Daughter of Earth: Reading, Writing, and Social Class
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 7 pages.
Students read a poignant excerpt from Agnes Smedley's novel, Daughter of Earth, and use it to think and write about how schooling—their own included—teaches lessons about social class.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Education, Social Class, Women's History
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Exploring Women’s Rights: The 1908 Textile Strike in a 1st-grade Class
Teaching Activity. By Dale Weiss. 3 pages. Rethinking Schools.
A teacher's reflections about a curriculum unit on women's rights contextualizes the history of the feminist movement within the broader struggle of people working for greater equality in the United States.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Labor, Organizing, Women's History
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History Textbooks: “Theirs” and “Ours”: A Rebellion or a War of Independence?
Teaching Activity. By John DeRose. 4 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Analysis of textbook passages from different countries, videos and books are used to explore different perspectives about the same event in history, i.e. "Philippine-American War" vs. "War of Philippine Independence."
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Imperialism, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
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Lewis Hine’s Photographs
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. 4 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Using photographs to spark creative writing and critical thinking about child labor issues and social justice.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Art & Music, Immigration, Labor, Media, Social Class
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One Country! One Language! One Flag!
Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 3 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Discussion questions and teaching ideas for examining the history of the Pledge of Allegiance and the political milieu in which it was written.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Education, Immigration
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What the Tour Guide Didn’t Tell Me: Tourism, Colonialism, and Resistance in Hawai’i
Teaching Activity. By Wayne Wah Kwai Au. 5 pages. Rethinking Schools.
Lesson on the history of Hawai'i and the impact of colonization and tourism.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Asian American, Imperialism, Pacific Islander, Racism & Racial Identity, US Foreign Policy
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Labor Matters
Teaching Activity. By Teaching Tolerance.
Introduces students to the role of the labor movement in securing contemporary benefits such as the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, and workplace safety regulations.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Organizing
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Race and Membership in American History
Teaching Guide. By Alan Stoskopf. Facing History and Ourselves. 2002.
Resources for teaching about the eugenics movement in the United States.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Racism & Racial Identity, Science
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Socialists and Wobblies
Teaching Activity. By Gayle Olson-Raymer.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 13 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on the labor movement at the turn of the century.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919
Themes: Democracy & Citizenship, Immigration, Labor
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Vietnam and Beyond: The Historic Resistance
Teaching Activity. By Mike Benbow and Robin Pickering.
Questions and teaching ideas for Chapter 18 of Voices of a People's History of the United States on opposition to the Vietnam War.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974
Themes: Imperialism, Social Class, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements
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Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South
Book - Non-fiction. By Robert Rodgers Korstad. 2003. 576 pages.
Chronicles the rise and fall of the union that represented thousands of African American tobacco factory workers in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944
Themes: Labor, Racism & Racial Identity
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Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow
Book - Non-fiction. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. with Tonya Bolden. 2019.
Readers trace the rise and fall of racial equity during Reconstruction as increasingly violent white supremacy and new forms of oppression take hold at the turn of the 20th century.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Organizing
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Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America
Book - Non-fiction. By James Green. 2007.
History of the late 19th century labor movement.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: Labor
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Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman’s Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights
Book - Non-fiction. By Mary Cronk Farrell. 2016. 56 pages.
Biography of labor union activist Fannie Sellins.
Time Periods: Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919
Themes: Labor, Women's History
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A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present
Books - Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn. 2005, with a new introduction by Anthony Arnove in 2015. 784 pages.
Howard Zinn's groundbreaking work on U.S. history. This book details lives and facts rarely included in textbooks—an indispensable teacher and student resource.
Time Periods: Colonization: 1492 - 1764, Revolution & Constitution: 1765 - 1799, Early 19th Century: 1800 - 1849, Civil War Era: 1850 - 1864, Reconstruction Period: 1865 - 1876, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974, Post-Civil Rights Era: 1975 - 2000, 2001 - Present, All US History
Themes: African American, Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship, Economics, Education, Immigration, Imperialism, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Native American, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance, Social Class, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, Women's History
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Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South
Book - Non-fiction (with CD). Edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins and Robert Korstad. 2008.
Extensive oral history of African American life under segregation.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974
Themes: African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class
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Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson
Book - Non-fiction. By Blair L.M. Kelley. 2010.
Examines acts of protest and resistance to segregated trains and streetcars during the early Jim Crow era.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: African American, Civil Rights Movements, Democracy & Citizenship
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Before She was Harriet
Book – Non-fiction. By Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome. 2017. 32 pages.
An illustrated biography of Harriet Tubman written in verse.
Time Periods: 18th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: African American, Racism & Racial Identity, Slavery and Resistance, Women's History
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The Untold History of the United States: Young Readers Editions, Vols 1 (1898-1945) & 2 (1945-1962)
Book -- Non-fiction. By Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick. Adapted by Susan Campbell Bartoletti and Eric S. Singer. Vol 1. 400 pages. 2014. Vol 2. 320 pages. 2019.
These are two volumes of illustrated histories, adapted for students from a documentary book and film of the same name.
Time Periods: 19th Century, Industrial Revolution: 1877 - 1899, 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909, World War I: 1910 - 1919, Prosperity, Depression, & World War II: 1920 - 1944, Cold War: 1945 - 1960, People’s Movement: 1961 - 1974, All US History
Themes: Civil Rights Movements, Imperialism, Labor, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity, Social Class, US Foreign Policy, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements, World History/Global Studies
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We as Freemen: Plessy v. Ferguson
Book - Non-fiction. By Keith Medley. 2012.
This book documents the untold history of the organizing leading up the Plessy v. Ferguson case.
Time Periods: 20th Century, Turn of the Century: 1900 - 1909
Themes: African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Racism & Racial Identity
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