Do the students in my US History survey need convincing that the past has an influence on the present, that it isn’t just stuff that happened a long time ago, that “the past is never dead,” etc.? Maybe they don’t. Maybe they know it in their guts but still require proof. Some people teach history not by period but by theme, and some teach from the present day backward, I’ve heard. I understand the motivation. Teaching history in chronological order may work against the proof-gathering mentioned above. When we come to the chapter on the colonial period, we’re kind of Read more