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This manuscript explores the power of using inquiry in a second-grade classroom to make students' understanding of citizenship more complex. It describes an inquiry unit in which students studied primary sources, engaged with fiction and nonfiction children's literature, and participated in interdisciplinary learning to further understand the Civil Rights Movement and the Underground Railroad. Through their understanding of these powerful historic events they came to new conceptions of what it means to be a good citizen. The paper not only describes the unit and how it played out in the classroom it also explores the tensions between teacher directed and student directed inquiry, the ways in which teachers can, and often must integrate English Language Arts into their inquiry in order to find time for it, and the necessity of trusting both students and teachers in their ability to guide their own learning in community. In addition, it describes ways of discussing racism with young learners in both a historical and contemporary context.

After having seen Jody Picoult's "Plain Truth," which is on the paperback best-seller list from "New York Times Book Review," and an ad for a novel called "A Version of the Truth," in this article the author talks about truth and how it is being told by some writers from a different point of view. It seems that truth is everywhere, and also nowhere. Look at the oxymorons of today: virtual reality, true lies, docudrama, infomercials, situational ethics. Then there is that old saw, truth is stranger than fiction, or its mirror image, fiction must be more real than life in order to be believable. Many are sold semi-autobiographical novels, memoirs of dubious provenance, historical fiction, and creative nonfiction. Writers invent the truth every time they pull words from their minds and set them to paper. Hence, some writers tell their own version of the truth, which is to say, they tell lies. As an historical novelist, particularly one that writes for young people who must never be lied to, the author grapples with the question, is history "true"? But do all writers tell lies, those who write novels that deal with social and political and religious ideas? Since she may never resolve this issue, the author stands beside Anne Lamott when she advises, "Tell the truth as you understand it. If you're a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act--truth is always subversive."

Presents an interview with Jerry Stanley in which he talks frankly about his view of history, his writing process, the creation of his historical works, and his personal past. (SG)

Describes how a film and a book containing a collection of letters written by soldiers stationed in Vietnam can be successfully used in the reading and writing classroom. (KEH)

Presents several books on history, culture and religion. "The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief," by Richard Barber; "Critical Essays on Contemporary European Culture and Society," edited by Ursula E. Beitter; "Markets in Historical Contexts," edited by Mark Bevir and Frank Trentman.

Books reviewed in this issue. Christopher Darnton, Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Figures, tables, notes, index, 285 pp.; paperback $40.46, Kindle $35.96. Flavia Freidenberg and Julieta Suárez-Cao, eds., Territorio y poder: nuevos actores y competencia política en los sistemas de partidos multinivel en América Latina. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2014. Tables, figures, bibliography, appendix, 386 pp.; paperback. Richard Sandbrook, Reinventing the Left in the Global South: The Politics of the Possible. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Tables, figures, bibliography, index, 309 pp.; paperback $34.99. Ignacio Walker, Democracy in Latin America: Between Hope and Despair. Translated by Krystin Krause, Holly Bird, and Scott Mainwaring. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Bibliography, index, 262 pp.; paperback $38. Aaron Ansell, Zero Hunger: Political Culture and Antipoverty Policy in Northeast Brazil. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Illustrations, maps, tables, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index, 256 pp.; paperback $32.95. Ronald H. Chilcote, Intellectuals and the Search for National Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Bibliography, index, 306 pp.; hardcover $99, ebook. Charles Amo-Yartey and Therese Turner-Jones, eds., Caribbean Renewal: Tackling Fiscal and Debt Challenges. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 2014. Tables, bibliography, index, 314 pp.; paperback $25, e-book $9.99. Matthew Louis Bishop, The Political Economy of Caribbean Development. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Tables, notes, bibliography, index, 257 pp.; hardcover $95, ebook, pdf. Rose J. Spalding, Contesting Trade in Central America: Market Reform and Resistance. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014. Tables, figures, appendixes, bibliography, index, 334 pp.; hardcover $60; paperback $29.95. Thomas C. Wright, Impunity, Human Rights, and Democracy: Chile and Argentina, 1990-2005. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014. Acronyms, notes, bibliography, index, 206 pp.; hardcover $55. Kirsten Weld, Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. Photographs, abbreviations, notes, bibliography, index, 352 pp.; hardcover $99.95, paperback $26.95, Kindle $14.55. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cradle of the Texas Republic. By Robin Montgomery and Joy Montgomery. (Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2022. Pp. 156. Paper, $21.99, ISBN 9781-46715-190-0.) This book offers a history of Montgomery [...]

The study focuses on cinematic reflection of the post-1989 history of Slovakia as the most recent layer of communicative memory closely related to the formation of the country’s modern identity. Its aim is to explore what image nonfiction films create for the future of the present reality. Therefore, it examines what rhetorical and narrative tropes documentary filmmakers use to construct knowledge about the socio-political reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An artistic interpretation of historical facts is quite relevant in the literature and non-fiction of a post-totalitarian society. Prose works on historical themes are valuable and interesting in that they create an illusion for readers to be present in a certain period of historical time, and it is the artistic modeling of events that makes priceless facts of history completely disappear. The historical past is an inexhaustible material that word artists have been referring to for centuries, creating the best examples of fiction. Prose texts of historical subjects are perceived by each next generation in a new way, historical events and phenomena are interpreted from different angles, the activities of famous figures of the past are widely covered. Non-fiction literature is a kind of literature that is on the verge of artistry and documentary. The main non-fiction genres are a diary, autobiography, biography, memoirs, confession, letters, etc. On the one hand, non-fiction literature claims to recognize the author's subjective truth about him in her texts; on the other hand, only the reader can either, demonstrating full confidence in the author, call this text documentary, or admit the presence of poetry and aesthetics in the work and tilt the scales in the direction of artistry. The material for observation and research of the phenomenon of artistic modeling are works that allow us to trace the most common, in our opinion, models of correlation of historical and artistic consciousness in postmodern literature and non-fiction of a post-totalitarian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book including "The New Testament: A Historical and Theological Introduction," by Donald A. Hagner.

The article reviews the book "Seven Events That Shaped the New Testament World," by Warren Carter.