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We the People

The Michigan Humanities Council was founded in 1974 as the state's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The National Endowment for the Humanities offers many grant opportunities, including the new We the People initiative to help fund American history programs.

NEH Announces Latest We the People Funding for Projects Encouraging the Study of U.S. History and Culture

Over $15 million in Total Awards and Offers Approved for 260 Humanities Projects

WASHINGTON (December 20, 2007)—The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today 62 awards totaling more than $1 million to support We the People projects aimed at reinvigorating the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. Over the five years since its inception, the NEH We the People program has provided support to 1,377 projects undertaken by scholars, teachers, filmmakers, museums, libraries, and other individuals and institutions. The following We the People projects from Michigan received awards:

Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
[Preservation Assistance Grants] $5,000
Project Director: Mary Heininger
Project Title: Conservation Assessment and Environmental Monitoring at Fair Lane, the Estate of Henry and Clara Ford
Description: Preservation planning and environmental monitoring at "Fair Lane," a National Historic Landmark, built in 1915 for Henry and Clara Ford. The historic house museum, with its original furnishings as well as period and reproduction pieces, is used to examine the Ford family's impact on American life. A recent NEH consultation grant is helping the museum develop interpretive planning for the site.

[Preservation Education and Training] $300,000
Project Director: Nancy McGovern
Project Title: Digital Preservation Management Training
Description: Four week-long workshops for advanced training in the preservation of digital materials in cultural institutions and six shorter topical workshops, addressing selected issues in depth. A total of 192 members of the managerial and technical staffs of collecting institutions would participate. In addition, an online introductory tutorial on the basics of digital preservation would be freely available.

[Fellowships for University Teachers] $50,400
Project Director: Boris Kment
Project Title: A Philosophic Analysis of the Concept of Possibility

East Lansing:
Michigan State University
[Fellowships for University Teachers] $50,400
Project Director: Walter Hawthorne
Project Title: Forging an Atlantic Creole Culture: Africans on the Upper Guinea Coast, in Portugal, and in Northeast Brazil, c. 1600-1800

Houghton:
Michigan Technological University
[Preservation Assistance Grants] $4,797
Project Director: Erik Nordberg
Project Title: Environmental Monitoring, Damage Mitigation, and Disaster Response Preparation for Archival Collections
Description: The purchase of preservation supplies and equipment for the Michigan Tech Archive and the Copper County Historical Collections documenting the social, cultural, economic and educational history of Michigan's Keweenaw copper mining district. Holdings include books, manuscripts, photographs, engineering drawings, and historic newspapers.

Jackson:
Ella Sharp Museum
[Preservation Assistance Grants] $5,000
Project Director: Jim Zuleski
Project Title: Preserving the Ella Sharp Textile Collection Phase III
Description: Purchasing preservation materials to rehouse historical clothing collections from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collections include men's, women's and children's clothing and accessories that relate to the history, culture, and daily life of south-central Michigan.

NEH announces $17.5 million in awards and offers for 118 projects

Awards include 79 We the People projects in U.S. history and culture

WASHINGTON (May 31, 2007)–The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that 118 successful applicants will receive a total of $17.5 million in grants and offers of matching funds for projects designed to advance humanities research and prepare scholarly editions, provide high quality public programming on television and in libraries, support projects in U.S. history and culture offered by state humanities councils, preserve and stabilize significant humanities collections, and support long-term plans for strengthening humanities programming at cultural institutions. The followingprojects from Michigan received awards:

Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
[Collaborative Research] $100,000
Project Director: Donald Lopez
Project Title: The Golden Chronicle: Translation of a 20th Century Tibetan Text
Description: Translation of The Golden Chronicle, the Story of a Cosmopolitan's Pilgrimage, by the Tibetan monk, philosopher, and artist, Gendün Chöpel (1905-1951). The Chronicle is considered the most significant work of Tibetan scholarship of the 20th century. (24 months)

[Stabilization Grants] OUTRIGHT: $275,000
Project Director: Sharon Herbert ADDITIONAL MATCH: $25,000
Project Title: Kelsey Museum Collections Storage
Description: The relocation of archaeological artifacts to a new repository and purchase of storage furniture for rehousing the collection from the Egyptian Graeco-Roman site of Karanis.

