Constructing Modern Knowledge Press is thrilled to announce a brand new book for middle and high school history teachers. History in Their Hands: Teaching Inquiry-Based United States History Through the Lens of Black Agency by Beth Krasemann engages young people in the work of historians, armed with primary sources and facts often unfound in the curriculum. While this book may seem a departure from the CMK Press catalog, we believe it is wholly consistent with our philosophy of trusting students, empowering teachers, and expanding opportunities for knowledge construction with authentic materials. In this case, the learning-by-making is in the realm of US History.
History in Their Hands arms students with primary source documents – text, visuals, audio, and video – and challenges them to use analytical skills to socially construct meaning with their peers. The book’s author, Beth Krasemann, continues the CMK Press tradition of sharing the wisdom and ingenuity of great teachers with peers.
History in Their Hands: Teaching Inquiry-Based United States History Through the Lens of Black Agency may be used by teachers as a supplemental resource or as a student textbook. It enriches and expands the study of United States history from pre-1619 to the current day. The book is filled with fascinating stories and heroic contributions by patriotic men and women, sure to rekindle a love affair with history, especially as America celebrates its 250th birthday.
Even if you don’t teach US History, the book offers an invaluable approach to engaging students, small groups, and entire classes in work with primary source documents. History in Their Hands is in the spirit of CMK guest speaker and friend James Loewen and his classic book, Lies My Teacher Told Me.
The lessons are flexible and adaptable. Teachers can use individual inquiries as stand-alone activities, integrate them into existing units, or combine several chapters into a larger course exploring Black agency in United States history. A glossary list is included in each chapter.
Handy Teacher Website
Best of all, the book is accompanied by a website designed for teachers. All of the primary source documents may be found in one place, along with countless links to additional resources. Best of all, the “classroom mode” button turns the web site into a tool for projecting documents and sharing them with a class. Easy peasy!
History in Their Hands is a teacher guide to an inquiry-based US history curriculum that reimagines how we teach American history by centering the voices, actions, and resistance of Black Americans from 1619 to the present. Built around primary sources and compelling questions — How did enslaved people fight back? What did Reconstruction achieve? How does activism look different today than fifty years ago? — these lessons ask students to investigate, analyze, and argue rather than passively absorb.
Rather than presenting Black Americans as victims of white supremacy, this inquiry-based US history curriculum showcases the persistent agency and inexhaustible contributions of Black people throughout United States history.
Students Develop the Following Skills
Historical Thinking
- Analyzing primary sources rather than passively receiving information
- Evaluating evidence and drawing their own conclusions
- Understanding history through the lens of Black agency — meaning students learn to see historical actors as decision-makers, not just subjects of events
Inquiry and Research Skills
- Forming and pursuing historical questions
- Working with original documents, artifacts, and sources
- Building arguments from evidence
Critical Literacy
- Reading sources with attention to perspective, bias, and context
- Distinguishing between what sources say and what they mean
- Comparing multiple accounts of the same event
Writing and Communication
- Constructing evidence-based historical arguments
- Expressing interpretation and analysis, not just summary
Civic and Ethical Reasoning
- Grappling with questions of justice, power, and change over time
- Understanding how history shapes the present
