Sarah M. Miller

2002. 250 pp., 20 illus., 24 color slides or transparencies. 8-1/8 x 10-3/4.

Unbound. Free to educators, schools, or museum education departments.

Drawing on the Museum's unparalleled collection of German modern art and related archives, From Modern Art to "Degenerate Art" provides in-depth historical background and curricular materials for teaching about the crucial social and political roles of modern art in Weimar Germany and Nazi Germany. Based on individual artworks, primary texts, and archival records, the guide also aims to build skills for incorporating art into the study of history, analyzing visual artifacts, and using the Busch-Reisinger Museum as a resource. More broadly, it facilitates incorporating cultural history into teaching about the rise of fascism with materials that are interactive, creative, challenging, and relevant to cultural and political debates in the contemporary United States. On-site teaching in the Museum is encouraged, but the guide comes with a complete set of reproductions (a choice of slides or overhead-projector transparencies) for classroom use. The guide is not a textbook or a comprehensive curriculum; rather it offers teachers a flexible series of "stand-alone" modules for adaptation into lesson plans and student projects. Intended primarily for educators of grades 7-12, it will be of particular interest to social studies, world history, government/civics, and arts teachers.

To order, contact the Public Education Office at 617-495-4402.