On Top Of The World

How do you teach the evolution of race and racism in world history?  From the post-classical era to the Enlightenment and industrial era, Matt and Dave explore the historical construction of race.  How did ideas of race evolve in a world-historical context and how was this social construct then used to justify hierarchies?   Tune in to find out.St. Maurice’s statue at the Magdeburg CathedralRecommendations:Dave – Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography by Clifton Crais and Pamela ScullyMatt – The Mismeasure of Man (Revised & Expanded) by Stephen Jay Gould

In today’s episode, I talk Great Lakes History Conference as we reach the one-week-to-go mark! With me is Andrew Peterson, a visiting assistant professor at GVSU, and we talk about his panel on “Rethinking the World History Survey.” We chat about his career arc, how to orient a world history survey around the environment, exchange networks, and energy regimes, how to solve problems related to periodization, and why the X-Files monster episodes are redeemable (they are!). The full presentation is planned for October 21 at 3:15pm, and he will be joined by Craig Benjamin (GVSU), Whitney Dirks-Schuster (GVSU), Leah Gregory (SDSU), and Alex Holowicki (Maui College). For more information on other panels and presentations please visit the conference website. Recommendations are: Andrew – Collingham, A Taste of WarDave – Pauketat, Cahokia (and Homefront + Paradise Lost from Deep Space Nine)

Today, Matt and I talk about the ongoing controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments in the United States and the importance of public history to our discipline. Matt recently made the case for the removal of the statue in Houston named “The Spirit of the Confederacy.” We argue that we make choices in terms of how we remember the past, and that celebrating those who resisted slavery, like Virginia Boyd, is a more appropriate use of public space. Matt’s speech, the letter from Virginia Boyd to her slave master in 1853, the Washington Post call to action for medievalists, Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told, an article on the German military myth that they were not involved in the Holocaust, and even links to the book written by Judge Norman G. Kittrell (who gave a speech at the unveiling of the statue) are all available online. Those who wish to contribute to the Gofundme’s for a Houston student injured in Charlottesville, those arrested in Durham, or the family of Heather Heyer can follow the li

Today, Matt and I talk about the ongoing controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments in the United States and the importance of public history to our discipline. Matt recently made the case for the removal of the statue in Houston named “The Spirit of the Confederacy.” We argue that we make choices in terms of how we remember the past, and that celebrating those who resisted slavery, like Virginia Boyd, is a more appropriate use of public space. Matt’s speech, the letter from Virginia Boyd to her slave master in 1853, the Washington Post call to action for medievalists, Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told, an article on the German military myth that they were not involved in the Holocaust, and even links to the book written by Judge Norman G. Kittrell (who gave a speech at the unveiling of the statue) are all available online. Those who wish to contribute to the Gofundme’s for a Houston student injured in Charlottesville, those arrested in Durham, or the family of Heather Heyer can follow the li

In this episode, Matt and I sit down over some fine 90s music (and a PC Pils from Founders for the Big Pitcher!) to discuss an important article published after the end of the Cold War; Benjamin Barber’s “Jihad vs McWorld.” In it, Barber describes two futures – one marked by the violent forms of ethno-nationalism he terms jihad, and the other by the globalist consumerism of McWorld. The twist is that he argues neither of these futures is good for democracy. We debate the coherence of capitalism, war profiteering, the value of local democracy, and the merits of Terminator 2, Hackers, Jurassic Park, and Independence Day (the celebrations Matt mentions are here). Recommendations are: Dave – Mitchell, Carbon DemocracyMatt – Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa

Matt and I have been together in Utah for the AP World History reading, and today we managed to find some time in the evening to talk about environmental history and its place in the study of the Age of Revolutions. Key sources are Mosquito Empires and Pox Americana as we look at how differential immunity played a crucial role in the fate of the Haitian and American Revolutions respectively. We also discuss ways to give disease an important place in events without giving in to environmental determinism, a discussion that was well lubricated by whiskey from High West Distillery. A source for Kwame Nkrumah’s suggested mosquito statue in Accra can be found here. Recommendations are:Matt – Miller, An Environmental History of Latin AmericaDave – Dubois, Avengers of the New World

For the first time ever, this podcast is part of a conference! And in this special mini episode, my conference co-coordinator (Mike Huner) and I discuss this years Great Lakes History Conference in Grand Rapids, MI. Hosted by the Grand Valley State University History Department, this conference has been going for 40 years, and the theme this year is research in action – specifically, how historical research makes its way into the public sphere, either through teaching, the media, or political engagement. The plan is to include panels of interest to both high school and university instructors, and there will also be a number of workshops focused on pedagogy (including a day-long session on Reacting to the Past!). We are also proud to welcome our keynote speaker, Michelle Moyd from Indiana University – Bloomington. She published Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa in 2014, and more recently featured in The Guardian writing about languages of resista

