America in the Civil War Era, 1829–77: A History Institute for Teachers

A History Institute for Teachers

Jump to …

Saturday and Sunday, May 17–18, 2008

Todd Wehr Center, Carthage College
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Sponsored by

The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Wachman Center

Clausen Center for World Business, Carthage College
Adult Education, Carthage College

This year sees the publication of a wealth of important new literature on America in the 19th century, including History Institute co-chair Walter McDougall’s Throes of Democracy: America in the Civil War Era, 1829–77. This abundance of excellent new contributions to the scholarship on these important years is an exciting opportunity to revisit what we all think we know about America in the 19th century, and to rethink what our students need to know.

Webcast

For those unable to participate in person, the event will be broadcast over the Internet. You must register in order to receive the link for the webcast on the day of the event.

Topics and Speakers:

Saturday, May 17 (Todd Wehr Center, Carthage College)

(For those staying overnight on Friday, breakfast is on your own. The bus to the conference center will leave the hotel at 10:00 a.m. Please be prompt.)

10:50 Welcoming Remarks (Todd Wehr Center, Room 128)
Arthur Cyr, Clausen Distinguished Professor, Carthage College
Alan Luxenberg, Director, FPRI’s Wachman Center
11:00 a.m. Throes of Democracy: America in the Civil War Era, 1829-1877
Walter A. McDougall, Co-Chair, FPRI History Institute for Teachers, and Alloy-Ansin Professor of International
Relations, University of Pennsylvania
12:15 p.m. Lunch (Jockey A and B)
1:00 What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Daniel Walker Howe, Professor of History Emeritus, UCLA, and Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus, Oxford University
(Note: The title of Prof. Howe’s talk is taken from his new book, which just won a Pulitzer Prize!)
2:15 Break
2:30 Teaching about Slavery
Michael Johnson, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
3:45 Break
4:00 The Technological Revolution
Maury Klein, Professor of History, University of Rhode Island
5:15 Bus back to the hotel.

Evening of Saturday, May 17 (Best Western Harborside Inn)

6:00 Reception and Dinner
7:30 p.m. Introduction of Keynote Address
Tom Noer, Valor Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Carthage College
Keynote Address: Honest Abe: Abraham Lincoln and the Moral Character
Daniel Walker Howe, Emeritus Professor of History, UCLA

Sunday, May 18 (Todd Wehr Center, Room 128)

(For those staying overnight, breakfast is on your own. The bus to the conference center will leave the hotel at 7:45 a.m. Please be prompt.)

8:15 a.m. Women in the Civil War
Jane Schultz, Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of Women’s Studies and American Studies, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
9:30 Break
9:45 a.m. Teaching Military History: The Civil War as Case Study
Karl Walling, Professor of Strategy, Naval War College
11:00 Break
11:15 a.m. Postwar Reconstruction
Herman Belz, Academic Advisor to the President, James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
12:15 p.m. Bus back to the hotel.
12:30 p.m. Lunch (Best Western Harborside Inn)
1:00 p.m. Adjournment.
NOTE: There will be a bus leaving the hotel at 1:15 p.m. going to the Milwaukee Airport.

The conference begins 11 am CT on Saturday, May 17 and concludes at 1 pm CT on Sunday, May 18, 2008.

What Participants Receive

Social studies and history teachers, curriculum supervisors, and junior college faculty are invited to apply for participation in the History Institute. Forty participants will be selected to receive:

To Apply

Please EMAIL to lux@fpri.org a résumé and a short statement describing your current teaching or professional assignments, your reasons for wanting to attend, and how your students or school district will benefit from your participation. NOTE: At the time of application, you are asked to make a commitment either to prepare a curriculum unit based on the weekend or to do in-service activities based on the weekend.

Schools with a school membership in FPRI’s Wachman Center are guaranteed one place at one History Institute weekend per year. For information about school membership, contact lux@fpri.org.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 31, 2008

If you cannot participate in person, note that portions of the History Institute will also be webcast and will be viewable online at no cost. Videos will be posted subsequently on our website. For information about registering for the webcast, please contact lux@fpri.org.

About FPRI

Founded in 1955, FPRI is devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S. national interests abroad. We add perspective to events by fitting them into the larger historical and cultural context of international politics. A font of ideas for policymakers, a trusted resource for journalists, a center for scholars, a prolific publisher online and in print, FPRI aspires like Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin to embrace the nation and the world.

The Wachman Center

Begun in 1990, the Wachman Center is a project of FPRI dedicated to improving civic and international literacy in the community and in the classroom. The Fund is named for FPRI’s former president, the late Marvin Wachman, who inaugurated the Institute’s program of international education in 1985 with the Inter-University Seminar on Foreign Affairs.

History Institute for Teachers

In 1996, FPRI inaugurated a series of weekend history institutes, chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter McDougall. Designed to bring high school teachers from around the country together with the nation's top scholars on world history and politics, the History Institute offers intensive weekends of lectures and discussion. The History Institute is supported by a grant from The Annenberg Foundation. Materials from previous history weekends can be found on our website.

Foreign Policy Research Institute
1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel. 215-732-3774, ext. 305
Fax 215-732-4401