All History is Local? Teaching Midwestern History with a Dearth of Published Materials

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Local and regional history is alive and growing, but published materials are not available for some historical themes in a Midwestern context. I have had trouble finding sufficient materials to fill syllabi for college courses on Indiana agricultural and environmental history. My solution has been to assign secondary literature on relevant national topics, and then supplement the readings with local historical documents. By having students identify, collect, and interpret documents themselves, they become active producers of knowledge. Class discussions center on comparing and contrasting primary sources to the assigned readings. Writing assignments challenge students to describe and analyze the documents in their own words. A final group project has students create a website modeled on the Library of Congress' American Memory digital document collection. The website gives students the opportunity to display original research, and it provides digital resources for local teachers who do not have easy access to large libraries or historical institutions.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

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Elizabeth Cafer du Plessis is a PhD candidate in U.S. History at Indiana University-Bloomington. Her dissertation is "Meatless Days and Sleepless Nights: Food, Agriculture, and Environment in World War I America." She has served as a visiting lecturer and teaching assistant for the Department of History at Indiana University, and is currently an editorial assistant at the American Historical Review. She has developed a course on Agriculture and Environment in Indiana and Midwestern History to be taught at the university in summer 2008.