Digital Humanities Teaching: US History Survey

Blog entry on using TimelineJS in U.S. History survey

Assignment Prompt

Two main events dominate the narrative of U.S. History to 1877, the American Revolution and the Civil War. This assignment asks you to recount the events leading up to these two milestones using a tool common to historians, the timeline. Just as we read about the narrative of American history in books and articles, timelines also tell us a narrative. In this project, you will be the historian and create two timelines, one on the origins of the American Revolution and the second on the origins of the Civil War. As the historian, you must select a minimum of 8 causes and a maximum of 12 causes that explain the outbreak of the American Revolution and Civil War, respectively. Your causes should include both long-term and short-term factors. You may ONLY use the course sources provided by the instructor to create your timeline. This means NO OUTSIDE RESEARCH. You may also incorporate images and primary documents that you deem relevant to your timeline.

To create your timeline, you will use a free online tool called timelineJS. In class, we will review how to use the tool. You may also try it out via the website: http://timeline.knightlab.com/