex Rodriguez 2006, ’05 Jason Giambi 1966, ’62, ’61, ’57, ’56 Mickey Mantle 1957 Bill Skowron 1950… https://t.co/CaOiqJwMdn — Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) May 18, 2024

With Judge rolling like he is, and with Juan Soto hitting in front of him, the Yankees are well positioned to remain solid offensively throughout the entire season. New York hasn't won a World Series since the 2009 season and this might be their best chance to do so. Furthermore, Gerrit Cole should be returning from injury sometime in June potentially.

As for Judge, he's one of the most impactful hitters in all of baseball, hitting 269 career homers since his career began in 2016. He won the 2022 American League MVP and has hit 37 homers or more in four different seasons thus far.

Follow Fastball on FanNation on social media

Continue to follow our Fastball on FanNation coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following us on Twitter @FastballFN .

BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

The Story of the Social Security Number

Introduction

The Social Security number ( SSN ) was created in 1936 for the sole purpose of tracking the earnings histories of U.S. workers, for use in determining Social Security benefit entitlement and computing benefit levels. Since then, use of the SSN has expanded substantially. Today the SSN may be the most commonly used numbering system in the United States. As of December 2008, the Social Security Administration ( SSA ) had issued over 450 million original SSN s, and nearly every legal resident of the United States had one. The SSN 's very universality has led to its adoption throughout government and the private sector as a chief means of identifying and gathering information about an individual.

How did the SSN come to be, and why has it become an unofficial national identifier? This article explores the history and meaning of the SSN and the Social Security card, along with SSA 's SSN master data file, generally known as the Numident. The article also traces how use of the SSN has expanded since its introduction and the steps SSA has taken to enhance the integrity of the SSN process.

Crafting the SSN

At its inception, the SSN 's only purpose was to uniquely identify U.S. workers, enabling employers to submit accurate reports of covered earnings for use in administering benefits under the new Social Security program. That is still the primary purpose for the SSN .

However, creating the SSN scheme and assigning SSN s to U.S. workers was no easy task. Passage of the Social Security Act in August 1935 set in motion a huge effort to build the infrastructure needed to support a program affecting tens of millions of individuals. Many said the task was impossible ( SSA 1952; SSA 1965, 26). Employers were to begin to deduct payroll taxes from worker's wages in January 1937, giving the agency little time to establish the SSN process. 1 Besides clarifying program policy, the agency needed to hire and train employees (7,500 by March 1938), set up facilities, develop public education programs, and create an earnings-tracking system (Corson 1938, 6).

Establishing the Social Security infrastructure was impeded for 3½ months by the lack of funds due to a filibuster of the 1936 Deficiency Bill (a government-wide appropriation bill similar to current Omnibus Budget Reconciliation bills) by Senator Huey Long (D–LA). The Roosevelt administration circumvented this obstacle by engineering a Works Progress Administration ( WPA ) allotment of $112,610 from the Department of Labor and by borrowing staff from the demobilizing National Recovery Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and the National Youth Administration. On February 9, 1936, Congress finally passed the deficiency bill containing the fiscal year 1936 appropriation for the Social Security Board (precursor of the SSA ), and Roosevelt signed it on February 11. As late as March 15, 1936, there were still only five employees of the Social Security Board's Bureau of Old-Age Benefits—including the director and his assistant (McKinley and Frase 1970, 18, 28, and 49).

Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Agricultural Adjustment Act invalid in January 1936, raising the possibility that the Social Security Act might also be declared unconstitutional (McKinley and Frase 1970, 22–23; SSA 1952). It would not be until May 1937 that a series of Supreme Court decisions cemented the constitutionality of the Social Security Act ( SSA n.d. a).

One of the first steps in administering the Social Security Act was to devise a means to track the earnings of each individual, as Social Security benefit computations consider a worker's earnings from 1937 on.

Why didn't the Social Security Board just use an individual's name and address as the identifier? The deficiency of such a scheme was already well known. A 1937 publication recounts, "A recent news account states that the Fred Smiths of New York City have had so much trouble in being identified by their creditors, the courts, and even their friends, that they have joined together in forming the 'Fred Smiths, Incorporated,' to serve as a clearing house for their identification problems." Some government agencies, such as the U.S. War and Navy Departments, the Veterans Administration (for paying pensions and for adjusted compensation certificates), and the Post Office Department (for Postal Savings depositors) used fingerprints for identification. However, the use of fingerprints was associated in the public mind with criminal activity, making this approach undesirable (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 45–47). A numbering scheme was seen as the practical alternative. Thus, the employer identification number ( EIN ) and the SSN were created.

Today we take the 9-digit composition of the SSN as a given, but in 1935 and 1936 many other schemes were considered. In early November 1935, the Social Security Board adopted an identifier composed of 3 alphabetic characters representing geographic areas and 5 numeric characters. However, the Board made this decision without consulting other federal agencies. The U.S. Employment Service ( USES ), the Census Bureau, the Central Statistical Board, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics all used numeric symbols without alphabetic characters since most standard statistical machines used this scheme. With alphabetic symbols, these agencies, as well as many private companies, would have had to buy new machines. Only two companies manufactured tabulating machines using a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters, and the government had previously brought suit against them under the Sherman Antitrust Act for dividing market territory between them (McKinley and Frase 1970, 320–322).

The Board called a meeting of all interested agencies to discuss the numeration issues. 2 In a November 1935 report, a subcommittee of this interdepartmental group proposed three alternatives:

a 9-digit number consisting of a 4-digit serial number, a 2-digit year of birth indicator, and a 3-digit number indicating the geographic area of registration;
an 8-digit number with a 5-digit serial number and a 3-digit geographic indicator; or
a 7-character version consisting of 4 digits and 3 alphabetic characters (McKinley and Frase 1970, 322).

On December 17, 1935, the Board approved the 9-digit option (McKinley and Frase 1970, 323). The Board planned to use the year one attained age 65 as part of the SSN , thinking that once an individual attained age 65, the SSN would be reassigned to someone else. But at a meeting on January 23, 1936, the unemployment compensation delegates objected to the use of digits to signify age because they thought a number of workers would falsify their age. As a result, a new scheme adopted by the Board on February 14 consisted of a 3-digit area code, a 2-digit month of birth, and a 4-digit serial number.

Finally, on June 2, 1936, the Board decided to keep the 9-digit scheme, although using the fourth and fifth digits to represent the month of birth was abandoned. Instead, those two digits would be a "group number" that could be used to maximize the utility of mechanical equipment and to verify the accuracy of punch cards. This scheme would permit the prenumbering of registration forms and was capable of expansion to nearly 1 billion accounts (McKinley and Frase 1970, 342–344). The numbering scheme would also facilitate storing the applications since the agency's files were organized by region as well as alphabetically.

Deconstructing the SSN

As a result of the June 1936 decision, the current SSN is composed of three parts:

The first three digits are the area number
The next two digits are the group number
The final four digits are the serial number

Area Number

The 3-digit area number is assigned by geographic region. In 1936 the Social Security Board planned eventually to use area numbers to redistribute work to its 12 regional centers to serve workers in those areas. One or more area numbers were allocated to each state based on the anticipated number of SSN issuances in the state. 3 Prior to 1972, the numbers were issued to local offices for assignment to individuals; it was thought this would capture information about the worker's residence. So, until 1972, the area number represented the state in which the card was issued. (Barron and Bamberger 1982, 29).

Generally, area numbers were assigned in ascending order beginning in the northeast and then moving westward. For the most part, people on the east coast have the lowest area numbers and those on the west coast have the highest area numbers. However, area numbers did not always reflect the worker's residence. During the initial registration in 1936 and 1937, businesses with branches throughout the country had employees return their SS -5 Application for Account Number to their national headquarters, so these SSN s carried the area number where the headquarters were located. As a result, the area numbers assigned to big cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, were used for workers in many other parts of the country (McKinley and Frase 1970, 373). Also, a worker could apply in person for a card in any Social Security office, and the area number would reflect that office's location, regardless of the worker's residence.

Since 1972, when SSA began assigning SSN s and issuing cards centrally from Baltimore, MD , the area number has been assigned based on the ZIP code of the mailing address provided on the application for the original Social Security card. The applicant's mailing address may not be the same as the place of residence.

Some exceptions to the general east-to-west, ascending-order area numbering scheme exist:

Sequence 700 through 728 was assigned to railroad workers until July 1963.
586 was divided among American Samoa, Guam, the Philippines, Americans employed abroad by American employers and, from 1975 to 1979, Indochinese refugees.
580 was assigned to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; sequences 581 through 584 and 596 through 599 were also assigned to Puerto Rico.
Sequence 577 through 579 was assigned to the District of Columbia.
Sequences 587 through 588 and 589 through 595 were assigned to Mississippi and Florida, respectively, for use after those states exhausted their initial area number allotments.
Sequence 729 through 733 has been allocated to the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) for SSN s issued through the Enumeration at Entry ( EaE ) program, described below.
No SSN s with an area number in the 800s or 900s, or with a 000 area number, have been assigned.
No SSN s with an area number of 666 have been or will be assigned.

