9.4 Identity in an Age of Intense Globalization: Nationalism, Ethnicity, Internationalism
- 10 Activities
- 3 Videos
- 11 Articles
Introduction
Where we are does not define who we are. How we identify ourselves has evolved considerably as the world has become more interconnected. Modern societies are woven together with long-distance relationships, frequent migrations, and shifting ethnic, national, and religious affiliations. Since 1750, a lot has changed about who we think we are and where we think we should be. But a lot has stayed the same. In this lesson, you’ll examine some of the identity-driven conflicts in our modern world, exploring what happens when new identities collide with old tradition.
Learning Objectives
- Examine the causes of migration and the impact it has on communities.
- Use the historical thinking practice of claim testing to evaluate globalization.
- Use graphic biographies as microhistories to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this time period.
- Investigate how different groups have responded to globalization.
Making Claims – Globalization
Preparation
Purpose
This activity asks you to practice your claim- and counterclaim-making skills. This will help you evaluate your ability to make strong, evidence-backed claims, and will also give you an idea of how well you understand globalization.
Process
In this activity, you will write two claims and one counterclaim about the economic impact of globalization.
Take out the Making Claims – Globalization worksheet, and either individually or in pairs, write two claims about the economic impact of globalization. For each claim, find two pieces of evidence to support the claim, using course materials or Internet research. Once you’ve written your two claims and provided supporting evidence, write one counterclaim that relates to one of claims. You should also provide two pieces of evidence to back up your counterclaim.
Be prepared to share your claims at the end of the class and see if you can figure out what types of claims everyone made (that is, causal, comparative, or those related to CCOT).
Preserving the Past: Reclaiming Indigenous History and Land
Summary
In museums all around the world, remains of Indigenous peoples and ancestral objects have been stored and held against the wishes of descendent communities. The Pueblo communities of the present have launched extensive efforts to reclaim the remains of their ancestors, as have other Indigenous American communities across the United States. In this video, Jerad Koepp interviews Pueblo leaders and educators about the importance of these efforts and how they help Pueblo people reclaim historical narratives and protect sacred places in the present.
Preserving the Past (14:39)
Key Ideas
Purpose
As you learn more and more in this unit about globalization, you’re hearing about how increasing connections have made our communities larger and brought cultures together. Still, we are all connected to our ancestors and to diverse histories. The process of globalization threatens the existence of many Indigenous cultures and traditional ways of life. In this video, you will learn how Pueblo and other Indigenous peoples are resisting and attempting to secure their past for their future.
Process
Preview – Skimming for Gist
Remember to open and skim the transcript, and then read the questions below before you watch the video.
Key Ideas – Factual
Think about the following questions as you watch this video.
- According to Theresa Pasqual, why is it a mistake to refer to Pueblo historical sites and ancestral objects as “ruins” and “artifacts”?
- What challenges do Pueblo people face when trying to access places that are important to their history and culture today?
- Why does Brian Vallo say that “there’s no need to excavate” archaeological sites?
- What’s one problem that Dr. Swentzell mentions with returning human remains and cultural objects to the places from which they were removed?
- What are some examples of successful repatriation of remains and cultural items that Brian Vallo mentions?
Evaluating and Corroborating
- How does this video make you think differently about some of the other archaeological and historical evidence you’ve encountered in this course?
A Century of Refugees
Preparation
Summary
In the twenty-first century, news media and politicians often tell alarming stories about refugees. But refugee migration is nothing new. People have been forced to flee their homes for a variety of reasons throughout human history. But it was not until the twentieth century that governments created official legal categories for refugee migration. This article explores how the major trends of the twentieth century displaced millions of refugees. It examines the ways that these migrations reshaped national and international policies and ideas about citizenship and belonging.
Purpose
This article will introduce you to the major trends in refugee migration during the last 100 years. Refugee migration has influenced the ways that people define membership in communities and the shape of existing communities. Not surprisingly then, this article provides evidence that will help you evaluate the communities frame narrative. As you read, consider the importance of refugee migration for the development of nationalism and the nation-state in an era of globalization.
Process
Preview—Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas—Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- According to this article, why did anti-migrant protests happen in Europe after 2015?
