The National Center for History in
the Schools at UCLA has just published World
History: The Big Eras, A Compact History of Humankind for Teachers and
Students. As a succinct survey of the human past from Paleolithic times to
the present, this volume will be useful to middle land high school world
history teachers, AP world history instructors, and college and university
world history faculty.
In ninety-six concise pages, this
book brings together in a seamless world-scale narrative newly revised versions
of historical essays that appear in World History for Us All, the model
curriculum for world history available on line at http:worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu. Published in magazine format, this slim and
inexpensive volume is a valuable companion to all educators who use the
electronic resources of World History for Us All. It also stands alone as a
brief history of humankind, inviting teachers, students, and all global
educators to explore the past on big scales. Middle and high school teachers wrestling with state content standards
will find this brief narrative useful in developing coherent curriculum and for
helping students connect specific topics to wider landscapes of historical
meaning. The book's panoramic approach is also highly compatible with the
Advanced Placement World History course.
The
basic idea behind World History: The Big
Eras is that study of the past on the global scale reveals patterns and
raises questions that may be invisible at the lower scales of civilization,
nation-state, and ethnic region. Its
authors are Edmund Burke III, Prof. of History at UC Santa Cruz; David
Christian, Prof. of History at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; and
Ross E. Dunn, Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University.
All receipts from sales of the book support the mission of the National
Center for History in the Schools to advance history education in the United
States. For further information contact the NCHS at nchs@history.ucla.edu or (310)
825-4702.