SSA has many years' worth of potential SSN s available for future assignment. However, because of population shifts, SSA now faces an imbalance in the geographic allocation of area numbers. Some states have a current allocation of SSN s that will last for many years, while others have a pending shortage. As a result, given present rates of assignment and existing geographic allocations, several states currently have fewer than 10 years' worth of SSN s available for assignment.

In a July 3, 2007, Federal Register notice, SSA solicited public comment on a proposal to change the way SSN s are assigned ( SSA 2007b). Under this proposal, SSA would randomly assign SSN s from the remaining pool of available numbers, and the first three digits would no longer have any geographic significance. SSA contends that doing so would ensure a reliable supply of SSN s for years to come, and would also reduce opportunities for identity theft and SSN fraud and misuse. SSA plans additional discussion with other government entities and the private sector before implementing any change.

Group Number

The group number (the fourth and fifth digits of the SSN ) was initially determined by the procedure of issuing numbers in groups of 10,000 to post offices for assignment on behalf of the Social Security Board's Bureau of Old-Age Benefits. The group numbers range from 01 to 99 (00 is not used), but for administrative reasons, they are not assigned consecutively. Within each area number allocated to a state, the sequence of group number assignments begins with the odd-numbered group numbers from 01 to 09, followed by even group numbers 10 through 98, then even numbers 02 through 08, and finally odd numbers 11 through 99. 4

Serial Number

The last four digits of the SSN are the serial number. The serial number represents a straight numerical series of numbers from 0001–9999 within each group. Serial number 0000 is not assigned.

Designing the Social Security Card

Even at the inception of the program, the Social Security Board understood that individuals would need to have a "token" that would provide a record of the number that had been assigned to them. This token would help employers accurately report an individual's earnings under the program.

The Board first considered a small card similar to a credit union or trade union card, but some objected that it was too flimsy. Alternatively, a ¾ x 2⅞ inch metal card was proposed by a manufacturer of such cards. It was estimated that it would have taken 250 tons of metal for initial registration. The arguments in favor of the metal card were its permanence, accuracy (records could be imprinted from the embossed token), and economy (because of the imprinting capability). Still, in early June 1936, the Board decided to use a small paper card (McKinley and Frase 1970, 327 and 329).

In October 1936, the Social Security Board selected a design submitted by Frederick E. Happel, an artist and photo engraver from Albany, NY , for the original Social Security card, for which Happel was paid $60. 5 The Board placed an initial order for 26 million cards. In late 1937, a second version was adopted, and a version just for replacement cards was adopted in 1938 ( SSA 1990, 1). Since 1976, the design of original and replacement Social Security cards has been the same. In all, over 50 designs have been used from 1936 to 2008. All versions remain valid since it would be cost-prohibitive to replace all cards previously issued.

Over time, as the use of the SSN expanded for other purposes, SSA recognized that changes were necessary to protect the integrity of the card. SSA has taken measures to prevent counterfeiting of the card, and a counterfeit-resistant version is now used for both original and replacement cards. Steps taken by SSA to improve the card are detailed later.

Deciding on Application Data

There was also considerable discussion in 1936 about the types of information to collect as part of the registration. Generally, SSA collected the information needed to uniquely identify and accurately report an individual's earnings covered under the new Social Security program. Race was considered a necessary piece of information for actuarial purposes because of differences in life expectancy among different races. However, the Board decided to use the term "color" rather than race on the original Form SS -5 application for an SSN (McKinley and Frase 1970, 325–326).

The original 1936 version of the SS -5 requested the following information:

Employee name
Employee address
Name of current employer
Employer address
Age of employee
Date of birth
Place of birth
U.S. Employment Service ( USES ) registration card number, if applicable
Date and place of previously completed an SS -5 , if applicable
Completion date for current SS -5
Signature ( SSA 1990)

Registering the Nation's Employers and Employees

Although issuing SSN s is still a large workload for SSA , one rarely thinks about the major undertaking it was to register workers for the first SSN s. Initial estimates were that 22 million SSN s would be issued immediately, with 50 million ultimately to be issued (McKinley and Frase 1970, 15). In fact, 35 million SSN s were issued in the first 8 months of the registration effort. The Social Security Board estimated it would also need to assign identifying numbers to 3.5 million employers during this same time (McKinley and Frase 1970, 309).

Assigning responsibility for the vast registration process was a real problem. Debate shifted back and forth over whether the Board's Bureau of Old-Age Benefits could handle the work. The Board first approached the USES about assuming the registration workload, but in early May 1936 USES declined because President Roosevelt was hoping for an upswing in industrial production that autumn, and USES wanted its personnel to concentrate on its job placement service. The Census Bureau also declined, citing legal restrictions on the disclosure of its information to other agencies and confidentiality promises to the public that census information would be used for statistical purposes only (McKinley and Frase 1970, 338–339).

In June 1936, the Social Security Board decided that its Bureau of Old-Age Benefits would handle the registration and that the registration process would begin after the November 3, 1936, presidential election (McKinley and Frase 1970, 29). In May, the executive committee of the interdepartmental committee on enumeration had recommended that the Bureau could handle the registration by setting up 202 field offices and hiring 12,000 to 16,000 employees. The Board estimated that these 202 field offices would cover approximately 67 percent of registrants. On July 17, 1936, the Social Security Board's regional directors were told that 600 Bureau field offices would be open by November, that SSN assignment would begin about November 15, and that registration would be completed within 60 days. Also in July, the Board talked to the Post Office Department about assigning post office personnel to assist in cities where the Board would not yet have field offices to handle the registration (McKinley and Frase 1970, 342–347).

However, difficulties in recruiting personnel and setting up offices would make it impossible for the Bureau to handle the workload. As of September 30, 1936, Bureau of Old-Age Benefits employees numbered only 164 (Corson 1938, 6). Fortunately, the Board was able to enlist the Post Office Department to issue SSN s, signing an agreement on September 25, 1936. The Post Office Department had 45,000 facilities and over 350,000 employees at that time (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 52).

The Social Security Board also enlisted the Treasury Department to assure employer cooperation. Final Treasury regulations, published in the Federal Register on November 6, 1936, required employers to file Form SS -4 (employer's application for an EIN ) with the post office not later than November 21, 1936, and employees to file Form SS -5 (employee's application for an SSN ) not later than December 5 (McKinley and Frase 1970, 15 and 360). However, delays in getting registration started made these deadlines moot.

The Social Security Board's Informational Service, established in January 1936, prepared a publicity campaign at midyear to encourage employers and workers to complete the application forms, but did not plan to distribute the material until after the November 3 election. However, the Board accelerated the publicity release in response to a September effort to discredit the program launched by Alf N. Landon, the Republican candidate for president. Also that year, many employers, in conjunction with Landon and the Republican Party, began stuffing payroll envelopes with leaflets against the Social Security Act and the required deductions from employee wages. The Social Security Board was so alarmed that the Chairman, John G. Winant, resigned in order to campaign in defense of the Social Security Act. In addition, in October 1936 the Board released a film called "We the People and Social Security" along with a 4-page pamphlet entitled "Security in Your Old Age." 6 It is estimated that some 4 million people saw the film and nearly 8 million of the pamphlets were distributed by Election Day (McKinley and Frase 1970, 357–358).

On November 6, the campaign to encourage employers and employees to register began. A series of press releases outlined the procedure for assigning SSN s and carried sample Forms SS -4 and SS -5 , as well as a Social Security card specimen. The campaign included three releases on old-age benefits in 24 languages distributed to the country's foreign language press. The Associated Press, the United Press, the Hearst chain, and many individual papers ran a series of articles on old-age benefits and registration for weeks at a time. During the November and December initial registration period, there were also 12 nationwide radio broadcasts by well-known individuals and a host of local broadcasts arranged by the 56 skeletal field offices then in place. Over 3 million posters 7 were distributed, 50 million more pamphlets were dispersed, and three additional newsreel trailers were shown to some 42 million people (McKinley and Frase 1970, 364–366).

The registration process was largely directed by the local postmasters. The first task for the postmen was to make up lists of employers on their routes. Their effort resulted in a list of 2.4 million employers (McKinley and Frase 1970, 344–345 and 368).

Beginning November 16, 1936, the post offices sent Form SS -4 s to employers based on the lists they had compiled earlier that month. Along with information about the business establishment, employers were asked for the number of workers they employed. The mail carriers collected the completed SS -4 s a week or two later. Based on SS -4 information, the post offices delivered Form SS -5 s to the employers the following week for distribution to employees (McKinley and Frase 1970, 368).

Employees were permitted to return the completed SS -5 application either to the employer, to any labor organization of which the employee was a member, to the letter carrier, to the post office by hand, or to the post office via mail (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 54). This last possibility caused another round of negotiations between the Social Security Board and the Post Office Department about whether "return penalty privilege" (requiring no postage) applied. Postal regulations stated that this privilege could only be used if an individual was not required by law to submit the information. The Board argued that no postage was required as there was no law requiring employees to obtain an SSN . At the same time, however, the Board was requesting the Treasury Department to issue regulations mandating employees to obtain account numbers. In the end, the Board got it both ways—the Post Office Department agreed to accept returned SS -5 s without postage on October 8, 1936, and the Treasury Department issued the regulations making the SSN mandatory on November 6, 1936 (McKinley and Frase 1970, 351–352 and 360).

