Here are some FREE and original Social Studies themed puns and illustrations that i have drawn and created for your enjoyment. You are welcome to print and frame any of the following with reckless abandon… I only ask that you direct other people to back to my website where you found them!
Click on the text link below each image to download the PDF.
(These are updated with a new print every Tues. and Thurs.)
Students are always asking me “Why is the country of Africa so poor?”
To which I reply that A) Africa is a continent and not a single country and B) you can’t understand anything about the countries of Africa until you understand one fundamental thing about their history: Colonialism.
500 years ago, the overwhelming majority of humanity was all living the same way- in small bands practicing their own forms of government, economics, religion, art, etc… and then a handful of European countries arrived to change all of that. About 50 years ago, most of those African countries got their independence and the power-vacuum that the Europeans left was filled with native strongmen… and this entire ordeal has left those countries far behind the West in terms of stability and economic prosperity.
The bad news is that Africa is trailing the developed world… the good news is that it’s not because the people aren’t innovative or due to the land being short on resources. Even though Africa had a rough start and is behind, they are catching up!
In the late 1800s gold was discovered up in north-western Canada and an estimated 100,000 prospectors attempted to stampede the area, setting up boom towns in their wake. The majority of gold-seekers had heard about the news in the papers of Seattle and San Francisco and from the way that the media spun it, it sounded like quick and easy money to the tender foot prospectors (“Just far enough away to be romantic, but just close enough to be accessible,” as historian Pierre Berton described it).
… but, as Jack London would make his own fortune articulating, the hostile realities of nature weren’t going to reward their optimism quite so easily…
Moana 2: Captain Cook Ruins Everything
In 1778, the English captain James Cook made contact with the Hawaiian Islands (which he named the “Sandwich Islands”).
Not even Moana and Maui could stop the imperialism that was about to begin... I don’t expect Disney to make a movie about this one...
The Delicate Balance of a Democratic Republic
America is a Democratic Republic. From it’s inception, our country has always managed a steady and delicate balance between the threat of a strict Democracy (“mob rule”) and a the dangers of a Republic (an “aristocracy”). Maintaining this balance between the extremes has proven to be enormously advantageous, because leaning too far towards one extreme would hamstring us.
Everything that George Washington did as president set a new precedent for the executive branch of our government.
One of the first things that he did (since the Constitution didn’t say that he couldn’t) was to assemble a group of experts to advise him on doing his job. This small group was called his “cabinet,” and every president since has appointed their own cabinet of experts to advise them in doing the job.
Columbus Day, Exactly as it occurred.
During the American Revolution, the 13 colonies got together and built an ad hoc government called "The Articles of Confederation." This government got us through the war, but it was certainly not sustainable once we got our independence. An event called "Shays' Rebellion" illustrated to the newly formed states why we would need a new Constitution.
Right after the Battle of Saratoga (the turning point of the American Revolution), Washington and about 12,000 troops spent the winter at a place called Valley Forge, outside Philadelphia.
Just like an actual “forge,” the hardships of this place refined the Continental Army into a legitimate fighting force. Although about 2,000 men died from hypothermia, malnutrition and disease, those who made it through went on to win the war. This is a real testament to the rewards of tenacity; sticking with challenges even when they are a grueling endurance race.
A Handy Guide to the U.S. Constitution
A handy way to remember the contents of the Constitution:
This is a summary of the entire US Constitution. The document starts by talking about the rights that our government has, and how it should act, before then talking about our rights as citizens.
It’s essentially broken into three articles (about the 3 branches), two articles about the balance between State and Fed (which I model as both sides of the hand- every state also has these three branches as well)… and then the Bill of Rights is tacked on for us as citizens.
“Manifest Destiny” on Halloween
As America expanded westward in the 1800s, there was a philosophy (coined by John O’Sullivan) called “Manifest Destiny” that essentially believed that America owning land all the way to the Pacific Ocean was not only inevitable but also justified.
The thinking was “Why would God have placed all of this land in front of us if He didn’t want us to take it?” As bullet-proof as that logic seemed to the settlers back then, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how it could be problematic when applied to pretty much anything else in life.
Disparity in America’s History
America is a great philosophical, social, political and economic experiment (whose results impact the rest of the world) and sometimes throughout our history we get things HORRIBLY wrong in attempting to "improve." These are the times when we seemingly forget the ideals of equality that our country was established on and these moments are where we can see dark spots of disparity in our proud history.
The good news is that, as an experiment, we continue to evolve and improve, but the bad news is that elements of disparity still exist today. In the spirit of the Great American Experiment, we need to continue to learn from our past mistakes as we improve.
Kaizen!
A Presidential Pardon
One of the rights of the Executive Branch, laid out in the Constitution, is the ability to pardon criminals… in the 1940’s, presidents began to sporadically apply this right to Thanksgiving turkeys as well.
If you think that this tradition is a mockery of the Office, you should have seen Gerald Ford in 1974.
Mammoth Professor
This print was made for a professor and archaeologist- but, since it’s related to Social Studies, here it is as well.
The Cold War was a proxy war- just like a Pokémon battle.
At the end of World War 2, the winning countries got to tell the losing countries how to live their lives- but they were divided over how the world should go about rebuilding itself after the conflict.
Communism gave a lot of structure but Capitalism, while allowing more freedom, seemed a bit more risky. If the Communist and Capitalist superpowers decided to fight it out, it would have been WW3- with nukes- so instead they found surrogates to support.
This led to both the Korean War, the Vietnam War and tensions in Afghanistan.
Gandhi’s Passive Resistance
A pioneer of passive resistance, Mahatma Gandhi undertook 17 (public) fasts in order to galvanize the rest of the world in his quest for Indian independence. The British Empire reacted predictably.
Martin Van Buren- the making of a statesman
Now you can’t un-see it.
America's second president, John Adams, had a tendency of being irascible and made a lot of poor choices... fortunately, his brilliant wife, Abigail, reigned him in most of the time.
Although the social mores of the day kept her from ever having nearly as much credit or appreciation as she deserved, we do have volumes of her letters that she wrote to her husband talking him down... and guiding future historians to the real brains of his administration.
Andrew Jackson came in like a wrecking ball
The first 6 presidents of America were all cut from the same cloth; that is, they were all well-educated and from wealthy elite families... and then Andrew Jackson came along, challenging the assumptions about what it meant to be the president.
Under "Jacksonian Democracy," he felt like the president should be a "Man of the People" and steer the country in the direction that the will of the common people pointed. Instead of giving America what they NEEDED, he gave America what he thought they WANTED- and for this reason the common people loved him... and the well-educated loathed him.
At the end of his second term, he had bankrupted America, displaced thousands of Natives (the "Trail of Tears") and ratcheted up the regional divides that would drive us to a Civil War.
The first 6 American presidents had come from wealthy and well-educated families and their vision of “Democracy” was one where only the most informed (white males) were allowed to vote. Andrew Jackson rolled out something called “Jacksonian Democracy” where far more people (… again, white males) would be able to have a voice that contributed to the direction our country went. Regardless of if they were farmers or factory workers, their voice counted for as much as the well-connected.
We still see the same conflicting views playing out in America today. Some Americans think that those who are not informed or engaged should not cast a vote and interfere with those who are invested, while others insist that no matter what your background, EVERYONE should be able to have a contributing voice in our country, because regardless of their background they live here too.
Before the “Great Depression” America had had a prior one, ingeniously named “The Depression of 1837.” Andrew Jackson felt like the federal bank of America was a monopoly (like the DMV of currency) and so during his second term as president he was bent on destroying the federal bank and making “state banks.” He succeeded in doing this and WAY more money was then printed- making Americans feel rich and happy… but there was no value behind all this money and as he stepped out of office, handing the presidency over to his VP, hyperinflation kicked in and the bubble burst. *Ironically, Jackson’s face wound up on the $20 bill.
America was financially in the dumps. 90% of the factories in the north shut down, and this drove people to where they could start all over again- fueling Westward Expansion!
At the end of World War II Europe was a mess. There was a lot of hostility and diplomatic bridges seemed to be burned- so how did the continent rebound and not ostracize their neighbors who had treated them awfully? By becoming dependent on one another!
It originally began with the “European Coal and Steel Community” and the “European Economic Community” and this foundation of economic dependency on each other eventually morphed into the “European Union.”
Imagine that you hate someone and they hate you. If you have all of their food and they have all of your water, you have to see past each others’ faults in order to survive… over time those hostilities will naturally die down.
Cogs of the Industrial Revolution
Between the late 1700s and the early 1800s people realized that machines (powered by steam or water wheels) could do work faster and more efficiently than people.
This was a major turning point in humanity, as Capitalism became virtue-less in its pursuit of the bottom-line, people’s view of their own self-worth morphed and humans came to be viewed as nothing more than just one more interchangeable cog in a larger machine... but because of the pay and stability, people flocked into cities from their traditional farms.
Along with the growth of cities, this era also led to the use of clocks, the views of modern gender-roles and the formula for our public education system.
300 years after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, a barbarian king named Charles the Great (“Charles” + “Magnificent” = “Charlemagne”) who was the king of a group called “the Franks” (where the “French” would later come from) unified the people within present day France and Germany.
He was quite literally the RULER of the land, as his foot was used as the system of measurement for his kingdom (the “Carolingian System”).
This system would be the arbitrary system of measurement until the French Revolution came up with a more exact measuring system (1 meter= 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole).
Having a measuring system based off of a ruler? What a feat!
The War of 1812 is the single most under-rated event in US History.
Most people know that the White House got burned down during it and that it’s where our national anthem comes from (everyone AT LEAST knows what year the war started in) but I argue that it’s one of the most important parts of our country’s past. Although no one ever talks about it, the effects from the war shaped the course of the way that America would develop even to this day.
Without it, our national reputation would have remained as “Europe Jr,” slavery probably would have fizzled out, relations with Natives would probably look different and American heroes would have stayed confined to just our founding fathers.
Essentially, a summary of the War of 1812 is that England and France were fighting each other and this inconvenienced Americans, so our 30-year-old nation figured that we should declare war on England, a superpower, and maybe even add Canada to our country. After the first two years of England mostly ignoring us so that they could shut down Napoleon (who was trying to take over Europe), they turned their full attention to us. We certainly didn’t win the war, but we didn’t get obliterated either... which was impressive in its own right. Because of it, America would never be the same.
A Pair of Roman Caesars
The Roman Empire (at its height) was around 1.7 million square miles… which is roughly about 1/2 the size of the United States today. Having only one dictator managing it all by himself was understandably difficult, so in AD 284 Diocletian decided to split the empire into two halves: The Western half (which fell apart about 120 years later) and the Eastern half- which was re-branded “Byzantium” and lasted up until 1453 (like 40 years before Columbus sailed the “ocean blue!”).
Lewis and Clark Make an Important Announcement (cont. below)
Lewis and Clark Make an Important Announcement (part 2)
Essentially, when Jefferson sent the “Corps of Discovery” into the Louisiana Territory to map out the land and find the Northwest Passage, he instructed them to peacefully reach out to the native tribes that they came into contact with, informing them that their land had been purchased by a larger nation and that more settlers would be coming soon.
… Oh- and Lewis and Clark also handed out these resplendent medallions to really seal the deal.
The Most Sincere Form of Flattery
If you ever look at the Greek and Roman civilizations side-by-side, you’ll see a striking resemblance. Rome, like any little brother who copies everything that their older sibling does, would insist that the imitation was only because they were so impressed with them. Greece, like any older sibling, would say that this relationship was obnoxious and taxing.
Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
When Washington stepped down as being America’s first president, he opened up the nation to its first real taste of political divisions- our first two political parties: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. Federalists (like John Adams and Alexander Hamilton) believed that America should grow up to have a strong national government and that we should have an economy based on manufacturing and shipping. Democratic-Republicans (like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) believed that we should be a limited national government (where individual states had more power) and that we should have an economy based on farming and simple living.
Both parties loved America and wanted what they believed was in its best interest, but both of their visions were at odds with one another. This is like a couple trying to raise a child with two very different parental visions.
Alexander the Great took Greek culture, ideas and values and spread them all the way to India in 323 BC.The independent, innovative and inquisitive philosophies of Greece were then merged with the other cultures that they bumped into. From the language that we speak today (a large percentage comes from Greek roots, let alone our alphabet), the way that we do education, our styles of entertainment, our standards of physical beauty to us wearing pants (a Persian thing that Alexander made “cool”), this event took the seeds of the “Western World” and began to make them global.
The Irascible John Adams
When John Adams (America’s second president) replaced George Washington, the office of the president of the United States was still being defined- so no one really knew how much power the executive branch really had. When immigrants and his rival political party started criticizing him, though, he just couldn’t live with the thought. He pushed for immigrants to be deported and for newspaper editors to be jailed. One guy got locked up for saying that he “belonged in a madhouse.” Being a good leader in a democracy means that you understand people have the right to be wrong- and you don’t let their criticisms define you.
Fortunately, America’s government was built so that even though the president can steer the direction of the car, Congress prevents him for driving the nation off a cliff. The next president, Thomas Jefferson, corrected the course.
Washington Lets Go
Part of being a parent is raising your kids to have a better life and more opportunities than you did… and that requires investing in them your family’s values, culture and history before launching them on their own independent trajectory… This is exactly what Washington did when he stepped down after two terms as president.
He showed America what the executive branch could look like, but he knew that it could never mature into its own independent thing if he kept holding on- and so once he felt like it was strong enough to make it on its own, he did the hardest thing and let go.
… But think how funny it would look if a grown-up lacked the self decency and just couldn’t let go! If they kept holding on to their teenager’s bike seats and handlebars when they rode to high school it would be laughable if not tragic… and so America would have been viewed if our founding father hadn’t had the courage to voluntarily resign himself!
The French Revolution: An American Paradox
In order to break away from its empire, America had to go to France- the enemy of England- in order to borrow money, troops, ships and weapons for winning the War of Independence. Once we got our freedom, the people of France thought that they would try to do the same thing with THEIR empire- although their definition of “Independence” looked a bit different than ours. Once they cut off the heads of the people that we owed money to, we had to ask ourselves: A) do we still owe “France” any money and B) do we support democracy even when we don’t like the outcome?
While they may have lost sight of the historical roots of Christmas, along with its heart of selfless charity, the Hessians DID sure know how to throw a holiday party.
Mrs. Ethington’s Handy Way to Remember the Bill of Rights.
As it says in the footnote, this illustration is shamelessly lifted from one of the best educational videos on youtube. These hand signals (“TPR”) are the BEST way that I know to get kids to remember the rights that we are given in the Constitution.
In my experience, this is the BEST way that I know to memorize the Bill of Rights.
Copyright © 2019. Timothy Love | Zeke’s Guide to History and the Humanities | All rights reserved.