About James L. Smith
Jim Smith retired after teaching history and humanities in a public high school for twenty-nine years, but has recently returned to teaching history part-time at an early college high school. He also teaches community education classes on music history. When he is not teaching he works as a writer, publisher, and educational consultant, leading professional development workshops on how to teach history, analytical thinking, and writing.
Jim is the author of a history textbook titled Ideas That Shape A Nation, a book that has been endorsed by two Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, as well as other scholars and teachers throughout the United States. He is also the author of articles found in such publications as Phi Delta Kappan, AP Central, and The Journal of Southern History.
Jim has been a recipient of the James Madison Fellowship, the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, and a two-time recipient of the William Robertson Coe Fellowship. He has two masters degrees (history and government) from New Mexico State University and has completed graduate and post-graduate work at American University and Stanford University.
In 2003 Jim was named the New Mexico Teacher of the Year, and in 2004 the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History selected him as the U.S. History Teacher of the Year. In 2006 he was selected as a finalist for the National Teachers Hall of Fame.