Students learn about McCulloch v. Maryland, a case decided in 1819 over (1) whether the state of Maryland had the right to tax the Second Bank of the United States and (2) whether Congress had violated the Constitution in establishing the Bank. Students also review the expressed powers of Congress identified in the Constitution and analyze how Congress implements the necessary and proper (elastic) clause to enact its expressed powers. Finally, students use their knowledge of McCulloch v. Maryland and the necessary and proper clause to consider the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve System.

UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler interviews historian and activist Howard Zinn. (2001) (42 min)

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes historian John Heilbron, the 2007 Hitchcock Lecturer, for a discussion of the history of science. He reflects on his contributions to the field, analyzes the challenges of studying science as a historian, and offers insight into the value of science history for society. John Heilbron also discusses his years as Vice Chancellor of the Berkeley campus. (51 minutes)

UC Berkeley Professor of Government, Ernst B. Haas, discusses his life, his work and his most recent book, "Nationalism, Liberalism, and Progress, When Knowledge is Power" with Harry Kreisler. (52 min)

This inquiry leads students through the causes and influences on the Civil War, compelling them to determine if the Civil War could have been avoided.  By using primary sources including political cartoons, speeches, legislation, and the Constitution, students are given the opportunity to travel through time and change history.Resource created by Audrey Freeman, Cedar County Catholic Schools, as part of the Nebraska ESUCC Social Studies Special Projects 2022 - Inquiry Design Model (IDM).

This assignment engages students in an environmental history class in the use of quantitative data, and raises questions about the nature and meaning of that data, and how it might be utilized.

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Connect particular phrases and ideas set down in the Declaration of Independence with texts that preceded it.

Welcome to this learning object on the Monarchy and the Lords in British Politics, 1783-1846. It has been developed for use on the module The Many Faces of Reform which explores key themes in the political history of Britain from the time of the French Revolution to the middle of the nineteenth century.

This digital archive is an aid in understanding how British, Canadian and especially U.S. nationals managed and, on occasion, challenged informal empire in 1940s and 1950s Cuba. Cuba’s Anglo-American Colony in Times of Revolution documents how, in the context of revolution, contact between Cubans and U.S. nationals–as well as a smaller number of British and Canadian residents–reproduced existing hierarchies, while simultaneously creating new empathies. Cuba’s Anglo-American residents managed informal empire by developing and cultivating economic, political and cultural authority on the island. These privileged outsiders were able to exert dominance through socioeconomic partnerships with Cuban powerbrokers. However, Anglo-American educators, journalists, missionaries, politicians, executives, mobsters and philanthropists crafted a diverse, and often contradictory set of alliances with Cubans. In the context of revolution, where their Cuban colleagues, classmates, students, parishioners, friends and family risked their lives and their privilege for a “new” Cuba, a significant segment of Anglo-American residents entered into cross-cultural solidarities with revolutionary actors. Based on the personal commitments they developed with Cubans, many U.S., British and Canadian nationals residing in Cuba struggled for a socioeconomic and political transformation of Cuban society, both before the revolution ousted the Batista government and after the revolutionary government had consolidated power. This archive centers a new set of actors, institutions, and relationships in the narrative of the Cuban Revolution.

The subject of this course is the historical process by which the meaning of “technology” has been constructed. Although the word itself is traceable to the ancient Greek root teckhne (meaning art), it did not enter the English language until the 17th century, and did not acquire its current meaning until after World War I. The aim of the course, then, is to explore various sectors of industrializing 19th and 20th century Western society and culture with a view to explaining and assessing the emergence of technology as a pivotal word (and concept) in contemporary (especially Anglo-American) thought and expression.
Note: In the interests of freshness and topicality we regard the STS.464 syllabus as sufficiently flexible to permit some — mostly minor — variations from year to year. One example of a different STS.464 syllabus can be found in STS.464 Technology and the Literary Imagination, Spring 2008.

Was Germany Treated fairly in the Treaty of Versailles? In this assignment students will be going through different resources and answering the question in a 3 paragraph essay. There is no right or wrong answer, but students are asked to give evidence why or why not.

Humans are social animals; social demands, both cooperative and competitive, structure our development, our brain and our mind. This course covers social development, social behaviour, social cognition and social neuroscience, in both human and non-human social animals. Topics include altruism, empathy, communication, theory of mind, aggression, power, groups, mating, and morality. Methods include evolutionary biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, social psychology and anthropology.

Newspaper article published on December 18, 1903 about the successful flight of the Wright Brother's flying machine. The article was published without permission, however, and is full of mistakes. Read the article and the background story here.

This video segment, adapted from Decision in the Streets by civil rights filmmaker Harvey Richards, portrays the interracial protests that took place in San Francisco in 1963-64.

The "Declaration of the Rights of Man" was approved by the National Assembly of France on August 26, 1789. It is a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights. It is included in the preamble of the constitutions of both the Fourth French Republic (1946) and Fifth Republic (1958) and is still current. Read the text of the document here.

Democracy Minutes are a growing series of short videos that explain topics and constructs important to civil discourse and a healthy democracy. This video series is created by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, which elevates the role of research and evidence-based reasoning into the national conversation. Drawing on original content anchored on facts and evidence, the Project seeks to make a meaningful contribution to bridging America’s deepest differences.

Democracy in difference: Debating key terms of gender, sexuality, race and identity focuses on concepts and analytical frames we use when discussing how marginalised identities navigate their place in an assumed common culture.

This ebook offers a path for exploring how we might build a shared vocabulary when working through the muddle of public debates like identity politics, political correctness, pronouns and what constitutes racism. Democracy in Difference is an unconventional interdisciplinary guide to key concepts, which borrows from decolonial methodologies, Marxism, feminism, queer theory and deconstruction.

Key terms are illustrated through written text, La Trobe Art Institute artworks (centering Indigenous artists), poetry, comedy and song, and customised animations which make difficult terms accessible.

This text is published by the La Trobe eBureau.

"That's my position and I'm sticking to it!" After reading about the Korean War, students will take a position in response to an open-ended question, support their position, and evaluate that support.

This course emphasizes dynamic models of growth and development. Topics covered include: migration, modernization, and technological change; static and dynamic models of political economy; the dynamics of income distribution and institutional change; firm structure in developing countries; development, transparency, and functioning of financial markets; privatization; and banks and credit market institutions in emerging markets.
At MIT, this course was team taught by Prof. Robert Townsend, who taught for the first half of the semester, and Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, who taught during the second half. On OCW we are only including materials associated with sessions one through 13, which comprise the first half of the class.