History

The Soldier’s Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle

Written by Ray E. Boomhower

Indiana Historical Society Press

To the millions of Americans on the home front during World War II, Ernie Pyle’s column in newspapers across the country offered a foxhole view of the struggle as he reported on the life and death of the average soldier. When he died, Pyle’s popularity and readership was worldwide, with his column appearing in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers.

Written by award-winning author and historian Ray E. Boomhower, The Soldier’s Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle, a biography aimed at young readers, explores the reporter’s legendary career from his days growing up in the small town of Dana, Indiana, to his life as a roving correspondent with the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, to his growing fame as a columnist detailing the rigors of combat faced by the average G.I. during World War II. The book also features numerous illustrations, samples of Pyle’s World War II columns, a detailed bibliography of World War II sources, and an index.

Pyle offered for his readers a “worm’s-eye view” of the war as he reported on the life, and sometimes death, of the common soldier doing the dirty work of fighting in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France against the enemy forces of Nazi Germany.  

For his distinguished reporting during the war, Pyle received journalism’s highest honor—the Pulitzer Prize—in 1944. Books of his columns were best sellers, and one of his most famous stories, describing the death of an officer named Captain Henry T. Waskow, was made into a movie, The Story of G.I. Joe, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. 

John Steinbeck, a best-selling novelist and Pyle’s friend, perhaps best described the reporter’s work when he told Time magazine that there were two wars and neither had much to do with one another. There was the one war that involved maps and the movements of armies, divisions, and regiments run by high-ranking officers such as General George Marshall, chief of staff of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C.   

But there was another war, Steinbeck said. This war involved the “homesick, weary, funny, violent common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food . . . and bring themselves through as dirty a business as the world has ever seen and do it with humor and dignity and courage—and that is Ernie Pyle’s war. He knows it as well as anyone and writes about it better than anyone.” 

134 pp • © 2006  • Hardcover • ISBN: 0-87195-200-9

Constitutionally Speaking

Teaching About Indiana’s Constitutions

JoAnn Fox, Brian Fultz, Chris McGrew, and Nancy Wolfe

Published By

Indiana Historical Society

&

The Indiana Department of Education

The following pages offer a potpourri of activities and lessons to help students learn about Indiana’s past and in particular the early growth of the state and provisions made to accomadte societal changes. The lessons begin with the basics of government , the constitution. Following this are several lessons highlighting and explaining the changes that took place in Indiana from statehood to the mid 1800s. These lessons explain why Indiana needed to change its constitution. The constitutional convention of 1850 is explored through the delegates to the convention. Finally, lessons explain important issues facing Indiana citizens in 1851. These issues include education and suffrage. Following the lessons is information regarding resources and biographical material for both teachers and students.

79 pp.  paper

Historians For The Future

A History of the Indiana Junior Historical Society 1938-1998

Kendal H. Gladish

Hester Anne Hale

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

From its beginnings before World War II to its adventures during the Internet age, the history of the Indiana Junior Historical Society is explored in this Indiana Historical Society publication.

Written by Kendal H. Gladish and Hester Anne Hale and featuring a foreword by Richard S. Simons, former HIS trustee and one of the IJr.HS founders, this book celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of the organization. Founded in 1938, the IJr.HS fosters history education through a network of history clubs in all school environments, historical societies, historical sites, libraries, and other groups wishing to promote the exploration and appreciation of Indiana’s history. Today, approximately five thousand Hoosier youngsters participate in the program and engage in such activities as blacksmithing, weaving, and basketry; presenting historical plays, skits, and audiovisual projects; preparing exhibitions; and helping preserve local historic sites.—From Publisher

128 pp. © 1999, cloth

Indiana’s Main Street

Hoosiers on the National Road

Nancy Wolfe and Suzanne Stanis

Published By

Indiana Historical Society

Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana

At one time the National Road in Indiana, or what is now U.S. Highway 40, was the major thoroughfare across the state. Towns and businesses developed along the road as people moved west.

This curriculum packet offers a look at the role the National Road played in Indiana’s past and highlights important people and places vital to the road’s history. Lessons will assist you in meeting the fourth grade social studies standards but can also be adapted for use at other grade levels. Throughout the lessons, primary source materials and documents will be used. It is our hope that the history of the National Road as presented here will enrich your students’ understanding of this corridor of Indiana’s past and inspire them to expand their understanding of Indiana’s larger role in history.—From Introduction

129 pp. © 2003, paper

Nineteen’s 19

1778 to 1850

Indiana Historical Society

Indiana State Archives

Indiana State Library

Indiana Historical Bureau

The Nineteen’s 19: 1778 to 1850 sourcebook is a companion to Our Documents: A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service, published in cooperation with The History Channel, National History Day, the National Archives, and the USA Freedom Corps. The Nineteen’s 19 publication features nineteen documents that are representative of Hoosier life, culture, politics, and economics from the territorial period to 1850. Lesson plans highlighting three of the documents are also included.

43 pp • © 2004 • paper

The Real Stuff:

Using Primary Sources in the Classroom

Published By

Indiana Historical Society

This packet provides you with and introduction to primary sources, categories of primary sources with examples, practice exercises to use in the classroom, analysis worksheets for various forms of primary sources, and a variety of support materials, including Web sites, bibliographies, and recommendations from the Library of Congress.

Please note- the materials were developed with the middle and high school students in mind. However, they are designed to be flexible and can be used with elementary classes as well. You should feel free to adapt the exercises and worksheets to best accomadte the needs of your classroom.

67 pp. paper

The Sword & the Pen

A Life of Lew Wallace

Ray E. Boomhower

Published By

Indiana Historical Society Press

The ups and downs of Lew Wallace’s amazing days are told in this new biography for young readers. Written by award-winning Hoosier historian and author Ray E. Boomhower, The Sword & the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace includes numerous photographs and illustrations of Wallace and the people he met and events he participated in during his lifetime.

The son of an Indiana governor, Wallace became passionate about books and combat. He tried to win lasting fame though service for the Union cause on the battlefield during the Civil War, but instead won honor and glory through a quieter pastime: writing. His novel Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ became one of the country’s best loved books and was made into two successful Hollywood films.

At various times in his life, Wallace also was a lawyer, and Indiana state senator, vice president of the court-martial that tried the conspirators behind the assassination of President Lincoln, governor of New Mexico Territory during the days of outlaw Billy the Kid, and a diplomat who represented the United States in Turkey.

Wallace dreamed always of glory and lived a life full of adventures, triumphs, and tragedies. He remains one of the most colorful and important figures in the Hoosier States history.

162 pp • © 2005 • cloth • b&w illustrations • ISBN: 0-87195-186-x

Spinning Through Clouds: Tales from an Early Hoosier Aviator

Max E. Knight

 Aviation pioneers donned leather helmets and fur-lined goggles, climbed into open cockpits, and flew by their feelings rather than by instruments. They looped, spun, hedge hopped, and landed in farm pastures.

Max Knight began flying in 1936 at the age of ten. In his book, Spinning Through Clouds: Tales from an Early Hoosier Aviator, Knight relates the flying adventures he and others enjoyed in and around his father’s airport near Lynn, Indiana. Suitable for young adult and adult readers, the book also explores stories of early state and national aviation history with characters such as Roscoe Turner and Amelia Earhart.

Paper, ISBN 978-0-87195-256-1, 224 pps., 8x8, b/w illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index, Jan. 2008