Back Cover: Table Tennis: A Description of the Game, with Rules and Instructions for Playing [Page 1]. New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1902. Library of Congress, Selected Digitized Books, Control No. 03011988. Image 9 of 84. https://www.loc.gov/item/03011988/.

Among the digitized historical newspapers in the Library of Congress, a two-sentence news item appears in the May 30, 1901 edition of the Hutchinson Gazette of Hutchinson, Kansas: "'Ping Pong,' a society amusement started in England, has found its way to this side and is increasingly popular. It is a table version of lawn tennis, with celluloid balls, parchment raquets [sic] and a six-inch net."

By 1902, newspapers marveled at the "ping pong mania" affecting the nation—men and women, old and young, masters and servants, cities and suburbs, day and night. "Ping pong fever" seeped into various realms of society, as newspapers published instructions on game play, tips on constructing makeshift equipment (amid reports of "a run on the stores which sell the game"), lists of tournament champions, and poems and humorous stories dedicated to "the Rage." Warnings soon emerged that "pongers" exposed to this "Virulent Malady" were susceptible to a host of new dangers, such "ping pong wrist," "ping pong ankle," eye strain, gambling habits, and angry neighbors. Stories cautioned that ping pong "disturbs the family tranquility," lures players "to the small hours of the morning," and is "conducive to profanity." Of particular concern, "Many women, finding that the corset has hampered their movements when engaged in the strenuous little game, have doffed the troublesome little garment altogether."

Back in Kansas, The Topeka State Journal declared the "Passing of Ping Pong" on July 30, 1903, two years and two months after the Hutchinson Gazette announcement. "The Once Popular Fad Has Spent Itself in Topeka," the Journal wrote, concluding that "Ping pong was an unexplainable craze, a brief manifestation of that intermittent fever to which humanity seems to be subject and which breaks out in just such unexpected ways every ten years or such a matter."

Seventy years later, this short-lived national fad would serve a crucial role in international politics. Hallie Xu, a student participant in the National History Day competition, examines this historical shift in global relations in "A Little Ball Propels the Globe: How Ping Pong Diplomacy Transformed Twentieth-Century Geopolitical Dynamics," which begins on page 105 of this issue.

Competing Interests: Teachers' Beliefs vs. Practices around Citizenship in World History
  by Erin A. Bronstein   (pp. 9-40)

Transforming Sixth-Grade Social Studies from "Just the Facts" to Historical Inquiry: A Case Study
of Teacher Learning
  by Susan R. Goldman and Jacquelynn S. Popp   (pp. 41-75)

Historical Fiction and its Commonplace in Classrooms
  by Annie McMahon Whitlock and Kristy A. Brugar   (pp. 77-102)

Introduction
  by Jane Dabel, The History Teacher   (pp. 103-104)

A Little Ball Propels the Globe: How Ping-Pong Diplomacy Transformed Twentieth-Century Geopolitical Dynamics
  by Hallie Xu, Senior Division   (pp. 105-121)

The Cod Wars: Iceland's Victory Through Diplomacy and the Global Consequences of Their Success
  by Alexander Miller, Junior Division   (pp. 123-141)

Full Reviews Section   (pp. 143-161)

Ball, Philip. The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China
  by Morris Rossabi

Bay, Mia. Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance
  by Sarah-Jane (Saje) Mathieu

Downs, Jim, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, T. K. Hunter, and Timothy Patrick McCarthy, eds. Reckoning with History: Unfinished Stories of American Freedom
  by Richard J. Stocking

Kaldellis, Anthony. Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium
  by Sviatoslav Dmitriev

McBride, Spencer W. Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom
  by Samuel P. Newton

McMahon, Cian T. The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine
  by Caleb Richardson

Mirvis, Stanley. The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a
Diaspora in Transition
  by Holly Snyder

Rosas, Abigail. South Central Is Home: Race and the Power of Community Investment in Los Angeles
  by David-James Gonzales

Testot, Laurent. Cataclysms: An Environmental History of Humanity
  by Brian P. Caton

Wakeman, Rosemary. A Modern History of European Cities: 1815 to the Present
  by Alexander Vari

Watson, Robert P. George Washington's Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City
and a Nation
  by Adam Costanzo

Zevin, Jack. Suspicious History: Questioning the Basis of Historical Evidence
  by Jean-Paul R. Contreras deGuzman

7   Contributors to The History Teacher
162   The History of The History Teacher
165   Questionnaire for Potential Reviewers
166   Membership/Subscription Information
168   Submission Guidelines for The History Teacher

76  Association for Asian Studies: Asia Shorts
122  Society for History Education: Endless Possibilities
142  Society for History Education: The Richard & Louise Wilde Award

Erin A. Bronstein is an Assistant Professor of Practice at Oklahoma State University. She earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 2021. She previously taught middle and high school social studies for seventeen years. Her research interests include world history, citizenship, and the impact of national identity. Her study in this issue was funded by the MSU College of Education Summer Research Fellowship.

Kristy A. Brugar (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in elementary and secondary social studies education. She is also the Department Chair in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and a middle school social studies teacher in Maryland and Michigan.

Susan R. Goldman (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Psychology and Education, and founding co-director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago. She conducts research on subject matter learning, instruction and assessment, and on tools for supporting disciplinary inquiry and engagement. She has developed innovative programs in reading for understanding and disciplinary learning along with teacher professional learning experiences that enable adaptive implementation of these programs.

Alexander Miller is a student at Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California. His paper, "The Cod Wars: Iceland's Victory Through Diplomacy and the Global Consequences of Their Success," won first place in the 2022 National History Day contest Junior Paper division. His academic interests include mathematics and computer science.

Jacquelynn S. Popp (Ph.D., University of Illinois Chicago) is an Associate Professor of Education at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Her research interests include supporting and researching K-12 literacy teaching and learning with a focus on disciplinary literacies, as well as teacher collaborative reflection and professional learning communities.

Annie McMahon Whitlock is an Associate Professor of History/Social Studies at Grand Valley State University and a former middle school social studies teacher who teaches elementary and secondary social studies methods courses. She earned her doctorate from Michigan State University in 2013. Her research is centered on teaching elementary social studies through civic engagement, place-based inquiry, and curriculum integration. Whitlock is the Editor of the peer-reviewed Great Lakes Social Studies Journal, a Michigan Council for the Social Studies publication.

Hallie Xu is a high school student from Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington. Her paper, "A Little Ball Propels the Globe," won first place in the Senior Paper division for National History Day 2022, and an expanded version was published in The Concord Review. She is indebted to the many teachers who helped her transform historical thinking and analysis from hobby to habit. Lastly, she maintains immense gratitude to her mother, whose spoken and written brilliance inspire her every day.