U.S. History Resources

[EndOfOrdinary]

United States history is not a subject which I am very well versed in passed about upper elementary. We are now well out of upper elementary resources! Hopefully some of you guys out there know more than I do.

 

Our family is a bit of a pickle with U.S. History because our family are the losers of U.S. History.

 

One side of the family still identifies as Confederate. Dh is named after Robert E. Lee. We have a Confederate money in our family safe. They fly the Rebel Flag in their homes and the name Sherman is considered a filthy curse. I have a deep personal belief that their views are important and that my son is a member of their family. It is essential that he understand this part of the country's past, the backhanded politics happening in the Civil War, and how much of that has been distorted throughout our history for various hateful means (For the record, I have to hide many of them on Facebook, because whoa! Learning accurate information is also important so Ds can see and understand a bit of the ignorance which is used to fuel fear/hate/anger in some members of the family.)

 

My family is Native. My grandmother was born on the rez. Ds has done and continues to do much political work with the Lummi, the Apache, and has been through a formal Warrior Ceremony with the Northern Cheyenne. He wears the feathers and openly identifies as Native. This portion of U.S. History is equally important. (It is also to help understand some of my father's anti-U.S. government ramblings fueled by hate/fear/anger and are as equally inappropriate as Dh's relatives' ramblings.)

 

This is very problematic in searching for any kind of resource. Most are very whitewashed or in an attempt to not whitewash, they go the other way and distort things like the Iroquois Federation. Most are very pro-Union and openly make The Civil War about bad, racist South. All history is distorted and biased. I am not in search of a magical resource, merely one which hopefully chooses some middle ground accuracy.

 

Anyone know of any?

Edited July 9, 2016 by EndOfOrdinary

[HomeAgain]

Jackdaws?  Reading like a historian? Letters of Note?  These are all primary source sites.  They're mostly for the logic stage but I've used them with younger kids. I like Jackdaws because you can focus on a specific subtopic and really get in depth.  They have open ended discussion questions and tips on researching more.  Only drawback is they are expensive, so it's better to use Reading Like A Historian (free) for the more general topics and save Jackdaws for hard to find ones.

 

You may also want to look into getting Loewen's books: Teaching What Really Happened: How To Avoid The Tyranny Of Textbooks and his Lies Across America & Lies My Teacher Told Me.

[Dmmetler]

Does Galore Park or Cambridge University Press or Oxford University Press have a US history book? It was quite interesting to read thr Galore park section on American colonization and the Colonial rebellion (as just one of a bunch of other colonization events) in British History. It might be a neat contrast.

[JeanM]

My kids both used "The American Odyssey" in 8th grade (https://www.amazon.com/American-Odyssey-Zeitz-Holdren-keller/dp/160153034X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468263912&sr=8-1&keywords=k12+american+odyssey). Then they took (will take for younger ds) AP US history at the public school.

 

To be honest, I did not read the book myself so I'm just throwing it out there for you to consider. I'm not guaranteeing that it will meet your needs.

[mommy2ella]

I've sort of dealt with the problem of a lack of middle-of-the-road resources by using resources with different biases, then discussing.  So we may use Howard Zinn's "A Young People's History of the United States" along with more traditional US history resources and then discuss the different biases each of the writers approached the subject with, and comparing/contrasting the events based on point of view.  In that way, I figure we're covering both US History and critical thinking.  :)

Edited July 17, 2016 by mommy2ella

[merylvdm]

This isn't a resource, but consider doing the National HIstory Day contest. I don't know if your kids are old enough yet (it's from 6th - 12th) but there is a theme each year and students get to select any topic that fits the theme and research it. Then they present their findings as  a paper, exhibit, documentary, performance or website. This would give your children the opportunity to investigate many of the topics that are important to you. 

 

My own children and a number of other homeschoolers I know have made it through the regional and state levels all the way to nationals - which is nice to be able to put on college and scholarship applications too!