Even at this early time, the public was concerned about privacy and confidentiality issues. Many employees were anxious to know how the information on the SS -5 would be used. The Social Security Board issued releases at various times assuring the public that the information on the application would be kept confidential, with access limited to government employees for whom job duties under the Social Security Act required it (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 57). In June 1937, the Social Security Board would issue its very first regulation, formalizing its pledge of confidentiality for information collected and maintained.

The work of the Social Security Board to reassure the public was complicated by the actions of some employers, who circulated additional forms along with the SS -5 . These extra forms requested information such as nationality, religion, education, and union affiliation. On February 26, 1937, the Board issued a press release warning employers against distributing unauthorized questionnaires that appeared to be required by the Social Security Board (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 57).

Of the 45,000 post offices then in existence, 1,017 first-class offices were designated as "typing centers" to assign the SSN s, along with 57 "central accounting" post offices to assign SSN s for the second, third, and fourth class post offices within their area (McKinley and Frase 1970, 368). The Social Security Board supplied these centers with Office Record Form OA -702, in blocks of 1,000, with the account number preprinted. For each registrant, postal employees typed the information from the SS -5 onto the prenumbered OA -702 in duplicate. Each OA -702 had a detachable portion on which the employee's name was typed and then returned to the employee—the Social Security card. The post office mailed the completed Social Security cards to the employer, unless the employee had taken the SS -5 to the post office in person and waited for the typed card. Each completed card was accompanied by an informational circular briefly explaining the provisions of Title II (old-age benefits) and Title XVIII (the Social Security tax) of the Social Security Act (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 54 and 58).

The post offices sent the completed SS -5 and the corresponding OA -702 forms in blocks of 500 to the Bureau of Old-Age Benefit's Records Office in Baltimore, where the SSN master files were to be kept. The post offices (and later the Bureau's field offices) kept carbon copies of the OA -702 to use should an individual request a replacement card (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 58).

The publicity campaign and the Post Office Department's efforts resulted in over 22 million completed applications as of December 22, 1936, 28 days after the initial distribution of employee applications (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 62). During the first 4 months of the registration campaign, nearly 26 million SSN s and more than 2.6 million EIN s were assigned (Corson 1938, 3).

In September 1936, when the Post Office Department signed the agreement to handle the initial registration, the Board had planned for the Bureau of Old-Age Benefits to have 554 field offices set up to take over the enumeration workload in January 1937. However, hiring field staff had to await the results of the "examination for administrative officer" (civil service test) given in August 1936. The resulting register was not made available to the Board until December 1936 (McKinley and Frase 1970, 129). So in November 1936 the Board instead assigned headquarters staff to 56 Bureau field offices, covering all but one of the cities where the Post Office Department had set up its "central accounting" offices. These 56 Bureau offices primarily answered questions and directed applicants to the post offices (McKinley and Frase 1970, 34–35 and 369). The Board twice had to ask the Post Office to extend its handling of the SSN applications, first through March 1937 and then through June 1937, before the Bureau of Old-Age Benefits could take over.

Effective July 1937, Bureau field offices, still numbering only 175 with 1,702 total employees, took over the enumeration workload from the post offices (Zwintscher 1952, 90; SSA 1965, 25). By that time, some 35 million SSN s had been issued at a cost of $5.7 million ( SSA 1990, 1; McKinley and Frase 1970, 372).

And still the job was not finished. In July 1937 alone, Bureau field offices issued some 1.9 million additional SSN s (McKinley and Frase 1970, 368–373). Even with field office employees working evenings and Saturdays and with "managers and assistant managers, anyone who was available, pounding away at typewriters," the Bureau had to set up additional typing centers in its 12 regional offices to help with the workload ( SSA 1985, 10; SSA 1965, 32; SSA 1952).

Not all U.S. workers obtained SSN s during the initial registration period. This was because the original Social Security Act had excluded some types of employment from coverage, such as agricultural workers, domestic servants, casual labor, maritime workers, government employees, and the employees of philanthropic, educational, and similar institutions. The self-employed were also excluded from coverage. Seventy years ago, these exempt workers comprised about 40 percent of the working population. These groups were not covered primarily because of the administrative difficulty in collecting taxes and obtaining accurate wage reports (Department of Treasury 1947, 1; DeWitt, Béland, and Berkowitz 2008, 4).

Initially, only employees working in covered employment and aged 64 or younger were eligible to obtain an SSN . However, almost from the start, state unemployment compensation agencies began using SSN s to identify workers, and some employers tended to prefer hiring individuals who already possessed an SSN (Social Security Board 1938, 53). So, after a few months the Bureau began issuing SSN s to anyone who applied.

For over 20 years, Bureau field offices assigned SSN s, using blocks of prenumbered Social Security cards furnished to each office. Office staff simply typed the number holder's name on one of the prenumbered cards. For replacement cards, field office staff manually typed the SSN and name on a blank card. In 1961, issuance of original SSN s was centralized in Baltimore, but local offices continued to issue replacement cards. In March 1972, SSA began assigning SSN s and issuing cards exclusively from Baltimore via a computer-based system. 8 It was also in 1972 that all applicants for federal benefits were required to have their own SSN .

Maintaining the SSN Records

Space to handle the SS -5 application forms was found on three floors of the Candler Building, a large warehouse converted from a Coca-Cola bottling factory on the harbor in downtown Baltimore ( SSA 1961). Here the Bureau installed a "great battery" of International Business Machines ( IBM ) equipment 9 and deployed over 2,300 machine workers and checkers by December 9, 1936, to handle the applications as quickly as they came in (McKinley and Frase 1970, 33 and 364). At this time, a hiring "apportionment" was in effect, which meant the Bureau could only recruit a certain proportion of employees from each state. As a result, employees came from all parts of the country. It was thought that the central operation in the Candler building was temporary, and that the work would soon be dispersed to the 12 regions, so recruitment from distant states was logical ( SSA 1952). However, actual operations would reveal that decentralization was not really feasible.

The Baltimore Records Office used a nine-step process to create a permanent master record and to establish an earnings record for each individual. 10 One hundred applications and office record cards, numbered consecutively, were sent through each operation together with a control unit of nine cards (one for each step). The appropriate control card was removed at the end of a step and sent to a control file to track the status of each block (McKinley and Frase 1970, 375).

When the Records Office received the Form SS -5 and the accompanying OA -702 from the local offices, different clerks working independently converted the two sets of information into numerical codes that could be transferred to punch cards.

The first group of employees keyed information from the SS -5 into a master punch card for each individual. A tabulating machine used this master punch card to set up a numerical register of accounts stored in huge loose-leaf books. These volumes contained the SSN , name, and date of birth of each number holder. Each page contained 100 SSN s in numerical order. From these volumes, employees could learn the name and identifying information of an SSN 's owner in a fraction of the time that would be required to locate the master punch card (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 120–121). The master punch card was also used in the earnings-posting operation to establish an earnings ledger for each individual.

A second group of employees independently keyed the same information coded from the OA -702 to create an actuarial punch card (Fay and Wasserman 1938, 25). The actuarial punch card was created for actuarial and statistical purposes and was also used to set up the "visible index." Later known as the "National Employee Index Flexoline File" or just "Flexoline," the visual index consisted of strips of thin bamboo, 3/16 of an inch wide by 9 inches long—one for each SSN issued—set in a steel panel. The strips were inserted into the frame one by one, with some employees filing as many as 300 strips an hour. Each strip began with a 3-digit entry based on the Russell Soundex System (in which all surnames having the same basic consonants are grouped together), followed by the individual's surname, given name, middle initial, and SSN . The strips were mechanically prepared from the actuarial punch card and manually posted on the panel, sorted by the first letter of the surname and within each letter by phonetic code, then in each code group by the first seven letters of the first name, middle initial, year and month of birth, and SSN . Up to 1,600 panels were then hung on each rack (Staruch 1978, 29). The primary function of the visible index was to aid in the location of accounts when only the name of the owner and not the SSN was known (Wyatt and Wandel 1937, 121). For instance, employees referred to the index when a worker who had lost his or her card and did not know the SSN applied for a duplicate ( SSA 1964 and Staruch 1978, 29). Reportedly, experienced clerks were able to find any name and its corresponding account number in less than 60 seconds (Fay and Wasserman 1938, 25).

In addition, the SS -5 s were filmed on 16 millimeter, noninflammable film strips. In June 1938, officials bragged "This film is so compact that the entire file of 40 million photographed SS -5 s is stored in 10 ordinary letter-size file cabinets" (Fay and Wasserman 1938, 25).

In all, eight separate files were maintained:

The SS -5 applications, sorted in numerical order.
Photographs on 16 millimeter film strips of the SS -5 s, in numerical order.
The master punch cards, in numerical order.
The numerical register, in large loose-leaf books.
Ledger sheets for maintaining earnings records, in numerical order.
The OA -702 Office Records, in alphabetical order.
The actuarial punch cards, in phonetic code surname order.
The visible index, in phonetic code surname order (Fay and Wasserman 1938, 25–26).

