The question that animates volume, 16th in the Service-Learning in the Disciplines Series, is: Why connect service-learning to history courses? The contributors answer that question in different ways and illustrate and highlight a diversity of historical approaches and interpretations. All agree, however, that they do their jobs better as teachers (and in some cases as researchers) by engaging their students in service-learning. An interesting read with a compelling case for the importance of history and how service-learning can improve the historian’s craft.

In this volume, experts on the Spanish Golden Age from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States offer analyses of contemporary works that have been influenced by the classics from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Part of the formation of a sense of national identity, always a problematic concept in Spain, is founded in the recognition and appreciation of what has come beforehand, and no other era in the history of Spanish literature and drama represents the talent and fascination that Spaniards and non-Spaniards alike possess with the artistic legacy of this country. In order to establish properly a context for the study of literature or history, one cannot always study the works, writers, or era in isolation; rather, performing scholarly studies on these topics as a continuation of what has come before reveals that many thoughts, concepts, character types, criticisms, and social issues have been thoroughly explored by our literary ancestors. This era is referred to as the Golden Age not only because of the voluminous production of art, literature, drama and poetry, but also because writers such as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, influenced by the re-birth of the Classical masters, presented the reading and viewing public with genuine human emotions and experiences in a more comprehensive manner than in previous eras. In the twentieth century, Spain faced a series of political crises; the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and the Franco Dictatorship (1939-75), followed by the Transition and the concept of historical memory, have provided contemporary Spanish writers with the impetus and freedom to express their views. A frequent source of inspiration has been the Golden Age, that epoch of history that produced such political and religious upheaval, and this book explores the manner in which contemporary Spaniards have reached into the past to connect with their present world.

Ways to engage students in historical inquiry through the use of primary sources.

Annotation The question that animates volume, 16th in the Service-Learning in the Disciplines Series, is: Why connect service-learning to history courses? The contributors answer that question in different ways and illustrate and highlight a diversity of historical approaches and interpretations. All agree, however, that they do their jobs better as teachers (and in some cases as researchers) by engaging their students in service-learning. An interesting read with a compelling case for the importance of history and how service-learning can improve the historian s craft."

This pioneering textbook takes a thematic approach to the subject, resulting in a comprehensive understanding of historic economic issues in the United States. Siegler takes a thematic approach, and provides both the theoretical foundations and historical background needed to gain an in-depth understanding of the subject. Every chapter examines a specific topic, and the chapters are linked to each other to provide an overall view. The chronological approach is represented with a useful timeline as an appendix to show where the specific topics fit in the chronology. Chapter topics include: long-run causes of economic growth; economic history of income and wealth inequality; slavery, segregation, and discrimination; immigration and immigration policies; and an economic history of recessions and depressions. This book is ideally suited as a primary text for undergraduate courses in US economic history, as well as suitable courses on history degree programmes.

What makes history difficult to learn is the fact that one has to travel in time. Studying events and circumstances from a time perspective different from our own is something that doesn’t come naturally to people. It is an ability that has to be acquired. This book discusses teaching and learning history from the perspective of passage of time. Time experiences exist in different shapes and dimensions, one of which is historical time. The specific characteristics of the kind of time are defined in this study, based on philosophical and psychological insights, as well as on theory of history. The differences with other kinds of time, such as daily time and social time, are outlined. Six key concepts of historical time are then defined: chronology, periodization, relics, anachronism, contingency, and generations – meaning a specific way of dealing with the generations of our predecessors. The main issues for teaching historical thinking are described using these six categories. An inventory is made of what is known about them from existing research and what questions still need further investigation. An empirical study is reported about the means students preferably use to orient in historical time: timelines and numbered years attached to events, or imaginative-associative contexts? It is demonstrated that ‘images of time’ are the optimum means for historical orientation. An historical consciousness of time is essential to an open democratic society. The one-dimensional perspective of the present is broken up, it is shown that alternatives are possible, that the present is only the coincidental result of a contingent development and might have been totally different, and that the views held by people have changed, may change now and certainly will change in the future. All of this can enhance tolerance, open-mindedness and promote a healthy societal debate. This study provides insights into the kind of history teaching that might be helpful in developing this.