Brimley:
Bay Mills Community College
[Small Grants to Libraries] $1,000
Project Director: Richard Elder
We the People Project Title: Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries

Detroit:
Detroit Historical Society
[Stabilization Grants] $113,100
Project Director: James Suhay
We the People Project Title: Museum Security Upgrade Project
Description: Technological upgrades to the society's security system to preserve 200,000 artifacts reflecting history of Detroit.

Kalamazoo:
Western Michigan University
[Scholarly Editions] $100,000
Project Director: Catherine Julien
Project Title: Writing in the Wake of Exploration: Documents from the Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Expedition to the Pantanal, 1540-1555
Description: Preparation of an edition of the documents, commentaries, and narrative of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of the Paraguay River. (17 months)

Lansing:
Michigan Humanities Council
[We the People Grants for State Humanities Councils] OUTRIGHT: $136,560
Project Director: Cynthia Dimitrijevic ADDITIONAL MATCH: $10,000
We the People Project Title: The Great Michigan Read
Description: "The Great Michigan Read," a statewide literature and literacy initiative focused on Ernest Hemingway's short-stories collection The Nick Adams Stories. Activities include reading and discussion groups, exhibits, a Hemingway film festival, and a Michigan author homecoming.

Petoskey:
Petoskey Public Library
[Small Grants to Libraries] $1,000
Project Director: Karen Sherrard
We the People Project Title: Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country: A Traveling Exhibition for Libraries

NEH Approves 2008 Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops
for School Teachers and Community College Faculty

WASHINGTON (August 8, 2007)–The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced the 26 successful applicants to host the We the People 2008 Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops for school teachers and community college faculty. Next summer will be the fifth year NEH has offered the program, which has already allowed over 7,500 educators from across the United States to travel to historic landmarks for intensive, week-long workshops to deepen their knowledge—and their students' knowledge—of the nation's history.

The 2008 Landmarks of American History and Culture for community college faculty is: “Henry Ford and the History of American Industry, Labor, and Culture,” Henry Ford Community College, Dearborn, MI

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NEH offers new awards up to $1 million for major traveling exhibitions

(November 28, 2006)—The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced a new category of grants that will offer up to $1 million for the implementation of major traveling exhibitions that present significant topics in the humanities. Under the current guidelines for implementation grants to museums and historical organizations, all other awards for public programming are limited to $400,000.

"NEH hopes to encourage our nation's cultural institutions to 'think big' in offering major exhibitions in multiple venues," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole in making the announcement. "By supporting compelling presentations of significant topics in history, art history, archaeology, and other humanities disciplines, the Chairman's Special Awards will help these exhibitions reach the largest possible audiences."
Grants made through the Chairman's Special Award will support large-scale traveling, exhibitions of national visibility that have exceptional potential for attracting large numbers of visitors. Museums and historical organizations applying for a Chairman's Special Award should propose exhibitions that show unusual promise in terms of disseminating important ideas in the humanities in ways that would be broadly appealing to the public. Proposals should also include a strong companion Web site or other creative digital component that significantly enhances the humanities content of the project or broadens its dissemination to audiences.

Applications for the first Chairman's Special Awards must be submitted via Grants.gov by January 23, 2007. Information on how to apply appears on the NEH Web site (www.neh.gov) with guidelines for Implementation Grants for Museums and Historical Organizations. Institutions considering applying for a Chairman's Special Award may also obtain information by calling NEH's Division of Public Programs at 202-606-8269 or by sending an e-mail to publicpgms@neh.gov.

New grant program, "Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership"

http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/Digital_Partnership.html

Contact the staff of NEH's Division of Preservation and Access at 202-606-8570 and preservation@neh.gov.

WASHINGTON (December 20, 2006)–The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invite applications to a new digital humanities grant competition sponsored by the two federal agencies. The new grant program, "Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership," seeks applications for innovative, collaborative humanities projects using the latest digital technologies for the benefit of the American public, humanities scholarship, and the nation's cultural community.