By 1958, the Flexoline (visible index) contained 160 million strips in 750 steel A-frame stands, and SSA was adding an average of 7 million new strips each year. In August 1958, SSA began converting the Flexoline index to microfilm and began capturing new SSN records on magnetic tape, using a special machine to then transcribe the code directly from magnetic tape into a readable microfilm record (Staruch 1978, 29–30). By 1964, the 200 million names in the National Employee Index were contained on 2,005 reels of magnetic tape that Bureau employees accessed by means of high-speed microfilm readers ( SSA 1964). 11

In 1972, SSA created an electronic file, the Numerical Index File or Numident, to house the numerically-ordered master file of all assigned SSN s. In 1973, SSA began converting its legacy SS -5 records to the Numident electronic database, completing the conversion in 1979. There is one Numident record for each SSN ever assigned.

SSA makes changes in Numident SS -5 data only upon receipt of updated information from the SSN holder. Changes in the Numident result in the addition of a new entry or iteration to the Numident record for the individual; information is never overlaid on a previous SSN Numident entry. 12 Most changes are initiated when an SSN holder completes an SS -5 requesting a replacement card or a change in the name, sex, or date of birth information on the Numident. Additionally, SSA employees may take action to change identifying information on the Numident for a person while taking a claim or processing postentitlement events. Each Numident record can contain up to 300 Numident entries (iterations) representing an addition or change to the Numident information for a person. About half of Numident records have multiple entries.

Until recently SSA also maintained a separate SSN master file indexed by cardholder name. The Alpha Index File or Alphident enabled SSA employees to search by name if the number was unknown. In the process of modernizing SSA 's master files, this file was converted to an IBM DB 2 relational database linked to the Numident file. This database provides the same basic functionality as the Alphident. Like the Flexoline, the DB 2 uses the Russell Soundex Coding System to group all surnames that have the same basic consonant sounds. When an individual's identifying information is available, an SSA employee can attempt to locate the SSN using a key based on the Soundex version of the last name, plus the first 4 characters of the first name, plus the century, year, and month of birth. SSA has designated this database a sensitive file and access is restricted.

Handling SSN Assignment Problems

From the beginning, the process of assigning SSN s included quality checks. SSA employees had to account for every number and explain any missing serial numbers fully. Also, the SS -5 s and the OA -702 s were coded separately by different clerks and were later compared as a quality check (Fay and Wasserman 1938, 24).

Still, as one might expect, an undertaking as enormous as enumerating 35 million workers in one concentrated effort was bound to encounter some problems. Many individuals received multiple SSN s. Some people were under the impression that the more SSN s they received, the better. Others thought they needed a new SSN for each new job. Workers sometimes lost their original number and applied for a new one. Also, a great many unemployed and WPA employees applied for SSN s both during the initial registration and again through WPA or private employment registration. Sample studies in 1937 or early 1938 indicated that duplicate account numbers had been issued to not more than 3 or 4 percent of the applicants (Corson 1938, 4).

In 1938, a wallet manufacturer in Lockport, New York, the E.H. Ferree Company, decided to promote its product by showing how a Social Security card would fit into the wallet. The company vice president thought it would be clever to use a sample card with his secretary's actual SSN . The wallet was sold at Woolworth's 13 and many other large department stores, and the SSN was widely distributed. Many purchasers adopted the SSN as their own—5,755 people were using it in the peak year 1943, and 12 were still using it as late as 1977. In all, SSA received 40,000 incorrect earnings reports under this SSN , which had to be reassigned laboriously to proper SSN s. SSA voided the much-used number and issued a new SSN to the secretary ( SSA n.d. c).

About a dozen similar cases of individuals adopting a made-up SSN shown on a facsimile card have occurred. In one case, the Social Security Board itself issued a pamphlet with the made-up number 219-09-9999 that was adopted by an individual ( SSA n.d. c).

Also, prior to 1961 SSA field offices issued new SSN s. Only a fraction of these SSN assignments were screened at the central office for a previously assigned SSN , and then only manually (Long 1993, 84). Thus, issuing duplicate SSN s was possible. Beginning in 1961, the central office in Baltimore issued all new SSN s, but it was not until 1970 that an electronic method of checking for previously issued SSN s (called " EVAN " for "electronic verification of alleged numbers") was devised ( SSA 1990, 4). Today, automated systems with sophisticated matching routines screen for previously issued SSN s.

SSA has since introduced more rigorous verification procedures. On April 15, 1974, SSA implemented evidence requirements (age, identity, and citizenship/alien status) for applicants for an original SSN who are foreign-born, or are U.S. -born and age 18 or older. Then, on May 15, 1978, SSA began requiring evidence of age, identity, and citizenship/alien status from all applicants for original SSN s, and evidence of identity for replacement Social Security cards. In addition, all foreign-born applicants for replacement cards were required to submit evidence of citizenship/alien status.

Also, in 1979 SSA created an electronic file called MULTX from a set of punch cards identifying multiple SSN s that was maintained by SSA 's Office of Earnings Operations. As of December 2007, SSA had identified and cross-referenced in the MULTX file over 4.7 million individuals with multiple SSN s, about 93 percent of whom have only two SSN s. Generally, those with multiple SSN s are the "very old" on the Numident; a study conducted in 2002 showed a weighted average age of 82.9 ( SSA 2002). The requirement for proof of age and identity for SSN applicants beginning in 1974 combined with the implementation of an automated SSN screening system in 1984 have significantly reduced the multiple- SSN problems.

Under a few rare circumstances, SSA may legitimately issue a new SSN to a person with a prior SSN . The conditions are highly restrictive. SSA will assign a new SSN to a victim of harassment, abuse, or life endangerment if the individual provides evidence to substantiate the allegations. In addition, SSA may assign a new SSN to an individual who is a victim of SSN misuse, which means that the number has been used with criminal or harmful intent and the individual has been subjected to economic or personal hardship. Third party evidence is necessary for SSA to substantiate an individual's allegation of SSN misuse. However, an individual should consider changing his or her SSN only as a last resort because getting a new SSN may adversely impact one's ability to interact with federal agencies, state agencies, and employers, as all of the individual's records will be under the former SSN .

Applying for an SSN Today

Just as it was in 1936, today a person must complete an application to obtain an original or replacement SSN or to change the information in SSA 's Numident records. There are a number of ways to initiate the application process.

The paper form a person completes to apply for an original SSN or a replacement card or to make changes to SSA 's Numident record is still the SS -5 . The SS -5 application is available online 14 or in any SSA field office. The application and required evidence can be taken or mailed to any Social Security office for processing. An in-person interview is required if the applicant is age 12 or older and is applying for an original SSN . The Veterans Affairs Regional Office ( VARO ) in Manila also accepts SS -5 applications for an original SSN or a replacement card, as do all U.S. Foreign Service posts and all military posts outside the United States. SSA employees key the SS -5 application data and evidence into the SSA computer system, which uses the information to create or update the Numident. The signed SS -5 application is retained for a short period in the field office, and then is sent to a records center in Pennsylvania for microfilming. Once microfilmed, the original SS -5 is destroyed. 15

In August 1987, SSA began a three-state pilot of the "Enumeration at Birth" ( EAB ) process in which the parent of a newborn can request an SSN as part of the state's birth registration process. Additional states began to participate in EAB in July 1988. By the end of 1991, 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and New York City had signed agreements (Long 1993, 83). Today, over 90 percent of parents use the EAB process offered in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. SSA receives nearly three-quarters of original SSN applications through the EAB process and issues over 4 million SSN s via EAB each year ( SSA 2006). No microfilm SS -5 exists for a record created through the EAB process.

Beginning in 2002, SSA began another pilot program referred to as Enumeration at Entry ( EaE ) that allows noncitizens admitted for permanent residence to obtain SSN s and Social Security cards based on data collected as part of the immigration process. This pilot was expanded worldwide in early 2003. EaE is a joint effort involving the Department of State ( DoS ), DHS , and SSA . Under EaE , a person aged 18 or older can apply for both an immigrant visa and an SSN at a DoS office in his or her home country. If the visa is granted, then DoS transmits the identifying data from the person's visa/ SSN application to DHS . If and when the person is physically admitted to the United States, DHS updates certain data, if necessary, and sends it to SSA for the SSN to be assigned and the card to be issued. All noncitizens enumerated through EaE receive an SSN in the special area number series 729 through 733. As of January 20, 2009, SSA had issued 429,959 original and 114,714 replacement SSN s through the EaE process. SSA is currently working with DoS and DHS on expanding the EaE process to additional noncitizens.

Also in 2002, SSA began to open offices dedicated entirely to handling Social Security number business. The first Social Security Card Center ( SSCC ) opened in Brooklyn, NY , in November 2002. Six more SSCC s have since opened: Las Vegas, NV , in April 2005; Jamaica, NY , in July 2006; Downtown and North Phoenix, AZ , in October 2007; Orlando, FL , in March 2008; and Sacramento, CA , in November 2008. Generally, any individuals who live in the service area of a Card Center and need an original or replacement card must visit the Card Center rather than their local field office.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act ( IRTPA ) of 2004 (Public Law ( P.L. ) 108-458) placed limits on the number of replacement Social Security cards an individual can receive. Beginning with cards issued on or after December 17, 2005, individuals may only receive three Social Security cards per year and 10 in a lifetime, with certain exceptions, such as correcting errors or name changes.

