Transforming History

Transforming History examines the profound transformation of historical thought and practice of writing history from the late Qing through the midtwentieth century. The authors devote extensive analysis to the common set of intellectual and political forces that shaped the study of history, from the ideas of evolution, positivism, nationalism, historicism, and Marxism, to political processes such as revolution, imperialism, and modernization. Also discussed are the impact and problems associated with the nationstate as the subject of history, the linear model of historical time, and the spatial system of nationstates. The result is a convincing study that illustrates how history has transformed into a modern academic discipline in China.

Education is now at the fore of many Americans' concerns. But education is about more than teaching children how to function in life. It is a means of transmitting both a culture and a heritage. In this dynamic and far-reaching work, William Irwin Thompson, one of today's most innovative interdisciplinary thinkers, talks about how to transform a cultural legacy in the course of transmitting it. In the process of discussing this issue with the purpose of providing a home-schooling curriculum in the culture and history of humanity and the West, Thompson gives us a mind-rattling tour of our potential as human beings. He describes four "cultural ecologies" using a broad-based intellectual vista that takes in an expanse ranging from the Gilgamesh epic of 2000 B.C. to Disney, U2, and Ronald Reagan. His visionary approach takes education far beyond the bland, watered-down curricula so many students face today. He not only presents a far-reaching system of knowledge, but suggests how we may stimulate the best and healthiest patterns of development in children and teenagers.

Teaching history well is not just a matter of knowing history—it is a set of skills that can be developed and honed through practice. In this theoretically informed but eminently practical volume, Mary Jo Festle examines the recent explosion of research on the teaching and learning of history. Illuminated by her own work, Festle applies the concept of "backward design" as an organizing framework to the history classroom. She provides concrete strategies for setting up an environment that is inclusive and welcoming but still challenging and engaging. Instructors will improve their own conceptual understandings of teaching and learning issues, as well as receive guidance on designing courses and implementing pedagogies consistent with what research tells us about how students learn. The book offers practical illustrations of assignments, goals, questions, grading rubrics, unit plans, and formats for peer observation that are adaptable for courses on any subject and of any size. Transforming History is a critical guide for higher and secondary education faculty—neophytes and longtime professionals alike—working to improve student learning.

We are all our history. Yet in Canadian classrooms, students are often left questioning how they can study a past that does not reflect their present. Discourses of nationhood often separate “us” from “them,” and despite curricular revisions, the mainstream narrative that shapes the way we teach students about the Canadian nation can be divisive. Responding to the evolving demographics of an ethnically and culturally diverse population, Transforming the Canadian History Classroom advocates for a radically innovative practice that places students – the stories they carry and the histories they want to be part of – at the centre of history education.

`This is a beautifully conceived and revealing book. Joan Sangster lucidly explores and explains an astonishing array of complex material to reveal how women in the post-war period became full-fledged members of the labour force. Transforming labour offers such a rich variety of ancedotal evidence that it will benefit students of women's work from all over the world.' Alice Kessler-Harris, author of in Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This volume discusses the effects, models and implications of history teaching in relation to conflict transformation and reconciliation from a social-psychological perspective. Bringing together a mix of established and young researchers and academics, from the fields of psychology, education, and history, the book provides an in-depth exploration of the role of historical narratives, history teaching, history textbooks and the work of civil society organizations in post-conflict societies undergoing reconciliation processes, and reflects on the state of the art at both the international and regional level. As well as dealing with the question of the ‘perpetrator-victim’ dynamic, the book also focuses on the particular context of transition in and out of cold war in Eastern Europe and the post-conflict settings of Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine and Cyprus. It is also exploring the pedagogical classroom practices of history teaching and a critical comparison of various possible approaches taken in educational praxis. The book will make compelling reading for students and researchers of education, history, sociology, peace and conflict studies and psychology.

Barely two centuries ago, most of the world's productive land still belonged either communally to traditional societies or to the higher powers of monarch or church. But that pattern, and the ways of life that went with it, were consigned to history as a result of the most creative - and, at the same time, destructive - cultural force in the modern era: the idea of individual, exclusive ownership of land. This notion laid waste to traditional communal civilisations, displacing entire peoples from their homelands, and brought into being a unique concept of individual freedom and a distinct form of representative government and democratic institutions. Other great civilizations, in Russia, China, and the Islamic world, evolved very different structures of land ownership, and thus very different forms of government and social responsibility.The seventeenth-century English surveyor William Petty was the first man to recognise the connection between private property and free-market capitalism; the American radical Wolf Ladejinsky redistributed land in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea after the Second World War to make possible the emergence of Asian tiger economies. Through the eyes of these remarkable individuals and many more, including Chinese emperors and German peasants, Andro Linklater here presents the evolution of land ownership to offer a radically new view of mankind's place on the planet.

Transforming Historical Trauma, by David S. Derezotes, helps readers understand the causes and treatment of historical trauma at an individual, group, and community level and demonstrates how a participatory, strengths-based approach can work effectively in its treatment. The first to offer a combination of theory, literature review, and practice knowledge on dialogue, this book begins with a definition of historical trauma and transformation, includes the dialogue necessary to aid in transformation (such as self-care, self-awareness and professional self- development). The author proposes six key models of dialogue practice—psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, experiential, transpersonal, biological, and ecological—and shows how these models can be used to help transform sociohistorical trauma in clients. He then applies these six dialogue models to five common practice settings, including work with community divides, social justice work, peace and conflict work, dialogues with populations across the lifespan, and community therapy.