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The British Government's Confidential Files on the United States
Historian article
Unpublished papers in Britain's National Archives at Kew reveal curious undercurrents in Anglo-American relations. After the conclusion of the Boer War, for example, the British Army supposed that the next major conflict would be not with Germany but with the U.S. A memo printed for circulation in July 1904 entitled ‘A...
The British Government's Confidential Files on the United States
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The Historian 109: Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 The British Government's Confidential Files on the United States - A. D. Harvey (Read Article)
11 The President's Column - Anne Curry
12 Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair - Dianne Payne (Read Article)
18 The Charles Dickens Primary School Project - Alan Parkinson (Read Article)
22 Medieval ‘Signs and...
The Historian 109: Medieval 'Signs and Marvels'
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Little Jack Horner and polite revolutionaries: putting the story back into history
Teaching History article
Three years ago, Séan Lang argued that narrative, which had gone rather out of fashion, needed to be brought back into our teaching. Alf Wilkinson goes further. It is not just narrative which is needed: it is story. The move away from story is not a problem confined uniquely to...
Little Jack Horner and polite revolutionaries: putting the story back into history
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Aristotle and Dudley: what can books tell us about their owners?
Historian article
Books as evidence
The study of books as objects can reveal a great deal about their owners and the society in which they lived. By examining why the books were printed in the first place, and by whom; why they were acquired and for what purpose; how they were bound;...
Aristotle and Dudley: what can books tell us about their owners?
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Diagrams in History
Historian article
One of the gifts of the social sciences to history is the use of expository diagrams; but attention is rarely given to the history of diagrams. Maps - schematized representations of locations in spatial relation to one another - can be dated back to Babylonia in the late third millennium...
Diagrams in History
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Alexandra and Rasputin
Historian article
Has the role of Alexandra and Rasputin in the downfall of the Romanovs been exaggerated out of all proportion?
If a country is defeated in war, the rulers run the risk of being overthrown. In 1918 the Kaiser left Germany for Holland, Germany became a Republic; the Austro-Hungarian Empire came...
Alexandra and Rasputin
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The London Charterhouse
Historian article
Four hundred years ago, in 1611, Thomas Sutton was reputed to be the wealthiest commoner in England but he was nearing the end of his life. He had been a financier and he was formerly the Master of Ordnance in the Northern Parts. He decided to take up good works...
The London Charterhouse
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The Historian 108: Alexandra and Rasputin
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Editorial
5 The London Charterhouse - Stephen Green (Read Article)
10 The President's Column - Anne Curry
11 Alexandra and Rasputin: Has the role of Alexandra and Rasputin in the downfall of the Romanovs been exaggerated out of all proportion? - Sarah Newman (Read Article)
15 Diagrams in History - A. D. Harvey...
The Historian 108: Alexandra and Rasputin
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Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
Article
Interpretation of the Cold War is a fascinating area. Many students begin to study it certain pre-formed ideas – gleaned from their parents, perhaps, or from films or computer games. Historians have interpreted it in different ways – and those who believe in the ‘twenty-year rule’ that historical judgment is...
Politics, history and stories about the Cold War
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Lesson Planning Recipe
Primary History article
Learning objectives
What questions should the children be able to answer at the end of your teaching of the topic? Pare this down to 6 key questions, one for each lesson of a 6-week term. What sub-questions will the lesson address and open up for the next step in the...
Lesson Planning Recipe
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What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
Primary History article
The government's 2010 White Paper makes clear that the history curriculum will be reviewed. This is the ideal time to consider that very contentious issue - What History Should We Teach? And who better to ask than those who really know and understand what the curriculum will look and feel...
What history should we teach? The HA Primary Survey
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History in the early years
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Early years history should provide opportunities to expand the children's knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past and develop children's investigative and interpretive skills. Children should focus on:
Questioning
Observation
Generating thoughts...
History in the early years
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Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
From the late 1960s until 1989 history was almost universally taught in primary schools as an element in integrated crosscurricular programmes, normally social studies or humanities.
