Bringing History to Life: Teaching Historical Thinking and Fiction

History has never been as present in our daily lives as it is today. Through any number of media outlets, tens of millions of people are in daily contact with historical discourses and practices. Between games, informational articles, social media posts and other sources, history is everyhere--in Civilization VI, "life-size" role-playing games, The Berlin Trilogy, The Iron Throne, and the works of Tolkien or Satrapi. It's in cultural productions that evoke events or phenomena that happened or are still happening (Assassin's Creed Unity, SLĀV and Kanata, Gone With the Wind). This rise in popularity of history, along with an unprecedented access to social platforms, provide opposing and irreconcilable views of what should be commemorated (or debunked), of decolonization and reconciliation, and of other historical and social justice questions such as the elimination of police brutality and racism. How can we help our youth develop critical thinking around these questions? Reflecting on the use of non-scholarly and non-academic works in the classroom, the authors of this book explore the possible and desirable uses of secular or public history in the classroom to teach students about history so that they become better informed and empowered.