Reviews

Table of Contents

OAH Magazine of History
Volume 14, No 3
Spring 2000

Copyright ©
Organization of American Historians

The Art and Life in Africa CD-ROM and its accompanying teacher's guide are valuable resources for teachers kindergarten through college. This CD-ROM enables teachers to enhance their classroom instruction vis-à-vis the visual arts of Africa. Editor Christopher D. Roy and developer L. Lee McIntyre have put together a comprehensive collection of African art that will captivate students. What is unique about this CD-ROM is the way the arts are seen in the social, historical, cultural, and geographical context of Africa and its people. Rarely does a museum collection have the resources or space to make such a presentation. The CD-ROM is easy to use, well-documented, supplemented with maps, up-to-date and written in an engaging manner. Younger students would certainly need the assistance of a teacher, but most students above second grade could operate the program. Older students would find that the CD-ROM provides a rich introduction to the diversity of African culture, history, and geography.

The teacher's guide is very well written; the lessons are creative and encourage critical and creative thinking. Roy, in his provocative preface essay, "Why We Use the Cycle of Life," provides a clear raison d'être for the overarching theme of the cycle of life. He states that "the authors recontextualize African Art to make it accessible—so that students will understand that objects have meaning, that they communicate ideas."

The CD-ROM and the teacher's guide open up the world of Africa by incorporating art, music, video clips, essays, and an extensive glossary and pronunciation guide. These enable students to recognize that while Africans may face similar problems, they may create different solutions—solutions that have meaning and validity in the context of their lives. This powerful concept is one all too frequently missed in classrooms that try to promote multiculturalism by only illustrating differences. The cycle of life theme, the integrated format, and the presentation of this CD-ROM weaves meaning and connections throughout the human experience. The lesson plans, which range from high school art and social studies to elementary art and social studies are very student-centered. They are clearly designed to promote authentic assessment, literacy, integration of technology, multiple intelligence, and constructivist theory. One collaborative feature of the teacher's guide is that teachers are encouraged to share their lessons, ideas, and feedback with the authors. Art and Life in Africa would be an invaluable addition to any curriculum center or classroom.

CD-ROM is $50, plus $5 shipping and handling. Teacher's Guide is $10, but can be downloaded for free at <http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart>. To order, contact the Order Department, Obermann Center for Adcanced Studies, 100 Oakdale Campus, Room N151, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. System requirements for Macintosh: PowerMac (recommended) or 68040 processor; minimum 16MB RAM (24MB recommended); System 7.1 or higher; color monitor with minimum setting of 640x480 and 256 colors. System requirements for PC: Pentium processor (recommended) or 486; minimum 24MB RAM (32MB recommended), Windows 95/Windows 98; sound card; color monitor with minimum setting of 640x480 and 256 colors.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930 <http://womhist.binghamton.edu>. Edited by Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin.

In the past three decades women have increasingly received due credit for their role as members and leaders of American social movements. This recognition has recently found its way into the vastness of the World Wide Web in a conceptually well-developed and well-documented site, Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930. Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin, both of the State University of New York at Binghamton, designed and directed this site, while Melissa Doak, also of SUNY-Binghampton, supervises its maintenance.

To date, the site presents seventeen editorial projects developed by students of Sklar and Dublin. Each project explores a particular facet of women's roles in the American reformist tradition and contains three levels. First, there is a short one-paragraph overview placing the question of the project in context; these questions range from "What was the appeal of moral reform to antebellum northern women?" to "How did the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom respond to right-wing attacks from 1923 to 1931?". This is followed by an introductory essay (of varying lengths, depending upon the project) and finally a collection of primary documents.

One of the best features of the site is that it is designed to be used by teachers and students; thus it is extremely user-friendly and allows for easy navigation through its format, structure, and links. The editors of the project also encourage teachers and students to submit their curriculum ideas. Most importantly, because the site is so tied to the content of primary sources, the search engine encompasses all text and documents, allowing users to make connections across individual projects or with other related sites.

The scholarly foundations of this site are readily apparent. Sklar and Dublin provide links to reviews of the site itself as well as links to related sites. Also, their editorial work is apparent in the voluminous source citations and permissions, thus developing immediate credibility and "trust" for teachers and students who are weary of the unsubstantiated ideas many sites put forward.

Each project within the site poses a question and presents fifteen to twenty documents which speak to that particular question. Here the user needs to be careful. In some of the projects the documents come from as few as two sources. Such over-reliance can be partially overlooked, given the fact that many of these sources would not otherwise be available on the web. Nonetheless, the overuse of sources causes some of the projects to be too narrowly focused in one direction, as if the author has an intended answer in mind. However, in this kind of site, based on student projects, one must expect a wide range of quality and understanding.

The overall endeavor, while wonderful in design and idea, could benefit from several additions. First, many of the projects are too heavily oriented toward localized, urban, and elite issues. There are still many prominent areas missing, such as the Settlement House movement and the early efforts at women's rights. Treatment of these issues would broaden the site's appeal. Second, most of the projects (fifteen of the seventeen) are post-Civil War in their focus, with eleven of them post-1900; greater attention could be given to earlier movements. Third, given that most of the projects center on localized topics, the site could provide direction on how to regard each document. Such direction could include the context in which the source was written and instructions for drawing it into the wider scope of women's roles. Fourth, the site would greatly benefit from a wider definition of social movements, including, for example, religious movements and their close connection with social and political endeavors. Finally, an overarching essay for the project, something more developed than the present "Project Notes," written by Sklar and Dublin, would be helpful. Here the editors could tie the projects together into a larger framework; set a direction for future projects which would allow the site to round out the areas of reform, the reformers, and the entire time period; and really give the site a usefulness for the novice scholars they are trying to reach.

All of these criticisms are meant as suggestions for improving what is already an excellent site. The site's potential lies in its future projects and in the addition of curriculum projects developed by users. To undertake a project of this dimension was obviously a huge task, and one of which both editors should be proud. It is a site that is useful, user-friendly, and has great appeal and relevance to students and scholars.