- What country hosts the most refugees, and what did they receive for limiting illegal refugee migration into the European Union?
- How did nationalism shape governments’ approaches to dealing with refugees and migration in general?
- How did decolonization lead to an increase in refugees?
- According to the author, what are some reasons that refugees migrate and seek refuge?
- Why do some nations, in particular wealthy nations, allow migrant workers to come into their countries?
- How did wealthy nations react to increasing refugee and labor migration?
Evaluating and Corroborating
At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:
- How do you think globalization has changed the ways that people have migrated in the last 100 years?
Transnationalism and the Revival of Nationalism
- citizen
- diaspora
- ethnic nationalism
- internationalism
- nationalism
- nation-state
- transnationalism
Preparation
Summary
In this article, journalist Andalusia Knoll Soloff and historian Trevor Getz review the recent history and current state of transnationalism and nationalism. The history of nationalism is full of complex connections, sometimes to movements for unity and freedom, but also sometimes to movements that cause exclusion, violence, and even genocide. After World War II, many world leaders favored international or transnational solutions to the world’s problems, but nationalism remains an important force, for better or worse.
Purpose
This introduction should help you to think about the communities frame and how humans form communities in the modern day. In particular, it focuses on nationalism and transnationalism today. Nationalism in the context of the nation-state is an important way to think about identity and belonging. It is also important to consider the role of ethnic nationalism in driving movements of exclusion and sometimes violent persecution of those within the state who are not considered to be part of the ethnic nation.
Process
Preview – Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas – Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- How does national belonging and the world of nation-states complicate international sports competitions? Consider examples like Taiwan and Kosovo.
- Why did international and transnational ideas surge in the second half of the twentieth century?
- How has nationalism helped with postwar reconciliation in Rwanda?
- In the age of the nation-state, how has racially defined nationalism reemerged?
- How do definitions of national identity exclude some people from cultural and political communities and resources?
Evaluating and Corroborating
At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:
- How do national identities shape your daily world, and the people and things you interact with?
- Are there transnational identities that shape the way you think about yourself and your daily interactions?
- What do you think the future of nationalism is? Will it continue to surge in the face of global challenges like climate change and pandemics, or will international and transnational solutions to these problems prevail?
Indigenous Americans and Globalization
- empirical
- inconsistency
- indigenous
- multinational
- pipeline
- profound
Summary
Indigenous Americans have played an important role in globalization since the beginning of the Columbian Exchange. Cultural and economic influences flowed both ways across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This video addresses some misconceptions about globalization and explores how the processes of globalization affected indigenous communities. In exploring these changes, the video challenges the misconception that globalization is always a positive process.
Indigenous Americans and Globalization (12:26)
Key Ideas
Purpose
This video provides you with evidence to evaluate the effects of globalization on indigenous communities, as well as indigenous communities’ influences on the processes of globalization. This should help you understand how indigenous communities are still impacted by globalization today, such as with the Dakota Pipeline project.
Process
Preview—Skimming for Gist
As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.
Key Ideas—Understanding Content
Think about the following questions as you watch this video:
- What are the two misconceptions about globalization that this video addresses?
- What are some examples of Indigenous Americans’ contributions to globalization?
- Who was Paul Cuffee Jr., and was globalization good for him?
- What sort of things do neoliberal policies promote?
- What is the Dakota Access Pipeline, and what does it tell us about the impacts of globalization on indigenous communities?
Evaluating and Corroborating
- What do historical examples of people resisting the changes connected to globalization share in common with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests?
The Zapatistas Have Been a Revolutionary Force in Mexico for Decades
- autonomous
- guerrilla
- import
- subsistence
Preparation
Summary
In 1994, indigenous Mayan guerillas calling themselves the Zapatista Army of National Liberation launched an attack on Mexican government institutions. They were protesting free trade agreements that they believed would destroy their ability to live independently. The Mexican government fought back by arming other groups to fight the Zapatistas. Many have died. Although the situation remains dire, Zapatista groups have built schools and provide medical services to communities that did not have them in the past. They offer an alternative system to that of the Mexican government and the global order. Is it better, or worse?
