Teaching Twentieth Century American History Topics Through the Rearview Mirror of Motorsports

Abstract

Over the last forty years, motorsports has grown to become one of the most popular spectator sports in the United States, second only to professional football. Often motorsports reflected the narratives of the times. The authors of this article, one a historian and one a business professor, teamed up to teach an interdisciplinary history course at a Midwestern university that combined aspects of U.S. history and motorsports. The university offered an interdisciplinary program in motorsports management housed in the College of Business. The course earned foundational studies credit under the historical studies category and was available to all undergraduate students. As a result of enrolling and completing the course, students often demonstrated an even higher level of interdisciplinary learning and American history recall than expected by the two instructors.