"The NEH partnership with the IMLS, which is one of five new programs launched under the Endowment's Digital Humanities Initiative, should accelerate the development of new technological tools and applications to the study of the humanities," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "Our ultimate goal is to make more education and scholarly resources more broadly available to more people."
"This partnership and this new grant competition hold great promise for our nation's libraries and museums," said IMLS Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice. "Libraries and museums connect people to information and ideas; these grants will spur innovation and new collaborations, and they will advance the role of cultural repositories in online teaching, learning, and research."

Chairman Cole and Director Radice announced in late September that the two federal agencies together will dedicate $1.5 million to Advancing Knowledge. In announcing the partnership, they noted that digital technology developments to support science research are outpacing the development of such advances for the humanities. Both agree that the collaboration of the two federal agencies can help turn that around. Through this new partnership, NEH and IMLS will help teachers, scholars, museums, and libraries take advantage of developing technology. Successful projects funded through this partnership will explore new ways to share, examine, and interpret humanities collections in a digital environment and develop new uses and audiences for existing digital resources.
Grants awarded through Advancing Knowledge will bring together museum, library, archives, and IT professionals with humanities scholars to use innovative approaches in digital technology to provide new perspectives on humanities collections, offer new interpretive contexts, and allow existing resources to be widely shared. Nonprofit institutions interested in applying can find guidelines online at www.neh.gov. The deadline for applications to the Advancing Knowledge grant program is March 27, 2007, and applications must be submitted through www.Grants.gov. The first awards will be announced in late summer.

NEH Announces We the People Challenge Grants

As part of its We the People initiative, NEH invites proposals for challenge grants designed to help institutions and organizations secure long-term improvements in and support for humanities activities that explore significant themes and events in American history, thereby advancing knowledge of the founding principles of the United States in their full historical and institutional context. Grants may be used to support long-term costs such as construction and renovation, purchase of equipment, acquisitions, and conservation of collections. Grants may also be used to establish or enhance endowments that generate expendable earnings for program activities. Because of the matching requirements, these NEH grants also strengthen the humanities by encouraging nonfederal sources of support. Applications are welcome from colleges and universities, museums, public libraries, research institutions, historical societies and historic sites, public television and radio stations, scholarly associations, state humanities councils, and other nonprofit entities. Programs that involve the collaboration of multiple institutions are eligible, as well, but one institution must serve as the lead agent and formal applicant of record.

For more information, visit www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/wtpchallenge.html or contact Contact NEH's Office of Challenge Grants at 202-606-8309 or e-mail challenge@neh.gov. Hearing-impaired applicants can contact NEH via TDD at 1-866-372-2930.

NEH Grant Awards: June 2006

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that 171 successful applicants will receive a total of $24.8 million in grants and offers of matching funds for projects designed to advance humanities research and prepare scholarly editions, provide high quality public programming on television and in libraries, support projects in U.S. history and culture offered by state humanities councils, preserve and stabilize significant humanities collections, and support long-term plans for strengthening humanities programming at cultural institutions. Six of the projects receving awards were from Michigan, including the MHC's We the People grants program.

Detroit: Detroit Public Library
[Libraries Implementation] $1,000
Project Director: Barbara Martin
Project Title: Jazz Legacy: An American Art Form
Description: Implementation of a film viewing and discussion program about the history and interpretation of jazz.

Grand Rapids: Calvin College
[Challenge Grants] CHALLENGE (3-to-1) MATCH: $500,000
Project Director: Daniel Bays
Project Title: Stepping East: Asian Studies at Calvin College
Description: Endowment for an Asian Studies program, including faculty development, visiting scholars, a lectureship, course releases for faculty program administrators, acquisitions, and office staffing.

Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids Community Media Center
[Libraries Implementation] $1,000
Project Director: Steve Warner
Project Title: Jazz Legacy: An American Art Form
Description: Implementation of a film viewing and discussion program about the history and interpretation of jazz.

Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University
[Scholarly Editions] $100,000
Project Director: Catherine Julien
Project Title: Writing in the Wake of Exploration: Documents from the Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Expedition to the Pantanal, 1540-1555
Description: Preparation of an edition of the documents, Commentaries, and Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's exploration of the Paraguay River. (24 months)

Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University
[Scholarly Editions] $100,000
Project Director: Paul Szarmach
Project Title: A Digital Edition of Cambridge, Pembroke College MS 25
Description: An electronic edition of Cambridge Pembroke College MS 25, an eleventh-century collection of Latin sermons from which many Old English translations were produced. (24 months)

Lansing: Michigan Humanities Council
[Grants for State Humanities Councils] OUTRIGHT: $131,560
Project Director: Cynthia Dimitrijevic
ADDITIONAL MATCH: $15,000
We the People Project Title: We Made Michigan...We the People
Description: To support a grant program conducted by the Michigan Humanities Council that invites proposals for projects focused on important issues and events in both Michigan's and the United States’ history and culture.

Documenting Endangered Languages Grants with the National Science Foundation

Ypsilanti: Eastern Michigan University
Project Director: Veronica Grondona
Title: "Wichí: Documentation, Transcription and Training"
Amount: $226,000

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Project Director: Jeffrey Heath
Title: "Dogon languages of Mali"
Amount: $209,961

Public Programs: INTERPRETING AMERICA'S HISTORIC PLACES

Places where history was made have a special power to connect people to the past and to impress upon us the deeper lessons of our history.  NEH invites proposals for public programs that exploit the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history. 

Are you preserving an historic place?  If so, you might also want to think
about exhibits, interpretive materials, heritage tourism partnerships, or
other strategies for helping the public to learn more about your historic
place, and the people, stories, events, and ideas that make it a significant
part of American history.

"Interpreting America's Historic Places" grants support public humanities
programs that use one or more historic sites to interpret important topics
in American history.  Projects can interpret a single historic site, a
series of sites, whole neighborhoods, communities or towns, or larger
geographic regions.

September 12, 2006, is the deadline for proposals for both Consultation
Grants and Planning Grants for Interpreting America's Historic Places. 
January 23, 2007, is the deadline for proposals for Implementation Grants.

For guidelines and further information about INTERPRETING AMERICA'S HISTORIC
PLACES grants, visit
www.neh.fed.us/grants/guidelines/historicplaces.html.

To speak with a program officer about an INTERPRETING AMERICA'S HISTORIC
PLACES proposal, call 202-606-8269 or send an e-mail to publicpgms@neh.gov.

NEH GRANT AWARDS: April 2006

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that 281 successful applicants will receive a total of $20.1 million in grants or offers of matching funds for projects designed to advance research in the humanities, provide high quality public programming in museums and libraries, strengthen and enrich humanities education, preserve our most important cultural resources, and provide greater access to them. Seven NEH grants were awarded in Michigan. They are:

• The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor received a $180,000 Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development grant for "The China Mirror Project: Object-based Case Studies for Teaching China Humanities." The development of six additional modules for The China Mirror Project, an online resource in Chinese culture which consists of case studies of cultural objects.
• Catherine Sanok of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, received a $5,000 summer stipend grant for "The Afterlife of English Saints: Religion, Gender, and National Identity in Pre-modern England"
• ConVida - Popular Arts of the Americas in Detroit received a $40,000 Special Projects Planning grant for "Bandits and Heroes, Poets and Saints: An Introduction to the Popular Arts of the Northeast of Brazil Description: Planning for a three-part traveling exhibition exploring the fusion of European, African, and indigenous traditions in popular art in northeastern Brazil."
• Michigan State University received a $275,000 Preservation/Access Projects grant for the "Quilt Index, Phase III." Phase III of the Quilt Index, which would integrate data on twelve additional quilt collections and contextual materials into the online repository, currently holding data on 4 state quilt projects and 3 institutional collections.
• Nathan Schlueter of Hillsdale College received a $5,000 summer stipend grant for "Utopia Fiction: Recovering the Political Science of the Imagination."
• The Brennan Law Library, Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing received a $1,000 Libraries, Implementation grant for "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation: A Traveling Exhibition." The traveling panel exhibition incorporates more than 60 rare documents and drawings and the latest scholarship on Lincoln's role in the emancipation of slaves during the Civil War.
• The Lincoln Township Public Library in Stevensville received a $1,000 Libraries, Implementation grant for "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation: A Traveling Exhibition."