Purpose
This article provides you with evidence to respond to the Unit 9 Problem, which asks you to reflect on the effects of globalization on different human communities. The Zapatista movement started in response to the negative effects of globalization on their community. This article provides an example of both a challenge to globalization and an alternative system that seems to be outside of globalization. This evidence will help you extend and contest the both the unit problem and the way the recent past is told through the frame narratives.
Process
Preview—Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas—Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Why did the Zapatista Army of National Liberation attack government institutions in 1994?
- How do the Zapatistas see themselves as a continuity of a long history?
- What were Mexican government responses to the Zapatistas?
- What are the Zapatistas doing in Chiapas in an attempt to provide alternate, community-based services?
Evaluating and Corroborating
At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:
- How do you think a Zapatista supporter would describe globalization? Would you agree with their definition? Does the Zapatista example suggest that there are limits to the globalization process? Do you think the Zapatistas will successfully resist globalization in the long term?
- What does the Zapatista example tell us about change and continuity over long periods of time? What has the Mayan experience of the past 500 years been, according to this article?
Quick Sourcing – Resistance to Global Institutions
Preparation
3x5 note cards or cut up paper
Purpose
This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful when responding to DBQs.
Process
Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 1.2.
The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.
First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).
For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.
In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.
To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.
Primary Sources – Resistance to Global Institutions
Preparation
Summary
This collection explores resistance to global institutions. It gives readers a glimpse of the founding documents, called charters, of major global organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank, which help us see the stated purposes and declared values. These are juxtaposed against sources from workers’ collectives and activists in the United States, Bangladesh, and Honduras. Together, these sources show the tensions between the promise of these organizations and how they work in communities on three continents.
Purpose
The primary source excerpts in this collection will help you assess how globalization led to the creation of new international organizations and also evaluate why some individuals and groups resist those organizations. This will also help you understand global resistance to international organizations in the twenty-first century. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.
Process
We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.
Claim Testing – Globalization
Preparation
Purpose
Reading and writing depend on the ability to identify arguments and supporting evidence—only by understanding this can you identify a main idea in a text or build out main ideas in your own writing. This activity is the final in the claim-testing series, and as in the previous ones in this series, you’ll repeat the practice of creating supporting statements, evaluating evidence, and identifying disconfirming ideas. This activity ends with an opportunity to create your own claim and supporting evidence to assess the pros and cons of globalization. At this point, you’ll demonstrate your command of claim testing and be able to apply it to your own reading and writing.
Process
In this claim-testing activity, you are given four claims about globalization. You are asked to work with these claims in three different ways:
- Find supporting statements for those claims.
- Evaluate the strength of the supporting statements provided for those claims.
- Provide statements that refute (argue against) the claims.
Get into small table groups. Each group should have a complete set of Claim Cards in the middle of their table. Listen for your teacher’s directions for when to start.
Round 1
- Grab one Claim Card from the center of the table.
- On the card, write down a statement that supports the claim. You can use prior knowledge or course materials for this.
- Pass your Claim Card to the person to your right.
- Write down a statement that supports the claim on the card that you now have. It can’t be the same as any of the supports already written on the card.
- Repeat the process until each group member has written a supporting statement on each card.
- Put the Claim Cards back in the center of the table.
Round 2
- Grab one Claim Card from the pile and stand up.
- Find at least three other students who have the same claim as you and get into a group with them (if there are more than six people in your group, let your teacher know).
- Look at all the supporting statements that were written for your claim. Decide which supporting statements are strongest (that is, they best support the claim).
- Write the strongest supporting statements on the whiteboard so everyone can see them.
Round 3
- With the same group you were in for Round 2, consider any historical exceptions to your claim. What can you offer to refute the claim?
- Add at least one refuting statement, what we often refer to as a counterclaim, on the board so everyone can see it.
- Present both your strongest supporting statements and the exception to the claim to the class—be sure to explain your reasoning for choosing your supporting statements and refutations.
Once you are done, write a two-paragraph mini-essay using one of the claims as a thesis statement. Then, use a few of the best supporting statements as evidence to support your thesis claim. Be sure to acknowledge the counterclaim or refuting statements in your mini-essay. For example:
- You might begin your mini-essay by stating the claim.
