Classroom Materials

More materials coming soon!

19th Century, Collection Essays

1893: Chicago and the World’s Columbian Exposition

What did visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition experience? How did the Exposition’s White City compare to the actual city of Chicago?

Diane Dillon and Hana Layson with Jim Montgomery
May 14, 2012

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Subversives in the City: Responses to Political Radicalism in Chicago

What is the history of political radicalism in Chicago from the 1880s through the 1950s? How did the government and the public respond to radical movements?

Hana Layson with David Krugler
May 14, 2012

19th Century, Collection Essays

Slavery, Civil War, and the “New Birth of Freedom”

What arguments did writers make before the Civil War for the abolition of slavery? How did they frame their appeals in moral, social, political, and economic terms? How did the war’s purpose shift from “saving the union” to destroying slavery? What would freedom mean for former slaves, for Southern society, and for the nation as a whole, according to various writers both before and after the war?

Rachel Rooney with Thomas Holt
May 14, 2012

17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Utopias of the European Renaissance

What is the historical and literary context for Shakespeare’s representation of Prospero’s island and its inhabitants? How did Renaissance writers and artists portray the European exploration of the Americas? How did that exploration inspire their visions of an ideal society?