The New York Times bestseller: "You gotta read this. It is the most exciting book about Pluto you will ever read in your life." —Jon Stewart When the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History reclassified Pluto as an icy comet, the New York Times proclaimed on page one, "Pluto Not a Planet? Only in New York." Immediately, the public, professionals, and press were choosing sides over Pluto's planethood. Pluto is entrenched in our cultural and emotional view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, award-winning author and director of the Rose Center, is on a quest to discover why. He stood at the heart of the controversy over Pluto's demotion, and consequently Plutophiles have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third-graders. With his inimitable wit, Tyson delivers a minihistory of planets, describes the oversized characters of the people who study them, and recounts how America's favorite planet was ousted from the cosmic hub.

The power of words has rarely been given a more compelling demonstration than in the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln was asked to memorialize the gruesome battle. Instead, he gave the whole nation "a new birth of freedom" in the space of a mere 272 words. His entire life and previous training, and his deep political experience went into this, his revolutionary masterpiece. By examining both the address and Lincoln in their historical moment and cultural frame, Wills breathes new life into words we thought we knew, and reveals much about a president so mythologized but often misunderstood. Wills shows how Lincoln came to change the world and to effect an intellectual revolution, how his words had to and did complete the work of the guns, and how Lincoln wove a spell that has not yet been broken.

The first part of the book is a stimulating intoduction to the key elements of history-evidence, narrative, judgement-that explores how the study and concepts of history have evolved over the centuries. The second part guides readers through the "workshop" of history. Unlocking the historian's "toolbox," it reveals the tricks of the trade including documents, sources, footnotes, bibiliographies, chronologies, and more. This section also covers issues of interpretation, speculation, professional ethics, and controversial issues such as plagiarism, historical hoaxes, and conspiracy theories.

This collection brings together the work of archivists, librarians, museum professionals, and other educators who evoke the power of primary sources to teach information literacy skills to a variety of audiences.

Focusing on student analysis of primary sources, this book explores several proven analysis strategies to use with students, including methods from the Library of Congress, the Stanford History Education Group, and Harvard's Project Zero. Many elementary school librarians and teachers want to incorporate primary sources into their lessons but struggle with how to do it. Whether you are starting from the beginning, have used strategies that didn't seem to work, or were underwhelmed by others' suggestions, this book shows you how you can successfully supplement and deepen your students' learning with primary sources. Focusing on proven strategies for elementary students, the book is divided into four sections, each of which demonstrates the strategies through real-world examples of student work. In the first three parts, it explores the three major considerations for using primary sources, strategies for analyzing primary sources, effectively using primary sources to teach different subject areas, and special considerations for different primary source formats. In the final part, the author shares tips that he has learned after years of bringing primary sources into his elementary school that will ensure success in students' primary source analysis.