Teaching
History Online
Number
123: 8th February, 2004
Introduction
1.
Training
of History Teachers
2.
Battlefield
Anomalies
3.
Bombing
of Dresden
4.
Nationalism
and History Teaching
5.
200
Years of British Postal Markings
6.
Question
of Palestine
7. The
Taking of America
8. Electronic
Assassinations Newsletter
9. Child
Labour in Britain: 1750-1870
Introduction
Spartacus Educational
publishes Teaching
History Online every week. The newsletter includes news, reviews
of websites and articles on using ICT in the history classroom. Members
of the mailing list are
invited to submit information for inclusion in future editions of
Teaching
History Online. In this way we hope to create a community
of people involved in using the Internet to teach history. Currently
there are 34,600 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
Training
of History Teachers: In this seminar Andy Walker argues that since
the 1980s there has been a noticeable move away teacher training being
seen as an at least in part “academic” discipline towards
a model akin to that of a plumber’s apprenticeship. Student teachers
today “learn on the job”, are immersed in schools, and are
“trained” almost exclusively by practising teachers (some
of whom trained in exactly the same way). He goes on to claim that
" these trends will inevitably have undesirable consequences
on the quality and commitment of newly trained teachers and are part
of the deskilling of the teaching profession which gathers apace day
by day and actually nears completion." If
you have views on this subject, register
with the History Forum and join the debate.
Battlefield
Anomalies: The main reason why Graham Morris started this site
was to enable the layman, and the professional military historian
to gain access to some of the lesser-known battles of history, as
well as a few of the more familiar, without having to troll through
the masses of irrelevant and often misleading information available
on the Web. Morris hopes that his website will stimulate debate and
discussion. The website currently features the battles at Caradoc,
Eylau, Fontenoy, Heilsberg, Koniggtatz, Malplaquet and Gettysburg.
Bombing
of Dresden: In 1945, Arthur Harris decided to create a firestorm
in the medieval city of Dresden. He considered it a good target as
it had not been attacked during the war and was virtually undefended
by anti-aircraft guns. The population of the city was now far greater
than the normal 650,000 due to the large numbers of refugees fleeing
from the advancing Red Army. On the 13th February 1945, 773 Avro Lancasters
bombed Dresden. During the next two days the USAAF sent over 527 heavy
bombers to follow up the RAF attack. Dresden was nearly totally destroyed.
As a result of the firestorm it was afterwards impossible to count
the number of victims. This website uses the words of Arthur Harris
and Winston Churchill to help explain why it was thought important
to destroy Dresden.
Nationalism
and History Teaching: "It is not a school’s task to
produce good citizens any more than it is to produce Christian gentlemen.
The school does not give people their political ideals, or religious
faith, but the means to discover both for themselves. Above all, it
gives them the scepticism so that they will leave with the ability
to doubt, rather than the inclination to believe. In this sense, a
good school is subversive of current orthodoxy in politics, religion
and learning." These are the words of John Rae and his comments
have led to an interesting debate on the International Education Forum.
If
you have views on this subject, register
with the International Education Forum and join the debate.
200
Years of British Postal Markings: This website covers Bishop marks,
Free Franks, Ship letters, Scottish Additional ½d mail tax,
Mileage marks, Too Late markings, London postmarks, Local Posts, Uniform
4d and 5th Clause marks. Almost all of these are prior to the introduction
of the Penny Black in 1840. Background information is given about
each mark, the pages are well illustrated with examples and the London
Posts have transcripts of many of the letters from our own collections.
They give an insight into British postal and social history.
Question
of Palestine: There are around 7.5 million Palestinians scattered
throughout different countries around the world. Over 4.5 million
of these Palestinians are refugees. The
Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of
the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman
Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories
which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under
the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations. All but one
of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as
anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited
to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice"
the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour
Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing
support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people". This UN website tells the story of of
what has happened in this region over the last 80 years.
The
Taking of America: Richard E. Sprague first published 'The Taking
of America' in 1976. He has now placed an updated version on the web.
As he says in his introduction: "This book is not about assassinations,
at least not solely about assassinations. It is not just another book
about who murdered President Kennedy or how or why. It is a book about
power, about who really controls the United States policies, especially
foreign policies. It is a book about the process of control through
the manipulation of the American presidency and the presidential election
process. The objective of the book is to expose the clandestine, secret,
tricky methods and weapons used for this manipulation, and to reveal
the degree to which these have been hidden from the American public."
Electronic
Assassinations Newsletter: Each issue of this excellent journal
concentrates on a theme or specialized topic relating to cold war
era political assassinations in the United States. The first issue
took a close look at Gerald Posner and his 1993 book Case Closed.
According to the editor of this newsletter: "Case Closed was
a slick, lawyerly presentation of the lone assassin theory in the
death of JFK." Issue 2 is entitled New Discoveries in Recently
Released Assassination Files and includes articles such as CIA Files
and the Pre-Assassination Framing of Lee Harvey Oswald (Peter Dale
Scott) and The House Select Committee on Assassinations and the Autopsy
Photographic Evidence (Gary L. Aguilar).
Book
Section
Child
Labour in Britain: 1750-1870: What
kinds of jobs did children do in the past, and how widespread was
their employment? Why did so many poor families put their children
to work? How did the state respond to child labour? What problems
arise in the interpretation of evidence of child employment? In this
clear and concise study, Peter Kilby argues that child labour provided
an invaluable contribution to economic growth and the incomes of working-class
households. Consequently, the picture that emerges is much more complex
than that portrayed in many traditional approaches to the subject.
(Peter Kirby, Palgrave, ISBN 0 333 67194 5, £16.99)
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
