History is a broadly
integrative field, recounting and analyzing human aspirations and strivings
in various spheres of human activity: social, political, scientific/technological,
economic, and cultural. Studying history-inquiring into families, communities,
states, nations, and various peoples of the world-at once engages students
in the lives, aspirations, struggles, accomplishments, and failures of
real people, in all these aspects of their lives.
Through social history, students
come to deeper understandings of society: of what it means to be human,
of different and changing views of family structures, of men’s and women’s
roles, of childhood and of children’s roles, of various groups and classes
in society, and of relationships among all these individuals and groups.
This sphere considers how economic, religious, cultural, and political
changes have affected social life, and it incorporates developments shaping
the destiny of millions: the history of slavery; of class conflict; of
mass migration and immigration; the human consequences of plague, war,
and famine; and the longer life expectancy and rising living standards
following upon medical, technological, and economic advances.
Through political history,
students comprehend the political sphere of activity, as it has developed
in their local community, their state, their nation, and in various societies
of the world. Efforts to construct governments and institutions; the drive
to seize and hold power over others; the struggle to achieve and preserve
basic human rights, justice, equality, law, and order in societies; and
the evolution of regional and world mechanisms to promote international
law are all part of the central human drama to be
explored and analyzed in
the study of history.
Through history of science
and technology, students learn how the scientific quest to understand nature,
the world we live in, and humanity itself is as old as recorded history.
So, too, is the quest to improve ways of doing everything from producing
food, to caring for the ill, to transporting goods, to advancing economic
security and the well-being of the group. Understandings of the scientific/technological
developments that have propelled change, and how these changes have altered
allother spheres of human activity are central to the study of history.
Through economic history,
students appreciate the economic forces that have been crucial in determining
the quality of people’s lives, in structuring societies, and in influencing
the course of events. Exchange relationships within and between cultures
have had major impacts on society and politics, producing changing patterns
of regional, hemispheric, and global economic dominance and permitting
the emergence in the 20th century of a truly international economy, with
far-reaching consequences for all other spheres of activity.
Through cultural history,
students learn how ideas, beliefs, and values have profoundly influenced
human actions throughout history. Religion, philosophy, art, and popular
culture have all been central to the aspirations and achievements of all
societies, and have been a mainspring of historical change from earliest
times. Students’ explorations of this sphere of human activity, through
literature, sacred writings and oral traditions, political treatises, drama,
art, architecture, music, and dance deepen their understandings of the
human experience.
Analyzing these five spheres
of human activity requires considering them in the contexts both of historical
time and geographic place. The historical record is inextricably linked
to the geographic setting in which it developed. Population movements and
settlements, scientific and economic activities, geopolitical agendas,
and the distribution and spread of political, philosophical, religious,
and aesthetic ideas are all related in some measure to geographic factors.
The opportunities, limitations, and
constraints with which any
people have addressed the issues and challenges of their time have, to
a significant degree, been influenced by the environment in which they
lived or to which they have had access, and by the traces on the landscape,
malignant or benign, irrevocably left by those who came before.
Because these five spheres
of human activity are also interwoven in the real lives of individuals
and societies, essential understandings in United States and World History
often cut across these categories. Thus, to comprehend the causes of the
American Revolution, students must address the philosophical ideas of the
Enlightenment, the competing economic interests of British mercantilism
and colonial self-interest, the political antecedents defining the “rights
of Englishmen” under English common law, the English Bill of Rights, and
the Glorious Revolution, and the varying aspirations of different social
groups in the colonies, defined by gender, race, economic status, and region.
Similarly, understanding
the consequences of the American victory demonstrates how change in any
one of these spheres of activity often has impact on some or all of the
others. The many consequences of the colonists’ military victory included
their development of new and lasting political institutions, the social
and economic effects of the American victory on the various groups who
entered the war with differing aspirations and who allied themselves with
different sides during the conflict, and the long-term philosophical consequences
of the American Revolution, inspiring what has been called the “Age of
Democratic Revolution.” Together, these consequences demonstrate the complexity
of historical events and the broadly integrative nature of history itself.
They also affirm, once again, the unique power of history to deepen students’
understanding of the past, and of how we are still affected by it.
Likewise, in world history,
in order to comprehend the forces leading to the Iberian Conquest of Mesoamerica
in the 15th and 16th centuries, students must address the economics of
the interregional trading system that linked peoples of Africa, Asia, and
Europe on the eve of the European overseas voyages; the political and religious
changes initiated with the rise of centralized monarchies of Spain and
Portugal; and the major technological innovations that the Portuguese and
Spanish made in shipbuilding, navigation, and naval warfare and the influence
of northern Europe, Muslim, and Chinese maritime technology on these changes.
Similarly, understanding
the consequences of the Iberian Conquest of Mesoamerica demonstrates how
change in any one of these spheres of human activity often had impact on
some or all of the others. The many consequences of the Iberian military
victories included, for example, the founding of Spanish and Portuguese
colonial empires in the Americas; the worldwide exchange of flora, fauna,
and pathogens following the Columbian encounter, the social changes wrought
by the subjugation and enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas;
the devastating demographic effects caused by the introduction of new disease
microorganisms into the Americas; the forced relocation and enslavement
of some 10 million Africans in the European colonies; the changes in religious
beliefs and practices that followed the introduction of Christianity into
the Americas; and the economic and social effects of the infusion into
the European economies of the vast gold and silver resources of the Americas.
These many effects demonstrate the complexity of historical events and
the broadly integrative nature of history itself. They also affirm, once
again, the unique power of history to deepen students’ understanding of
the past, and of how we are still affected by it.
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