Using First-Person Sources To Teach The Vietnam War

Abstract

As an avid proponent of student-active teaching pedagogy, one of the various methods that I employ is to build an entire course around discussion of a body of readings. First-person sources serve as one of the best media for this approach. Two of my most popular offerings, "Women's Lives in Asia and Africa" and "The Civil Rights Era," focus on a film and the discussion of one or more first-person accounts each week. My course "The Vietnam Experience" is more heavily lecture-oriented, but reading, discussing, and writing about first-person sources is a central component of this course as well.