Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects, principally British history from 1700 and the history of the United States.
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Type of site | Online encyclopaedia |
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| Available in | English |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | UK |
| Founder(s) |
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| Launched | September 1997 |
| Written in | Node.js |
Foundation and content
editBased in the United Kingdom, Spartacus Educational was established as a book publisher in 1984 by former history teacher John Simkin and Judith Harris.[1] It became an online publisher in September 1997.[2] It grew into a large database of primary and secondary sources on a wide variety of subjects: World War I, World War II, the Russian Revolution, the campaign against slavery, Chartism, women's suffrage (biographies of 230 women), Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War and the Cold War. Wherever possible, the history is told, Simkin explained, via the words of the people involved in the struggle for equality and democracy.
For World War II, Simkin describes the focus of this encyclopedia as "providing background information on major political leaders from each of the countries involved in the war ... including individuals from a miscellaneous category such as: Chaing Kai-Shek and Josip Tito... The site has the ability to provide more of a well-rounded learning experience by illustrating how the war affected people and places all over the world."[3] The New York Public Library recommended the articles about the history of Germany and Russia as educational resources.[4]
Reception
editAccording to Marilyn Elias of the Southern Poverty Law Center, speaking about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, "the site simply reproduces a host of conspiracy theories that first appeared elsewhere".[5] This author also describes the site as "very shoddy, not well-sourced", citing Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies.[5]
Monica Burns is an EdTech consultant for Edutopia, free online resources in history for teaching students how to comprehend informational text. Of Spartacus Educational, Burns wrote in 2013: "a great resource for global history. It contains free encyclopedia entries that directly connect to primary source documents, making it a perfect tool for educators looking to give students a starting point in their research."[6]
References
edit- ^ "John Simkin - Toulouse June 2003". Vimeo.
- ^ "Interview with John Simkin, 4 June 2009 | History in Education". www.history.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
- ^ OCLC Global Library Organisation (2022). "World Cat Identities". Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
- ^ New York Public Library. "Best of the Web".
- ^ a b Elias, Marilyn (20 November 2013). "Conspiracy Act". Intelligence Report (2013 Winter Issue). Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
- ^ Burns, Monica (6 September 2013). "6 Free Online Resources for Primary Source Documents".