Engaging American History guides students through American history from the age of encounter to the Civil War and Reconstruction. Five interactive modules lead students to compose unique creations by analyzing primary sources, reading and viewing short videos to provide context and perspective, and moving step-by-step from content knowledge to fascinating constructions. Rather than typical essays, students create historical tourism brochures, business plans, political campaigns, and even stability plans for areas filled with conflict. Students have the opportunity to engage newspapers from the past, census data, first-hand accounts of new places and adventures, along with troubling reports and images of violence and pain.
Dr. Edward J. Blum is professor in the History Department at San Diego State University. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He is the author and co-author of several books on religion and race throughout United States history, including Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American Nationalism, 1865-1898 (2005; reissued 2015), W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet (2007), The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (2012), and War is All Hell: The Nature of Evil and the Civil War (2021). Blum is the winner of numerous awards including the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship, the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities, and the John T. Hubbell Prize for best article published in Civil War History in 2015.
Unit 1: With a Purpose
Unit 2: Historical Tourism
Unit 3: Propose a Business, 1830-1860
Unit 4: Plan a Political Campaign, 1850s
Unit 5: Stabilizing the South