IMSAŽ HISTORY TEACHER PUBLISHES BOOK ON COLONIAL GREAT LAKES
For Immediate Release, Press Release
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AURORA-- Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) social science teacher Dr. Claiborne Skinner of Hinckley recently published The Upper Country: French Enterprise in the Colonial Great Lakes.
Dr. Skinner, a history/social science teacher at IMSA since 1993, said the book was written for college undergraduate students. According to publisher Johns Hopkins Press, the book takes the reader on a variety of surprising twists and turns:
The Upper Country melds myth and conventional history to provide a memorable tale of French designs in the middle of what became the United States. Putting the reader on the battlefields, at the trading posts, and on the rivers with voyageurs and their allies from the Indian nations, Claiborne Skinner reveals the saintly missionaries and jolly fur traders of popular myth as agents of a hard-nosed, often ruthless, imperial endeavor. … From unthinkable hardship to dreams of fur trade profits, this fascinating exploration sheds new light on France and its imperial venture into the Great Lakes.
Skinner’s book, which is based on curriculum from his sophomore American History course at IMSA, will soon be available for purchase at Border’s, Barnes and Noble and also the Starved Rock State Park gift shop.
Dr. Skinner teaches American History and World History at IMSA and is a member of the French Colonial History Society.
He also sponsors IMSA students in the Chicago Metro History Fair competition and other student research work focusing on the Iroquois-Illinois Indian battles that preceded the French and Indian wars (see article at www.imsa.edu).
The internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy® (IMSA) develops creative, ethical leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a teaching and learning laboratory created by the State of Illinois, IMSA enrolls academically talented Illinois students (grades 10-12) in its advanced, residential college preparatory program. It also serves thousands of educators and students in Illinois and beyond through innovative instructional programs that foster imagination and inquiry. (www.imsa.edu)