“The Great Transformation” and “Five Continents and Seven Seas”: History is Not Just Names and Dates
Rich in American History , Peer Learning Community Session V
Bethany Lutheran College, 20 March 2010
A Workshop Presented by Ryan C. MacPherson, Ph.D. for the Minnesota River Valley: Rich in American History Continuing Education Program
"W[orld] W[ar] II has been presented to me in countless formats throughout by education, and can often seem redundant. This method, however, genuinely engaged me and opened doors of analysis for WWII content I had not previously considered."
William Boegeman, RAH Participant, Journal #4
Not Just Dates, but Sequences
- Storytelling (What happened?)
- Beginning
- Middle (Sequence)
- End
- Causal Explanation (Why it happened?)
- Cause-Effect (Before-After: p. 593)
- Context (Simultaneity: pp. 510, 515, 532)
- Interpretative Explanation (Why it matters?)
- The “lens” of the present “focuses” the past.
- Our lenses can distort.
- Our lenses also can clarify.
- Examples:
- Munich, 1938 (Thirteen Days video; pp. 513-15)
- Yalta, 1945 (pp. 584-87)
- Manchuria, 1931 (p. 488)
Not Just Dates, but Turning Points
- Periodization
- Great Depression (1929-ca. 1940)
- New Deal (1933-1938)
- World War II (1939/1941-1945)
- Cold War (1946-1989/1991)
- Irreversible Changes
- Old Order (or lack of order: p. 491)
- New Order
- Your Examples?
- Munich (p. 514)
- Blitzkrieg (p. 519)
- Fall of France (p. 519)
- U.S. Anti-Colonialism (p. 562)
- Battle of Midway (p. 579)
- V-E, A-Bomb Test, Potsdam (p. 590)
Not Just Names, but Personalities
- Woodrow Wilson
- Idealist
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Pragmatist (p. 570)
- Practical Idealist (p. 492)
- Winston Churchill
- Suspicious Camaraderie (p. 547)
- Arch-Imperialist (p. 571)
- Joseph Stalin
- Paranoid (pp. 546, 584-586)
- Cautious Expansionist (pp. 548, 583)
Not Just Names, but Policies
- Good Neighbor
- Cultural Imperialism? (pp. 497, 529, 555-60, 594)
- New Deal
- Global Applications? (pp. 541, 546, 568, 581)
- Lend-Lease
- Neutrality-Belligerency? (pp. 511, 517, 523, 564)
- Imperialism
- Paternalism—for better or worse? (pp. 572-73)
- Democracy
- National Sovereignty? (p. 565)
- Racism—at home and abroad? (pp. 516, 570, 567)
- “Four Freedoms” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 6 January 1941)
- “The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.”
- “The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world.”
- “The third is freedom from want … everywhere in the world.”
- “The fourth is freedom from fear … anywhere in the world.”
- Comparative History:
- “We are not waging war against the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. A portion of them are making war against the United States. By far the greater part of the inhabitants recognize American sovereignty and welcome it as a guarantee of order and security f or life, property, liberty, freedom of conscience, and the pursuit of happiness.” (William McKinley , 4 March 1901)
- “The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. … We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.” (Woodrow Wilson , 2 April 1917)
- When, how, and why did the United States first become involved in the Second World War?
- 1935-1937: Neutrality Acts
- 1938: Sudetenland / Munich
- Sept. 1939: Poland / WWII in Europe
- Nov. 1939: Cash-and-Carry Arms
- Jan. 1941: Four Freedoms
- March 1941: Lend-Lease
- Aug. 1941: Atlantic Charter
- Dec. 1941: Pearl Harbor
- Applications to Classroom Teaching?
Page references are to George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776, Oxford History of the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
