Situating the U.S. in Globalization Paradigms: 1980-Present
Overview
One of the most relevant outcomes of social studies education today is the teaching of “globalization.” Failure to teach this topic situates social studies with a backward glance that prepares students for the 20th century Additionally, too often globalization in U.S. history courses is limited to an economic phenomenon or misinterpreted as a process of global ‘Americanization.’ Conversely, globalization is better taught as interconnected political, social, economic, and cultural processes and projects.
Also, globalization has a profound impact on contemporary identities, identify formation, and subsequently the formation of the “other.” The process of “othering” categorizes people from one’s own distinctiveness. Typically, the process uses qualifiers to marginalize groups as not being “authentic” and relegate collectives to inferior positions. Recognizing this cognitive practice frees students to better engage ‘globalization’, and other concepts, like ‘modernity’ and ‘culture’, with a nuanced approach emphasizing complexity and connections over simplicity and isolation.
Suggested Essential Questions
How can globalization be defined and that explanation be nuanced and problematized?
What are the major systems and ideas involved in and impacted by globalization?
To what extent is Thomas Friedman’s claim that the “world is flat” a valid one?
What are the limits of seeing culture as static, packaged groups of beliefs, actions, and qualities?
Scholar Presentation
How do you teach globalization? Four educators — John T. Spencer, Diana Laufenberg, Jennifer D. Klein, and Jason Flom — have contributed responses to Craig’s question. In addition, I’ve included comments from readers.
C3 Inquiries relevant to this module
Note: We suggest adding primary and secondary sources found in this module to the C3 Inquiries below. Doing so will add a dimension of "how to globalize U.S. history?" not found in the original design.
Secondary Resources
Mamood Mamdani, Good Muslim , Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism (2002).
TED Talk – Dr. Dean Ornish, The Killer American Diet that’s Sweeping the Planet (2006).
TED Talk – Gordon Brown, Global Ethic vs. National Interest (2009).
Podcast -BBC . John and Jean Comaroff explore how communities sell their traditional culture (2010).
Graphic – US Military Bases Around the World, National Post (2011).
TED Talk – Pankaj Ghemawat, Actually the World Isn’t Flat (2012).
NPR Podcast, A Brief History of US In Central America in the 1980’s (2016).
Radio Broadcast : How the World Views the U.S. Presidential Election (2016).
Raising Barriers: A 3 Part Series on Contemporary Border Walls (2016)
Web Tool – Freedom House: Reports on Freedom Levels over time around the globe.
UT Austin 15 Minute History Podcast: Nigerian Civil War and the Origins of US Humanitarianism
Globalization and Culture: University of Sydney – 6 minute video (2016)
Business Insider Infographic and Article: How 19 nations feel about globalization (2017)
Chicago Council on Global Affairs Report: America Engaged (2018)
The GHS Index is the first comprehensive assessment of global health security capabilities in 195 countries. (2019).
Putting Coronavirus in Context: A History of Disease and Epidemics – webinar from the National Humanities Center (2020)
Democracy and Freedom Indices 2000 – 2019 (this links to a compilation of indices that compares the US to other nations in specific areas like press freedom and corruption).
Global Conflict Tracker, Council on Foreign Relations (2021 updated frequently)
Costs of War - Data Report (2021)
UN Peace Keeping Missions (2021 updated frequently)
World's Leading Economic Power, Pew Research, 2008 - 2020 (2021)
Gun Violence Deaths: How the US Compares to the Rest of the World, NPR (2022)
These Countries Restricted Assault Weapons after Just One Mass Shooting (2022)
Primary Resources
World Trade Organization History Project, Seattle, WA (1999).
President Bush’s address to a joint session of Congress and the nation (2001).
President Obama’s remarks in Cairo on a “New Beginning” Includes audio (2009).
The World Values Survey, Data Analysis and Comparing Nations (2014).
Bill Gates Ted Talk: The Next Outbreak? We are not ready (2015)
UN rights chief urges US to consider robust gun control, (2016)
Letter sent by 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed to President Obama (2015- 2017)
President Trump’s “America First” speech at the United Nations (2018 – text and video)
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian politician and academic who has been Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017 Opening Speech, World Health Summit (2019)
UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020)
20 years since 9/11 attacks, trial date must finally be set for conspirators, Opinion piece (2021)