// September 27th, 2012 // No Comments » // Free essays
“World History: Curriculum and Controversy” by Peter Sterns
Traditionally, school standards in history were consistently affected by the dominant ideology. It is not a secret that practically each nation has its own interpretations of historical events, figures and facts. In this respect, the US is not an exception and the American legislative and executive power tends to support the traditional representation of history which actually represents an American retrospective on history, which is not absolutely objective, while more objective world standards are rejected. In fact, this the major problem that Peter Sterns discusses in his article and it is hardly possible to disagree with the author in regard to the injustice of such an approach to school standards in history because they contribute to the formation of subjective, westernized and Americanized view of history which does not contribute to multiculturalism, tolerance and objective interpretation of historical facts. On the other hand, the negative reaction of the US legislators on attempts to introduce world school standards in history is quite comprehensible and it is hardly possible to expect a different reaction because history is a powerful ideological tool which allows forming the national consciousness uniting people and forming the American nation, while the introduction of new, world standards would undermine the foundation of the American system and standards in teaching history. In such a situation, the national consciousness and the formation of “correct” ideas turns to be more important for the US legislators than the formation of objective perception of history by American students. In this respect, it should be said that the dominance of American standards may be a significant obstacle on the way of the development of equal and friendly relationship of American with other nations since the idea of pan-Americanism, which may be traced throughout American standards in history, leads to the formation of superiority of Americans compared to other people.
“So Many Africas, So Little Time: Doing Justice to Africa in the World History Survey” by Jonathan T. Reynolds.
The historical view of Africa was and still is consistently affected by biases and stereotypes which prevail in the historical works of many specialists and Jonathan T. Reynolds lays emphasis on the fact that, in spite of consistent advances in the study of the history of Africa in the context of the world history, the existing historical views of Africa are simplified and not absolutely objective. To put it more precisely, the studies focused on the history of Africa are often superficial and represent the view from outside, instead of the view from within. What is meant here is the fact that the history of Africa is researched and interpreted under the impact of external factors, such as the impact of western historians who researched the history of Africa and provided their own interpretation of the history, while local specialists are often underrepresented in global terms. Hence, the history of Africa basically remains a terra incognita for modern scientists as well as students learning the history of Africa. Such a situation may be easily explained by the past historical experience and traditions in the historical science because Africa traditionally was an outsider in the world history, while the attention of historians was mainly focused on Europe, Asia and America, which actually defined the development of the entire world, while Africa was viewed as a continent where historical events were of the local significance and does really affected the development of the world especially in the modern epoch. In addition, the history of Africa is simply under-researched that also decreases scientists’ knowledge of the history of Africa.
Chapter 5
Why was the Phoenician alphabet so significant in world history?
The Phoenician alphabet became one of the earliest alphabets which lay foundation for the writing in the ancient world. In fact, it was the first attempt to create a system of written language with the help of which people could make records and communicate. Moreover, the Phoenician experience was later borrowed and modernized by other ancient civilizations. (more…)