ABSTRACT
The lesson forming the backbone of this chapter is one that deeply engages students in applying their budding historical thinking skills, while simultaneously generating a deeper and more nuanced examination of American foreign policy during the Progressive period. One of the most frequent mistakes the author made early on when trying to promote student investigation was in selection of sources. Essential to any successful historical investigation is drawing students into the central question. Parsing the semantic differences is a useful discussion for understanding that human motivations might inform the use of one of these techniques to convey information. To facilitate investigation of the focal questions, students are provided one of several historical sources and asked to consider the information provided by the text, place the source in its historical context, and consider any information the subtext provides.