The information currently requested on the SS -5 is:

Name to be shown on the card
Full name at birth, if different
Other names used
Mailing address
Citizenship or alien status
Race/ethnic description ( SSA does not receive this information under EAB )
Mother's name at birth
Mother's SSN ( SSA collects this information for the Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ) on an original application for a child under age 18. SSA does not retain these data.)
Fathers' name
Father's SSN ( SSA collects this information for IRS on an original application for a child under age 18. SSA does not retain these data.)
Whether applicant ever filed for an SSN before
Prior SSN s assigned
Name on most recent Social Security card
Different date of birth if used on an earlier SSN application.
Date application completed
Phone number
Applicant's relationship to the number holder

Evidentiary Requirements

At the inception of the program, all SSN s were assigned and cards issued based solely on information provided by the applicant. However, in the 1970s, SSA began requiring proof of age, identity, and citizenship.

SSA has instituted numerous evidentiary requirements to further safeguard and preserve the integrity of the SSN and to ensure assignment of SSN s and issuance of cards only to eligible individuals. Exhibit 1 shows the effective dates of changes in policy on evidentiary requirements.

Expanding Uses of the SSN

The original purpose of the SSN was to enable the Social Security Board to maintain accurate records of the earnings of individuals who worked in jobs covered under the Social Security program. The card was never intended to serve as a personal identification document—that is, it does not establish that the person presenting the card is actually the person whose name and SSN appear on the card. Although SSA has made the card counterfeit-resistant, the card does not contain information that would allow it to be used as proof of identity. However, the simplicity and efficiency of using a unique number that most people already possess has encouraged widespread use of the SSN by both government agencies and private enterprises, especially as they have adapted their recordkeeping and business systems to automated data processing. Use of the SSN as a convenient means of identifying people in large systems of records has increased over the years and its expanded use appears to be an enduring trend. Generally, there are no restrictions in federal law precluding the use of the SSN by the private sector, so businesses may ask individuals for an SSN whenever they wish (Streckewald 2006).

The expansion of SSN use began in 1943 with Executive Order ( EO ) 9397 requiring federal agencies to use the SSN for the purpose of identifying individuals in any new record systems. Although there was considerable delay in other agencies adopting its use, the coming of the computer age in the 1960s led government agencies and private industry alike to find many uses for the SSN .

In 1971, an SSA task force studied issues raised by nonprogram use of the SSN and proposed that SSA take a "cautious and conservative" position and do nothing to promote its use as an identifier. In 1973, a report of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now Health and Human Services) concluded that the adoption of a national identifier was not desirable, and that the SSN was not suitable for such a purpose ( SSA 1997). Nevertheless, Congressional legislation and federal agency regulations require the collection of SSN s for myriad purposes, as detailed in Exhibit 2.

With the many purposes legally requiring an SSN , the need for a U.S. resident to possess one has become nearly universal. The universality of SSN ownership has in turn led to the SSN 's adoption by private industry as a unique identifier.

Unfortunately, this universality has led to abuse of the SSN . Most notoriously, the SSN is a key piece of information used to commit identity theft. According to the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ), "Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes." The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year ( FTC n.d. ). Identity theft has reached such proportions that President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13402 on May 10, 2006, establishing the President's Identity Theft Task Force. The task force reported:

The simplicity and efficiency of using a seemingly unique number that most people already possessed encouraged widespread use of the SSN as an identifier by both government agencies and private enterprises, especially as they adapted their record-keeping and business systems to automated data processing. The use of SSN s is now common in our society.

Employers must collect SSN s for tax reporting purposes. Doctors or hospitals may need them to facilitate Medicare reimbursement. SSN s also are used in internal systems to sort and track information about individuals, and in some cases are displayed on identification cards. In 2004, an estimated 42 million Medicare cards displayed the entire SSN , as did approximately 8 million Department of Defense insurance cards. In addition, although the Veterans Health Administration ( VHA ) discontinued the issuance of Veterans Identification Cards that display SSN s in March 2004, and has issued new cards that do not display SSN s, the VHA estimates that between 3 million and 4 million previously issued cards containing SSN s remain in circulation with veterans receiving VA health care services. Some universities still use the SSN as the students' identification number for a range of purposes, from administering loans to tracking grades, and may place it on students' identification cards, although usage for these purposes is declining.

SSN s also are widely available in public records held by federal agencies, states, local jurisdictions, and courts. As of 2004, 41 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 75 percent of U.S. counties, displayed SSN s in public records. Although the number and type of records in which SSN s are displayed vary greatly across states and counties, SSN s are most often found in court and property records (President's Identity Theft Task Force 2007, 23–24).

Verifying SSN s

Because individuals sometimes use SSN s that do not belong to them, either through error or deliberately, it is important to ensure that an SSN matches SSA records before accepting it.

Today, SSA electronically verifies that an SSN and the name associated with it match those in SSA 's records before issuing a replacement Social Security card, posting a wage item to the Master Earnings File, or establishing a claims record. Also, when disclosure laws allow, many federal and state agencies use an SSA verification system to verify SSN s. Registered private employers can also verify a worker's SSN . In addition, SSA receives requests for SSN verification from third parties who have obtained the consent of the individuals involved.

However, SSN s were in use for many years before electronic verification was in place. During the 1950s, SSA initiated a manual screening routine of the microfilm file to search for a previously assigned number.

SSA 's first electronic system was not developed until 1970, when electronic verification of alleged numbers ( EVAN ) was introduced for internal use at field offices with Advanced Records System ( ARS ) submission. In 1975, SSA 's Bureau of Data Processing implemented the Full Registration and Identification System ( FRIS ) which expanded electronic screening capabilities and added electronic validation of SSN s ( SSA 1990, 5). In 1983, SSA implemented the Enumeration Verification System ( EVS ) for verifying batches of SSN s; EVS employed a series of verification routines that are still in use. In 1984, SSA created the Automated Enumeration Screening Process ( AESP ) to run every application for an original or replacement card through the Alphident (since converted to a database linked to the Numident file) to determine if the data on the incoming record match one or more existing records using a complex scoring system. If a potential match is indicated between an existing record and an application for an original SSN , the field office is alerted to resolve the matter. If no previously established record is found, an original SSN is issued to the applicant ( SSA 2003, 8–12).

In more recent years, SSA has developed a number of SSN verification systems for internal and external use. Having multiple systems allows SSA to customize the input and output. Those for external entities generally indicate whether the data submitted match SSA records, and whether the SSN holder has died, but will not disclose additional information to the requestor. A few examples are described below.

The Consent Based SSN Verification Service ( CBSV ) is available to enrolled private companies and federal, state, and local agencies to verify that the submitted name and SSN match SSA records. The recent consent of the SSN holder to release the information is required. 16

When a person lacking a valid driver's license registers to vote, the individual can provide his or her name, date of birth, and the last four digits of his or her SSN instead. The state then submits this information to SSA 's Help America Vote Verification ( HAVV ) system to verify that the submitted data match SSA records.

State Departments of Motor Vehicles use the Social Security OnLine Verification ( SSOLV ) system to verify names and SSN s for the issuance of new and renewal driver's licenses and identity cards.

The SSN Verification Service ( SSNVS ) is a free Internet-based system that can be used by registered employers for SSN verification prior to wage reporting. Real-time service is provided for 10 requests or less, and overnight processing is provided for up to 250,000 SSN s. 17

The E-Verify program (previously known as the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification System), administered by DHS with SSA 's support, can be used by employers to verify the SSN and confirm employment authorization under immigration law for newly hired employees. The employer enters the name, SSN , date of birth, and alleged citizenship/alien status from DHS Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification into the E-Verify system. E-Verify automatically matches this information against SSA 's Numident, as well as DHS immigration records if the hire is a noncitizen. The employer receives an electronic response indicating either that employment is authorized or that the data do not match the information in SSA 's or DHS ' records. Use of the verification program is voluntary in most parts of the United States, but 13 states require certain employers to use it for new hires. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website indicates that 109,211 employers, representing close to 434,000 worksites, were registered to use E-Verify as of February 2009.

A proposed amendment to the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act to extend authorization for the E-Verify program for 5 years was tabled; the bill instead extended authorization through September 30, 2009.

Enhancing the Social Security Card

In addition to developing verification systems to allow authorized users to determine if SSN information matches SSA data, SSA has also taken steps to help guard against fraudulent Social Security cards. Because an SSN is needed for work and has been adopted for many other uses, a market for counterfeit Social Security cards has developed.

SSA has taken and continues to take steps to strengthen the integrity of the Social Security card and guard against its misuse. One of the first steps was to distinguish whether cards were valid for work purposes. In 1974, SSA began assigning SSN s for nonwork purposes when such use of an SSN was authorized by law. Initially, the nonwork cards looked the same as cards issued to citizens and aliens authorized to work. In May 1982, SSA began annotating cards issued for nonwork purposes with the legend "not valid for employment."

The 1981 Omnibus Reconciliation Act ( P.L. 97-123) added alteration and forgery of a Social Security card to the list of prohibited acts and also increased the penalties for such acts. In 1983, section 205(c)(2)(G) of the Social Security Act was amended to require that the "social security card shall be made of bank-note paper and (to the maximum extent practicable) shall be a card which cannot be counterfeited" ( P.L. 98-21). SSA worked with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Secret Service, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) to design a card that met these requirements. Changes were made to the card stock to make any attempt to erase or remove data easily detectable, and a form of printing with a raised effect that is difficult to replicate was used. Other features not obvious to the naked eye were also added.

