We are creating a new high school world history curriculum next week geared toward 9th graders (14-15 year-olds). We are working hard to avoid Eurocentrism, include a heavy emphasis on working with primary sources, and give students lots of opportunities to develop analytical writing skills. I guess I was just hoping to hear some thoughts from professors, grad students, teachers, laymen, and even students about world history at the high school level. Does anyone have any suggestions about how we can best prepare our students for college and the real world? Are there other key elements of world history or historical thinking that we should emphasize? What are you seeing from your students or peers that desperately needs to be remedied at the high school level? I realize this is an incredibly broad question, but welcome to the world of public school curriculum writing!

On Monday we got back from the weekend to discover vines had invaded the archives!! Also my boss has never heard of Jumanji.

Awhile back someone asked me about the question of whether nukes would have done much in Vietnam, and whether they were discussed much. At last I have written a response, in blog-form...: "Would nukes have helped in Vietnam?" The answer is... no.

Does anyone know if its possible that there was a large developed civilization in the Amazon that we don't know about because the wet, humid environment is not conducive for survival or artifacts? I know about some developments where they have noticed earthworks in the rainforest. Is it likely we may never know because most of the other reminents have rotted away?

Just thought I would leave this video here.

It is an Errol Morris 7 min short on the infamous "Umbrella Man" seen during the Kennedy assassination, but really just a great piece on the study of history in general IMO.

I'm listening through one of the volumes of will Durant and he paraphrases a Turkish sultan as mocking Iberia/Italian trade princes for driving out the jews, because so many good doctors and moneylenders are flooding into Istanbul.

Now I know there were identifying badges, special "jewish quarters" in Islamic cities, and other indignities like jizya that extended to all subject dhimmis, but was there ever a popular hatred of the jews in Islamic regions (from say, 100 years after the initial conquerings to maybe the 17th century) for their capital-related expertise to mimic that in Europe of the time (i.e., leading to violence reprisal?) why or why not? did jews have special financial privileges w.r.t. riba or interest like in parts of Europe?

Why did the Normans own southern Italy for a time? Was it some sort of kink in the line of succession or something? Did they sail down to the Mediterranean and was all like "Oh hey Italy, I own everything in the South."

I've recently begun my research on Polish Immigration to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, primarily with a focus on individuals and families that came to Michigan to settle in Hamtramck, Jackson, the U.P., and Grand Rapids. It's a bit slow going as most of the records and information I need is located in Lansing at the State Library, but I enjoy planning my trips up there and I hope I'm able to have a base laid down before I start work in the Fall.

If anyone has any recommendations or ideas, I'm very much open to them and I would appreciate it!

Starting university in the next two weeks. Feeling quite excited and nervous. A question though, has anybody here interacted with the National University of Singapore?

I recently pondered a periodization of Jewish history not based solely on when authoritative religious texts were written. Here's what I came up with:

• To 539BCE--Biblical Era
• 539BCE - 164BCE--Early Second Temple Era
• 164 BCE -70CE--Late Second Temple Era
• 70CE -632CE--Classical Rabbinic Era
• 632 -1096--Geonic Era (this name is borrowed from the Jewish law periodization because I couldn't think of a better name. Maybe Early Medieval)
• 1096 - 1492--Migratory Era
• 1492 - 1881--Early Modern Era
• 1881 - 1947--European Collapse Era (man that name is depressing)
• 1947 - present--Modern Era

Thoughts?

Also, there was a discussion earlier about the role of satire in history. I was thinking about the role of fiction in historical work more generally. Fiddler on the Roof is an excellent historical resource. The original book, Tevye Der Milkhiger (Tevye the Milkman) was written by and for Eastern European Jews in the era described, so even though it's fiction it describes a lot about what life was like. We know that:

• Intermarriage was imaginable, but not socially accepted
• A person of relatively modest means was still literate and knowledgeable about Judaism
• Some social interaction between Jews and gentiles occurred

And with the play and movie, we can even trace how this period was viewed over time. You can see how intermarriage became more accepted, for instance.