The Show Must Go On: American Culture in Times of Crisis
This is a free crowdsourced American history curriculum developed by American scholars to help reduce the workload of millions of teachers and professors on the frontlines of public education during the unprecedented #Covid19 shutdowns and university evacuations. We will post lesson plans and filmed 5-minute lectures in chronological order as they are submitted. Please use #TheShowMustGoOn and #AmericanCultureInCrisis to spread the word and help collect more lesson plans.
Lesson Plans
- Professor James M. Banner Jr. on the Nation’s First Constitutional Crisis: The Elections of 1800/1801
- Professor Patrick Allitt on the California Gold Rush (primary source from 1850)
- Professor Tera Hunter on the Washerwoman Strike in Atlanta (1881)
- Dr. Sarah Gold McBride lecture and primary source map analysis on the 1893 World’s Fair (1893)
- Dr. Sarah Gold McBride on Puck and visual representations of American imperialism (1899)
- Prof. Jacob Remes on the 1914 Salem Fire (1914)
- Professors Christopher Smith and Michael Borshuk on Josephine Baker and the Harlem Renaissance (the 1920s)
- Content Warning: Professor Kevin Boyle on the Lynching Photograph of Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930)
- Rob Kapilow and Professor Jacob Remes and on “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1930)
- Professor Katherine Rye Jewell on FDR’s “Banking Crisis” Fireside Chat (1933)
- Professor Karen L. Cox, “Protesting Black Stereotypes at the Movies: The Case of Gone with the Wind” (1939)
- Professor Davarian L. Baldwin on The Great Migration: The Meaning Behind the Movement & “Strange Fruit” (1939)
- Professor Danielle Fosler-Lussier on Marian Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial Performance (1939)
- Professor Bill Deverell on Woody Guthrie’s “This Land” (1940)
- Professor Daniel Immerwahr on World War II Maps
- Professor William D. Carrigan on the Signing of the GI Bill (1944)
- Barry Bradford, OAH Distinguished Lecturer, on “South Pacific” and Racism (1958)
- Professor William D. Carrigan on Willie Mae (1958)
- Kim Nalley, Ph.D. Candidate and world-renowned Jazz vocalist, on Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn” and “Why (The King of Love Is Dead)” (1964)
- Professor Michael J. Kramer on R-E-S-P-E-C-T and the Social Movements in the 1960s (1967)
- Professor Jack Hamilton on Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner” during the Vietnam War (1969)
- Professor Daniel Immerwahr on Star Wars and the Vietnam War (1980)
- Professor Felicia Angeja Viator on “To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America” and “The Batterram” (1980s)
- Professor Patrick Allitt on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (1989)
- Professor Felicia Angeja Viator on Rap, Music Videos, & the Police #BlackLivesMatter