FootNotes

Lawrence Husick, co-director of the Wachman Center program on Teaching the History of Innovation, began the discussion by noting that our K-12 education system may separate out far too early students who display an aptitude for math/science from those...

It’s by now a commonplace idea that we live in an age of information, an era when the Internet has ushered in vast, sweeping changes in the way people organize, collect, and disseminate information. But this understanding is supported...

Welcoming Remarks Walter A. McDougall, Co-Chair of FPRI’s History Institute and professor of history and international relations at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that while Americans take for granted a frantic pace of change in our material culture, few...

The most important thing to understand about the Civil War is the sheer fact that it happened. The United States of America has now endured over two centuries under the same form of government. That is a great success...

“Innovation” is not just inventions; it is a process of making changes by introducing valuable new methods, ideas, or products. “Innovations” are the things themselves—the ideas, methods, and processes. It’s not simply that better mousetrap; it’s different ways of...

History teaches above all that there is no such thing as history, only historical interpretation. In the realm of ideas, this is especially true. Once you get away from the familiar narrative and kings and queens, battles and treaties,...

In teaching the “unknown wars” that straddle the 19th and 20th centuries, one encounters numerous problems. First, many Americans nowadays have as much difficulty finding the Philippines on a map as they did in 1898. Especially people living in...

For a number of reasons, one can say that the frontier wars are the most complex and difficult of all the nation’s wars to teach. The conflict that raged for centuries on the North American continent still touches nerves...

Perhaps the most important concept of the Mexican War that needs to be communicated to students today is simply that it occurred at all. The Mexican War has long been overshadowed by the American Civil War, which involved many...

The Revolutionary War and Early American Military History Kyle Zelner of the University of Southern Mississippi observed that conflict was instrumental in America’s development. There was either a declared war or a conflict for 79 of the 179 years...