The collision of technology and education incites hyperbole: digital utopians dream of an open world of free learning while digital skeptics warn of profit-driven enterprises privileging shallow instruction from de-skilled educators. But beyond the dreams and beyond the nightmares, the digital humanities have created space for practical projects that address practical problems. After a year-long collaboration, over 350 historians have produced a beta edition of The American Yawp (www.americanyawp.com), a free and online, collaboratively built, open American history textbook designed for college-level history courses. Unchecked by profit motives or business models, we sought to balance openness with the rigors of academic review. Balancing academic quality with popular readability, The American Yawp offers a multi-layered, democratic alternative to the American past available freely for all.
