Primary Sources: Workshops in American History - Disease and History: Typhoid Mary and the Search for Perfect Control
This workshop looks at the history of infectious disease in America -- particularly typhoid, diphtheria, and polio -- and their "conquest" by medical research and public health regulation. With the aid of contemporary medical journal articles and New York City health records, the onscreen participants investigate the medical and civil liberties issues exemplified by the case of "Typhoid Mary" Mallon. Facing off as either Board of Health officials or friends of Mary Mallon, workshop participants debate the typhoid carrier's fate.
Primary Sources: Workshops in American History - Korea and the Cold War: A Case Study
This workshop looks at the first use of military force under the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War as the first practical manifestation of America's Cold War "containment" policy. Using works by George Kennan and Walter Lippman, treaties, and the texts of the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine, the onscreen participants take on the roles of major military, political, and strategic players at a mock Senate hearing to decide whether to intervene in Korea in 1950.
Democracy in America: Citizenship - Making Government Work
This course introduces basic concepts of government, politics, and citizenship. It explores the tension between maintaining order and preserving freedoms, the essential role of politics in addressing the will of the people, and the need for citizens to participate in order to make democracy work.
Democracy in America: The Constitution - Fixed or Flexible?
This course examines the search for balance between the original Constitution and the need to interpret and adjust it to meet the needs of changing times. It explains the original Jeffersonian-Madisonian debate, the concept of checks and balances, and the stringent procedures for amending the Constitution.
Democracy in America: Federalism - U.S. v. The States
This course provides an overview of the workings of federalism in the United States. Complex and changeable relationship between the national and state governments is explored. By focusing on the conflicts between national and state powers, the course develops a deeper understanding of the nature of governmental power in the American system.
Democracy in America: Civil Liberties - Safeguarding the Individual
This course explores the concept of civil liberties in American life, distinguishing civil liberties from civil rights and illuminating some of the problems encountered in protecting civil liberties. As the unit points out, most of us have a conception of the Bill of Rights as a list of absolutes, but this has never been the case. At some point, as our courts have often recognized, the exercise of civil liberties conflicts with other values that we also hold dear. The result is that we have frequently balanced liberty against order. The course also demonstrates what happens when civil liberties collide.
Democracy in America: Civil Rights - Demanding Equality
This course looks at the nature of the guarantees of political and social equality, and the roles that individuals and government have played in expanding these guarantees to less-protected segments of society, such as African Americans, women, and the disabled.
Democracy in America: Legislatures - Laying Down the Law
This course explores the idea that legislatures, although contentious bodies, are institutions composed of men and women who make representative democracy work by reflecting and reconciling the wide diversity of views held by Americans.
Democracy in America: The Modern Presidency - Tools of Power
This course shows that the American Presidency has been transformed since the 1930s. Today, presidents are overtly active in the legislative process: they use the media to appeal directly to the people and they exercise leadership over an "institutional presidency" with thousands of aides.
Democracy in America: Bureaucracy - A Controversial Necessity
This course reveals how the American bureaucracy delivers significant services directly to the people, how it has expanded in response to citizen demands for increased government services, and how bureaucrats sometimes face contradictory expectations that are difficult to satisfy.