Jump to content

Menu

Civil War living books and US Dakota War resources


Recommended Posts

Can anyone recommend books at middle school level for the Civil War era? I also realized that here in Minnesota, the US-Dakota War more directly affected a lot of people and we could probably visit sites. If anyone has found good books or ways to learn about it, that would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A few ideas:

 

Across Five Aprils

Rifles for Waite

Turn Homeward Hannah Lee

Wartime Papers of Robert E Lee

Gods and Generals (maybe too much depending upon the student)

Killer Angels (maybe too much depending upon the student)

Virginia's General

Civil War Generals

Traveller by Richard Adams

Women in the Civil War

Clara Barton

 

 

don't forget Ken Burn's documentary on the Civil War if you want audio/visual

 

You might also check out the reading lists for Sonlight, Veritas Press, and Beautiful Feet.  Paula's Archives has a pretty extensive reading list too

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For fiction, we really liked The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg and Bull Run.

 

For nonfiction, I thought Fields of Fury was excellent, though it's not terribly long, it was well written and the style of having a large image and a block of narrative text for teach section was nice.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Minnesota Historical Society has a good website,  http://usdakotawar.org/ , with teacher resources.

 

However, even the official version of the Dakota War is going to be involve mass executions, internment camps, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. That isn't a problem. Just be aware the it is more ethically challenging than the sanitized version of the Civil War. You could expand this to a more general history and use something like "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and use the 1862 war as a starting point and Wounded Knee as an ending  point. ETA: Wounded Knee 1890.

 

If you want to go in more a project based direction you could do a National History Day project on the topic. MNHS also runs History Day Hullabaloos at various locations around the state to help kids learn to do primary sources research, http://education.mnhs.org/historyday/hullabaloos-history-day-research-days

 

ETA: I came across the DNR's resources while looking at hiking club stuff on the Minnesota River...http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/1862war.html

Edited by raptor_dad
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...