Weaving Themes in American History with High School Essay

Tags: american identity social construction international trade 19th century

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.....grand overarching themes connecting American history with the history of the world is the theme of population migration. The American narrative is frequently framed as a narrative of continual migration. American migration patterns have continually shifted, from the prehistoric migrations of people via the Siberian land bridge and early Viking migrations to North America through the more familiar American narrative of the first pilgrims arriving from England. Both McKeown (2004) and Tyrell (2007b) points out, educators need to be careful to avoid repeating the Eurocentric or even purely Anglocentric narrative of migration. Migration is not a static process that has clear beginnings and endings, but is an ongoing process in which groups of people gradually shift their identities as well as their geospatial surroundings. Kupperman (2002) warns educators against perpetuating the "central myth" of an American history that simly started in the east with the pilgrims and ended in the Pacific. The "true beginning" myth, as Kupperman (2002) calls it, is both Anglocentric and outright false given that "America was international before it was national," (p. 105). Educators in an 11th grade classroom can frankly discuss patterns of population migration in ways that encourage discourse on immigration and identity formation.



In fact, a second grand overarching theme in American history that overlaps with patterns in world history is related to identity.

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Identity has been a salient theme in American history partly because of the construction of American identity through the perpetuation of the American mythos. American identity has radically changed over time, reflecting alterations in social norms but also in shifting allegiances. Regionalism has also impacted differential identity patterns. Haomaolaoinen & Truett (2011), for example, show how borderlands actually share more in common with each other than their neighboring regions because borderlands are characterized by "cultural mixing," "situational identity" construction, "spatial mobility," and also "ambiguities of power," (p. 338). Because identity is closely linked with the social construction of power, discourse on identity in history is important in an 11th grade high school classroom.



A third overlapping theme or pattern in American and world history is related to globalization. McKeown (n.d.) urges 11th grade history teachers to address globalization not as if it is a static era of history but rather a dynamic concept. Globalization refers to more than just economic trade but to identity and population migration, too. As McKeown (n.d.) puts it,….....

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References

Haomaolaoinen, P. & Truett, S. (2011). On borderlands. The Journal of American History, September 2011, pp. 338

Kupperman, K.O. (2002). International at the creation. In Bender, T. (Ed.) Rethinking American History in a Global Age. Berkeley: University of California Press.

McKeown, A. (2004). Global migration. Journal of World History 15(2): 155-

McKeown, A. (n.d.). Periodizing globalization.

Tyrell, I. (2007a), Commerce pervades the world. In In Transnational Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 20.

Tyrell, I. (2007b). People in motion. In Transnational Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 52.

VanSledright, B. (2008). Narratives of nation-state, historical knowledge, and school history education. Review of Research in Education 32(2008): 109-146

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