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Teaching Trump in the History Classroom

With the extensive real-time archive of news stories, tweets, and other social media at the public's disposal, history teachers can ask students to apply historical thinking skills to analysis about the very recent past, up to and including Donald J. Trump's effectiveness as a president an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Ind.), 2022-03, Vol.108 (4), p.772-778
Main Author: Fischer, Fritz
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:With the extensive real-time archive of news stories, tweets, and other social media at the public's disposal, history teachers can ask students to apply historical thinking skills to analysis about the very recent past, up to and including Donald J. Trump's effectiveness as a president and—especially—the January 6 insurrection. Fischer urges the application of historical thinking, with its emphasis on careful critical analysis of sources, to counter the clear dangers of media spin, partisan myopia, and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. Acknowledging concerns that historians risk charges of partisanship when they enter public discussion about current political events and figures, he also points out that we fail in our public and civic responsibilities if we ignore the necessity of applying historical lessons and historical thinking to recent events—especially because, as he argues, the republic is at stake.5
ISSN:0021-8723
1945-2314
DOI:10.1093/jahist/jaac005