Tuesday, April 26, 2005

From Revolution to Reconstruction: Other projects on the WWW

I was just trying to pin down something from Benjamin Franklin's autobiography (an interesting read, by the way, if you haven't read it already) - and the next thing I know I'm on a website of the Department of Humanities Computing, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. This project started in 1994 as a project to learn computer skills - the subject of early American history being secondary. It has now grown to include history from the colonial period right up to the modern day, with an emphasis on documents, essays, biographies and Presidents.

My title link is to a page with an extensive "Links regarding American History" list.

This is too wonderful. One of the most promising American history resources I've found yet - and it's part of a computer skills' project in Europe!

A Hypertext on American History from the colonial period until Modern Times

Department of Humanities Computing, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

The main body of this hypertext project, which was started in 1994, comes from a number of USIA-publications: An Outline of American History, An Outline of the American Economy, An Outline of American Government, and An Outline of American Literature. The text of these Outlines has not been changed, but they have been enriched with hypertext-links to relevant documents, original essays, other Internet sites, and to other Outlines.

A number of contributors have prepared additional texts and links for the project. And this project will grow als (sic) long as we find new texts and volunteers who are willing to contribute. You can help this WWW-project in collective authoring by contributing texts or by sponsoring.

You can read this hypertext as you like: follow the main text of the Outline of American History or just find your own way through the web of texts.

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