Reacting to the Past is an award–winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters and practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and argument, both written and spoken. Reacting games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences, intersession courses, and honors programs.
Reacting to the Past was originally developed under the auspices of Barnard College and is sustained by the Reacting Consortium of colleges and universities. The Consortium hosts a regular series of conferences and events to support faculty and administrators.
UNC Press is proud to now be the publisher of Reacting to the Past game books, as of July 1, 2022. For more information on the transition, including book schedules, placing course adoption orders, and more, please contact Dino Battista at dino.battista@uncpress.org.
Examination copies and desk copies information (including how to request FREE electronic exam and desk copies) can be found on our For Educators page.
A list of currently available books is below–as well as the titles we have in process to be available following July 2022. Click on a title for more information.
Additional resources for instructors are available for many titles. Instructors do not need to be members of the Reacting Consortium to access these basic instructor materials for published games. All is needed is to set up an instructor account (to prevent students from accessing the role sheets, etc). Here’s the link for creating a non-member account.
Instructors are, however, encouraged to become members, and membership is offered at a minimal cost.
Visit the Reacting Consortium website for more information.
You are also invited to subscribe to the UNC Press RTTP email list. You’ll recieve email alerts whenever new game books are published. To subscribe, click this link.
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676-1677
Race, Class, and Frontier Conflict in Colonial Virginia
By Verdis LeVar Robinson , Paul Otto
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: March 2024
Watergate, 1973-1974
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: December 2023
The Crisis of Catiline
Rome, 63 BCE
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: October 2023
Wrestling with the Reformation in Augsburg, 1530
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: October 2023
The Prado Museum Expansion
The Diverse Art of Latin America
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: September 2023
Greenwich Village, 1913, Second Edition
Suffrage, Labor, and the New Woman
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: April 2023
Democracy in Crisis
Weimar Germany, 1929-1932
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: January 2023
Monuments and Memory-Making
The Debate over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1981-1982
By M. Rebecca Livingstone , Kelly McFall , Abigail Perkiss
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: January 2023
Red Clay, 1835
Cherokee Removal and the Meaning of Sovereignty
By Jace Weaver , Laura Adams Weaver
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Changing the Game
Title IX, Gender, and College Athletics
By Kelly McFall , Abigail Perkiss
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Greenwich Village, 1913
Suffrage, Labor, and the New Woman
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Mexico in Revolution, 1912-1920
By Jonathan Truitt , Stephany Slaughter
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Forest Diplomacy
Cultures in Conflict on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1757
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791
By Jennifer J. Popiel , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Threshold of Democracy
Athens in 403 BCE
By Josiah Ober , Naomi J. Norman , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal, and the Rise of Naturalism, 1861-1864
By Marsha Driscoll , Elizabeth E. Dunn , Dann Siems , B. Kamran Swanson
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Trial of Galileo
Aristotelianism, the "New Cosmology," and the Catholic Church, 1616–1633
By Michael S. Pettersen , Frederick Purnell, Jr. , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Japan, 1941
Between Pan-Asianism and the West
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775-1776
By Bill Offutt
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Needs of Others
Human Rights, International Organizations, and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994
By Kelly McFall
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Chicago, 1968
Policy and Protest at the Democratic National Convention
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Kentucky, 1861
Loyalty, State, and Nation
By Nicolas W. Proctor , Margaret Storey
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Trial of Anne Hutchinson
Liberty, Law, and Intolerance in Puritan New England
By Michael P. Winship , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Defining a Nation
India on the Eve of Independence, 1945
By Ainslie T. Embree , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
Confucianism and the Succession Crisis of the Wanli Emperor, 1587
By Daniel K. Gardner , Mark C. Carnes
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Constitutional Convention of 1787
Constructing the American Republic
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2022
The Remaking of the Medieval World, 1204
The Fourth Crusade
By John J. Giebfried , Kyle C. Lincoln
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: June 2021
Europe on the Brink, 1914
The July Crisis
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: May 2020
Restoring the World, 1945
Security and Empire at Yalta
By Nicolas W. Proctor , John E. Moser
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: May 2020
Food Fight
Challenging the USDA Food Pyramid, 1991
By Susan K. Henderson , David E. Henderson
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: September 2020
Building the Italian Renaissance
Brunelleschi's Dome and the Florence Cathedral
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: July 2019
Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: March 2019
Modernism versus Traditionalism
Art in Paris, 1888-1889
By Gretchen K. McKay , Nicolas W. Proctor , Michael A. Marlais
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: March 2018
Environmental Science and International Politics
Acid Rain in Europe, 1979-1989, and Climate Change in Copenhagen, 2009
By David E. Henderson , Susan K. Henderson
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: March 2018
The Collapse of Apartheid and the Dawn of Democracy in South Africa, 1993
By John C. Eby , Fred Morton
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: May 2017
Stages of Power
Marlowe and Shakespeare, 1592
By Eric S. Mallin , Paul V. Sullivan
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: December 2016
Constantine and the Council of Nicaea
Defining Orthodoxy and Heresy in Christianity, 325 C.E.
By David E. Henderson , Frank Kirkpatrick
Reacting to the Pastâ„¢
Published: December 2016