Ep 48: Buy My Book
On Top of the World
Your hosts discuss Dave's new book: World History Through Case Studies: Historical Skills in Practice. Dave tells us about how studying things like the history of veiling, yoga, or the World Cup will engage your students and help them think like a historian. Ditch the textbook and buy Dave's book!
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Ep 47: The New AP World History CED with Eric Beckman
On Top of the World
The new AP World History (CED) is out and we have to figure out the best and most responsible way to teach it. In this episode, Matt interviews , a veteran teacher and winner of the 2018 William H. McNeill World History Association Teacher Scholarship. What exactly has changed? Where and how should we start this new truncated course? Are Texans taking over World History? How can we best create an anti-racist and global course within the parameters of the new standards? With our goal of helping students do better on the exam, making the course more coherent, and making the...
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Ep 46: How to Hide an Empire
On Top of the World
Are mountains of bird sh*t, a doctor giving his patients cancer, and the width of screw threads central to the rise of American imperialism? Yes! Matt and Dave discuss by Daniel Immerwahr. This a text that will leave North American readers like Matt and Dave, saying "Oh sh*t! That really happened?" It is also history that weaves together mass politics, insane personal stories, and the twists of fate that shaped the changes and continuities of American history beyond and across the boundaries of "logo map." Recommendations: Dave - by Arkady Martine Matt...
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Ep 45: Against the Grain
On Top of the World
Dave and Matt return from a winter break to discuss the future of AP World and review James C. Scott's book . Recommendations: Dave: and Matt: Music Eric Jones, Angkor Feist, Let It Die MIMS, This Is Why I'm Hot
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Ep 44: Texting in Class - Panorama
On Top of the World
Texting in Class makes a triumphal return! Matt and Dave review . Recommendations: Music: Angkor - Eric Jones I Can See For Miles - The Who Atomic Bomb - William Onyeabor
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Ep 43: Playing with Paradox Games
On Top of the World
Matt and Dave are joined by special guests Henrik Lohmander and Peter Nicholson, computer game designers and historians with Paradox Interactive. We discuss their fascinating jobs working on the historical strategy games, how to break into historical game development, and the challenge of balancing history and player fun. Recommendations: All - Henrik - Dave - Matt - Music: Angkor, Eric Jones Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Tears for Fears Caesar, Ty Seagull Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode
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BONUS: Document Analysis Practice
On Top of the World
New episodes are on the way! In the meantime, you can listen to Matt and Dave talking through some primary source analysis best practices, document analysis, and lesson ideas. We hope that you or your students find this episode helpful! We originally did this as a for the fine folks over at but on the condition that it would be free to the public and that we could share it with our listeners too.
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BONUS: The Traitor Baru Cormorant
On Top of the World
Put on your masks and get out your account books! Matt and Dave are joined by a very special guest, ! They discuss Seth Dickinson's groundbreaking fantasy novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Although it is a work of fiction, the book's approach to race, queerness, and empire can help us as world historians break free from some of the limitations of the archive. Happy Halloween and happy the Monster Baru Cormorant day! Links: Recommendations: Music: Angkor, Eric Jones Rebel, Rebel, David Bowie Empire State of Mind, Jay Z. feat. Alicia Key Mask Off,...
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Ep 42: The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt
On Top of the World
Dave and Matt sit down with Michael Vann to talk about his new graphic history, . Your hosts discuss the joy of finding unexpected things in the archive, the necessity of writing a colonial urban history as a world history, the importance of cultural history and thick description, and the opportunities that graphic histories give teachers in the classroom. Also, check out Mike's excellently-titled article in the Journal of World History: Recommendations: All - Micheal - Dave - Matt - Music: Angkor by Eric Jones Le Festin by...
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Episode 41 - The Cold World War
On Top of the World
What is the Cold War to a World Historian? Dave and Matt use Odd Arne Wested's Bancroft-winning book as a launching pad to examine the longue durée of the 20th-century and a global approach to the US-Soviet conflict that centers decolonization and the "Third World." Recommendations: The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times by Odd Arne Wested Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer
info_outlineIn this episode, Matt and I sit down over some fine 90s music (and a PC Pils from Founders for the Big Pitcher!) to discuss an important article published after the end of the Cold War; Benjamin Barber’s “Jihad vs McWorld.” In it, Barber describes two futures – one marked by the violent forms of ethno-nationalism he terms jihad, and the other by the globalist consumerism of McWorld. The twist is that he argues neither of these futures is good for democracy. We debate the coherence of capitalism, war profiteering, the value of local democracy, and the merits of Terminator 2, Hackers, Jurassic Park, and Independence Day (the celebrations Matt mentions are here). Recommendations are:
Dave – Mitchell, Carbon Democracy
Matt – Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa