van Scotter, Richard, William E. White, H. Michael Hartoonian, and James E. Davis. “A Gateway to Social Studies through Topical History.” (2007)

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the nation's largest living history museum, in partnership with the Social Science Education Consortium, scholars, educators, and teachers, has developed engaging learning materials for social studies classrooms. One such program is the Colonial Williamsburg History and Civics Project, which is based on essential principles of democracy, including the idea that America was created, maintained, and nourished by vigorous and intelligent debate. On this framework of debate, the Williamsburg project is organized around fifteen topics, each containing case studies, or a series of salient events and issues on America's civic existence. The topics span the social studies--government and law, political economy, institutions (sociology), landscape (geography), culture, and America in the world (foreign policy). This article is a snapshot of each topic in the Colonial Williamsburg program. The first two--The Great Debate and National Narratives--serve as an intellectual platform for the remaining topics that represent essential content of U.S. national heritage.