Changes to the primary curriculum over recent years have widened choice for all, yet the current wave of thinking seems determined to retreat 'back to basics'. This vibrant volume examines the many ways in which history can include and complement the teaching of English, to the greater benefit of both. Enthusiastic practitioners explain how lively classroom activities can influence the level of children's literacy, which means that the importance of the basics is recognised without compromising on the choice of subjects open to children. History emerges as a wonderful tool for exploring not only language and literature, but also as a way of stimulating the imagination and encouraging talk. The contributors here are all passionate about this vital link between two complementary subject areas and will convincingly win you over. The book is an invaluable companion for the student teacher, primary teacher and teacher educator.

1. Nations that have owned our Soil.--Before the United States became a nation, six European powers owned, or claimed to own, various portions of the territory now contained within its boundary. England claimed the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Spain once held Florida, Texas, California, and all the territory south and west of Colorado. France in days gone by ruled the Mississippi valley. Holland once owned New Jersey, Delaware, and the valley of the Hudson in New York, and claimed as far eastward as the Connecticut river. The Swedes had settlements on the Delaware. Alaska was a Russian possession. Before attempting to narrate the history of our country, it is necessary, therefore, to tell 1. How European nations came into possession of parts of it. 2. How these parts passed from them to us. 3. What effect the ownership of parts of our country by Europeans had on our history and institutions before 1776.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014 While few detailed surveys of fauna or flora exist in England from the period before the nineteenth century, it is possible to combine the evidence of historical sources (ranging from game books, diaries, churchwardens' accounts and even folk songs) and our wider knowledge of past land use and landscape, with contemporary analyses made by modern natural scientists, in order to model the situation at various times and places in the more remote past. This timely volume encompasses both rural and urban environments from 1650 to the mid-twentieth century, drawing on a wide variety of social, historical and ecological sources. It examines the impact of social and economic organisation on the English landscape, biodiversity, the agricultural revolution, landed estates, the coming of large-scale industry and the growth of towns and suburbs. It also develops an original perspective on the complexity and ambiguity of man/animal relationships in this post-medieval period.