bOLOS uNITED sTATES hISTORY

mR > bOLOS (pERIODS 3 & 7) & aIALA the sILC

The War for Independence

Be prepared to answer a question from either video. Feel free to use the captions function and the 1.25x speed. Remember: you may use your notes on any summative assessment.

Part I: 

Part II:


tHE tRIAL oF tHOMAS pRESTON (the teams)

Was Captain Thomas Preston guilty of 1st degree murder? Or is there enough reasonable doubt to acquit him of this charge? Your selection of witnesses and how you choose to present them will help answer this question. The winning team will earn extra credit on their (individual) summative assessments (next week).

"What Really Happened in the Boston Massacre?"

Read and ANNOTATE this packet for our next class and bring any questions to ask. Pay special attention to the embedded primary source, "Deposition of Captain Thomas Preston", as this will become our "baseline" testimony. Though this is a formative assessment, failure to read closely will certainly have a deleterious effect on your next summative assessment (TBA). 


Tightening the Screws (part II)

Based on this interpretation (parts I & II), was the American Revolution justified?


BONUS (optional) material: Interview with historian Woody Holton regarding the Founding Fathers and why the creation of America still matters to Americans.

 The Ezra Klein Show

Favorite quote: "We’ve got to let go of the heroes and replace them with heroics. That is, to see that the same person can do something heroic on Monday and be an enslaver or a town destroyer....And is that so hard? Does anybody have any perfect friends? Most of us are some of this and some of that. And I think we are more likely to unify around the founding if we admit the feet of clay, as well as the virtuous aspects. And I think one way to do that is to focus on people’s heroics rather than insisting on heroes."