ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION From the historic 1672 masonry walls of the Spanish Castillo de San Marcos in Saint Augustine, Florida, to the US Air Force’s 1963 Minuteman Missile launch facilities near Rapid City, South Dakota, the United States bristles with historic forts. Each of them marks a formerly crucial site of defense, conflict, and/or intercultural contact in American history. There are forts that cover every chronological period of the American past, every significant conflict, every avenue of westward migration and expansion, and every effort to put an “American” (or British, French, Spanish, or Dutch) stamp on a continent and its people. Historic forts survive today in a variety of modes: as archaeological sites, as original structures, as partially preserved historic sites adapted to modern usages,
CHAPTER 5
exceptionally productive sites for helping students understand historical narratives, view the past from multiple perspectives, connect the past to the present, explore the nature of and dimensions of conflict, and appreciate the ways in which geography influences history. These advantages are sometimes offset by a triumphantly and uncritically patriotic interpretive approach, but even at such forts, a skillful and alert teacher can turn the most biased, mono-dimensional interpretation of history to students’ advantage.
