This page contains the previous “Teaching the JAH” installments. For a list of newer installments, please visit http://jah.oah.org/teaching-the-jah/
The urban gray squirrel was an invention of the late nineteenth century—the result of an intentional choice by urban residents in the United States and elsewhere to introduce the animals to centrally located parks, from which they eventually spread throughout the entire urban landscape. Many urban reformers saw feeding, protecting, and providing nest-boxes for squirrels as ways of promoting the values of charity and compassion in public spaces, while harming them was seen an offense against the community and its moral standards. This represented a dramatic turn-about from earlier times, when squirrels had been seen as pests, pets, or game to be hunted. By examining why squirrels were released in cities and how they were able to thrive there, we can learn something about how American understandings of nature, cities, community, and human-animal relationships, as well as the material conditions of urban life, changed over time.
“Teaching the JAH” uses online tools to bridge the gap between the latest scholarly research in U.S. history and the practice of classroom teaching. JAH authors demonstrate how featured articles might be taught in a U.S. history survey course.
June 2013
Oil for Living
—Brian Black
June 2011
Terrorism and the American Experience
—Beverly Gage
December 2009
When the “Jungle” Met the Forest: Public Work, Civil Defense, and Prison Camps in Postwar California
—Volker Janssen
June 2009
“The Specter of Environmentalism”: Wilderness, Environmental Politics, and the Evolution of the New Right
—James Morton Turner
December 2008
“Worth a Lot of Negro Votes”: Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign
—James H. Meriwether
June 2008
Reconfiguring the Old South:
“Solving the Problem of Slavery,” 1787–1838
—Lacy Ford
September 2007
Houses Divided: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Political Landscape of 1858
—Allen C. Guelzo
June 2007
The Army in the Marketplace: Recruiting an All-Volunteer Force
—Beth Bailey