In 1988, to prevent photocopy counterfeits, a security feature that displays as "void" when photocopied was added. Also in 1988, legislation increased the monetary penalties for SSN violations. In September 1992, SSA began to annotate Social Security cards for aliens with temporary work authorization "valid for work only with INS [now DHS ] authorization."

Immigration and welfare reform legislation enacted in August 1996 ( P.L. 104-208 and P.L. 104-193, respectively) directed SSA to develop a prototype of a counterfeit-resistant Social Security card and report to Congress on the feasibility of using such cards. The prototype was to be made of a durable, tamper-resistant material such as plastic or polyester; was to employ technologies that provide security features, such as magnetic stripes, holograms, and integrated circuits; and was to provide individuals with reliable proof of citizenship or legal resident alien status.

SSA interpreted this provision as calling for consideration of techniques that could link the card to the assigned number holder, such as including identifying information about the card holder on the card itself, or adding the number holder's picture, fingerprint, biometric identifier, or some combination of such features in or on the card (Donnelly 1999).

In September 1997, SSA published its findings in the Report to Congress on Options for Enhancing the Social Security Card. The seven options that SSA developed included:

Plastic card
Card with the number holder's picture
Card with a secure barcode data storage stripe
Card with an optical memory storage stripe
Card with magnetic stripe
Card with magnetic stripe and the number holder's picture
Microprocessor card with a magnetic stripe and a picture

SSA estimated that the cost at that time of issuing an enhanced card to almost 300 million card holders would range, depending on the type of card, from $5.1 billion to $10.5 billion. The estimates included the costs of verifying the identity of the applicant and establishing a system to collect a user fee (Donnelly 1999). SSA was not required to adopt any of the options. To some extent, passage of the REAL ID Act in 2005, which imposes standards on states for the issuance of driver's licenses and identification cards, diminished the need for SSA to develop a card for identification ( SSA 2008).

In 2004, the IRTPA legislation required SSA , in consultation with DHS , to form an interagency task force to establish requirements for further improving the security of Social Security cards and numbers and to provide for implementation of those requirements. The task force was formed in January 2006 and included several other agencies, such as the FBI , the DoS , and the Government Printing Office. The task force issued its recommendations in May 2006. As a result, additional security features were added to the card in 2007. These include:

Latent images that can be seen when the card is viewed at an angle.
Color shifting ink (similar to that used on $20 bills) that changes colors when the card is viewed from different angles.
A new production method that blends different color inks on the background of the card (colors flow from blue to aqua).
Adding issuance date to the front of the card.

Other features added to the card are not apparent to the naked eye and for security reasons are not disclosed to the public.

Another change made to the Social Security card in 2007 was to put the first name and last name of the card holder on separate lines. This change was recommended by employer groups to help them distinguish the correct last name of an employee.

The expertise of counterfeiters and the widespread availability of state-of-the-art technology make it increasingly difficult to develop and maintain a document that cannot be counterfeited. SSA continues to evaluate new technology as it becomes available to determine if additional features should be included to make it more difficult to alter or counterfeit the card. In addition to the physical changes made to the Social Security card, SSA has taken many other steps to strengthen the integrity of the enumeration process by requiring evidence of age, citizenship, and identity, and by verifying this information, as noted in the section on evidentiary requirements.

The use of the SSN has expanded substantially since its inception in 1936. Created merely to keep track of the earnings history of U.S. workers for Social Security entitlement and benefit computation purposes, it has become a number assigned at birth and used by many government agencies to identify individuals and by private industry to track an individual's financial history.

That trend has begun to shift. As early as December 2004, IRTPA legislation prohibited states from displaying the SSN on driver's licenses or motor vehicle registrations. In 2007, the President's Identity Theft Task Force (2007, 3) included among its SSN recommendations that "federal agencies should reduce the unnecessary use of SSN s, the most valuable commodity for an identity thief."

On November 18, 2008, President George W. Bush issued EO 13478 rescinding the 1943 EO requiring all federal agencies to use the SSN as an identifier. Then in December, the FTC (2008) issued a plea to companies, schools, and other private entities to find better ways to authenticate identities than using the SSN . State and local entities have begun to delete SSN s on electronic versions of public records. Congress has also considered legislation that would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to use an alternative to the SSN as the Medicare claim number. Even SSA , which created the SSN for its program use, has ceased to print the full SSN on some of its correspondence with beneficiaries (Lockhart 2002). The agency now advises individuals to keep their Social Security card in a safe place and not to carry it with them ( SSA 2007a).

Federal survey-takers are also finding that as respondents have become more aware of the risk of identity theft, they are less willing to supply SSN s that are useful in linking the agency's survey data with administrative records from other agencies. For the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation, the share of respondents who did not provide their SSN increased from 12 percent in 1996 to 35 percent in 2004. Likewise, the share of respondents who did not provide an SSN for the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey increased from 10 percent in 1994 to almost 23 percent in 2003 (Bates 2004, 4). The National Center for Health Statistics reports a similar problem.

Still, it is highly unlikely that use of the SSN as a unique identifier will cease entirely. In order to share data among government agencies or between commercial firms, a unique identifier to match records is critically important, and the SSN is the one unique tag that follows an individual throughout life. People may change their names and addresses throughout their lives, but their SSN s generally will remain the same. Of course, the SSN will also still be used for its original purpose—to track earnings in SSA records. The SSN is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

SSA will continue to assess its policies and procedures to further strengthen the integrity of the enumeration process to prevent SSN fraud and misuse, as well as to protect the important personal information with which it is entrusted. SSA is a member of the Identity Theft Task Force and will continue to work with other members to protect, to the maximum extent possible, the integrity of the SSN .

1 In addition, effective January 1, 1937, workers attaining age 65 could apply for a lump-sum payment (equal to 3.5 percent of wages earned after December 31, 1936) in lieu of monthly benefit payments. Payment of monthly benefits was initially postponed until January 1942; the 1939 Amendments to the Social Security Act moved the date up to January 1940.

2 Stuart Rick, a Census Bureau representative on this committee, foresaw that the SSN would eventually become part of three registration episodes—birth, employment, and death—and looked "toward the ultimate acceptance of universal registration" (McKinley and Frase 1970, 322).

3 Assignment of area numbers by state is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer/stateweb.htm .

4 SSA makes a list of which groups of SSN s have been assigned available at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer /ssnvhighgroup.htm .

5 An image of the original design of the Social Security card is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssn /designssn.html .

6 This pamphlet is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssb36.html .

7 Images of the posters are available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/pubaffairs.html .

8 For the number of original SSN s issued each year, see www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssn /ssnvolume.html .

9 Some early SSA officials credit SSA with providing the specifications for the collating machine that was responsible for IBM 's takeoff in the business world. See Interview with Jack Futterman at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/jackforal.html and The Bureau—a profile at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/oasis /oasisnews3.html .

10 For a more detailed explanation of the early SSN records maintenance process, see the June 1938 Social Security Bulletin at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/fay638.html and Your Social Security Record—1955 at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssa/yourss55.html .

11 For pictures of the Flexoline and the subsequent magnetic tape operation, see www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssa /usa1964-3.html and also www.socialsecurity.gov/history/candlerops.html .

12 In certain limited situations, SSA may delete an iteration and add a new one to correct errors.

13 A major retailer, Woolworth's was the Wal-Mart of its era.

14 The Form SS -5 Application for a Social Security Number is available at www.socialsecurity.gov/online/ss-5.pdf .

15 However, SS -5 s for applicants aged 18 or older for original SSN s are retained for 5 years before being destroyed.

16 See www.socialsecurity.gov/cbsv/ for additional information about CBSV .

17 See www.socialsecurity.gov/employer /ssnvs_handbk.htm for additional information about SSNVS .

Barron, Erma, and Felix Bamberger. 1982. Meaning of the Social Security number. Social Security Bulletin 45(11): 29–30.

Bates, Nancy. 2004. Quantitative testing of informed consent questions in an RDD survey: Summary report, phase 2: 2004 questionnaire design and evaluation research survey. Unpublished Census Bureau document.

Corson, John J. 1938. Administering Old-Age Insurance. Social Security Bulletin 1(5): 3–6. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/corson538.html .

Department of Treasury, Division of Tax Research. 1947. The extension of old-age and survivors insurance to agricultural and domestic service workers and to the self-employed. As reported in Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, SSA . Reports Book, 1935–36 . Vol 2. Washington, DC .

DeWitt, Larry W., Daniel Béland, and Edward D. Berkowitz. 2008. Social Security: A documentary history . Washington, DC : Congressional Quarterly Press.

Donnelly, Glenna. 1999. Prepared testimony before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims. Counterfeiting and misuse of the Social Security card and state and local documents. (July 22). 106 th Cong., 1 st sess. Committee on the Judiciary Serial No. 60. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/legislation/testimony _072299.html .

[ FTC ] Federal Trade Commission. 2008. Security in numbers: SSN s and ID theft. Available at www.ftc.gov/os/2008/12 /P075414ssnreport.pdf .

