In the shadow of the past

This fall at KA we are debuting two, yes, two big new courses in the History Department! (Actually, we have more than two, but two big ones, and two small ones.) If that gets you excited—please, dear reader, press on. If that elicits a groan (excuse me, if so, who are you, and why are you at my blog????????!) then maybe this isn’t the blogisode for you.

No, really, it is exciting, re-thinking and re-crafting the first two history courses our students will take in their KA experience. I am sure I will be telling you more of the juicy excitement of the new and improved (don’t you dare even breathe the 1985 phrase “New Coke” here!) 9th and 10th grade courses but one of the elements of the 10th grade course has been on my mind in the last week.

The 10th grade course is a survey of the History of the Middle East nestled in the context of World History. Okay, now the verb nestled is not in the official wording of the course. I always get hung up on titles and what I want them to be. In 2001 when I debuted a new course at Hackley, I wanted the course entitled, “Releasing the Historical Imagination.” The bureaucrat-in-charge, sucked in a little air, and said, “How about we call it ‘History 9’." So, the other day I was musing on what I wanted this called and I suggested, “The Middle East in the context of World History,” and my colleague said, “I think it should be ‘The Middle East and the World.’" Everyone is always trying to simplify me. Do you see why I don’t do Twitter???

Anyway, this is not just a pull-a-date-out-of-a-hat-chronological survey course. We are starting this course in big, bad, happenin’ 2011. Right now! Why not??! The Middle East has had a tempestuous, volatile, interesting year, and why not dive into acting as historians and make sense of this year, the very year in which we live and breathe. I tried this in 1993 when I re-imagined a western civilization course at Charlotte Latin as well, jumping into that current year, and it was wonderful.

So, back to my excitement. We will mine the media websites and see what has transpired ever since this “Arab Spring” began back in January in Tunisia. What do the Middle Eastern media outlets say about this? The American websites? The BBC? What really has happened this year? What might it mean…where it might go? Ahhh…now here is the fun part. The students don’t really know what has happened this year (and don’t act all smug because you are smarter than a 15 year old—who does know what has happened this year?) but they will need more context, they will need more history to have this current year make more sense. Get the verb in there? They will need more history! Once you establish the need, the thirst, they will do anything! Then we will go back in time to the lifetime of their grandparents, trying to make sense of the last 70 or so years…

But here’s the thing about 2011 and the “Arab Spring”—as I have read about the Middle East, mostly from western sources, they kept trying to make it out as a rebirth of the spirit of 1989, a redux-1989, if you will, of the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Remember how Jordan was treated in the press? Reporters were looking at Jordan and wanting it to fall, to fit some paradigm of dominos falling across the Middle East. That makes for an easier story, and a fun, let’s-relive-the-80s kick.

But in the last week as I have helped prepare the 10th grade course, it has hit me that it is another year entirely that 2011 has mirrored. Nope, not 1989—although I really did like that year too. It’s 1848.

1848?

Now, who’s interested??! Huh?!

Thinking about 1848 took me back to my days of teaching AP Modern European History (a course dear to my heart—it is the course that tipped me over to become a teacher as a senior in high school. It was taught by the iconic Jean Michaels and was marvelous. When I became a teacher I taught this course seven times before I moved on to other courses, but my heart is still in this great course) and what an interesting and confounding year 1848 proved across Europe.

In 1848 a wave of unemployment and economic woes engulfed Europe and led to spiked food prices. Across continental Europe there were monarchies ruling impoverished masses suffering from this acute economic distress. There were feeble parliaments and brutal police and limited suffrage and limited freedom of expression.

Yes, that was 1848. Take the above paragraph and substitute, “the Middle East” for “continental Europe,” and 2011 for 1848 and nothing else has to be changed. Look at those parallels! Let’s continue…at the root of the turmoil was a new, growing, politically and economically and culturally frustrated middle class. Yes, both 1848 and 2011.

In both times, 1848 and 2011, there were unexpected successes. In February, 1848, in Paris, after the government suppresses peaceful protests, three days of massive street protests and riots follow. The King abdicates, a republic is declared, and a hopeful democratic chaos ensues. Cut to 2011—in January and February, in Tunisia and Egypt, after the government suppresses peaceful protests, 29 and 18 days (respectively) of massive street protests follow. King-like presidents resign, and a hopeful democratic chaos ensues.

And there’s more!

In both years ambivalent armies fraternize with street protesters. Some of both troops even join the rebels. And let’s not think we of the 21st century are the only ones to trumpet technology—new technology helps spread the word of the protests. In 1848 revolutionary news is transmitted as never before by telegraph, steam-powered newspaper printing presses and railroads. In 2011 revolutionary news is transmitted as never before by cell phones, the Internet and cable television.

In both years democratic America is pleased. In 1848 President James Polk congratulated the French on their new liberties; in 2011 President Barack Obama praised the hopes for genuine democracy. In both years rich, reactionary powers in the east meddled: in 1848 Tsar Nicholas I sent troops to help his fellow monarchs; in 2011 the Saudi king lashed out against the “infiltrators” in Egypt. The Revolutionary contagion spread quickly in both years, fanning across many countries. In both eras there was a flood of refugees fleeing the chaos trying to emigrate to the Protestant US in 1848, and the Christian EU in 2011.

So the parallels are dizzying. Now as we begin the 10th grade course this week, I doubt whether we will emphasize this parallel at all…but here is what is exciting about beginning a course in the present. We don’t know what will come of it all…knowing more history will enrich our understanding of how these events got set in motion…but we still don’t know where it is all going.

We do know what happened next in 1848. In France, the crucible of the revolutionary fervor, the radicals pushed too far too fast, provoking a backlash by the end of 1848. By that winter, most of the revolutions had been reversed, and/or crushed.

And what of “The Arab Spring” of 2011? We don’t know yet. And that is part of the excitement of studying this current year, indeed, reveling in that lack of certainty. If we infuse a study of history with that same unawareness of inevitability we will stand a better chance at understanding what it felt like to stand in another era, to imagine what they were thinking. We can predict all we want, but we will have to wait for this next installment of this year to see where this will lead. Will we repeat 1848? How will it be different? What does a knowledge of that year do for us as we muddle through our contemporary times? How might history help?

So many questions…our mission statement of our department reads that we teach to a narrative of inquiry rather than a narrative of conclusions.

Invigorating and exciting, wouldn’t you say?