The primary objective of this ten chapter book is to open lines of conversation between academics and teachers concerned with history education. As such, the first chapter opens by outlining commonly understood reasons for teaching history – that is, to foster in young people a respect for the past, to educate young people in a set of moral beliefs, and to help them make sense of their present. Additionally, this chapter outlines common criticisms of history teaching as well as some possible solutions for teachers to adequately address these criticisms.

In the second chapter Partington develops six “Elements of Historical Explanation,” drawing from an analysis of “general law theories” such as positivism and historical materialism, to illustrate how such theories can inform the basic tenets of history teaching. As an extension of the conclusion in chapter two which maintains that students need to be presented with an array of sources and interpretations of past events, in chapter three Partington argues that history education does not foster “better moral judgment” but rather that it is “characterized by moral judgments” – in other words, the process of making decisions about what of the past to remember and what to forget. Based on the assumption that this is the case for both teachers and students, the following two chapters deal with the dangers of making generalizations when reconstructing the past. The author thus provides teachers with suggestions on how to choose material for history teaching. For example, Partington recommends that teachers first decide what historical periods to teach in order to determine what historical figures to teach about and also to include contemporary historical events, national and local histories, and the histories of marginalized communities. Chapter six follows from these chapters providing history teachers with criteria to follow when constructing their syllabus, including suggestions to cover material chronologically to thematically.

The last four chapters of the book are concerned with fostering critical thinking in history education. In fact, chapter seven specifically argues that critical thinking must be implemented as a teaching goal of history education even though this requires an in-depth focus on a few historical moments or movements rather than on the overall picture of the past. Noting however how difficult this task can be for a history teacher, as well as the gap often existing between teaching objectives and teaching practices, Partington devotes chapter eight to providing teachers with specific resources they can turn to for ideas for classroom activities. In chapter nine the author supplements this discussion with information about learning stages according to age.

Finally in chapter ten, Partington stresses that in order for history teaching to be successful as it has been outlined throughout the book, teachers have to be knowledgeable about the past and about teaching.