 CONTRIBUTORS' BIOGRAPHIES
Rivanna Abel began teaching in 2004 at Carbondale Community High School. She has taught a variety of classes, including U. S. History and Advanced Placement U. S. History, Social Studies, World History, and Government. She received her bachelor's degree in history from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She has completed a year of work on a master's degree in the history department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale as well as her first year of the Teacher Leadership program in the department of education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Thomas Best has taught American history to seventh-grade students for 24 years in Monmouth and Roseville, Illinois. He is also a part-time instructor of Civil War Studies and Secondary Social Studies Methods at Monmouth College. He holds a B. A. from the University of Northern Iowa and a master's degree in history from Western Illinois University. He has served as a member-at-large on the Illinois Council of Social Studies and on numerous other state and local committees working toward the preservation and promotion of local history. He frequently speaks to groups on topics ranging from the Civil War to western pioneer trails.
Dennis K. Boman teaches history at Saint Louis University. He has written numerous articles and books on antebellum and Civil War history, focusing on Missouri, Lincoln, and legal history topics, including his book Lincoln's Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter and Missouri's Civil War Governor (2006). Currently, he is writing a book on Lincoln's handling of civil liberties in Missouri, and he was the 2006 Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society Robert Eldridge Seiler Fellow.
Mindy Juriga has ten years' experience as an educator in central Illinois public schools. She received a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Olivet Nazarene University and is working on a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Illinois State University. She is currently at Washington Gifted School in Peoria, Illinois, teaching seventh-grade geography and eighth grade United States history.
Dan Monroe, guest editor of this volume, is assistant professor of history at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. He is the author of The Republican Vision of John Tyler (2003), At Home with Illinois Governors: A Social History of the Illinois Executive Mansion (2002), and Shapers of the Great Debate on the Civil War: A Biographical Dictionary (2005) with Bruce Tap.
Matthew D. Norman is a postdoctoral research fellow in Civil War Era Studies/Africana Studies at Gettysburg College. He holds the Ph. D. in history from the University of Illinois and was formerly a project director and historian at the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College. He has taught at Knox College and Monmouth College, and has published articles on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era. His current research interests include Lincoln and race relations in nineteenth-century Illinois.
Maria Schrup Peterson is a history teacher at Moline High School in Moline, Illinois. She has taught Advanced Placement United States History, Economics, American Government, and General United States History. Maria has served as a steering committee member for "Learning Our Past, Securing Our Future: A Partnership in Excellence," a project funded by the United States American History Grant, and she has presented at the national conferences of the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and the National Council for the Social Studies. She is also a fellow of the National Writing Project.
 Robert D. Sampson received his Ph. D. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995, studying under noted antebellum and Civil War-era scholar Robert W. Johannsen. He is the author of John L O'Sullivan and His Times (Kent State University Press, 2003) and has published several articles on Illinois history including the Civil War-era home front. His essay "John L. O'Sullivan and the Tragedy of Radical Jacksonian Thought" appears in Politics and Culture of the Civil War Era: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Johannsen (Susquehanna University Press, 2006). He received his undergraduate degree from Eastern Illinois University.
Bruce Tap is an independent historian who resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Tap received the master of arts in American history from Western Michigan University and the Ph. D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Tap is the author of Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War (University Press of Kansas, 1998). With Dan Monroe, he is the co-author of Shapers of the Great Debate on the Civil War: Biographical Dictionary (Greenwood Press, 2005). He has also published in numerous scholarly journals.
 
Students, Teachers, and Librarians of Grades 6-12:
 Politics has been a key component in Illinois' development, and we are delighted to present a few aspects of nineteenth-century politics in this issue of the Illinois History Teacher. In keeping with the series since 1995, this year's second volume deals with a topic of special importance that has not been sufficiently brought to teachers' attention in the past.
The format remains. Specialists who have written concise narratives have been paired with seasoned teachers who have prepared related curriculum materials. The result is an assured set of high-quality materials. You may wish to adapt these materials, but in them you will find a reliable beginning. All of the materials have been critiqued by specialists in teaching and/or the subject matter and rewritten according to their recommendations, further assuring the practicality of these materials.
We want these materials to be widely accessible. Not only are hard copies distributed free of charge to teachers throughout Illinois, but these and all past issues are available free on line. Go to the Web site of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (<illinoishistory.gov>). Then click on "Education Services." That page will contain a link to "NIU Libraries," and there you can access the past issues.
Thanks are due to many people who have made this volume possible. Dan Monroe served as guest editor, identifying topics of potential interest within the volume's theme and inviting the authors into the project. Of course, thanks are due all eight authors, but special recognition is also due the reviewers. Their work, done anonymously, helps immensely. Within the agency, Evelyn Taylor, constituent services manager, copyedited the text. Robert Cavanagh, interlibrary loan librarian of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, provided sources and verified bibliographical information. Mary Michals and Roberta Fairburn, audio visual curators of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, give all the illustrations except for those which other sources provide. Shanta Thoele and Naomi Ramage provide technical support.
Ultimately, the test of these materials is your ability to use them effectively. We want to know what you learn about them and how future issues can be improved. You might also wish to add suggestions about future topics you would like to have added to the series. The Illinois History Teacher is here for students, teachers, and librarians of our state's rich history.
Sincerely,
Keith A. Sculle
Editor, Illinois History Teacher
Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) is a digital imaging project at the
Northern Illinois University Libraries funded by the Illinois State Library
|
| 