Social Studies

Depicting the Local in American Literature, 1865-1900

Modernist Portraits

Jazz filled the air and wailed against the night. Caught in the sway, American prose writers sought out the forbidden - the slang, the dialects, and the rhythms of the folk and of everyday life. Writers such as Hemingway, Stein, and Fitzgerald forged a new style: one which silhouetted the geometry of language, crisp in its own cleanness.

Ethnic Writers and the Literary Mainstream

How do ideas change the world? This unit traces the impact of European Enlightenment ideals in the American and Haitian revolutions and in South America.

How does historical scholarship change over time, and why do the perspectives of historians shift?

What role has food played in human societies? Studying the production and consumption of food allows historians to uncover hidden levels of meaning in social relationships, understand demographic shifts, and trace cultural exchange.

What is globalization and when did it begin? Before the sixteenth century, the world's four main monetary substances were silver, gold, copper, and shells.

What factors shape the ways in which the basic resources are exploited by a society?

What does the study of families and households tell us about our global past?

How do diverse political structures and relationships distribute power and material resources?

How did people begin to understand themselves in relation to the natural world and to the unseen realms beyond, and how was religion a community experience?

How did the many paths of human migration people the planet? From their origins on the African continent, humans have spread across the globe. This unit explores how and why early humans moved across Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas, based on recent studies in archaeology and linguistics.

How are history and memory different?

What tools do world historians use in the study of history? This unit begins the study of world history by examining its use of geographical and chronological frameworks: how they have shaped the understanding of world history and been used to chart the past.

This series features Emily, a dynamic, six year old host, who leads children and adults alike through a new era of discovery utilizing her unique perspective. Using this natural, unscripted format, Emily investigates the world through her own candid comments and questions engaging everyone she meets. The result is an extraordinary show that entertains and teaches.