———. No date. About identity theft. Available at www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers /about-identity-theft.html.

Fay, Joseph L., and Max J. Wasserman. 1938. Accounting operations of the Bureau of Old-Age Insurance. Social Security Bulletin 1(6): 24–28. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/fay638.html .

Lockhart, James B. 2002. Testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. Preserving the integrity of Social Security numbers and preventing their misuse by terrorists and identity thieves. (September 19). 107 th Cong., 2 nd sess. Committee on Ways and Means Serial No. 107-81, Committee on the Judiciary Serial No. 102. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/legislation /testimony_091902.html .

Long, Wayne S. 1993. Social Security numbers issued: A 20-year review. Social Security Bulletin 56(1): 83–86.

McKinley, Charles, and Robert W. Frase. 1970. Launching Social Security: A capture-and-record account, 1935–1937. Madison, WI : The University of Wisconsin Press.

President's Identity Theft Task Force. 2007. Combating identity theft: A strategic plan. Available at www.idtheft.gov/reports/StrategicPlan.pdf.

[ SSA ] Social Security Administration. 1952. The Bureau—a profile. OASIS News 12(1). Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/oasis /oasisnews3.html .

———. 1961. "Then and now" in the Division of Accounting Operations. The Bulletin 23(45): 2–14. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/candlerops.html .

———. 1964. From account number to benefit—how we operate. Social Security U.S.A —the program & its administration . Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssa/usa1964-3.html .

———. 1965. Social Security Act: 30 years of building. OASIS 11(8): 24–29. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/oasis /august1965.pdf .

———. 1985. SSA pioneers recall the early days. OASIS . 31(7): 12–17. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/oasis /julyaugust1985.pdf .

———. 1990. The history of the Social Security card. Baltimore, MD : SSA Historian's Office.

———. 1997. Report to Congress on options for enhancing the Social Security card. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/reports /ssnreport.html .

———. 2002. Study results and options for the MULTX file. Unpublished internal document.

———. 2003. SSN verification policy, process, and recommendations: A report of the SSN verification sub-team to the Enumeration Response Team. Unpublished internal document.

———. 2006. Follow-up of the enumeration at birth program. Audit report A-08-06-26003. Baltimore, MD : SSA , Office of the Inspector General. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF /audittxt /A-08-06-26003.htm.

———. 2007a. Identity theft and your Social Security number. Publication No. 05-10064. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10064.html .

———. 2007b. Protecting the integrity of Social Security Numbers ( SSN s). Federal Register (72)127: 36540 (July 3). Available at edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/pdf/E7-12831.pdf .

———. 2008. The Social Security Administration's compliance with Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 provision regarding security of Social Security cards and numbers. Audit report A-08-08-18058. Baltimore, MD : SSA , Office of the Inspector General. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/oig/ADOBEPDF /audittxt /A-08-08-18058.htm.

———. No date a. In-depth research—early issues: Constitutionality of Social Security Act. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/court.html .

———. No date b. Program operations manual system. SSA internal document.

———. No date c. Social Security numbers: Social Security cards issued by Woolworth. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssn/misused.html .

———. No date d. Social Security numbers: Social Security number chronology. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/ssn/ssnchron.html .

Social Security Board, Bureau of Old-Age Insurance, Analysis Division. 1938. Old-age insurance. Social Security Bulletin. 1(5): 49–54.

Staruch, George. 1978. Filing little wooden sticks. OASIS . (March): 29–30. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/history/oasis /march1978.pdf .

Streckewald, Frederick G. 2006. Testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Social Security. Fourth in a series of subcommittee hearings on Social Security number high risk issues. (March 16). 109 th Cong., 2d sess. Committee on Ways and Means Serial No. 109-58. Available at www.socialsecurity.gov/legislation /testimony_031606a.html .

Wyatt, Birchard E., and William H. Wandel. 1937. The Social Security Act in operation: A practical guide to the federal and federal-state Social Security programs. Washington, DC : Graphic Arts Press.

Zwintscher, Paula E. 1952. A study of the establishment of the field office of the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivor Insurance: A thesis presented to the graduate council of the faculty of the School of Social Sciences and Public Affairs. Washington, DC : American University.

🥎 DI softball super regionals are set

⛳️ DI women's golf finals

🥇 TCU wins DI men's tennis title

🏆 Texas A&M claims DI women's tennis title

NCAA.com | May 16, 2024

2024 ncaa di women's lacrosse championship: bracket, schedule, scores.

The 2024 NCAA DI women's lacrosse bracket was revealed on Sunday, May 5 on ESPN2. The championship is now underway today and in the quarterfinals.

👉 See the full selections release

The three top overall seeds earned a first-round bye, with the remaining 26 teams playing first-round games at campus sites. The semifinals and championship game will be played on May 24 and 26 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

2024 DI women's lacrosse championship bracket

➡️ Click or tap here for the interactive bracket

2024 DI women's lacrosse championship schedule

All times in ET

All games streamed on ESPN+

May 24 — Semifinals

3 p.m.| (1) Northwestern vs. Florida
5:30 p.m.| (2) Boston College vs. (3) Syracuse

May 26- National Championship

Noon | National Championship

May 10 — First round (All times Eastern)

No. 4 Maryland 17 , Robert Morris 1
No. 6 Yale 17 , Binghamton 4
No. 7 Notre Dame 24 , Coastal Carolina 6
No. 8 Penn 16 , Richmond 5
Stony Brook 19 , Niagara 7
No. 5 Virginia 21 , LIU 6
James Madison 14 , Penn State 13
Denver 13 , Stanford 12
Loyola Maryland 16 , Duke 11
Johns Hopkins 11 , Fairfield 5
Michigan 17 , Mercer 6
Princeton 14 , Drexel 9
Florida 17, North Carolina 8

May 12 — Second round

No. 2 Boston College 21 , Princeton 16
Michigan 15 , No. 7 Notre Dame 14
No. 4 Maryland 17 , James Madison 7
No. 8 Penn 12 , Loyola Maryland 9
Florida 13 , No. 5 Virginia 8
No. 1 Northwestern 17 , Denver 4
No. 3 Syracuse 15 , Stony Brook 10
No. 6 Yale 9 , Johns Hopkins 7

May 16 — Quarterfinals

Florida 15 , No. 4 Maryland 9
No. 3 Syracuse 19, No. 6 Yale 9
No. 2 Boston College 14, Michigan 9
No. 1 Northwestern 20, No. 8 Penn 7

Championship history

Northwestern defeated Boston College, 18-6, in 2023 to win the program's eighth national title. Maryland has the most titles of any school with 14. Here is a full history of NCAA DI women's lacrosse champions.

Note: Before 2001, this championship was a national collegiate championship.

2024 NCAA DIII women's lacrosse championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

2024 NCAA DII women's lacrosse championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

This week in DII sports: DII baseball championship predictions for Cary

You are viewing this page in an unauthorized frame window.

This is a potential security issue, you are being redirected to https://nvd.nist.gov

You have JavaScript disabled. This site requires JavaScript to be enabled for complete site functionality.

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Information Technology Laboratory

National vulnerability database.

Vulnerabilities

NIST has updated the NVD program announcement page with additional information regarding recent concerns and the temporary delays in enrichment efforts.

Weakness Enumeration

Change history, cve modified by mitsubishi electric corporation 5/14/2024 10:36:45 am, cve modified by mitsubishi electric corporation 2/13/2024 11:15:08 pm, new cve received by nist 2/13/2024 2:15:46 am.

IMAGES

SSC History Assignment Answer 2021 Pdf 8th Week Answer
SSC History Assignment Answer 2022- 14th Week
SSC History Assignment Answer 2021 Pdf 4th Week 1st 2ndDownload
S.S.C. History Chp 1 Test Paper
SSC History Assignment Answer 2021 Pdf 4th Week 1st 2ndDownload
SSC History Assignment Answer 2021 Pdf 4th Week 1st 2ndDownload

VIDEO

Introduction to Operations Research and Decision Support (Lecture 15)
NPTEL Problem Solving Through Programming In C Week-3 Quiz Assignment Solution
Introduction to Programming in C Week 6 Assignment Solutions
NPTEL Problem Solving Through Programming In C Week 0 Quiz Assignment Solution
SSC History and Political Science Board 2019 Solved Question Paper
NPTEL Problem Solving through Programming in C ASSIGNMENT 6 ANSWERS 2024