The 1989/1990 National Curriculum: History radically changed this. It introduced...
Integration and cross-curricularity: History, Humanities And Social Studies
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Pupils as apprentice historians (4)
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
The Historical Association [HA] supports effective, stimulating and rewarding history teaching through its website, publications and in-service programme, particularly Primary History and its HITT [History in Initial Teacher Training Programme]. HITT provides extensive guidance on a...
Pupils as apprentice historians (4)
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Pupils as apprentice historians (2)
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
"Without knowing how the history we receive was arrived at, we can only take it as a series of mysterious assertions, which can only be learned in the sense of learning off by heart. Rote-learned history...
Pupils as apprentice historians (2)
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The History around us: Local history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
History is an important aspect of the development of even very young children. They need to begin to develop the foundations of an understanding of the past and how it has developed and affected our present....
The History around us: Local history
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Popular history: Using the media
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Should we use the media to teach history? Many people who were ‘turned off' history at school have been brought back to it in later life by visits to historic places and especially by television programmes....
Popular history: Using the media
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Dimensions Of Britishness: Cultural Diversity and Ethnicity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Teaching history is a balancing act between generalities and the particular. This article seeks to explore how Britishness and ethnic diversity relate to a broader understanding of diversity. We do not challenge the teaching of topics...
Dimensions Of Britishness: Cultural Diversity and Ethnicity
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From Kings To Queens to Sources and Evidence
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Until the mid 1930s the vast majority of children attended elementary schools, which went through from five to fourteen. In theory pre-war schools were left relatively free to teach in the way they chose as there...
From Kings To Queens to Sources and Evidence
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Primary History 57: What History Should We Teach, 5-14?
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Contents, Editorial, In My View, Article
04 Editorial
05 In my view: Campaign! Make an Impact and History - Alison Bodley (Read article)
06 In my view: Principles for a history curriculum - Jon Nichol (Read article)
07 Doing History: story telling How can we imagine the past? - Grant Bage (Read...
Primary History 57: What History Should We Teach, 5-14?
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The Holocaust in history and history in the curriculum
Teaching History article
In this powerfully argued article Paul Salmons focuses directly on the distinctive contribution that a historical approach to the study of the Holocaust makes to young people's education. Not only does he question the adequacy of objectives focused on eliciting purely emotional responses; he issues a strong warning that turning...
The Holocaust in history and history in the curriculum
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Limited lessons from the Holocaust?
Teaching History article
Limited lessons from the Holocaust? Critically considering the ‘anti-racist' and citizenship potential
Previous issues of Teaching History have seen extensive debate about the appropriateness of approaching Holocaust education with explicitly social or moral - as opposed to historical - aims. Rather than taking sides, Alice Pettigrew first acknowledges the range...
Limited lessons from the Holocaust?
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Educational visits to Holocaust-related sites
Teaching History article
Kay Andrews, former history teacher and expert in Holocaust teacher education, relates how she found herself questioning the impact and purpose of overseas site visits for students. She raises questions about whether the typical eastern European destinations that dominate Holocaust-related travel are the most appropriate for student learning. She also...
Educational visits to Holocaust-related sites
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Nazi perpetrators in Holocaust education
Teaching History article
The Holocaust is often framed, in textbooks and exam syllabi, from a perpetrator perspective as a narrative of Nazi policy. We are offered a different orientation here. Interrogating and understanding the Holocaust involves understanding why the people who perpetrated the Holocaust did the things that they did. As Wolf Kaiser...
Nazi perpetrators in Holocaust education
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Investigating students' prior understandings of the Holocaust
Teaching History article
Students make sense of new learning on the basis of their prior understandings: we cannot move our students' thinking on unless we understand what they already know. In this article, Edwards and O'Dowd report how they set out to scope a group of Y ear 8 students' prior learning and...
Investigating students' prior understandings of the Holocaust