- Then, you should use the supporting statements you’ve identified as being the strongest to explain why this claim (thesis) is correct.
- Next, you’ll acknowledge the counterclaim by including the strongest refuting statement you identified in the activity.
- Finally, you’ll provide evidence to refute the counterclaim, which will then add another level of support to your claim (thesis).
This will help you learn the best way to use supporting statements as evidence for a thesis statement, and how to acknowledge counterclaims in essay writing. Be prepared to share these with your class and teacher.
Conflict in Israel and Palestine since 2015: Crash Course World History #223
- assimilate
- militancy
- militia
- nationalism
- partition
- theological
- Zionism
Summary
Many people think the conflict in Palestine and Israel goes back millennia, but that’s not the case. This complicated conflict has a specific historical origin. It started during this era, when competing nationalisms, broken British promises, and massive migrations collided into a struggle for land, sovereignty, and rights.
Note: This video was created in 2015. It represents one of many possible narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Specifically, it is a narrative that advances the argument that the conflict is not intractable. John Green argues that through exploring multiple perspectives of the past, we may be able to see how it can be resolved. He also argues that because the conflict is mainly one about competing nationalisms, it is more useful to understand its modern history than to search for “who was first” or “who is to blame.” People may have different perspectives on these matters, and you may encounter competing narratives out in the world. Additionally, events after 2015 may shift the meaning of some of the accounts advanced in this video. Nevertheless, this narrative can help you understand how accounts of the past may orient us to the present and help us prepare for the future.
Conflict in Israel and Palestine since 2015: Crash Course World History #223 (12:52)
Key Ideas
Purpose
In this lesson, you have encountered multiple kinds of national, transnational, and international movements which have emerged in an increasingly globalized world. This video builds on that and offers a specific case study: Palestine and Israel. This case study highlights competing nationalisms that emerged in the context of a United Nations decision, with roots at the end of the Ottoman Empire and during the British Mandatory period. You can apply this evidence to formulate an answer to the Unit Problem.
Process
Preview—Skimming for Gist
As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.
Key ideas
- Some people talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as something that started thousands of years ago. What time period does John Green choose to focus on in this video? Why do you think he decided not to focus on a millennia-old religious conflict?
- Early in the video, John Green chooses to talk about an Arab-Christian man named Wasif Jawhariyyeh. What claim does this evidence support? Why do you think John Green chose to mention this man?
- At the end of the First World War, the British occupied a territory in the Middle East, which they called “Palestine.” To whom did they promise it? Why was that a problem?
- Why did both Jews and Arabs want a nation-state in Palestine? What was the 1947 United Nations plan, and why did it fail?
- In looking back at the history of the conflict, John Green gives both a brief Palestinian perspective, and an Israeli perspective. Why do you think he does this, and is it an effective moment in the video?
Evaluate
- This video was created in 2015. How might it be different if it were created today?
- In most narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two elements are present: a story about who was in this region first (Jews or Arab Palestinians), and a statement about who is to blame for the conflict. John Green includes neither. What does that tell you about his perspective? What do you think of these choices?
Islam Alhashel (Graphic Biography)
Preparation
Summary
There are tens of millions of refugees in the world today, and their stories are human stories representative of a world on the move searching for safety and opportunity. Islam Alhashel is a young high school student in Cleveland, Ohio. She is also a refugee from the uprising and civil war in Syria. She is an exceptional individual, but her experiences are also representative of refugees around the world.
Purpose
This unit focuses on the issues and trends surrounding globalization, particularly in the late twentieth century. Central to any discussion of these debates is the story of refugees and their experiences. Globalization is both one cause of the challenges they face and a potential avenue for seeking opportunities. You can use this biography—perhaps together with those of the Ugandan labor migrants —to explore how and why people move in this era.
Process
Read 1: Observe
As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.
Read 2: Understand
On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Where was Islam Alhashel born and why did her family leave?
- Where did her family first find refuge, and how did they move onward?
- What were Islam’s experiences when they arrived in the United States?
