![]() ![]() Or let’s jump ahead to the black freedom struggle of the post–World War II decades. ![]() These women lived together, socialized together, traveled together and supported each other in their efforts to create a more just world. But can one really lecture about Jane Addams without also mentioning Mary Rozet Smith, the woman who financially supported the work of Addams for decades, and who was widely acknowledged at the time, including by Jane Addams’ own family, as her most intimate relationship? Can one discuss the urban reform movements of these decades without also commenting on the fact that its leadership was composed of women reformers who lived in lifelong partnership with another female reformer? Hull House in Chicago, the base for her work, had a national reputation, and Addams herself won the Nobel Peace Prize. She was a key figure in the period from the 1890s through the First World War. history-if this history were told through the life of Jane Addams. Think of the opportunity it might provide and the difference it might make if the history of progressive reform and the settlement house movement in the early 20th century-without question, important topics in U.S. Bringing some of their stories to life as part of the teaching of a class will not only include queer history but will also allow students to appreciate the complicated and varied ways that lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and gender-nonconforming individuals have had an impact on the path that history has taken. Many students, no matter what their identity, do not yet personally know any LGBTQ individuals. Later in my career, when I had the privilege of teaching LGBTQ courses, I noticed that biography was even more valuable. I took this lesson from my students to heart and over the years of my teaching career, I made a conscious effort to weave biographical narratives into the interpretive structure of my U.S. ![]() History most comes alive when real human beings are placed at the center of the story. Martin Luther King-my students were far more likely to have written essays that offered an interpretation of the historical topic while also recapturing the life of the individual with rich detail. If the lectures that related to the exam question were framed in big-picture terms, the student essays were often vague and unclear, but if I had used an individual’s life story and career as a way of illustrating the broad topic-for instance, if I told the history of the abolitionist movement through the life of Harriet Tubman, or the history of the modern civil rights movement through the career of Dr. history courses in the 1980s, I brought this perspective into how I organized my classes.īut over those first years, as I read my students’ exam essays, I noticed a recurring pattern. Why did the North American colonies revolt against British rule and declare their independence? What impact did the Industrial Revolution have on the lives of ordinary Americans? When I started teaching undergraduate U.S. But in the seminar room, my professors always emphasized the big picture, the interpretative frameworks that captured the meaning of an entire era. John D’Emilio: Back in the day when I was a graduate student and reading book after book after book, I learned an endless number of the facts and details of history.
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