Updates & Latest Additions
As an open digital educational resource, our eBook is being constantly revised to reflect current events, breaking news, and relevant posts. Discover the latest updates and additions here:
August 30
- Explore the partisan lean of states and Congressional districts in Topic 3.5 on Political Parties in American politics. Partisan lean is "the average margin of difference between how a state or district votes and how the country votes overall" (quoted from "How Red or Blue is Your State?" FiveThirtyEight, May 27, 2021).
August 26
- Added a short section on the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket to Topic 3.3: The Federal Judicial Branch, the Supreme Court, and State Courts
August 13
- The release of 2020 Census data provides material for Congressional redistricting. You can follow what redistricting looks like in every state with an interactive from the FiveThirtyEight blog and learn more in Topic 3.5 of this book.
July 28
- New material added to Topic 6.1 on government responses to natural and human-caused disasters.
July 18
- 20 states and the District of Columbia allow Same-Day Voter Registration (SDR).
- University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Jesse Rhodes and colleague Laura Williamson found that SDR boosted Black and Latinx voter turnout between 2 and 17 percentage points as compared to similar states that do not permit same day voter registration.
- For more ideas and information, go to Topic 4.4: ENGAGE for proposals to encourage more people, especially young people to vote.
July 17
- Link to Topic 7.5 to learn about the "Disinformation Dozen" (a group of 12 individuals responsible for 65% of the shares of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media) along with approaches for dealing with fake and false news.
June 30
- Find a link to a Washington Post tracker on President Biden's environmental policies and the history of the Yosemite Land Grant of 1864 in a section dealing with debates between federal and state governments over environment and energy policies
June 21
- New material on the Filibuster and the U.S. Senate
June 16
- Expanded material on Wilmington, Tulsa and Other Race Massacres in U.S. history in a section about those who deny and denied democratic ideals
June 9
- Special Activity Box on Juneteenth: Holiday for Freedom added to Topic 5.3 on Constitutional Issues Leading to the Civil War.
May 22
- Material on racial and gender bias in the tax system added to Topic 6.9, including The Whiteness of Wealth, a new book by Dorothy A. Brown.
May 14
- Added to Topic 6.10, a TED Video about cooperative organizations in Finland and its implications for democratic decision-making in worker-owned companies and local governments in the U.S.
May 3
- Map of Seats by States in U.S. House of Representatives based on the 2020 Census.
February 5
- Background on Lucy Terry Prince who wrote the earliest known poem by a Black writer in North America.
February 3
- Connect here for ongoing updates on the January 6, 2021 Insurrection at the Capitol
February 2
- The New York Times has posted this Detailed Map of 2020 Election that will let you look up results from 1788 neighborhoods in 40 states covering 62% of all votes cast.
- For more go to Topic 3.4 Elections and Nominations
January 24
- Added material about the myth of voter fraud to Topic 4.5
December 9
- Photographs in Newspapers. The first photograph published in a US newspaper was on March 4, 1880. Prior to then, sketch artists created visual representations of news events. The New York Illustrated News began the practice of regularly featuring photographs in the newspaper in 1919.
- Go here for analysis and activities about the role of photographs in newspapers
December 6
- The outgoing Trump Administration has made changes to the citizenship test, making it longer and more difficult. The test bank has been expanded to 128 questions, up from 100 questions and a passing score is now 12 out of 20 questions correct (US Citizenship Test is Longer and More Difficult, The New York Times, December 3, 2020).
- Go here to explore the topic of Becoming a Citizen more fully in Topic 4.1 in this book.
November 30
- New information and learning activities related to Photo Tampering and Deepfakes
November 18
- Updated information on the question Should 16- and 17-Year-Olds Be Allowed to Vote?
October 28
- Langston Hughes, Poet, Playwright and Civil Rights Activist is a new historical biography page added to the resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki
- Connect also to eBook Engage: Can Books and Music Express Political Protest?
October 21
- Social Justice Songs for Kids: A Playlist
- For more, link to eBook Engage: Can Books and Music Express Political Protest?
October 19
- Beginning in November, the majority Latino city of Chelsea Massachusetts will begin offering monthly funds ($200 to $400) to about 2000 low-income families
- The program is Chelsea Eats
- For more on thus concept, link to eBook ENGAGE: Should the U.S. Adopt Universal Basic Income (UBI) or Guaranteed Employment as National Policies
October 9
- 2020 LGBTQ Candidate Demographic Report from Out on the Trail (October 2020)
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- 1006 LGBTQ candidates ran for office in 2020; 574 are on the November ballot
- California, Florida and Texas have the most LGBTQ candidates
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October 2
- Today's Vote in the Classroom from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate simulates the legislative process using actual legislation under consideration by Congress
- Explore the functions of Congress further at The Legislative Branch
September 29
September 18
- Democrats are Slightly Favored to Win the Senate, FiveThirtyEight
- Explore further at Branches of Government and Separation of Powers
September 16
- Young Voter's Guide to Social Media and the News, Common Sense Media
- Explore social media and the news further at INVESTIGATE: Defining and Combating Fake News
September 8
- UNCOVER: Claudette Colvin, the Browder v. Gayle case and the Struggle to Desegrgate Public Transportation
- Features a learning plan about well-known and lesser-known African Americans who refused to give up their seats in streetcars, railroad cars and buses in protest to discrimination
September 3
- Sequoyah, the U.S. State That Almost Existed has now been added to a topic on Native American Tribal Governments
- Has the text of the Constitution of the State of Sequoyah and its Bill of Rights
September 2
- Facebook and Twitter claim that Russian Intelligence Services are Targeting the 2020 Presidential Election
August 28
- Is the Election Map Changing? from FiveThirtyEight looked how 16 battleground or swing states voted in the last 5 Presidential elections.
August 25
- Brief summary of Jeffrey Toobin's new book, True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump added to material on eBook on Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election and the subsequent Mueller Report.
August 24
- Read Voting by Mail? an excerpt from the book Democracy in America? What Has Gone Wrong and What Can We Do About It by political scientists Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens.
August 19
- Inspiring Children's Books about Labor Rights
- Added to Topic 4/Standard 13: Public and Private Interest Groups: PACs and Labor Unions
August 15
- Voting from Ancient Athens to Modern America, a teacher-designed learning plan added to eBook Topic 4/Standard 5 on Citizen Participation in the Electoral Process.
August 14
- Requirements to become President or Vice-President are stated in Can a Women Be Elected President or Vice-President of the United States?
- For more, read Kamala Harris is Eligible to Serve as President from Debunking False Stories, FactCheck.org
August 9
- The authors of this article wonder whether Coding is the new Latin.
- In Topic 1/Standard 2/ENGAGE we ask "What Latin words and phrases should every student know?"
August 8
- A new section on the Post Office as an executive branch agency and source of political disputes has been added to UNCOVER: The FBI and the Post Office in American Politics.
- A teacher-designed learning activity asks students to analyze and rank proposals for saving the Post Office.
August 1