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I've been asked to teach a US history course for out 9th grade students (14 years old). I'd like to do something very different and teach the American Revolution out of a British History book desgined for that age group. I'd like them to experiance a famalliar part of history from a different persepctive.

However, in searching for any of these books, I have problems finding just regular text books. I can find other books written spesificly on the subject, but I'd like a standard text book. Anyone have any suggestions?

I know little of text books but what you could do is just use normal US based text books supplemented with extra readings that carry a more British perspective. 9th Grade is old enough to start delving into some light scholarly material and finding articles about the causes, events, and outcome of the Revolution written from the British perspective shouldn't be too hard, not since Jstor was invented. The Cambridge Historical Journal and the The Historical Journal (since 1958) Could be a place to start looking if you choose to go this route.

Its just a suggestion and it may be time consuming to find good articles (though it's cheaper hopefully than full texts).

Ima just warn you that the Brits don't mention the American Revolution very much in their history, as they viewed the colonies as an almost corporate loss, not so much political. That's at least from what I've gathered from research.

I was wondering about that. Given the scale of British History, the American Revolution is more of a cliff note than something entire text books are written about or that even gets as much notice as we'd give it. Especially given the origins of the Revolution in numerous larger historical events (Seven Years War).

Exactly. They might however have history magazine articles about them, much like we still have articles of the war of 1812

Which is kind of what I'm looking for. We'll be going through the Revolution with regular text books, but I'd like to use a UK text book to show the kids what the Brits think of the war.

thedarksaint wrote:Which is kind of what I'm looking for. We'll be going through the Revolution with regular text books, but I'd like to use a UK text book to show the kids what the Brits think of the war.

I don't think it's part of the curriculum. It's more like "common knowledge" of the American Revolution, our history tends to be Henry VIII, the tudors, reformation, etc. The loss of the 13 colonies wasn't such a big deal historically speaking, considering the British Empire continued to grow for centuries after...
But yeah I doubt you'll find a textbook with a mention of the American revolution (or the third English civil war ).

Yeah you don't really cover any history related to america until you get to A-level (17-18 year olds) and you can take american history.

We were pretty much taught:

The people in what was to become the US didn't like paying taxes to Britain so they threw some tea into Boston Harbour (A most heinous crime) and rebelled against the empire.

Sonophos wrote:We were pretty much taught:

The people in what was to become the US didn't like paying taxes to Britain so they threw some tea into Boston Harbour (A most heinous crime) and rebelled against the empire.

You were taught that in school? The only reason I and most of my generation knew about the American Revolution was thanks to all the yankee kids tv shows we had to watch. Still, none of them were nearly so bad as The Patriot...

It was in early secondry school. I honestly can't remeber that much of the lessons.

BTW Saint do not forget to stress that in the mind of the British, throwing away tea is a crime against God and nature.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/american_revolution_01.shtml

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4727956

Might be of some interest.

Apart from that I don't really think that the subject is covered much/at all in the UK schools history syllabus. I certainly neber had any classes on it up to GCSE level, and my A Levels covered a different time period and topic.

Sonophos wrote:We were pretty much taught:

The people in what was to become the US didn't like paying taxes to Britain so they threw some tea into Boston Harbour (A most heinous crime) and rebelled against the empire.

We weren't bothered by the not paying taxes and rebellion part. But such an unthinking waste of good tea could not go un-punished

reds8n wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/american_revolution_01.shtml

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4727956

Might be of some interest.

Apart from that I don't really think that the subject is covered much/at all in the UK schools history syllabus. I certainly neber had any classes on it up to GCSE level, and my A Levels covered a different time period and topic.

AFAIK the subject isn't covered until you hit A level/degree and i'm fairly sure it isn't covered in A level but it depends where you go...

LordofHats wrote:I was wondering about that. Given the scale of British History, the American Revolution is more of a cliff note than something entire text books are written about or that even gets as much notice as we'd give it. Especially given the origins of the Revolution in numerous larger historical events (Seven Years War).

My earlier reply seems to have got lost in the web.

Basically, for Americans the AWI is the crucial founding event of your nation, however seen from a British perspective it is only one of many overseas adventures throughout history.

Kilkrazy wrote:[My earlier reply seems to have got lost in the web.

Basically, for Americans the AWI is the crucial founding event of your nation, however seen from a British perspective it is only one of many overseas adventures throughout history.

Well I would have said more of a misadventure there Kilkrazy, but back on topic when I was taking GCSE History, the closest we got to it was the Agricultural Revolution before moving on to the Industrial Revolution, this was in 1993, but I can't see the curriculum changing that much, prior to my GCSEs it mainly dealt with early British/European up to the Great war and a few pieces of modern history (up to about the mid 50s).

The current curriculum for Scottish schools handles the 1st and 2nd world wars, the industrialisation during the 19th centuary, and the Women's Suffrage movement as of last year (the only change this year is the focus of the history turning more towards Scottish rather than British history). All that there currently is on America is a few footnotes amongst the war stuff, though their used to be a section on the history of Native Americans (which probably included the civil war near the end), but that was about a decade ago. We're more focussed on Europe when it comes to the history of countries outwith our own.

