A supplemental textbook for middle and high school students, Hoosiers and the American Story provides intimate views of individuals and places in Indiana set within themes from American history. During the frontier days when Americans battled with and exiled native peoples from the East, Indiana was on the leading edge of America’s westward expansion. As waves of immigrants swept across the Appalachians and eastern waterways, Indiana became established as both a crossroads and as a vital part of Middle America. Indiana’s stories illuminate the history of American agriculture, wars, industrialization, ethnic conflicts, technological improvements, political battles, transportation networks, economic shifts, social welfare initiatives, and more. In so doing, they elucidate large national issues so that students can relate personally to the ideas and events that comprise American history. At the same time, the stories shed light on what it means to be a Hoosier, today and in the past.
This report delves into the implications for communities at risk of losing their primary source of credible news. By documenting the shifting news landscape and evaluating the threat of media deserts, this report seeks to raise awareness of the role interested parties can play in addressing the challenges confronting local news and democracy. The Expanding News Desert documents the continuing loss of papers and readers, the consolidation in the industry, and the social, political and economic consequences for thousands of communities throughout the country. It also provides an update on the strategies of the seven large investment firms--hedge and pension funds, as well as private and publicly traded equity groups--that swooped in to purchase hundreds of newspapers in recent years and explores the indelible mark they have left on the newspaper industry during a time of immense disruption.
This study draws together scholarship on the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and its aftermath. Contributors hope to draw attention to the tragedy, to honour its victims, and to bring a clear historical voice to the debate over its legacy.
Chartered in 1855 as an agricultural college, Penn State was designated Pennsylvania's land-grant school soon after the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Through this federal legislation, the institution assumed a legal obligation to offer studies not only in agriculture but also in engineering and other utilitarian fields as well as liberal arts. By giving it land-grant status, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania made the privately chartered Penn State a public instrumentality and assumed a responsibility to assist it in carrying out its work. However, the notion that higher education should have practical value was a novel one in the mid-nineteenth century, and Penn State experienced several decades of drift and uncertainty before winning the confidence of Pennsylvania's citizens and their political leaders. The story of Penn State in the twentieth century is one of continuous expansion in its three-fold mission: instruction, research, and extension. Engineering, agriculture, mineral industries, and science were early strengths; during the Great Depression, liberal arts matured. Further curricular diversification occurred after the Second World War, and a medical school and teaching hospital were added in the 1960s. Penn State was among the earliest land-grant schools to inaugurate extension programs in agriculture, engineering, and home economics. Indeed, the success of extension education indirectly led to the founding of the first branch campuses in the 1930s, from which evolved the extensive Commonwealth Campus system. The history of Penn State encompasses more than academics. It is the personal story of such able leaders as presidents Evan Pugh, George Atherton, and Milton Eisenhower, who saw not the institution that was but the one that could be. It is the story of the confusing and often frustrating relationship between the University and the state government. As much as anything else, it is the story of students, with ample attention given to the social as well as scholastic side of student life. All of this is placed in the context of the history of land-grant education and Pennsylvania's overall educational development. This is an objective, analytical, and at times critical account of Penn State from the earliest days to the 1980s. With hundreds of illustrations and interesting vignettes, this book is a visually exciting and human-oriented history of a major state university.
