Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Curriculum Analysis
3.6.2008
nations; living in a truly global community where only boundaries that exist are
those created by the world’s massive bodies of water. What would national
historiesbe then? Thomas Bender, in A Nation Among Nations suggests this is the
“exceptional” phenomena that occurred within an American vacuum, but rather was
shaped and occurred in concert with actions around the world; thus making
moments” in American history i.e., transatlantic expedition, the slave trade and the
Civil War, Bender does his best to illustrate the link these events, viewed as
benchmarks in American history, with global events with global implications. Bender
attempts to make the general audience view American history from a global lens.
Where Benders appears to fall short is his “brave” attempt to make American
history global history is the most common perspective from which he analyzes
these events is through the currently expectable Eurocentric lens. Though his
criticism of America and Europe are clearly expressed, his conveyance of American
history still reflects the side of the “victor”. Bender too often presents his cases in a
‘agent vs. victim’ format, completely ignoring the possibility of other world events
that may have contributed to American/Western dominance during the latter half of
the millennia. Furthermore, Bender’s starting his global history with trans-Atlantic
expeditions causes skepticism alone, in that as described in Guns, Germs, and
Steel, peoples of an entire half of the world are completely ignored in A Nation
Among Nations. Bender, in efforts to promote global history and American history as
a fluid, seamless entity could have done a better job including peoples of the
It is my idea that following the age of nationalism, prior to WWI, helped foster
that competition, besides war, was an effort for every nation to tell their own unique
story. Predictably, a nation’s own unique story devoid of global context makes an
America seem exceptional and special. And In today’s America where a citizen’s
American flag is flying outside one’s home, or if we “support the troops”, not
reflect that.