Michigan Libraries selected for 2006 We the People Bookshelf, "Becoming American"

• Ada, Ada Vista Elementary Library
• Allendale, Allendale Township Library
• Bath, Bath High School Library, Bath Middle School Library
• Belding, Belding Area School Library, Belding Middle School
• Benton Harbor, Benton Harbor Public Library
• Brimley, Bay Mills Community College Library and Heritage Center
• Cadillac, Cadillac Wexford County Public Library
• Camden, Camden Township Library
• Cedarville, Les Cheneaux Community School
• Clawson, Blair Memorial Library
• Clinton Township, Macomb County Library
• Coldwater, Branch District Library
• Commerce, Walled Lake Northern
• Dearborn, Henry Ford Elementary Media Center, Maples Elementary School Media Center
• Dearborn Heights, St. Albert the Great School Library
• Delton, Delton District Library
• Detroit, Detroit Public Library, Bowen Branch, Detroit Public Library, Children's Library, John E. Clark Elementary
• Dowagiac, Dowagiac District Library
• Dundee, Dundee Branch Library
• East Lansing, East Lansing Public Library
• Eastpointe, Eastpointe Memorial Library
• Farmington Hills, Farmington Community Library
• Flint, International Academy of Flint Library
• Franklin, Huda School and Montessori Library
• Freeland, Freeland Middle/High School Media Center
• Fremont, Fremont Area District Library
• Garden City, Garden City Public Library
• Grand Haven, Loutit District Library
• Grand Ledge, Grand Ledge High School Library
• Grand Rapids, Kec Oakleigh Elem. School Special Education
• Hamtramck, Dickinson East Elementary, Dickinson West Elementary, Holbrook Elementary, Kosciuszko Middle School Library
• Hudson, Hudson Public Library
• Hudsonville, Gary Byker Memorial Library of Hudsonville
• Ionia, Freedom Acres School Library, Ionia Public School Library
• Ironwood, Ironwood Carnegie Library
• Jackson, Jackson District Library, Trinity Lutheran School
• Kalamazoo, Comstock High School Library, Heritage Christian Academy
• Kinde, North Huron
• Kingsford, Breitung Township Schools
• Lake Linden, Lake Linden-Hubbell School/Public Library
• Lake Odessa, Lakewood School Library
• Lansing, Capital Area District Library, Hope Borbas, Okemos Public Library
• Mass City, Greenland Township Library
• Mendon, Mendon Township Library
• Mio, Mio AuSable Schools Media Center/Library
• Mount Clemens, St. Mary School Library
• New Hudson, Lyon Township Public Library
• Newport, Saint Charles School Library
• Norway, Solomonson Branch Library
• Novi, Franklin Road Christian School Library, Novi High School Media Center
• Palo, Monty Miller Library
• Perry, Edna Bentley Memorial Library
• Pigeon, Laker School District Library
• Portland, Portland District Library, Portland School Library
• Remus, Wheatland Township Library
• River Rouge, River Rouge Public Library
• Rochester, Rochester Hills Public Library
• Saginaw, Bridgeport Public Library
• Saranac, Saranac School Library
• Schoolcraft, Schoolcraft Community Library
• Southfield, Leonhard Media Center
• Spring Lake, Lake Hills Elementary School
• Wayne, Wayne Public Library
• Woodland, Spindler Memorial Library
• Zeeland, Lincoln Elementary School Library
  

HUMANITIES ENDOWMENT AWARDS $12 MILLION FOR 346 NEW GRANTS
Awards include 50 We the People projects in U.S. history and culture

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 21, 2005)--The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that 346 successful applicants will receive a total of $12 million in grants or offers of matching funds for projects in the following programs: NEH's special initiative, "Recovering Iraq's Past"; the U.S. Newspaper program; fellowships and faculty research awards; preservation and access grants to help cultural institutions protect and preserve their collections; and We the People projects, a special recognition by the NEH for model projects that advance the study, teaching, and understanding of American history and culture. "The humanities convey the story of civilization, and today's NEH grant recipients are deeply engaged in advancing that story through new scholarly research and taking important strides to preserve the material record of our history and culture," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "NEH supports projects that are rigorous, wide-ranging, and substantial in their examination and illumination of the great events and great ideas of the past in our own nation and throughout the world."

