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Although most of us think of history—and learn it—as a conglomeration of facts, dates, and key figures, for professional historians it is a way of knowing, a method for developing an understanding about the relationships of peoples and events in the past. A cognitive psychologist, Wineburg has been engaged in studying what is intrinsic to historical thinking, how it might be taught, and why most students still adhere to the "one damned thing after another" concept of history.

Whether he is comparing how students and historians interpret documentary evidence or analyzing children's drawings, Wineburg's essays offer "rough maps of how ordinary people think about the past and use it to understand the present." Arguing that we all absorb lessons about history in many settings—in kitchen table conversations, at the movies, or on the world-wide web, for instance—these essays acknowledge the role of collective memory in filtering what we learn in school and shaping our historical thinking.

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Historical Thinking: A Must Read for All Teachers of History

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As a high school teacher of American history I am constantly searching for ways in which to improve my teaching and student learning. After seeing several references in other works to Wineburg's Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts I decided to read the book for myself, as it turns out that decision has proven to be the single best investment in my professional development and my student's ability to grasp the complexities of historical problems. There has been a long standing debate in the field of history education as to the mission of history educators, are we to teach history as a series of factual incidents over a period of time that can be neatly packaged and quantified on standardized tests or are we to teach the process of "doing history?" That is to teach the analysis of historical events usually through primary source documents not as "stuff that happened" but as the complex interaction of people of varied backgrounds with different goals, desires and points of view. As Wineburg points out in his brilliant analysis of how we think about events in the past, history is messy and the "Historical thinking requires us to reconcile two contradictory positions: first our established modes of thinking are an inheritance that cannot be sloughed off, and, second, that if we make no attempt to slough them off, we are doomed to a mind-numbing presentation that reads the present onto the past." Although Historical Thinking is an academic work Wineburg's writing style is accessible and fluent, teachers of history at all levels from the academy to the elementary classroom will benefit from this well written and relevant study.

The Future of Teaching the Past

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Suggesting ways to get students to think like historians, as an alternative to the regurgitation of historical "facts" is a core theme of the book. Wineburg's book challenges many of our preconceived notions of teaching history, by using many descriptions and illustrations to show how students are thinking currently in their social studies classes and ways that we may improve this. After teaching high school history and government in Massachusetts for 5 years, Sam Wineburg's book Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts was recommended by a friend and professor at Boston University. It had a profound impact on how I look at teaching history and more specifically how I approach history with my students. I found the book so helpful that I shared it with many of my colleagues and most agree that it is an important book that should be read by all history educators. If you have appreciated books on history education by scholars like Gary Nash, Eric Foner, James Loewen, or Dana Lindaman, then Sam Wineburg's book is a must read to help further the discussion of how to educate America about its past.

Slogging through mud...

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I like the ideas in this book and think that the author has presented history professionals with plenty of research about how students and teachers interpret what they learn in their history courses. That said, I don't find this book to be particularly well written. Maybe it's just me, but getting through some of the essays was like slogging through mud... obscure language, lousy sentences, and paragraphs weighed down by too many words. I think most of the essays in this book could have been parred down to two or three pages a piece. So, Sam can think, but he writes like a graduate student who says in fifty words what could be said in ten. In fact, I think I can distill the book down to one (long)sentence: "We can't view or interpret what happened in the past accurately because we weren't there and are too affected by the present; therefore, looking back in time is at best like "looking through a glass darkly."

Best text out there

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I have mixed feelings about this effort. On the one hand, it is clearly one of the more thoughtful discussions of how we learn and think about history. Several of Wineburg's studies raise serious questions about how we know and discuss history. On the other hand, the book is disjointed and offers little in the way of solution. This is fair enough as Wineburg acknowledges both limitations. But for say ... a Social Science Teaching Methods class, the text is too thick with criticisms and too thin with solutions. What is really needed is a text that translates Wineburg's observations into California Social Science Skills Standards (or equivalent). One that takes knowing history seriously, but offers busy young teachers ways to improve their classrooms. Whatever its limitations, I'd highly recommend the book to all history teachers. While we may not find "The Solution" we will find productive new approaches to creating our own solutions.

Calling all educators: A MUST HAVE!

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OK, the fact that he is "the" professor who changed the course of my life notwithstanding: This is a terrific book, one that opens doors for teachers who want to think about "what" they do, "how" they do it, "why" they use the materials that they do, and, ultimately, what critical pathways they have opened in their students at the end of the day. Thought provoking, stirring without being preachy, at times quite funny -- Wineburg quickly shows why he one of the most important voices in Ed Psych -- in Education -- in History -- today. Most of the folks in the History department at my school now own it. Don't think, just buy. You'll have lots of time to think later. Go. Click. It's not too late. It's still not too late. Stop reading. Quickly now...click!