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The confluence of commemorations of the
Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, and the Vietnam War is a reminder
of the significance of the military in world history. Fortunately, the
growth of world history over the past 30 years runs parallel to the expansion
of military in terms of methodology and scope of interest. The February
2015 issue of World
History Connected offers
evidence of the richness of scholarship and teaching that is the result of
these mutual developments. Its Forum section throws fresh light on
the role of the military in Mongol, Ottoman and Trans-Atlantic Empires and
upends the assumption that the victors always those who shape the history of
wars.
The Forum is followed by
further articles of value in terms of both scholarship and teaching
methodology. Sharika Crawford demonstrates that the role Africa and African soldiers of
the British and French Empires during the Second World War are a means to
incorporate Africa and Africans into the modern world history course that goes
beyond the Scramble for Africa. She also argues that by identifying African
wartime experiences in classroom coverage of the Second World War serves to
raise subsequent questions regarding African ex-servicemen's postwar
experiences and whether these veterans affected nationalist movements in the
1950s and 1960s. Howard Spodek shows how student efforts to collect oral
history interviews, especially from those who have experienced displace by war,
are a superior means of "Doing World History." John Maunu supplies
an annotated digital resource for examining writing on military affairs from
ancient times to 1450, which is but the first of several such resources that
will appear in World History Connected in the coming years.
In the near future, issues of World
History Connected will continue to explore dimensions of human conflict,
such as the First World War, but also address more pacific themes, including
religious conversion, port cities, and the place of food in world history.
World History Connected welcomes the submission of articles and reviews on these and any other subject
that can advance research and teaching in the still evolving field of world
history.
Marc Jason Gilbert, Editor
Hawai'i Pacific University
Marc Jason Gilbert is Professor of History and National Endowment for the Humanities Endowed Chair in World History at Hawai'i Pacific University. He can be reached at mgilbert@hpu.edu. |
