HISTORY TEACHERS' SECTION

Previous

The History Teachers' Section, inaugurated in this number, will be edited by various members of the editorial staff. The Section will be devoted to questions and problems of interest to the teacher of history in the high schools and colleges. This first number will be given to a survey of the magazines edited in the interest of the teaching of history.


The History Teachers Magazine is edited by the McKinley Publishing Co., Philadelphia, under the supervision of a committee of the American Historical Association. The first number appeared September 1909, under the sole editorship of Dr. Albert E. McKinley; financial difficulties arose and caused the suspension of publication from June, 1911, to February, 1912, when it came under the present supervision of the American Historical Association. The contents cover a wide range of interests: Articles of a general character on subject matter or methodology of history; Reports from the Historical Field; Periodical literature; Book Reviews; and Recent Historical Publications. In the January, 1914, number, Waldo L. Cook, of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, published the address he gave before the New England History Teachers' Association last April on The Press in its Relation to History. He discussed in full the "cause of the reporter," and concluded that the case "might also be said to be in the hands of you teachers of history; your ennobling influence upon the press of the future, and consequently upon the history which shall be born of the future, may become incalculable if your teaching is aflame with the ideal that facts are sacred and that truth is holy." In the next number Dr. Jameson, of the Carnegie Foundation, has an article on the Typical Steps of American Expansion wherein he traces through the expansion of American territory his contention that "the processes we have been following were mainly the fruit, not of artificial intrigue and political conspiracy, but of natural economic and social development, on the part of men chiefly engaged in the great human occupation of making a quiet living." Perhaps the most important article in the March number is A Hidden Cause of the Mexican War, by Moses W. Ware. In this article he brings out the fact of the Northern holdings of Texan securities, which joined with Southern interest in slavery; and these two independent interests were "each equally potent in involving the United States in the war with Mexico." Another article, in the February number, it is hoped will be read by every history teacher in the state: Edwin E. Slosson's A Stranger at School. It has been reprinted from The Independent. It must be read to be appreciated.

A series of articles have been appearing through several numbers dealing with the teaching of Greek History from several points of view of both subject matter and methods. The book reviews are of passing interest, while the recent historical publications are especially valuable. In the latter the announcements of the books of the month are classified according to American, Ancient, English, European, Medieval, Miscellaneous, Biography, Government and Politics.


The University of Texas is now publishing a "Texas History Teacher's Bulletin." The first number was issued November 15th, 1912; and four numbers have appeared so far. It is published quarterly by the History Department of the University and contains "brief, practical articles and suggestions, discussions of local problems, occasional reprints from The History Teachers' Magazine * * * and other educational journals, outlines, book lists and notes, and news of history teachers in Texas and elsewhere." The articles are of a very practical nature, dealing with the use of maps in the class work: Local History in various schools; use of note-books in high school work; parallel readings; efforts to improve history teaching; is questioning essential to good teaching; Historical Geography; sources; etc. It reprints for its readers the book publications of the History Teachers' Magazine.


The English "Historical Association," formed a few years ago, does not have as yet a regular publication. It publishes instead a series of leaflets on subjects of interest and value to the teachers. The following titles will give an indication of the nature: Source-books; some books on the teaching of History in Schools; the addresses of James Bryce on Teaching of History in Schools; Text-books; Supplementary Reading; the address of Thomas Hodgkin on the Teaching of History in Schools; The Teaching of Local History; Historical Maps and Atlases; Civics in the Schools; Recent British History; The Methods of Teaching History in Schools; Schools Historical Libraries. The publications of the Association may be secured through the History Teachers' Magazine.


In January, 1913, the Germans began the publication of a History Teachers' Magazine called Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. It is edited by Fritz Friedrich and Dr. Paul Ruhlmann, and is published by the Teubner house in Leipzig. It is issued bi-monthly and costs 6 marks a year. The character of the general articles may be seen from the following titles of some of the articles: The French Peasant before the Revolution; the new Munich history course of study; the history teaching in France; the colonization of North America; political training through the teaching of history; the burning of Rome and Nero's persecution of the Christians; the eastern border of German culture; the newspaper in the upper schools; the evolution of types of war-ships from Trafalgar to the present; State and Church; the History of Civilization in the teaching of History in the upper classes; and in the last number, March, 1914, there was published the translation of the presidential address before the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association at Berkeley, November, 1912, given by Professor A. B. Show, of Stanford University, on The New Culture-History in Germany. It was published in full in the History Teachers' Magazine for October, 1913.

Of especial value are the book reviews; practically half of the pages of each number are given to this subject. In the last number, for instance, the running comments and criticisms on books and historical literature are arranged in the following manner: Pre-historic and Ancient Archaeology, under which are grouped the new books on Ethnology, Races, German Antiquities, etc.; Methodology and Didactics; History in the Pedagogical Press. Another issue, May, 1913, arranged the reviews in this manner: Renaissance and Reformation; History of Religion and the Church; Methodology and Historiography. The number of books reviewed in the March, 1914, number was 108. The number of books reviewed in the various numbers run from 49 to 154: the average being about 90 books.

In the first issue of the magazine there was published a call, signed by 34 gymnasium and university teachers of the Empire, to the German history teachers for the formation of a German History Teachers' Association. The call was answered by 53 teachers and on September 29th, 1913, at the University of Marburg the Association was organized. Dr. Neubauer, of Frankfort am Mein, was elected president; Professor Ernst Bernheim, of Greifswald, vice-president; and Mr. Behrendt, of Leipzig, secretary. The principal address was given by Professor Bernheim on The Preparation of the History Teacher which ended in a lengthy discussion. The next important address was on the Teaching of History in "Prima," and this also resulted in an animated discussion. The whole proceedings of the Marburg convention was published as a special number of the Vergangenheit and Gegenwart in October, 1913.



The Washington Historical Quarterly

Board of Editors

  • Clarence B. Bagley, Seattle.
  • J. N. Bowman, Seattle.
  • T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla.
  • Frank A. Golder, Pullman.
  • Ceylon S. Kingston, Cheney.
  • W. D. Lyman, Walla Walla.
  • Edward McMahon, Seattle.
  • Thomas W. Prosch, Seattle.
  • Oliver H. Richardson, Seattle.
  • O. B. Sperlin, Tacoma.
  • E. O. S. Scholefield, Victoria, B. C.
  • Allen Weir, Olympia.

Managing Editor

EDMOND S. MEANY

Business Manager

CHARLES W. SMITH

VOL. V NO. 3 JULY, 1914

ISSUED QUARTERLY

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Clyx.com


Top of Page
Top of Page