Historical Thinking (Critical Perspectives On The P) By Samuel S. Wineburg ISBN: 9781566398558 Published: 2001 Number of Pages: 280 Binding: Hardcover

Pricing & Availability: Additional Details: Product Type: Book Publisher: Temple University Press Description: Since ancient times, the pundits have lamented young people's lack of historical knowledge and warned that ignorance of the past surely condemns humanity to repeating its mistakes. In the contemporary United States, this dire outlook drives a contentious debate about what key events, nations, and people are essential for history students. Sam Wineburg says that we are asking the wrong questions. This book demolishes the conventional notion that there is one true history and one best way to teach it. Although most of us think of history and learn it as a conglomeration of facts, dates, and key figures, for professional historians it is a way of knowing, a method for developing an understanding about the relationships of peoples and events in the past. A cognitive psychologist, Wineburg has been engaged in studying what is intrinsic to historical thinking, how it might be taught, and why most students still adhere to the 'one damned thing after another' concept of history. Whether he is comparing how students and historians interpret documentary evidence or analyzing children's drawings, Wineburg's essays offer 'rough maps of how ordinary people think about the past and use it to understand the present'. Arguing that we all absorb lessons about history in many settings in kitchen table conversations, at the movies, or on the world-wide web, for instance these essays acknowledge the role of collective memory in filtering what we learn in school and shaping our historical thinking. Author note: Sam Wineburg is Professor of Education at Stanford University and formerly Professor of Cognitive Studies in Education and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Library of Congress Control Number
   - LC control Number: 00053214

International Standard Book Number: 156639855X (cloth : alk. paper): 1566398568 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Geographic Area Code: n-us---

Library of Congress Call Number
   - Classification number: D16.2
   - Item number: .W56 2001

Main Entry - Personal Name
   - Personal name: Wineburg, Samuel S

Title Statement
   - Title: Historical thinking and other unnatural acts :
   - Remainder of title: charting the future of teaching the past /
   - Statement of responsibility, etc.: Sam Wineburg

Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint)
   - Place of publication, distribution, etc.: Philadelphia :
   - Name of publisher, distribution, etc.: Temple University Press,
   - Date of publication, distribution, etc.: 2001

Physical Description
   - Extent: xiv, 255 p. :
   - Other physical details: ill. ;
   - Dimensions: 24 cm

Series Statement/Added Entry - Title: Critical perspectives on the past

Bibliography, etc. Note
   - Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references

Formatted Contents Note: Historical thinking and other unnatural acts -- The psychology of teaching and learning history -- On the reading of historical texts: notes on the breach between school and academy -- Reading Abraham Lincoln: a case study in contextualized thinking -- Picturing the past -- Peering at history through different lenses: the role of disciplinary perspectives in teaching history -- Models of wisdom in the teaching of history -- Wrinkles in time and place: using performance assessments to understand the knowledge of history teachers -- Lost in words: moral ambiguity in the history classroom -- Making (historical) sense in the new millennium

Summary, etc.: Although most of us think of historyb7sand learn it--as a conglomeration of facts, dates, and key figures, for professional historians it is a way of knowing, a method for developing an understanding about the relationships of peoples and events in the past. A cognitive psychologist, Wineburg has been engaged in studying what is intrinsic to historical thinking, how it might be taught, and why most students still adhere to the "one damned thing after another" concept of history. Whether he is comparing how students and historians interpret documentary evidence or analyzing children's drawings, Wineburg's essays offer "rough maps of how ordinary people think about the past and use it to understand the present." Arguing that we all absorb lessons about history in many settings--in kitchen table conversations, at the movies, or on the world-wide web, for instance--these essays acknowledge the role of collective memory in filtering what we learn in school and shaping our historical thinking

Subject Added Entry - Topical Term
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Culture conflict
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: Historiography
   - Topical term or geographic name entry element: History
   - General subdivision: Philosophy
   - General subdivision: Study and teaching
   - Geographic subdivision: United States

Subject Added Entry - Geographic Name
   - Geographic name: United States
   - General subdivision: History
   - General subdivision: Study and teaching