By Jeff Burns
I
recently had the opportunity to attend the National Council for History
Education’s annual conference held in Atlanta. Whenever a group of historians
and/or history teachers meet, books, old and new, are bound to be
discussed. Here’s a list of books that
were featured in sessions or by exhibitors, in no particular order.
The
Snipesville Chronicles is a series of time travel books
aimed at young readers (but also enjoyed by adults) written by Annette Laing, a
purveyor of non-boring history. http://www.annettelaing.com/
Drum
Taps,
a collection of poem about the Civil War by Walt Whitman
Edward Larson was one of the keynote
speakers. He’s written several books
about science and technology in history and American history including the
Pulitzer-winning Summer for the Gods, about the Scopes Monkey
Trial. Other books include An Empire
of Ice, A Magnificent Catastrophe, Evolution’s Workshop, and
his latest, The Return of George Washington.
March is the autobiography of civil
rights movement figure John Lewis, in a graphic novel trilogy.
All Quiet on the Western Front is the
classic World War I novel by Erich Maria Remarque.
Another keynoter was Bruce Lesh, the author of
“Why Won’t You Just Tell Us the Answer?”: Teaching Historical Thinking in
Grades 7-12.
Fire in a Canebrake: the Last Mass Lynching
in America by Laura Wexler tells the story of the murders of two black
couples in 1946. Considered the last lynching in Georgia, no one has ever been
prosecuted for the crime.
The final keynoter was Micki McElya, the
author of The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National
Cemetery and Clinging to Mammy: The Faithful Slave in Twentieth Century
America.
Screening a Lynching: The Leo Frank Case on
Film and Television by Matthew Bernstein
