Many students enter high school government classes knowing very little about the way the American constitutional system really works. This summer we asked five teachers attending the residential program of the Master of Arts in American History and Government (MAHG) how they convey to students what self-government requires. They said that when they teach through primary documents, students discover that our Constitution is not self-enforcing. Citizens must understand and support it.

Teaching American History has recently published World War I and the 1920s: Core Documents, a collection curated by Professor Jennifer D. Keene, Professor of History and Dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Chapman University. Keene, a specialist in American military experience during World War I, has published three studies of this subject, along with numerous essays, journal articles, and encyclopedia entries.