- How does the artist use art and design to depict how Islam’s life was fractured, and then rebuilt?
Read 3: Connect
In this read, students should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course. On the bottom of the tool, have them record what they learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what they’re learning in the course more broadly. To help them make these connections, you might ask:
- How does this biography of Islam Alhashel support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about how different communities have experienced globalization in the contemporary era?
To Be Continued…
On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!
Our Networks Today
Preparation
Summary
This essay revisits the idea of “collective learning”—our ability to share knowledge and pass it down through generations. Over the past 60 years or so, the internet and social media have enabled us to connect with each other and access more information than ever before. The internet has helped people organize and helped states govern—for better or for worse. But the implications of these new technologies are unclear. How have they changed you?
Purpose
Throughout this course, we have studied networks as one frame for understanding the human past. In this article, we explore the state of our networks today through digital space, the internet, and social media. This article should help you to reflect on how our networks have changed over time. It should also help you to understand globalization, the theme for this unit. How has the internet connected people, and to what degree does it isolate or separate us from each other?
Process
Preview – Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas – Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- How have networks of knowledge changed since 1969, according to the authors?
- What are some ways that social media connects people, according to the authors?
- How has social media helped people to organize?
- What are some elements of the “dark side” of social media, according to the authors?
Evaluating and Corroborating
At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:
- In your personal experience, has social media and the internet made you feel more of a “global citizen” and connected to other people, more connected to your family and local community, or more isolated overall?
- How has the size and scale of networks changed over time? In a few sentences, describe the long history of changes in human networks.
Ugandan Migrants (Graphic Biography)
Preparation
Summary
There are tens of millions of migrant laborers in the world today, and their stories are human stories representative of a world on the move in search of work and economic prosperity. But the journey is often difficult and the results are only sometimes positive. Grace and Aminah are aliases for two women from Uganda, both of whom followed pathways that took them to the United Arab Emirates to look for work. For one, the experience was positive. For the other, it was dangerous and the results were negative.
Purpose
This unit focuses on the issues and trends surrounding globalization, particularly in the late twentieth century. Central to any discussion of these debates is the story of labor migrants. Although labor migration pre-dates the twentieth century, it is a central feature of the world we live in today because of elements of globalization, such as easier transportation and international finance. This twin biography provides some evidence to help you to evaluate the overall impact of globalization on the lives of people in different parts of the world.
Process
Preview – Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads – Graphic Histories worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas – Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Where did Grace and Aminah come from, and why were they seeking work in the United Arab Emirates?
- How did Grace and Aminah get permits to travel?
- How were Grace and Aminah’s experiences in the UAE different?
- How did the Ugandan government react to the experiences of its citizens like Aminah?
- How did the artist use art and design to show the different experiences of Grace and Aminah?
Evaluating and Corroborating
In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course.
- How does this biography of Ugandan Migrants to the UAE support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about how different communities have experienced globalization in the contemporary era?
September 11, 2001
Preparation
Summary
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers from the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda seized control of four passenger airplanes. They crashed two of the airplanes into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon, and the other crashed in a Pennsylvania field. These attacks killed almost 3,000 people and set in motion two decades of a global war on terror that continues to this day. The U.S. government and its allies responded to the attacks by invading Afghanistan, and in 2003, Iraq. Though Al-Qaeda was defeated and Osama bin Laden—the mastermind of the attacks—was killed, the wars in the Middle East continue to be unresolved.
Purpose
Globalization has had many unintended consequences. As the world becomes more interconnected, many people have started to resist the processes of globalization. Militant Islamist terrorism is one of those reactions, and the events of September 11, 2001 were one of their most significant attacks. By examining these attacks and their aftermath, this article will provide you with evidence to evaluate the effects of globalization as well as local causes of global events. This article will also provide you with background information on how colonialism, the Cold War, and informal colonialism have helped shaped the Middle East during the twentieth century.
Process
Preview – Skimming for Gist
Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!
Key Ideas – Understanding Content
For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- According to the author, what question did Americans ask after the attacks and what answer did many come up with?
- Why is it inaccurate to blame the 9/11 attacks on “Islam”?