COMMENTS

IPPS-A Update: Assignment History, Temp. Orders, MACP, PGA Guide, User
Assignment History Updates. We recently provided a demo on how to reconstruct a record for a Soldier. This training was not limited to Assignment History updates but should be used if you are attempting to update assignment history. We have posted this video to S1Net at https: ...
Sample Assignments
This sample assignment requires students to use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on the circulation of commodities, peoples, and ideas throughout those worlds. This paper assignment has three major parts: a list of sources for students to read and study ...
Assignment: 08.02 The 1980s
0 8. 0 2 C C C C h a r t a n d R e fl e c t i o n This "Causes-Course-Consequences," or CCC, chart is another excellent way to summarize important information from history. In it,
What Does It Mean to Think Historically?
To argue that history is contingent is to claim that every historical outcome depends upon a number of prior conditions; that each of these prior conditions depends, in turn, upon still other conditions; and so on. The core insight of contingency is that the world is a magnificently interconnected place. Change a single prior condition, and any ...
Writing to Learn History: Annotations and Mini-Writes
Description. Annotating involves highlighting, underlining, and making marginal notes while reading a document. Some students have little experience annotating, or focus solely on reading comprehension. In such cases, explicit prompts to consider the source's author, perspective, and historical context can lead to better historical understanding.
Discussions and Assignments
The assignments in this course are openly licensed, and are available as-is, or can be modified to suit your students' needs. If you import this course into your learning management system (Blackboard, Canvas, etc.), the assignments will automatically be loaded into the assignment tool. The assignment pages within each module link to the live ...
History
A typical Carolina history course includes several kinds of writing assignments: Research papers—As the name suggests, these assignments require you to engage in full-fledged historical research. You will read sources (primary and/or secondary), think about them, and interpret them to answer some question about the past.
SCIM-C: Historical Source Analysis
In this short video, created by the Historical Inquiry project at Virginia Tech, Education Professor David Hicks describes the five steps of SCIM-C, a model for analyzing historical sources and placing them within a historical narrative. The steps ask students to: Summarize. Contextualize. Infer. Monitor, and. Corroborate. For a more detailed ...
PDF A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper
the History Paper The Challenges of Writing About (a.k.a., Making) History At ﬁrst glance, writing about history can seem like an overwhelming task. History's subject matter is immense, encompassing all of human affairs in the recorded past — up until the moment, that is, that you started reading this guide.
How to analyse historical sources
In order to demonstrate a knowledge of the six analysis skills, you need to do two things: Carefully read the source to find information that is explicit and implicit. Conduct background research about the creator of the source. After completing these two steps, you can begin to show your understanding about the six features of historical ...
Schutzstaffel: the SS
The Schutzstaffel (SS) was formed on Hitler's order in April 1925. It began as a small, specialised unit of the Sturmabteilung (SA) with a specific role: providing bodyguards for Hitler and other high-ranking Nazis (the name Schutzstaffel means 'protective staff'). Two of Hitler's closest associates, Julius Schreck and Emil Maurice ...
U.S. History
U.S. Historycovers the breadth of the chronological history of the United States and also provides the necessary depth to ensure the course is manageable for instructors and students alike. U.S. History is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of most courses. The authors introduce key forces and major developments that together form the American experience, with particular ...
History School Based Assessment Exemplars
Explain the historical context of the question. Give some background information about the policy of apartheid and how it was implemented until the 1980s. Use the information from your Grade 11 and Grade 12 textbooks to assist you in writing this section of the assignment. Hint 2 : During the research process.
Summer Assignments
AP US History students are expected to complete summer reading and video assignments before the first class meeting. These assignments will focus on course content preceding the American Revolution (APUSH Periods 1 and 2). Students' completion of their APUSH summer assignments will be assessed on a test to be administered during the first week ...
PDF College of William & Mary, Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History's
1. Identify the assignment's goals. Have the assignment's goals in mind as you familiarize yourself with your sources/evidence, develop a thesis, outline your main points, and write your essay. *Note: Always follow your professor's specific guidelines before the general suggestions in this handout. Example Essay Prompt: The assignment is ...
70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, new research shows rise in
As the nation prepares to mark the 70th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, a new report from researchers at Stanford and USC shows that racial and economic segregation among schools has grown steadily in large school districts over the past three decades — an increase that appears to be driven in part by policies favoring
SSC Napoli
SSC Napoli. Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli ( pronounced [ˈnaːpoli] ), is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Naples that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. In its history, Napoli has won three Serie A titles, six Coppa Italia titles, two Supercoppa Italiana titles, and ...
US History Lesson Plans Resources
Create a free account to gain full access to the website. Save & Organize Resources. See State Standards. Manage Classes & Assignments. Sync with Google Classroom. Create Lessons. Customized Dashboard. Find supplementary resources for US History lesson plans. Motivate your students with videos and games aligned to state and national standards.
Research Guides: History (General): Assignment #2
1. A) Name two academic journals devoted to California history (NO newsletters). B) Pick one of them and Xerox an issue's (not a volume's) table of contents (NOT cumulative or yearly index that lists all the articles for the entire year) from the 1980s. Include it with this assignment. C) Pick an article from that Xeroxed table of contents ...
Research assignment gr 11 2020
In the context of the above statement, evaluate different aspects of Stalin's leadership of the Soviet Union during the period 1928 to 1939. ANNEXURE A: COVER PAGE FOR A RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: GRADE 11 RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT: HISTORY NAME OF SCHOOL NAME OF LEARNER SUBJECT HISTORY RESEARCH TOPIC DUE DATE STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY:
Understanding Assignments
What this handout is about. The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms ...
HIST 1301
This assignment generally requires you to analyze opposing perspectives on an American historical issue set before 1877. Your professor may have changes to this requirement, so always make sure to check the intructions they give you. Some instructors require you to use a scholarly historical periodical. This means a peer-reviewed article ...
Free U.S. History Textbook Available for Download
ISBN-13: 978-1-947172-08-1. iBooks: ISBN-13: 978-1-938168-98-7. License: by OpenStax is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0. Study U.S. History online free by downloading OpenStax's United States History textbook and using our accompanying online resources.
'The Fly' has become notorious in France after a brazen escape. What's
PARIS (AP) — A prisoner nicknamed "The Fly" has become notorious in France overnight after a daring and bloody escape from a prison convoy in Normandy in which two guards were killed.. Mohamed Amra, 30, has a long and violent criminal history that has now culminated in a high-profile search.. Known as "La Mouche" (The Fly), Amra has also been referred to by other aliases such as ...
Spring Commencement 2024
Join us for this afternoon's commencement exercises for our graduating class of 2024. #ForeverToThee24
2024 ACC baseball tournament: Bracket, schedule, scores
ACC baseball tournament history Here are all the winners of the annual ACC baseball tournament. Clemson won the title in 2023, beating Miami (Fla.) 11-5 in the final.
Aaron Judge in the Midst of a Stretch Like He's Never Had Before
They are one of three teams in baseball with 30 wins, joining the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. In the win, Aaron Judge went 1-for-1 with a home run and three walks. After a slow ...
The Story of the Social Security Number
The use of the Social Security number (SSN) has expanded significantly since its inception in 1936.Created merely to keep track of the earnings history of U.S. workers for Social Security entitlement and benefit computation purposes, it has come to be used as a nearly universal identifier. Assigned at birth, the SSN enables government agencies to identify individuals in their records and ...
2024 NCAA DI women's lacrosse championship: Bracket, schedule, scores
Florida 15, No. 4 Maryland 9; No. 3 Syracuse 19, No. 6 Yale 9 No. 2 Boston College 14, Michigan 9 No. 1 Northwestern 20, No. 8 Penn 7 Championship history. Northwestern defeated Boston College, 18 ...
Nvd
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation CWE-266. Added. Description. Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation MELSEC iQ-R Series Safety CPU R08/16/32/120SFCPU all versions and MELSEC iQ-R Series SIL2 Process CPU R08/16/32/120PSFCPU all versions allows a remote authenticated attacker who has logged into the product ...

What Does It Mean to Think Historically?

Introduction

Change over Time

Contingency

Course Resources

Capstone Project

How to analyse historical sources

What is 'source analysis'?

How do you analyse a source?

How do you write an analysis paragraph?

What do you do with your analysis?

Test your learning

Additional resources

U.S. History

Formats Available

Table of Contents

Ancillary Material

About the Contributors

Contribute to this Page

HISTORY SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT EXEMPLARS - CAPS GRADE 12 TEACHER'S GUIDE

Related Items

Related items

News and Media

You are here

Assessing the rise

Policies shaping recent trends

More Stories

Get the Educator

History (General)

Rose's Assignment #2: Secondary, Periodical and Reference Sources

Understanding Assignments

Basic beginnings

Assignment formats

An Overview of Some Kind

The Task of the Assignment

Additional Material to Think about

Technical Details

Interpreting the assignment

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

The Grim Truth

What kind of evidence do you need?

Technical details about the assignment

Tricks that don’t work

HIST 1301 | American History Before 1877

‘The Fly’ has become notorious in France after a brazen escape. What’s his criminal history?

Aaron Judge in the Midst of a Stretch Like He's Never Had Before

Follow Fastball on FanNation on social media

The Story of the Social Security Number

Introduction

Crafting the SSN

Deconstructing the SSN

Area Number

Group Number

Serial Number

Designing the Social Security Card

Deciding on Application Data

Registering the Nation's Employers and Employees

Maintaining the SSN Records

Handling SSN Assignment Problems

Applying for an SSN Today

Evidentiary Requirements

Expanding Uses of the SSN

Verifying SSN s

Enhancing the Social Security Card

NCAA.com | May 16, 2024

2024 DI women's lacrosse championship bracket

2024 DI women's lacrosse championship schedule

Championship history

2024 NCAA DIII women's lacrosse championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

2024 NCAA DII women's lacrosse championship: Bracket, schedule, scores

This week in DII sports: DII baseball championship predictions for Cary

You are viewing this page in an unauthorized frame window.

Information Technology Laboratory

Weakness Enumeration

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS