Spartacus Educational is a free

online encyclopedia An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, is a digital encyclopedia accessible through the Internet. Some examples include pre-World Wide Web services that offered the '' Academic American Encyclopedia'' beginning in 1980, Enc ...

with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects, principally the struggle for equality and democracy as part of

British history The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene, the current geological epoch, which star ...

from 1700 and the history of the United States.

Foundation and content

Based in the United Kingdom, Spartacus Educational was established as a book publisher in 1984 by former history teacher John Simkin and Judith Harris. It became an online publisher in September 1997. It grew into a large database of primary and secondary sources on a wide variety of subjects, including

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, abolitionism, Chartism,

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

(biographies of 230 women),

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, and the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. Wherever possible, Simkin said that the history is told 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." The

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Reception

According to Marilyn Elias of the Southern Poverty Law Center, speaking about the

assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...

, "the site simply reproduces a host of

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

that first appeared elsewhere". Elias also describes the site as "very shoddy, not well-sourced", citing Arthur Goldwag, author of ''Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies''. The site attracted controversy with its American entries and its recognition of British media in the 1930s supporting Oswald Moseley and Adolf Hitler. Of Spartacus Educational, Monica Burns, an EdTech consultant for Edutopia, a free online resource in history for teaching students how to comprehend informational text, wrote in 2013 that it is "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." In 2022, the new edition of ''Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School: a Companion to School Experience'' referred to Spartacus Educational as invaluable thesaurus of historical knowledge, including suggested classroom activities.

References

External links

Spartacus Educational website
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{{authority control Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom British online encyclopedias Educational book publishing companies History websites of the United Kingdom Online encyclopedias