Note to Teachers

This website was created at Northern Virginia Community College from 1996 through 2009. It contains, I believe, all the essential elements of a survey history course for community college students. The website was begun to provide students a free, online source of original historic documents.  In due course, I added topic summaries on events in American history, which allowed me to assign them as extra reading, thus allowing more time for discussion in class.

Since the cost of textbooks had always bothered me, I continued to expand my website and eventually completed a full text for early and modern American history. At a Conference on Information Technology, I became aware of the online publisher, Lulu. My students now have the option of getting all their reading assignments from my website or purchasing a print version or a PDF file from Lulu for a fraction of what textbooks cost. As I now teach only online, this process also has the advantage of making the text readily available to students anywhere.

These are pared-down volumes, but they contain the basic threads of American history, including documents. The Lulu process allows me to update the text continually, but that does not make existing volumes obsolete. I add new material from time to time, and edited or elaborate upon existing parts for greater clarity. Bookstores will not carry my book because Lulu is print on demand. Thus they will not take back unsold copies. In any case, your bookstore would add a markup. The only place your students can get this book at present is at www.lulu.com/hjsage, which is the store front Lulu provides for all its authors.

If you should decide to adopt this text for your courses, I would welcome suggestions for additional material you would like to see incorporated. If they are adopted, you will not have to wait for the “next edition,” for updates can be made in a matter of minutes through Lulu's excellent print-on-demand service. If you are interested, I will gladly share sample quiz and exam questions. You will find suggested writing projects linked from the course home pages on this web site.

If you are interested in considering this text for your students, I will have a copy sent to you at my expense. There are no “examination copies”—even as the author I have to pay for every volume I buy. Since that holds down costs, it's fine with me. I will be happy to send one to anyone seriously interested. If you are browsing only, I recommend this web site, as the entire content may be found here. If you decide to use the text, I will put you on a mailing list and keep you informed of any significant updates.

The work of creating this text was done for my students, and over the years they have helped create it, since it was made from my web site, to which they always have input. When the cost of textbooks passed all bounds of decency, and publishers went out of their way to discourage students from being able to cut costs with used volumes through frequent updates, all sorts of add-ons, etc., I said "Enough!" I had tried to get publishers to look at my work for years, without so much as a courteous reply. So I said, “If you can't join 'em, fight 'em!”

If you want to learn more, send me an email and we'll take it from there.

Back to Academic American Home.

Updated October 25, 2009