The New Social Studies

A volume in Studies in the History of Education
Series Editor Karen L. Riley, Auburn University at Montgomery
This volume, The New Social Studies: People, Projects and Perspectives is not an attempt to be
the comprehensive book on the era. Given the sheer number of projects that task would be impossible.
However, the current lack of knowledge about the politics, people and projects of the NSS is unfortunate
as it often appears that new scholars are reinventing the wheel due to their lack of knowledge about the
history of the social studies field. The goal of this book then, is to sample the projects and individuals
involved with the New Social Studies (NSS) in an attempt to provide an understanding of what came
before and to suggest guidance to those concerned with social studies reform in the future-especially in
light of the standardization of curriculum and assessment currently underway in many states. The authors
who contributed to this project were recruited with several goals in mind including a broad range of ages,
interests and experiences with the NSS from participants during the NSS era through new, young scholars
who had never heard much about the NSS. As many of the authors remind us in their chapters, much has
been written, of the failure of the NSS. However, in every chapter of this book, the authors also point out
the remnants of the projects that remain.
Chapters in this book include: National Security Trumps Social Progress: The Era of the New Social Studies in Retrospect by Ronald W.
Evans; Hilda Taba: Social Studies Reform from the Bottom Up by Barbara Slater Stern; Fannie Shaftel and Her New Social Studies by Jane Bernard-
Powers; Can You Still Catch Fish with New Social Studies Bait? Ted Fenton and the Carnegie-Mellon (Social Studies) Project by Michelle D. Cude;
"The Quest for Relevancy": Allan Kownslar and Historical Inquiry in the New Social Studies Movement by Elizabeth Yeager Washington and Robert
L. Dahlgren; Leader-Writers: The Contributions of Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann and James Shaver to the Harvard Social Studies Project by Chara
Haeussler Bohan and Joseph R. Feinberg; Harold Berlak and the Metropolitan St. Louis Social Studies Project: Cultivating Social Studies at Local
Level by Carol Klages; A Red Headed Stepchild of Social Reconstruction: Sociology and the New Social Studies by Karen L. Riley; Geography and
the New Social Studies: The High School Geography Project and the Georgia Geography Curriculum Project by Joseph P. Stoltman; Economics and
the New Social Studies by Beverly J. Armento; Anthropology and the Anthropology Projects, Long Ago in a Galaxy Far Away by Murry Nelson;
Making Sense of It All: A Research Synthesis on the Impact of Man: A Course of Study by Chrystal S. Johnson; American Political Behavior: The
Project and the People by Carole E. Hahn; Small Projects of the New Social Studies (Bring Back the Best) by John D. Hoge; The Fight over MACOS
by Larry Kraus; The "History Problem" in Curricular Reform: A Warning to Constructivists from the New Social Studies Movement by Geoffrey
Scheurman and Keith Reynolds; We Won't Get Fooled Again; Will We?? Teacher Perceptions of the New Social Studies by Mark A. Previte; The
New Social Studies and the Ethos of Multiculturalism by Gloria Contreras; Lies and History:
Unmasking Academic Complacency by David Warren Saxe; The Wisdom of Experience and
Practice by Mary E. Haas; Inquiry Teaching and Learning: Is there, was there, a Cutting Edge in
Social Studies? Or, My Life as an 'Inquiry' Social Studies Teacher by Jack Zevin; and Leveraging
Technology for Student Inq