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Buildings are all around us. We
live in them, research in them and teach in them. However, very few world
historians consider the constructed environment as a legitimate and interesting
data base for historical research and disciplinary teaching. All of the authors
in this Special Forum basically agree with the notion that architecture, if
considered through a world history perspective, can serve as a set of valuable
primary documents in stone, wood and metal.
Many of our extant world
history learners, be they college professors doing scholarly research or
high school students grappling with a polycentric global history for the first
time, are visual learners. What better means to address world history learning
for people who learn best through the sense of sight than buildings.
Architecture is concrete, no pun intended. It is visual, tactile, challenging
and in many ways aesthetically pleasing. This series of articles will serve as
an invitation to teachers and students of world history alike to view buildings
as rich sources of the global narrative.
It has been the experience of this
writer editor that buildings relate well to all of the core understandings of
our field. One can find, for example, a multi-story structure in Buenos Aires,
Argentina that is a synthesis of French Second Empire and Post-Classic Spanish
designs. However, its polycentric nature is enhanced by the gourmet Italian
restaurant on the ground floor. The results of trade diasporas are obvious as
one considers a Chinese Buddhist temple dedicated to Quan Yin in the midst of
Bangkok. Local, indigenous agency is evident as one studies the western façade
of the Cathedral in Oaxaca, Mexico. Both the central bas relief of the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the delicately carved flora around the three
arched entrances are beautiful testaments to the carving prowess of the Post-Classic Mixtecs.
Research and teaching world history
through architecture can also effectively address the development and
refinement of an aesthetic awareness in teachers and learners. Many historic
structures are beautiful in their own right and they can serve as models for
the appreciation of beauty in all aspects of life. One can sense beauty in the
physical presence of the pendentives that support the massive dome of Hagia
Sophia in Istanbul. The colors on the façade of a Oaxacan rural church and the
precise mathematical proportion of an ancient Greek temple on the Italian coast
contrast in their uses but they both transmit a sense of timeless beauty across
the centuries. If one is aware of the strict separation of public and
private space in Muslim cultures, this knowledge greatly enhances the
experience of entering an Andalucian style home in Oaxaca City, Mexico. The
outside of the structure is almost Quaker like in simplicity—a wall of adobe
covered in brightly painted stucco. However, upon entering the family's private
space, one sees the blue sky through an open courtyard, one hears the gurgle of
a beautiful water fountain and one feels the shade and appreciates the beauty
of flowers in the central garden. The potentially fruitful relationship of
world history and art history in this context is obvious.
This forum is a rich collection of
essays, all of which directly identify the employment of the built environment
as of continuing importance to both scholarly research and learning/teaching
tools for world history. To assist in the latter effort, the Forum closes
with an essay that draws out those elements of pedagogical theory, world history
thinking skills and world history themes and concepts (such as comparative
method and polycentrism) that are implied or made explicit by each
author.
The next two articles are focused on the core world history
theme of imperialism. Pilar Maria Guerrieri's piece traces the diffusion of
Classical Greek and Roman building design as a symbol of Western European
imperialism in the modern period. Alexander Mirkovic offers an example of how
architecture and art were used to support and justify the existence of the
British Empire at its height in the mid-19th Century c .e. A second
pair of articles emphasizes one of the seminal thinking skills in the field:
the relationship of events over time and space. Ralph Crozier's
contribution narrates the history of a structure from the early days of the
Russian Revolution and details how it was influenced by events which occurred
before, during and after the early days of the Bolshevik takeover. This
writer's article focuses on the relationship of significant events in world
history from c. 500 b. c. e through the 16th Century c. e. that
directly influenced the architectural elements of the great Dominican iglesia
and convento of Santo Domingo, Oaxaca City, Mexico. Kimberly Sayre Alexander's
analysis of the reactions of a mid-19th Century c. e. New England
woman to Qing Chinese architecture in Macao offers is an excellent example of
many world historical processes, including the importance of multiple
perspectives to the human narrative. |
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