On Top of the World
Dave Eaton & Matt Drwenski
Recent Episodes
The new AP World History Course and Exam Description (CED) is out and we have to figure out the best and most responsible way to teach it.
In this episode, Matt interviews Eric Beckman, a veteran teacher and winner of the 2018 William H. McNeill World History Association Teacher Scholarship. What exactly has changed? Where and how should we start this new truncated course? Are Texans taking over World History? How can we best create an anti-racist and global course within the parameters of the new standards?
With our goal of helping students do better on the exam, making the course more coherent, and making the course less Eurocentric, this episode will help both novice and experienced teachers grapple with the 2019 standards from College Board.
Links:
Learning, Online by Eric Beckman
The AP World History: Modern CED
Are mountains of bird sh*t, a doctor giving his patients cancer, and the width of screw threads central to the rise of American imperialism? Yes! Matt and Dave discuss How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr.
This a text that will leave North American readers like Matt and Dave, saying "Oh sh*t! That really happened?" It is also history that weaves together mass politics, insane personal stories, and the twists of fate that shaped the changes and continuities of American history beyond and across the boundaries of "logo map."
Recommendations:
Dave - A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Matt - Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800-1850 by Andrew J. Torget
How English Became the Global Language by David Northrup
Dave's book is available for pre-order right now!
World History through Case Studies: Historical Skills in Practice by Dave Eaton
Dave and Matt return from a winter break to discuss the future of AP World and review James C. Scott's book Against the Grain.
Recommendations:
Dave: Webb, Humanity's Burden and Klieman, "The Pygmies Were Our Compass"
Matt: Wrangham, Catching Fire
Music
Eric Jones, Angkor
Feist, Let It Die
MIMS, This Is Why I'm Hot
Texting in Class makes a triumphal return! Matt and Dave review Panorama: A World History by Laura J. Mitchell and Ross E. Dunn.
Recommendations:
Dave - Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE by Craig Benjamin
Dave - Grand Valley Journal of History for undergraduate students
Music:
Angkor - Eric Jones
I Can See For Miles - The Who
Atomic Bomb - William Onyeabor