Chapter 11 provides an admirable opportunity to work with colleagues in presenting meaty material to students. The instructor in art history and the instructor in nineteenth-century American literature may be invited to make a presentation on, say, the Hudson River school or Thoreau and Walden. The historian may return the favor with a parallel presentation on politics and society in art or English classes. Such cooperation is particularly fruitful, of course, when instructors are personally compatible. They need not, however, share similar views regarding the substance of their scholarship. In fact, clashes in viewpoint may excite the students, enliven the proceedings, and stimulate hard thinking. It is essential that cooperating instructors discuss at length what the class has been doing and what it will do and what approach the cooperative endeavor should take. It is most useful if both instructors are present and, after some exposition by the visitor, both offer comment, discussion, and perhaps disagreement. Students are delighted by disagreement and will benefit from reasoned discourse as both observers and participants.

Sometimes a formal paper can be worked out by instructors from two departments on such topics as the women's novel in antebellum America, or public attitudes toward Walt Whitman, or some other interdisciplinary exploration. Students may feel that they are getting away with something, writing one paper for two courses, but certainly it's the learning that counts. In any event the requirements imposed by the two courses will provide for a paper of substance. The "Place in Time" feature in Chapter 11 may stimulate enough interest in Frances Trollope--a most remarkable woman--to warrant closer examination. See Helen Heineman, Mrs. Trollope: The Triumphant Feminine in the Nineteenth Century (1979).

Landscape architects like Frederick Law Olmsted worked carefully to create parks, like New York City's Central Park, to provide spiritual refreshment in the midst of urban life. Creating a park may require political skills as well as esthetic appreciation. Ask several students to explore the origins of a nearby park or even the grounds of the college or university, for it, too, has a plan and a layout. Why was the park established where and when it was? Was it designed, or did it simply have its boundaries marked off? How was the decision made? What did people think about it at the time? What do people think about the park today in regard to its appearance and character?

In 1970 Robert W. Fogel wrote Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History. If there had been no railroads, what would have happened to American economic development? Instructors may wish to consult Fogel's book to get an idea of how fully this kind of counterfactual hypothesis can be developed. The instructor may provide a brief similar assignment for students. Suppose there had been no revolver? Suppose there had been no telegraph? Students may object that the march of technology would inevitably have given rise to the missing item in someone's mind. They need only be reminded of the absence of the wheel in some cultures of surprising sophistication.