Synopsis: When people think of history, they either think of it fondly as a string of stories from the past or they think of it as a collection of dusty tombs that are better left alone. I encourage my students to think of history as a life narrative that explains where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. My goal with this curriculum unit is to accomplish three goals. First, I want to instill within my students an appreciation of history as a life narrative. Second, I want my students to see how narratives of history are all around them, such as allegories of the Industrial Revolution within L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Finally, I aim to increase my students’ grasp of critical thinking using two strategies that I identify as R.A.T.E. and R.A.C.E. These are two strategies that I incorporate in my classes to aid my students in reading, writing, listening, and thinking like historians. Both strategies are used to aid understanding of text sets. In addition, my students will gain a deeper understanding of multiple perspectives by assuming the role of a dog that is observing the changing industrialized world around them. Just as Toto led Dorothy in the Land of Oz, my students will follow their own dog through the Industrial Era.