Michigan projects receiving NEH awards are:

Albion: Marcy Sacks, Albion College -- $40,000 Fellowships for University Teachers grant for "Joe Louis at the Crossroads of America" (A We the People project)

Ann Arbor: Miranda Brown, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor -- $40,000 Fellowships for University Teachers grant for " Chinese Medical Epistemology in Transition, ca. 350 BCE-220 CE."

Ann Arbor: Margaret Somers, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor -- $40,000 Fellowships for University Teachers grant for "The Making of Modern Citizenship Rights, England, 1200-1850."

Detroit: Detroit Historical Museum -- $5,000 Preservation/Access Projects grant for "An assessment of the security needs at the Detroit Historical Museum, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, and Historic Fort Wayne, which house 150,000 artifacts reflecting the history of Detroit and southeastern Michigan."

Detroit: Pewabic Pottery -- $2,400 Preservation/Access Projects grant for "A preservation assessment of Pewabic Pottery's archival collection of historic photographs, drawings, blueprints, and other documents relating to the work of the Stratton studio."

Douglas: Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society -- $2,500 Preservation/Access Projects grant for "A preservation and access assessment for an archives and manuscript collection that documents the development of the Great Lakes region from the mid 19th century to the present."

Jackson: Ella Sharp Museum -- $3,000 Preservation/Access Projects grant for "Purchasing storage materials to rehouse a 52-item collection of 19th- and 20th-century textiles in a newly constructed storage area."

Beverly Hills Student Wins 2005 NEH "Idea of America" Essay Contest

The Michigan Humanities Council extends its congratulations to Ian Gilbert of Beverly Hills, Michigan, for being named one of six winners of the third annual NEH "Idea of America" essay contest for high school juniors. The winners were announced on October 18 in Washington D.C.

The winners of the 2005 "Idea of America" essay contest (listed alphabetically) are Ian Gilbert, 17, of Beverly Hills, Mich.; Danielle Lindsay, 17, of Melville, N.Y.; Emily Lockwood, 18, of Conyers, Ga.; Carmiel Schickler, 17, of Port Washington, N.Y.; Matthew Schumann, 18, of Ridgefield, Conn.; and Kevin Zhou, 16, of Danville, Calif. Each winner will receive a prize of $1,000. In addition, NEH will honor the six winners and present them with medallions recognizing their achievement at a national award ceremony held Oct. 18 in Washington, D.C.

This year's essayists responded to the question: "How were the tenets of . . . totalitarian movements different from the ideals that unite Americans? How did the ideals embodied in the American founding prevail?"

"These young essayists recognized the resiliency of our nation and its citizens through many global challenges of the 20th century," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "I congratulate the writers on their winning essays, and want to thank the many students who submitted quality essays."

Launched by President George W. Bush in September 2002, the We the People initiative strengthens the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. This year's essay contest drew entries from 11th-grade public, private, and home-schooled students across the nation. Eligible essays, submitted by the April 15, 2005, deadline, were evaluated first by 16 history teachers. Members of the National Council on the Humanities then reviewed the highest scoring essays and recommended finalists to the NEH Chairman, who selected the winners.

Here is an excerpt from Gilbert's essay: "Communism and Fascism used individuals' labor to further abstract ideals, but dictators soon took control and distorted the ideals to suit their own purposes. … Democracy has allowed individuals to work for themselves and to use their products as they wish. While the citizens of Communist and Fascist nations slaved away for the benefit of a dictator, the governments of democratic countries such as the United States trust citizens to make their own decisions."