Students increasingly bring questions about current events, overseas conflicts, and the United States’ relationships with other countries into the history classroom. Yet providing historical context for these conversations can be challenging, particularly when educators may not have had the opportunity to study the histories of regions where US engagement has been especially consequential. This session will give educators a concise introduction to changing historical scholarship and essential context for understanding US foreign relations in several regions that frequently make news, including China, Latin America, and the Middle East. Rather than offering a comprehensive survey, the session will highlight key historical developments, debates, turning points, and primary sources that can help teachers situate contemporary events within longer histories of US engagement and international relations.

The AHA’s State of the Field for Busy Teachers series provides a forum for history teachers at all levels to interact with leading historians and discuss content, sources, and trends in scholarly interpretation on a theme related to topics commonly addressed in the history classroom.

We invite leading historians with expertise in different regions to provide brief overviews of current scholarship, essential historical context, useful primary sources, and important shifts in interpretation. For the rest of the session, a panel of educators moderates a discussion, with robust audience participation, about how to bring this scholarship into US and world history classrooms and how historical knowledge can help students make sense of current events without reducing complex histories to contemporary headlines. We anticipate a lively, practical exchange in which participants will walk away with new insights, resources, and approaches for addressing students’ questions about the United States and the wider world.