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Session A-3: Across The Wide Missouri: Illinois & Early Exploration Of The Trans-Mississippi West, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr. Jul 2016

Session A-3: Across The Wide Missouri: Illinois & Early Exploration Of The Trans-Mississippi West, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Illinois History is often perceived as a contradiction in terms. Until the arrival of Abraham Lincoln, most folks think that nothing of any note happened here. This presentation will address the French traders and explorers from the Illinois Country who pushed west up the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers in the century preceding Lewis and Clark's more famous jaunt. The two knew of these French travelers only too well and recruited a half dozen Illinois French at Fort Massac and Kaskaskia to show them how to get to the "unknown". The effect these men had on the Plains was profound.


Session B-1: The Prize: Teaching Early Illinois History To Secondary School Students, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr. Jul 2016

Session B-1: The Prize: Teaching Early Illinois History To Secondary School Students, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

This presentation will outline ways in which Illinois can be placed at the center of the story of colonial America and the events which triggered the Revolutionary War. The discussion will be accompanied by a bibliography of relevant secondary readings for instructors, lists of public domain primary sources for students, websites where these can be obtained, lists of Illinois historical sites connected to these materials, and suggestions as to how to interpret these sites for students.


Session A-1: The New Illinois Civics Curriculum: Perils And Pitfalls, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr., Eric Smith Jul 2016

Session A-1: The New Illinois Civics Curriculum: Perils And Pitfalls, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr., Eric Smith

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

The Illinois Legislature will require all Illinois students to complete one semester in civics in order graduate beginning with students entering next academic year. IMSA adopted a combined one-semester civics/American history curriculum this year that can serve as a critical study in how to achieve the goals the state hopes to achieve. Rather than wrestle with the issue of American History vs. American Government curriculum, we are attempting to present a History of American Government, exploring the origins of our political institutions beginning in the Dark Ages and how these have evolved to meet the needs of the times. We …


Session A-2: Encountering Ourselves: American Indians And The Age Of Revolution, Claiborne Skinner Feb 2015

Session A-2: Encountering Ourselves: American Indians And The Age Of Revolution, Claiborne Skinner

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

This session will explore how Europeans who encountered the indigenous peoples of North America came to see them as a window into their own past. This provided philosophers and political theorists with a means by which to critique Baroque civilization. The result was Locke's "Natural Law," and Rousseau's Noble Savage." The notion that the world had moved away from freedom and liberty by becoming civilized became a potent argument for both the American and French Revolutions.


Session C-1: Teaching New Salem: Jacksonian America In An Illinois Village, Claiborne Skinner Feb 2015

Session C-1: Teaching New Salem: Jacksonian America In An Illinois Village, Claiborne Skinner

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Salem State Park is inextricably bound up in the legend of Abraham Lincoln. Obscured by this is the fact that the rise and fall of the village of New Salem offers teachers a microcosm of the era of Andrew Jackson, westward expansion, and the aspirations and disappointments of antebellum America.


Session A-3: Across The Wide Missouri: Illinois & Early Exploration Of The Trans-Mississippi West, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr. Feb 2013

Session A-3: Across The Wide Missouri: Illinois & Early Exploration Of The Trans-Mississippi West, Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

Illinois History is often perceived as a contradiction in terms. Until the arrival of Abraham Lincoln, most folks think that nothing of any note happened here. This presentation will address the French traders and explorers from the Illinois Country who pushed west up the Missouri and Arkansas Rivers in the century preceding Lewis and Clark's more famous jaunt. The two knew of these French travelers only too well and recruited a half dozen Illinois French at Fort Massac and Kaskaskia to show them how to get to the "unknown". The effect these men had on the Plains was profound.


Session B-1: The Prize: Teaching Early Illinois History To Secondary School Students, Claiborne Skinner Mar 2012

Session B-1: The Prize: Teaching Early Illinois History To Secondary School Students, Claiborne Skinner

Claiborne A. Skinner Jr.

This presentation will outline ways in which Illinois can be placed at the center of the story of colonial America and the events which triggered the Revolutionary War. The discussion will be accompanied by a bibliography of relevant secondary readings for instructors, lists of public domain primary sources for students, websites where these can be obtained, lists of Illinois historical sites connected to these materials, and suggestions as to how to interpret these sites for students.