Valentines Day stuff! Also, BRAND NEW EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY MEME!

[beboots]

 Good evening, everyone! Happy Valentines day, for those of you who celebrate it!

First, a brief link recommendation. If you've never heard of Postsecrets, you should definitely check them out: essentially, people send in anonymous postcards with their secrets on them. Some are sad, some are quirky, some are touching, and all are absolutely awesome

Comments

[beboots]

You know, that's a really tricky question. I was once in a seminar class that spent three hours straight discussing this question. It's difficult to cover "all" world history in even a 1,000 page textbook, and even then you skip over so much stuff... Hmm...

I think that I'd organize it along themes - history of ideas, technology, politics... I'd definitely want to talk about more than the Great Men of History and the Wars They Fought. I'd trace women's history too... and I'd be sure to barely talk about Europe in the whole first semester. Really, not much went on there except for some conquering and fighting amongst themselves until like the 1400s... China, India, Egypt, the Middle East and other places were MUCH more interesting for the longest time.

I think that I'd probably split it at about 1500, although that in itself is a very Euro-centric way of looking at things... Crazy things were beginning to happen in the Americas, Europeans were getting a bit more expansion-happy... More things were being written down. (Yay printing press! But even so China had already been there, done that...)

The second half of the course would talk a LOT about colonialism. Europeans seemed to get their sticky fingers in everywhere. I'd still talk about places like China and Japan outside of the context of the minor missionary influence. The Ottomans were badass too. Only in the last few weeks would I talk about the 20th century. One of the things I dislike about some history courses is that they place so much emphasis on stuff that happened, well, A) in medieval Europe (especially when so much cooler stuff was happening elsewhere! Well, the plague was pretty cool in a horrifying kind of way and they did build some very pretty churches and illuminate some lovely manuscripts BUT I DIGRESS) but also B)the impression that everything that happened in the 20th century was somehow RADICALLY DIFFERENT IN EVERY WAY than what had happened before and so we must spend SO MUCH TIME on talking about these things, and I really disagree. I mean, yeah, there's a lot to talk about, but in the larger scheme of things... There's a "modern" veneer to it, but I don't see the 20th century as being particularly unique. Lots more ways of recording things and large numbers of people doing stuff (oh, population growth...) and lots of horrific wars and people doing horrific things to each other... But weren't the religious wars in Europe in the 1600s also devastating and examples of total war/genocide/etc.? They may not have had helicopters and brought-to-you-live-in-your-own-home news teams, but...

Also, talk about other genocides besides the holocaust. Yes, it should definitely be addressed. Nie weider. But I definitely feel that other tragedies, such as the horrific events of Rwanda, need to be addressed more in school too. Learn from the past so that we might prevent such tragedies. (Not that the past should be studied solely for the benefit of the present, but...)

(Um, did I answer the question? Maybe. I'm not sure! Feel free to ask me to elaborate/ramble more. ;) )

[beckyh2112]

That is very interesting. Thank you!

(I think you answered the question just fine. It is something I have mulled over for a while, since I am annoyed at how much my world history courses seem to be centered on two continents.)

[beboots]

Exactly! I wholeheartedly agree. If you want world history "done right", the closest thing I've found recently was an amazing podcast by the BBC called "A History of the World in 100 Objects." I think that in the first 50 objects there were only like 3 from Europe, because again, not much was going on there for the longest time. I would highly recommend a listen. The producer essentially picked 100 objects from the British Museum and told a history of the world through them. Super interesting.

[beckyh2112]

I think I actually have that bookmarked, I just have a hard time focusing on audio things. Too much of a tendency to tune them out while working on something else. I will try to get back to it, though!

[beboots]

I do a lot of driving, especially in the summer, and every day during the rest of the year I have to commute by bus for 45 minutes or so to university, so podcasts work out really well for me. When I drive, I swear podcasts have saved me from becoming enraged by traffic: I don't feel so bad about being stuck for an extra 10 minutes in construction if I'm learning something, you know? ;)

[beckyh2112]

Sadly, my job is only fifteen minutes away from me, and that's only when traffic is bad. Otherwise I'd consider burning some podcasts to CD to listen to.

[beboots]

I see. Take up knitting or beadwork to fiddle with as you listen? ;) It's one of the ways I've been zenning-out lately when the schoolwork stress gets to be a bit much. ;)

[beckyh2112]

That is a possibility. I might load some podcasts on my mp3-player to listen to when the weather gets nicer and I'm out gardening.