Experience History: Interpreting America's Past

by James West Davidson

Connect to the "stories" of history. Connect to the "experience" of history. Connect to "success" in history.
Experience History, Interpreting America's Past is breaking new ground for the American History survey course. Its adaptive, mobile and interactive activities paired with its lively narrative and engaging visuals creates a unique teaching and learning environment propelling greater student performance and better course results. Through proven digital tools, instructors gain better insight into students' engagement and understanding as students develop a base of knowledge and construct critical thinking skills.
Experience History emphasizes that history is not a collection of facts, but is "interpreted" from the detective work of historians examining the past's evidence. Utilizing an active learning environment that only an online solution can provide, Experience History gives students the opportunity to examine primary sources and explore specific periods and events. This leads to greater understanding as well as the building and practicing of critical thinking skills. As students uniquely experience American History, Experience History propels students to greater understanding while achieving greater course success.
Give students an experience. Improve course participation and performance. Experience History and experience success.

Genres: Nonfiction

1024 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2010

About the author

James West Davidson is a historian, writer, and wilderness paddler. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Yale University and writes full time. He is also co-editor, with Michael Stoff, of New Narratives in American History, a series published by Oxford University Press, as well as the coauthor of textbooks in American history. These include "Experience History," "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," and "US: A Narrative History" for the college level and "The American Nation" for the middle grades.

Reviews

[Mary-Faith]

My American History textbook.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as text books go, I really enjoyed this one on American history. It has interesting side notes, and special pages that reveal more about little known facts in America's past. The writing is clear and orderly.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, this one does a pretty good job at approaching American history, from pre-contact to the end of Reconstruction, and covers a large amount of information in a fair and unbiased way. I appreciate that the authors consider the perspectives of Native Americans, as well as those who are typically marginalized and whose stories usually don’t make it into the narrative of history.