Perhaps no topic in U.S. history is as emotionally fraught as the nation’s centuries-long entanglement with slavery. How can teachers get students to understand the racist underpinnings of that institution—and to acknowledge its legacies in contemporary America? How can they overcome students’ shame; anger; guilt; or denial? How can they incorporate into the classroom important primary sources that may contain obsolete and racist terms; images; and ideas? This book; designed for college and high school teachers; is a critical resource for understanding and teaching this challenging topic in all its complexity. Opening with Ira Berlin’s reflections on ten elements that are essential to include in any course on this topic; Understanding and Teaching American Slavery offers practical advice for teaching specific content; utilizing sources; and getting students to think critically. Contributors address; among other topics; slavery and the nation’s founders; the diverse experiences of the enslaved; slavery’s role in the Civil War; and the relationship between slavery and the northern economy. Other chapters offer ideas for teaching through slave narratives; runaway ads; spirituals; films; and material culture. Taken together; the essays in the volume help instructors tackle problems; discover opportunities; and guide students in grappling with the ugliest truths of America’s past.
#1183464 in Books 2011-02-08 2011-02-09Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .65 x 5.98l; .97 #File Name: 029599102X288 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Really interestingBy angel jonesI was required to buy this for a class by the professor who wrote the book. It actually turned out to be a pretty good book as far as readability; but also it is a really good ethnography. I'm an anthropologist and I feel myself pretty immune to stuff like being sold by the advertising of "exotic" places. I had to admit that the advertising for Tahiti; even though intellectually I KNEW BETTER; sucked me in. This is a really good account of the real lives of Tahitians who still live under colonialism; trying to find a place in their own society that has been commodified for sale as an exotic "other."0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Interested side to TahitiBy SiveAuthor lived there and gave a side to Tahiti that you would not find in the usual travel books. I picked the book because we are traveling to French Polynesia. I have a better understanding of the country now.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. OutstandingBy Crispin ThurlowElegantly and accessibly written; this book offers an exemplary and deeply respectful coupling of scholarship from the `global core' and the `global periphery'. And; to be sure; Miriam Kahn's is not a sentimental; condescending use of non-Western ways of knowing. She presents an array of contemporary and historical; academic and vernacular texts; all grounded in several decades of ethnographic engagement in/with Tahiti. Confidently; but not bullishly; Kahn remains rooted in her disciplinarity as an anthropologist while writing a properly transdisciplinary book - one that speaks across; and insightfully connects; geography; history; literature and art; as well as cultural; postcolonial and tourism studies. In her effort to stay true to the distinctive cultural politics of French Polynesia; however; Kahn avoids forcing her site into her literature. Academic voices are there to illuminate not determine the complex meanings and uncomfortable histories of Tahiti. It's why; for example; the book is primarily about the production and mythologization of place and not simply about tourism. What Kahn fully understands - what drives her never-shrill critique - is that tourism is just one formation in a long-standing; power-laden struggle over space. Nor is Tahiti tritely accounted for here by a narrative of omnipotent visitors-cum-colonizers and passive; victimized locals. In this regard; I recommend the penultimate chapter of the book titled `Everyday Spaces of Resistance' in which Kahn presents a beautifully articulated account of Tahitians' efforts to control the discourse by (re)asserting their own `lived experiences' of the place they call home. Once you've finished with this concluding chapter; you'll not be able to resist turning to the first word of Introduction and pursuing the book in its entirety. [REVIEWER: Crispin Thurlow; author of 'Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility']