In our second interview with a professor teaching food history, Matt and Andrew discuss how to teach a World History course through food.  Come for the pedagogical insights, stay for the singing canned corn.Recommendations:Rachel Laudan, Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History.  An essential text for instructors interested in incorporating food history into their courses.  Prof. Laudan’s excellent blog on food and food history: http://www.rachellaudan.com/ Andrew Behrendt’s Syllabus and pörkölt recipe:World History through Food History SyllabusBeef stew with spætzle, Hungarian-style recipe 

In this episode, Dave sits down with Lauren Janes, an assistant professor at Hope College in Holland, MI. We discuss her recently published book, her new project on using food case studies to illuminate key themes in world history (potatoes = Columbian Exchange, sugar = Trans-Atlantic slave trade, curry = imperialism, maize = US food aid and Green Revolution), the use of food in world history surveys, and her upper level seminar entitled “A Modern History of Global Food.” We discuss maize and GMOs in Zambia,  Mann’s writing on potatoes, the history of curry, tete de négre (a French dessert created in the late 19th century that you can read about here), the awesomeness of Sidney Mintz, the Algerian wine industry, refrigeration (using Freidburg’s book) and how to make our classes less depressing as we reach the 19th and 20th century. Recommendations are: Lauren – Collingham, Curry: A Tale of Cooks and ConquerorsDave – Hamilton, Trucking Country

In today’s episode, Matt and I discuss two books that connect food and world history – Planet Taco by Jeffrey Pilcher and Just Food by James McWilliams. Along the way we mention John Wick, Seafall, taco kits, a hilarious new Old El Paso commercial (and check out this older gem!), Primanti sandwiches, life cycle assessments, Bt crops, and lots of restaurants (Tako in Pittsburgh and Donkey Taqueria and Taqueria San Jose in Grand Rapids). Recommendations are:Matt – Rick Bayless, Mexico: One Plate at a Time Dave – Pho Anh Trang in Grand Rapids

In this episode, Matt and I start a three-part arc on food and world history. We discuss how to teach sugar (using Sidney Mintz and Eric Williams) and milk (using this article on the Leche Project), before moving on to kumis and nomadic peoples as well as the role of salt and tobacco smuggling in the French Revolution. We conclude by recommending two books on food and world history that we will be discussing in our next episode:Matt – Pilcher, Planet TacoDave – McWilliams, Just Food

This mini-episode was originally recorded in May 2016 with Tammy Shreiner and was intended to be part of a series of “short cuts” discussing world history resources online. My contribution was an article by Michael Lind about the future of American politics, and how some of the divisions he described seemed quite similar to those I have encountered in the field of world history (and history more broadly). One caveat: this is not intended as a polished piece of scholarly work, but as a reflection on some of the “big pitcher” ideas that shape us as world historians!Recommendations:Dave – Bender, A Nation among NationsTammy – Guarneri, America in the World

In this episode, Dave and his favorite certified genetic counselor, Katey Mayberry, take a look at the genetic evidence for the settlement of the Americas. The first article, by Rasmussen et al in Nature, deals with the controversial origins of Kennewick Man/the Ancient One, a skeleton found in Washington State and dating back at least 8400 years. The second article, written by Llamas et al in Science Advances, deals more generally with the early migrations into the Americas. Over a couple Canadian beers, we talk about Y-DNA, mtDNA, haplotypes, TMRCA, single-nucleotide polymorphism, and high posterior density with varying levels of success! Follow along at home as I try to make sense of the charts on p.4 of Llamas et al!  This is a highly specialized field, but as Katey makes clear, if used carefully it can be extremely useful to world historians of all types. Recommendations are:Katey – Genetics Home ReferenceDave – Dillehay, The Settlement of the Americas

For our 20th episode we bring in Bill Strickland from East Grand Rapids High School to discuss the upcoming changes to the AP world history exam. The acronyms come fast and furious as we go through the SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs and discuss a variety of teaching strategies. We also discuss the infamous “Western penetration” DBQ, Dungeons and Dragons, mapping the Roman Empire, and AP training videos. Recommendations are: Dave – AHA Digital History Reviews by John RosinbumBill – HistoryHaven.com by John HendersonMatt – The Economic Role of Women in World History, 600-1914 by Linda Black