The Canadians might have a lesson on the subject which would offer a British perspective on the conflict. However I think the subject's a little advanced for a 2nd year student (which I assume is the same your 9th grade); here their learning about ancient history, war's a 5th year thing. ^^

Kilkrazy wrote:

LordofHats wrote:I was wondering about that. Given the scale of British History, the American Revolution is more of a cliff note than something entire text books are written about or that even gets as much notice as we'd give it. Especially given the origins of the Revolution in numerous larger historical events (Seven Years War).

My earlier reply seems to have got lost in the web.

Basically, for Americans the AWI is the crucial founding event of your nation, however seen from a British perspective it is only one of many overseas adventures throughout history.

This in a nutshell. I did the Tudors, the Romans, the slave trade, the two world wars and the Cold War at school, and I went through it not so long ago.

Heck, I'm lining up to be a professional British historian at the moment, and I've managed to avoid doing American specific history. It just really doesn't impact over here. We conquered and lost most of the world. Since the Empire is barely taught (not considered PC except to apologise for slavery), the Americas gets wrapped up in the period of British history they try and pretend never happened.

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

Joey wrote:

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

I did history 3 years ago...
We covered the first and second world war, vietnam and the cold war...
I distinctly remember this since i wrote my essay on vietnam...

purplefood wrote:

Joey wrote:

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

I did history 3 years ago...
We covered the first and second world war, vietnam and the cold war...
I distinctly remember this since i wrote my essay on vietnam...

Right, do you remember when you were told how evil white people are and why you should all feel bad? Or that just an invention of the right-wing press?

Joey wrote:

purplefood wrote:

Joey wrote:

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

I did history 3 years ago...
We covered the first and second world war, vietnam and the cold war...
I distinctly remember this since i wrote my essay on vietnam...

Right, do you remember when you were told how evil white people are and why you should all feel bad? Or that just an invention of the right-wing press?

If we were told that i wasn't paying attention...
We just weren't taught the Empire...
We were taught the slave trade but no the Empire. I'm not sure whether it was because it was deemed less important or because of percieved PC-ness but we weren't taught it...

Joey wrote:

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

That's interesting as I did it.....six years ago as well!

You may have done a different curriculum to me, depending on the examining board (for example, you get OCR, Edexcel, etc). There's no need to start throwin claims like 'bs' about however, that's just plain offensive, and hardly conducive to good discussion.

The liberal rejection of Empire is a well known and documented phenomena however. Imperial history is regarded as un-politically correct, and something to gloss over in our nations past. Teaching it would mean including the pros as well as the cons, and as such, would be regarded as nationalistic, something they've been hard at work stripping out of the mindset of the populace.

Ketara wrote:

Joey wrote:

Ketara wrote:not considered PC except to apologise for slavery

I smell bs.
I did History GCSE (failed it, as I failed all my GCSEs) ~6 years ago and I distinctly remember maps of the Empire.
Fact is recent history, the industrial revolution and world wars, are much more important than imperial history.
As someone "lining up to be a professional historian" you should know that suffrage, the industrial revolution and the creation of the welfare state is far more important than a list of dates chronicling batles in some far-flung corner of the globe.
But hey, you're a professional historian and I'm just an unemployed shelf stacker, what would I know.

That's interesting as I did it.....six years ago as well!

You may have done a different curriculum to me, depending on the examining board (for example, you OCR, Edexcel, etc). There's no need to start throwin claims like 'bs' about however, that's just plain offensive, and hardly conducive to good discussion.

The liberal rejection of Empire is a well known and documented phenomena however. Imperial history is regarded as un-politically correct, and something to gloss over in our nations past. Teaching it would mean including the pros as well as the cons, and as such, would be regarded as nationalistic, something they've been hard at work stripping out of the mindset of the populace.

So you'd rather everyone knew about the empire and no one knew about the war? Or you don't think women's suffrage is important? (actually I don't, but there's things more important than empire).
What proof do you have, oh follower of the empirical light, that this is part of a concerted effort to strip nationalism from society?

Joey wrote:[So you'd rather everyone knew about the empire and no one knew about the war? Or you don't think women's suffrage is important? (actually I don't, but there's things more important than empire).
What proof do you have, oh follower of the empirical light, that this is part of a concerted effort to strip nationalism from society?

I really don't get where this animosity is coming from. I never stated any piece of history was more valid than any other. I just pointed out the deliberate exclusion of Empire from the history texts.

As to the importance of World Wars, did you know WW1 is barely taught in Germany? WW2 psychologically made an impact there, but WW1 is culturally infinitely more important to us than them, they just regard it as they do say, the Franco Prussian war, or suchlike, a trifling part of their past.

Aye, I never went through to A-level History, but we pretty much skipped WW1 and WW2 at GSCE level, and did pratically nothing on the US, a bit about the american Civil war I seem to remember.

History was more focused on ancient through to Victorian at GCSE level, then dodged past/very quickly through the good stuff (well to my young mind) at the end. Thats was over twenty years ago mind.

A level history is split up into 3 eras...
Modern- Early 20th century to about 1950 or so...
Medieval- Henry the 7th kind of era, so maybe 1450 to about 1600's or so...
Ancient-Damn well ages ago... Not sure on dates but pre-10th century i think.
This is how it's done at my college at any rate...

My college also has classical history and american history.

There you go then...
Some colleges have more options/less options than others...
Apparently there are some that don't do psychology which seems odd.

corpsesarefun wrote:My college also has classical history and american history.

This is true. However, I presumed we were talking about GCSE level.