The Founders' Constitution: Records of the Federal Convention

The post-Revolutionary Period of 1781-1787, also known as the Critical Period, is the focus of a series of lessons that prompt class members to examine primary source documents that reveal the instability of the period of the...

Keep track of constitutional principles with a graphic organizer. Pupils define, describe the origins of, and note down the location of the following terms: checks and balances, federalism, individual rights, limited government, popular...

The text of the Resolution of the Constitutional Convention authorizing the submission of the Constitution of the United States to the legislatures of the states to be ratified by state conventions.

Invite your learners to consider how the context of an artwork can alter its meaning and interpretation throughout its history by examining the intriguing history behind Michelangelo's statue of David. The video discusses...

Think of a few of the great explorers in world history. Are you thinking of any women? Chances are, probably not, and this will most likely be the case for many of your class members. But in many ways, female explorers may exemplify...

University of Chicago Press provides a letter from John Jay to Thomas Jefferson in which Jay explains the need to reform the government existing under the Articles of Confederation.

The University of Chicago provides a letter from Richard Henry Lee to George Mason in which Lee describes the financial problems the Confederation has run into and suggests minor reforms be made.

Primary source documents (letters) concerning the need for a central government written by Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and others.

Why did Stephen Douglas support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose it? Young historians examine how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how...