Learn about the significance and influence of Magna Carta on U.S. history and government in this video from the ABOTA Foundation and PBS Learning Media. Includes video, background essay, guide for teachers, and teaching tips!
Civil Service Reform: Creating a Merit System for Pennsylvania
The Gilded Age of the late 19th century is not typically recalled as an age of reform. Characterized by industrialization, urbanization, and rapid population growth, it was an era of remarkable economic expansion. The Gilded Age also saw a dramatic expansion in the size and scope of government—the federal government employed just 53,000 people in 1871, but numbered 256,00 employees by 1900. Patronage politics was the norm, at every level of government.
George Washington Timeline
A multimedia timeline of George Washington’s life and career in public service provides students with information, maps, and visuals.
George Washington and the Founding of the U.S. Government
The founding of the United States government is intimately intertwined with George Washington’s own biography. This web page offers resources for teachers to use in their classrooms associated with Washington’s role in the creation of the government. Included are primary and secondary sources, as well as essential questions for teaching the founding, lesson plans and classroom ready activities.
A More Perfect Union: George Washington and the Making of the Constitution
This animated video highlights the Constitutional Convention and George Washington’s role in the formation of the new government. Events covered in the video include the causes leading to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the numerous compromises included in the document, and the challenges in ratifying the Constitution. The video has a run time of 23 minutes, and is broken into three chapters for easy navigation.
From Provocative to Productive: Teaching Controversial Topics
Get first steps for creating a respectful yet vibrant environment for students to explore diverse ideas on controversial topics, from politics to profanity, religion to racism. Four guidelines and a debate leader checklist provide a foundation for those seeking to steer productive conversations about controversial subjects.
Loyalists in the American Revolution
This short video clarifies the role played by Loyalists throughout the American Revolution. Never more than 1/5 of the population, Loyalists’ political and military significance varied both chronologically and geographically. Professor Jack Rakove highlights the efforts of British forces in the Southern colonies to enlist Loyalists in hopes of “pacifying” the countryside, but concludes that there were too few Loyalists for this strategy to succeed.
The Constitution as a Fulfillment of the American Revolution
This short video challenges the notion that the Constitution was a conservative reaction to the democratic ideals of the American Revolution. The Revolution generated constitutional discussion in the states, where legislators explored the nature of executive power, and other constitutional questions. In light of this constitutional innovation, Professor Jack Rakove maintains that the Constitution of 1787 was the culmination of—not a reaction to–the Revolution of the late 1770’s.
How Revolutionary Was the American Revolution?
This short video asserts that although the American Revolution doesn’t fit the paradigm of other revolutions (e.g., British, French, Russian), it nevertheless resulted in a new form of republican government coupled with a new understanding of the role of citizens—both without turbulent social consequences. Professor Jack Rakove concludes that the hallmark of the American Revolution was the truly revolutionary idea that people could and should decide for themselves how to be governed.
Turning Points in the American Revolution
This short video traces the crises of the 1760s (e.g., the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act) through to the relatively quiet early 1770s, culminating in the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Professor Jack Rakove emphasizes the role of individual in history. Governor Thomas Hutchinson forced a crisis—the Boston Tea Party–by insisting on strict enforcement of the Tea Act. He could have chosen a different tactic (as did other governors), but chose not to.