Reply #8: I work mostly in the Revolutionary period, but love any period really.

[HarrietBrown]

I like studying a period from different angles, getting to know the players, their words, and how ideas and personalities interconnected. I like focusing on one event, for example, and unraveling it.

ie, I recently had an opportunity to really explore the Emancipation Proclamation. It lead me to Douglass's speech at the start of the war about how the Union could not win without African American forces, and to a frank and fascinating exchange between Lincoln and a group of African American men about colonization. These documents added rich dimensions to the proclamation and drew out nuances in Lincoln's wording that might other wise be skimmed over.

I like taking the nuggets, connecting them, and enabling people to learn about and start to understand things they hadn't known or thought about before. I particularly like "unpacking" primaries, images, and objects to help people learn in new ways--while honing their critical thinking skills (which they will HOPEFULLY use when assessing candidates and the media in the NEXT election.)