Synopses & Reviews
Students are leaders of major factions within the National Assembly (and in the streets outside) as it struggles to create a constitution amid internal chaos and threats of foreign invasion. Will the king retain power? Will the priests of the Catholic Church obey the "general will" of the National Assembly or the dictates of the pope in Rome? Do traditional institutions and values constitute restraints on freedom and individual dignity, or are they its essential bulwarks? Are slaves, women, and Jews entitled to the "rights of man"? Is violence a legitimate means of changing society or of purging it of dangerous enemies? In wrestling with these issues, students consult Jean-Jacques Rousseau's and Edmund Burke's , among other texts. is a series of historical role-playing games that explore important ideas by re-creating the contexts that shaped them. Students are assigned roles, informed by classic texts, set in particular moments of intellectual and social ferment. An award-winning active-learning pedagogy, improves speaking, writing, and leadership skills, promotes engagement with classic texts and history, and builds learning communities. can be used across the curriculum, from the first-year general education class to "capstone" experiences. A game can also function as the discussion component of lecture classes, or it can be enlisted for intersession courses, honors programs, and other specialized curricular purposes.
Review
" is the most absorbing and engaging teaching I have ever done. . . . Students engage each other with a passion I have rarely seen in a classroom." Elizabeth Robertson, Drake University
Review
"Combines the student instinct for competitive gaming with the academic values of critical thinking and persuasive speaking." Craig Caldwell, Appalachian State University
Review
"It is one of the best ways I know of engaging students in great books and significant moments in history." Larry Carver, University of Texas at Austin
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"It's the most rewarding teaching you can do, because students will take ownership of their learning." Jeffrey Hyson, Saint Joseph's University
Synopsis
Part of the series, plunges students into the intellectual and political currents that surged through revolutionary Paris in summer 1791.
Synopsis
Reacting to the Past is a series of historical role-playing games that explore important ideas by re-creating the contexts that shaped them. Students are assigned roles, informed by classic texts, set in particular moments of intellectual and social ferment. An award-winning active-learning pedagogy, Reacting to the Past improves speaking, writing, and leadership skills, promotes engagement with classic texts and history, and builds learning communities. Reacting can be used across the curriculum, from the first-year general education class to capstone experiences. A Reacting game can also function as the discussion component of lecture classes, or it can be enlisted for intersession courses, honors programs, and other specialized curricular purposes. "
About the Author
Gary Kates is professor of history at Pomona College. He is the author of The Cercle Social, the Girondins, and the French Revolution and the editor of The French Revolution: Recent Debates and New Controversies. He has served on the editorial board of French Historical Studies. In 1995 the Knight-Ridder News Service named his Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman: A Tale of Sexual Masquerade and Political Intrigue as one of the top nonfiction books of that year.Mark C. Carnes is professor of history at Barnard College and creator of Reacting to the Past. He is the author of many books in American history and general editor of the 26-volume American National Biography, published by the ACLS and Oxford University Press.