June World History Connected Free online Journal
John Maunu
The June issue of World History Connected offers a forum on architecture in world history designed to extend its recent treatment of art in world history (Vol. 11 no. 2, June 2014). This forum introduces the idea of teaching "The World Since 1945" in place of the world history surveys now commonplace in the general education curriculum. Its authors argue that such a course "deserves consideration as an attractive alternative to either a two-semester World History sequence or a one-semester grand sweep of the history of humanity." They also contend "that if the goal is to turn students on to how and why history matters, and to the reasons studying world history is important," a world since 1945 approach may work better than the standard surveys.
Northeastern University's Heather Streets-Salter, a former editor of this journal, introduces the advantages of this approach. That introduction is followed by three articles addressing some themes and resources that can be used to support such a course. Malcolm Purinton, a four-time teacher of the course, discusses ways of organizing its material, exploring whether or not such a class should be organized chronologically, regionally, or thematically. Samantha Christiansen, Assistant Professor and Director of Women's Studies at Marywood University, offers specific advice for incorporating gender analysis and the study of women into "The World Since 1945" course assignments, lectures, and discussions. James Bradford, a specialist in modern Afghanistan, now Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, outlines a classroom activity that is at once interactive and also informative about political and social organization in Afghanistan: he asks students to experience it themselves through organizing their own loya jurga. Though he supplies all of the elements instructors might need to adopt this activity, his essay also suggests ways of incorporating interactive activities of their own device into any world history course.
The Forum's intent to encourage new ways of thinking about what world historians do and how they can best go about sharing it is pursued by three further articles. Lauren McArthur Harris and Tamara L. Shreiner explore "concept formation" as a factor in how students frame, or fail to frame, learned responses when examining world historical processes. Eva-Maria Swidler addresses what historical ideas and presumptions students bring with them into the history classroom and how historians must engage these presumptions more closely to achieve their instructional goals. Jane Bolgatz and Michael Marino offer a content review of secondary school world history texts that will prepare instructors at any level of instruction, particularly new instructors, to better evaluate the advantages or disadvantages of a number world history textbooks, not just at that level, but above it, as high school texts often are versions of university textbooks by the same authors.
CONTENTS
FORUM: Teaching The World Since 1945
Introduction to the Forum on Teaching The World Since 1945: An Alternative to the Standard World History Survey?
Heather Streets-Salter
Structuring "The World Since 1945": Chronology, Region, or Theme?
by Malcolm Purinton
Teaching Gender in The World Since 1945: Tools and Resources
by Samantha Christiansen
Inter-disciplinary Approaches to World History: Using A Jirga to Teach the History of Afghanistan
by James Bradford
The Jirga Class Exercise: A Thousand Splendid Suns
by James Bradford
Sample Syllabus: History 2211, World History Since 1945
by Heather Streets-Salter
ARTICLES
Why Can't We Just Look it Up? Using Concept Formation Lessons to Teach Global Connections and Local Cases in World History
by Lauren McArthur Harris and Tamara L. Shreiner
Ignorance Is Bliss: Why Unlearning History is So Hard, and So Important
by Eva-Maria Swidler
Incorporating More of the World into World History Textbooks: A Review of High School World History Texts
by Jane Bolgatz and Michael Marino
BOOK REVIEWS
Nile Green, Sufism: A Global History
by Serge Avery
Lincoln Paine, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World
by William M. Fowler, Jr.
William Worger, Nancy Clark, and Edward Alpers, eds., Africa and the West: A Documentary History, 2nd edition, Volumes 1 and 2.
by Michael McInneshin
Aran MacKinnon and Elaine McClarnand MacKinnon, Places of Encounter: Time, Place and Connectivity in World History, Volumes I and II
by Timothy Nicholson
Sean McMeekin, The Russian Origins of the First World War
by David L. Ruffley
Paul K. Davis, Masters of the Battlefield: Great Commanders from the Classical Age to the Napoleonic Era
by Chris Thomas
William D. Carrigan and Christopher Waldrep, Swift to Wrath: Lynching in Global Historical Perspective
by Tom Williams
Best regards,
Paul