In Episode 4, I mentioned I used the book Bloodlands by Timothy (not Zack) Snyder when teaching WWII in my world history survey. Our guest Andrew Behrendt was underwhelmed with that choice. Today, Andrew and I enter the Thunderdome and strap into our bungee harnesses as we debate whether this book is useful for world historians. Needless to say, there is some bad blood as he grabs a chainsaw (claiming Snyder poorly defines his geographical space!), I swing a hammer (suggesting that Snyder’s top-down approach may be a necessary corrective to the historiographical turn towards local understandings of violence!), and Matt frantically tries to blow his bosun’s whistle (Snyder’s synthesis does not contain an explicit argument!). Yeah, this one gets nerdy, so nerdy Stathis Kalyvas gets name checked. There are even two Simpson’s references in here! Recommendations are:Andrew – Prusin, The Lands Between; Collingham, The Taste of WarDave – Gross, Neighbors; Gross, Fear Matt – Von Ryan’s Express (1965); Lazare, “Timoth

No, it’s not an M. Night Shyamalan film, it’s our recap of the World History Association Annual Meeting in Gent, Belgium. We talk Bancroft Prizes (the very nsfw Onion article is here!), podcast stats, a great paper on mapping by Alex Zukas, the Ottoman History Podcast, and why everyone should be a WHA member. After this we do a “Big Pitcher” – Matt is on point with a Belgian Piraat while I lazily grab a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. We discuss my forthcoming course on the history of globalization, and Matt gets theoretical with his suggestions for the syllabus, including Osterhammel, Chase-Dunn and Lerro, and Bayly. My personal favorite book on globalization in the ancient world is by Jennings. Recommendations are:Matt – Cline, 1177 BCDave – Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity

After a week in Salt Lake City grading the AP World History exams, Matt and I take a quick look at the changes coming to the document-based question (DBQ). Based on the powerpoint released at the PD event there, we discuss the most significant departures from the old DBQ, which include eliminating points for grouping, point-of-view, and expanded core. As the title suggests, we are big fans of the new DBQ! It reduces the number of documents, requires outside knowledge from the AP curriculum, and asks students to contextualize their arguments in a more meaningful way. We also manage to include references to hockey riots (police were on top of this!), running outside Salt Lake City (Dave recommends this trail), and an article by @smoothkobra (found here). Recommendations are:Matt – Revised DBQs (2004 Revised DBQ 2003 Revised DBQ as pdfs, 2004 Revised DBQ 2003 Revised DBQ as word documents)Dave – Frankopan, The Silk Roads

In this episode, Matt and I chat with Niklas Frykman about the Age of Revolutions! We start by discussing life on an 18th century ship (including a mention of the Diligent by Robert Harms), impressment, cosmopolitan sailors, and why Master and Commander might not qualify as a documentary. We then shift our focus to the Age of Revolutions as a unit in world history, and why it should begin with slave revolts in the Caribbean (like Tacky’s Revolt in Jamaica in 1760) and Pontiac’s War in the American colonies rather than the Enlightenment. Finally, Niklas’ research, including the mutiny on the Hermione and the 1797 Spithead mutinies, takes center stage as we debate what motivates mutineers (for a different perspective, see the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast on the Batavia), and whether life at sea creates a novel sense of community among sailors. Recommendations are:Dave – McNeill, Mosquito EmpiresNiklas – Serna, “Every Revolution is a War for Independence” from The French Revolution in Global Perspec

In this episode Matt and I discuss the Vikings with Jack Bouchard, a returning guest and graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. As we drink three delicious beers, we discuss the question I asked the students in my survey class – were the Vikings unusually violent? We look at how their image changes dramatically after WWII, with less focus on their military talent and more on their meticulous grooming. We also discuss their impact on the English language, their presence in pop culture (Valhalla Rising and The Thirteenth Warrior and Vikings), our favorite Vikings (including GVSU’s Charles Johnson!), the sport of knattleikr, the Reykjavik Police Department Instagram account, and ways to teach Ibn Fadlan. Key sources addressing the Vikings’ violence relative to their contemporaries are Winroth, The Age of the Vikings and Bisson, Tormented Voices. Recommendations are: Matt – Abu-Lughod, Before European HegemonyDave – Somerville and McDonald, The Vikings and Their AgeJack – Fitzhugh and Ward, Vikings: Th

In this episode, Matt and I talk to Molly Warsh, an assistant professor in the history department at Pitt and associate director at the World History Center there. We talk about her research on the pearl industry, the future of world history research, pirates (including my personal favorite) and her global piracy class (the syllabus is here), the differences between introductory and upper-level world history courses, and the gendered dynamics of class discussions. Recommendations are: Dave – Robins, Mercury, Mining, and EmpireMatt – Mintz, Sweetness and Power (NOT Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves)Molly – James, A Brief History of Seven Killings