Page 10 - The University of Wisconsin Press Spring 2013
Basic HTML Version
S
PRING
2013
AMERICAN STUDIES / ASIAN STUDIES / HISTORY / EDUCATION / VIETNAM WAR
“This collection makes good on what it sets out to do: help high school and
college teachers think about understanding and teaching the VietnamWar
in new and innovative ways. There is a clear need for this kind of hands-on
volume.”
Mark Philip Bradley, author of
Vietnam at War
Just as the Vietnam War presented the United States with a series of challenges,
it presents a unique challenge to teachers at all levels. The war had a deep and
lasting impact on American culture, politics, and foreign policy. Still fraught with
controversy, this crucial chapter of the American experience is as rich in teachable
moments as it is riddled with potential pitfalls—especially for students a genera-
tion or more removed from the events themselves.
Addressing this challenge,
Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War
offers
a wealth of resources for teachers at the secondary and university levels. An
introductory section features essays by eminent Vietnam War scholars George
Herring and Marilyn Young, who reflect on teaching developments since their
first pioneering classes on the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. A methods section
includes essays that address specific methods and materials and discuss the use of
music and film, the White House tapes, oral histories, the Internet, and other mul-
timedia to infuse fresh and innovative dimensions to teaching the war. A topical
section offers essays that highlight creative and effective ways to teach important
topics, drawing on recently available primary sources and exploring the war’s
most critical aspects—the Cold War, decolonization, Vietnamese perspectives, the
French in Vietnam, the role of the Hmong, and the Tet Offensive. Every essay in
the volume offers classroom-tested pedagogical strategies and detailed practical
advice.
Taken as a whole,
Understanding and Teaching the Vietnam War
will help teach-
ers at all levels navigate through cultural touchstones, myths, political debates,
and the myriad trouble spots enmeshed within the national memory of one of the
most significant moments in American history.
“An excellent one-stop shop for nonspecialists who regularly find themselves
teaching about the Vietnam War.”—David Herzberg, State University of New York
at Buffalo
John Day Tully
is an associate professor of history at Central Connecticut State
University and was the founding director of the Harvey Goldberg Program for
Excellence in Teaching at the Ohio State University.
Matthew Masur
is an associ-
ate professor of history at Saint Anselm College, where he is codirector of the
Father Peter Guerin Center for Teaching Excellence. He is a member of the Teach-
ing Committee of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and
writes on American-Vietnamese relations.
Brad Austin
is a professor of history
at Salem State University. He has served as chair of the American Historical Asso-
ciation’s Teaching Prize Committee and has worked with hundreds of secondary
teachers as the academic coordinator of many Teaching American History grants.
O f r e l a t e d i n t e r e s t
PUBLISHED APRIL 2008
LC: 2007040159 E 664 PP. 6 × 9
40 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $12.95 ISBN 978-0-299-22683-1
PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
AUGUST
LC: 2012040084 DS
264 PP. 6 X 9 22 B/W ILLUS.
E-BOOK $19.95 ISBN 978-0-299-29413-7
INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES
The Harvey Goldberg Series for
Understanding and Teaching History
John Day Tully, Matthew Masur,
and Brad Austin, Series Editors
10
THE UNIVERSIT Y OF WISCONSIN PRESS
•
Spring 2013
