Introduction

Hello Summer class of 2020. I know some of you might have a hard time writing about your interest in our subject - World History - but I, of course, find it fascinating. If I didn't, I wouldn't be teaching it! History is many things to me. When we are born relative to history literally defines the opportunities presented to us throughout our life. If everyone in this class had been born just 100 years earlier in human history, most of us wouldn't even have the opportunity to be in the class at all. If we were born 100 years later, who knows? Maybe all classes will be conducted online by then and those of us who thrive on the in-person interaction of a live classroom will be marginalized from participating in educational experiences. The opportunity for live instruction may no longer exist. Or World History as a subject might no longer be valued enough to be required - the opportunity to put our lives in a bigger context of meaning may no longer exist. 

I don't see that bigger context of meaning as only the human context. We touch on big history in this class because I think we miss so much insight about who we are when we focus only on the human past and neglect our interconnectedness with the non-human world. Or when we fail to recognize that the elements of earth are also elements of us. Three provocative ideas - provocative because they keep my historical mind curious, and because they might just be true - keep me radically open to the possibility that human history is much more than just the history of humans: 

     * The stars are our ancestors.
     * Earth is a living organism.
     * The Paleolithic was the most formative human era.

My hope for this class is that each student will adapt well to the online environment, even though it means a lot of screen time, and that I will be able to incorporate at least some of the fun, interactive activities of my in-person classes into this online format. I also hope that I will correspond with each of you by email in ways that are meaningful as you grapple with the material for the class. My concerns are many, since in-person interactions can really help this subject come alive for people. And we will not be able to have our last-night World Historical feast, which has always been a highlight of the Summer version of this class. In short, I will surely miss meeting you all in person, but I hope to get to know each of you better by email.



I will be posting from California, but not from the Bay Area. I'm sheltering-in-place in a remote, off-grid location in far northeastern California. Modoc County. I'm building a hermitage and nature retreat here for people who need to get out of the craziness that can be our urban experience. This was supposed to be my next-thing, what-does-the-world-need-from-me project, but the pandemic has placed me here for the past 2 months and, combined with the possible closure of NDNU, makes me wonder if the time for my next-thing is actually now. I also try to remain radically open to possibilities, even those created by undesired developments. 

I'm a visual learner, so I'll include a sunrise photo I took a couple of days ago from my workstation here on the property. I'd love it if some of you would likewise include photos of your view from your workstation so I can begin to visualize you all as a class!

I was not planning on being out here for so long or working remotely from the property. To facilitate working remotely from here, I had internet installed, even though I don't even have a house here yet... the only finished structure on the property is this shed, which now has a battery-powered internet receiver. The outlying areas of this valley are so remote that we are not serviced by any of the major internet providers. What evolved here is something they call "DirkNet." DirkNet is literally a network created by a guy named Dirk. Here's Dirk installing his equipment on my shed.

My own personal or family history? Well, my mother is German and on my natural father's side the family is from various places in Britain. I was raised by my step-dad, however, and his family came to America on slave ships. My grandpa on that side was Gullah. I recall so clearly the moment when I became aware of race: I was in third grade. Our neighbors had just got a vicious dog and I was afraid to walk home from school alone so "my dad" came home early from work so he could walk home with me. My teacher refused to let me go with him because, according to her, he couldn't possibly be my dad. But he is my dad,  I told her. He can't be your dad - he's black.  No matter how much I cried, she held firm. He's black... you're not... he can't be your dad.  He and my mom had to explain to me over dinner that night what she meant and he reassured me that he was still my dad, no matter what she said. I guess there must eventually have been a letter of permission or something because he was able to pick me up from school after that. But why did he have to live through that humiliating experience?  

So the history of civil rights in America has personal resonance for me. And I'm also aware that if I had been born at another place and time, I might have been born into an entirely different set of perspectives. I try to have compassion for that teacher, because even though she caused me distress, turned my world upside down, and insulted my dad, I don't know the conditions, attitudes or prejudices she might have been born into. I do hope that her awareness changed over time, though, and that's something that knowing some history can do for a person... I hope at some point in her life it occurred to her that her behavior was appalling, even if it made sense to her at the time. Especially if it made sense to her at the time. If history can teach us anything, it is that behavior that seems to makes sense under one set of circumstances, might seem appalling looked at from a different perspective. So how do we decide... what was a "good" historical development, and what was a "bad" one? That's where our humanity comes in.

Well that was a much longer and different Introduction than I'd planned to write, but I'll leave it be. We have a small class and we won't be able to get to know each other in person, so I do hope each of you allows yourself to get a little carried away like I did when writing your Introduction.