Flashpoints: Free Speech in American History, Culture, and Society
From May 2022 to May 2023, PEN America and the American Historical Association (AHA) co-hosted Flashpoints: Free Speech in American History, Culture and Society. This series presented the fascinating and complex history of free speech in American democracy to public audiences in cities across the country. The Flashpoints Resource Hub offers downloadable Discussion Guides for each panel discussion topic.
Teaching with Integrity: Historians Speak
These videos feature historians describing how exploring America's past honestly in the classroom benefits the nation's students, and how the freedom to learn also strengthens our shared democracy.
For Educators: Explaining Today
In the spring of 2022, the American Historical Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, and New American History hosted a series of listening sessions for K-12 educators and higher education faculty, an opportunity to listen to the concerns of educators concerned about the teaching of US history amidst political controversy. Teachers expressed a need to find inquiry-based learning resources and tools to foster reflective thinking using credible sources, without violating new state laws or local policies. In the spirit of supporting these colleagues, we offer the following resources.
Learn from History
The AHA is an inaugural partner of Learn from History, a coalition of 40 organizations that oppose efforts to limit the ability of educators to maintain the scholarly integrity of courses in US history. Among other resources, Learn from History offers toolkits for school system leaders, parents, teachers, and school board members.
History, the Past, and Public Culture: Results from a National Survey
With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the AHA partnered with Fairleigh Dickinson University to develop and implement a national survey to assess public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past.