A United Kingdom?: Teaching Against Imperialism in the UK
Ignorance can be counteracted within schools and the education system by teaching the truth of Britain and Empire. The people of tomorrow aren’t just white British, but are multicultural.
The Future is Another Country
Ignorance can be counteracted within schools and the education system by teaching the truth of Britain and Empire. The people of tomorrow aren’t just white British, but are multicultural.
Chapters 5-7 provided numerous opportunities for demonstrating and examining connections between the “West and the rest.” These opportunities, had they taken them, would have allowed this book to be an actual world history.
As part of our special issue on “education” this month, we’re excited to feature a series of reviews of high school history textbook units by professional historians.
Beck and Barton’s plans raise a number of questions for activist historians and professional historians more generally.
Unit 1 of Jackson Spielvogel’s high school history textbook World History: Modern Times is by far the most expansive, covering the period from the Neolithic Age to the Renaissance and a geographical area that encompasses Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. By far its biggest issue is its privileging of European knowledge systems.
This unit does not ask questions of the materials it includes that would provide a greater voice for disenfranchised communities like women, Native Americans, and African Americans.
Our hope, as we move forward, is that our work might inspire others to support our own version of activist history at Barton’s expense—one grounded in fearlessly examining history and its implications for the present.