- What is the “Clash of Civilizations” argument t, and why does the author say it was a problem after the 9/11 attacks?
- How is the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan related to the 9/11 attacks?
- According to the author, what was Osama bin Laden’s larger strategy behind the attacks?
Evaluating and Corroborating
At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:
- The 9/11 attacks have a lot of surrounding causes and events. How might you reframe the narrative of these attacks using each of the three course frames?
- The author has a generally critical view of the American response to the 9/11 attacks. You might agree or you might disagree. Do you think the U.S. strategy in the years after the attacks was effective? Why or why not?
Redraw the Frames
Preparation
Purpose
Working with frames allows you to understand how and why people lived the way they did throughout history. They help you recognize how communities (such as societies and nations); networks (such as those for trade and exchange); and the production and distribution of goods, impacted, and still impact, people in different parts of the world. Viewing history through frames gives us a usable knowledge of history that allows us to make sense of the world today and think critically about the future. The process of depicting frames by drawing them—mixing language with imagery—will make the information more memorable.
Process
In this activity, you will draw the course frames, much like you did earlier in the course. However, instead of coming up with your own ideas about each of the frames, you will draw them according to the frame narratives at this point in the course. This will not only help you gain a sense of your understanding of the frames, but will also give you a chance to review what you’ve already learned, which will help you remember all that stuff!
Don’t worry about your drawing skills—you don’t have to be an artist to complete this activity. However, try to use more pictures than words. And feel free to be creative! Here are the criteria:
- Draw a representation of community based on the content of this unit. Be sure to label that area of the picture with “community.”
- Draw a representation of production and distribution based on the content of this unit. Be sure to label that area of the drawing with “P&D.”
- Finally, draw the networks between communities (people, states, empires, and so on) based on the content of this unit.
- Where possible, use arrows and other lines to show movement. This will largely apply to P&D and networks.
Once you’re done, be ready to share your drawings and thinking behind them with your class. Was your approach the same as your classmates? Or did you think about the frames differently? Frames are no different from anything else we study in history—there can be many perspectives on the same topic.
CCOT – Unit Comparisons
Preparation
Purpose
In this final CCOT activity, you’ll put all your CCOT practice to use by writing an essay that asks you to identify the most significant changes and continuities across all units. This will help you determine whether you’ve mastered this historical thinking practice and are able to situate phenomena in the context of time, space, and sociocultural setting.
Process
This is the final CCOT activity of the course. You will use all of the skills you’ve acquired to write an essay about the continuities and changes that occurred in the world across multiple units. If you completed the CCOT activities for Units 3, 5, 6, and 8, you can reference your completed CCOT Tools to help write your unit comparisons essay. But before you begin to write your essay, you’ll need to complete the CCOT Tool one last time.
Your teacher will either hand out or ask you to download the CCOT – Unit Comparisons worksheet (which includes the CCOT Tool). Then, you’ll work on your own to complete the questions on the tool. Start by adding the timeframe you’re investigating and identifying the continuities and changes that took place across units (c. 1750 to the present). Remember, you can use any of the articles and videos from the course to help identify continuities and changes—the unit overview articles are a good place to start.
Once you have identified the continuities and changes, write these on sticky notes (one change or continuity per note). Then, decide if the continuities and changes you identified are positive or negative and place them on the graph in the tool.
Next, complete the remaining questions on the tool. Remember that you can use the acronym ADE to determine historical significance. Consider if most people’s lives were affected by these changes and continuities (amount); if people living in this time period were deeply affected by these changes and continuities (depth); or if these changes and continuities were long lasting (endurance).
Then, craft thesis statements in response to the following CCOT prompts:
- To what extent were the changes that occurred from c. 1750 to the present positive?
- To what extent were the continuities that occurred from c. 1750 to the present positive?
Finally, you’ll use your thesis statements to individually write a five- to six-paragraph essay that fully answers the following question: Describe and explain the most significant changes and continuities to communities, OR production and distribution, OR networks from c. 1750 to the present.
Your teacher will collect your worksheets and essays and use them to assess your CCOT skills. Be sure to review the WHP Writing Rubric before you begin writing your essay, as this is what your teacher will use to evaluate your essay.