Let Us Remember, It Is A TEXTBOOK

As a World War 2 enthusiast I could go on and on (and on) about how a textbook could embody the totality of the bloodshed, the strategy, the oppression, etc. of  the greatest World War our country has ever experienced. This; however, is useless in creating a textbook, especially a textbook aimed at highschoolers. I believe that our Modern World History textbook does a fairly good job of covering the crucial material that falls under the large umbrella that is World War 2; however it is easy to speculate and claim that they leave out or do not give enough detail to certain events that occurred during the war. (now is a good time to check my witty title) It is easy for most to let their emotions about WWII get in the way of what they want to see in a textbook. For Example: In A period Kyle and Sam seem to love the bloodshed aspect of WWII as exemplified for their lust for Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. I could imagine for someone who is Jewish, the somewhat compact section about the holocaust could be a poor attempt at describing a most horrific period of time. Emotions aside, we most look at what information would be good for a 20 page (or so) chapter on WWII.

Now for my take on how the WWII chapter should be composed (emotions aside, because 20 pages consisting of the battle strategies of WWII would be enough for me.) My chapter would be named "WWII: The Rise & Fall of the Fascist Regimes."

I would start, like most others it seems, with the early days of the Fascist dictators and their rise to power. This way, the reader gets a good feel for not only what is to come, but also they can compare and contrast the leaders' ways of leadership, and make connections to what was successful, and what failed. Our textbook lays out the scene for WWII well with Mussolini and Hitler's rise to power well, and gives an unbiased account on how Hitler gained support. From here; however, chronological order makes the best sense. Date's, rather than periods of time were very important in the progression of WWII. i.e. Hitler takes power, D-Day, etc. Through the chapter, each section would start with a date. There would be the build up to, and the end result of this date. This, I believe is the best way to get the overall picture of WWII in 20 pages.

The Holocaust in my opinion, was similar to the Elephant in the room -- Allied troops did not start discovering concentration camps until 1945 because of the seclusion of the camps. I feel that the Holocaust should be in a separate chapter from WWII. This chapter would not only be on the Holocaust but also on the oppression of Poland and the countries annexed by Germany.

I might write more on this.

Kinda crunched for time and I realize that I spent a lot of time talking about how our textbook is well made.

Arranging Tha Textbook

If I were to arrange the WWII section of our textbook, it would certainly require a much more in depth focus upon each component of the war. First, I feel it is necessary to begin the chapter with a foreshadowing of the events that eventually transpired in the war. From there, I feel it is necessary to have multiple page sections breaking down how each country found its way onto the war path, starting from post WWI. After each section of analysis on the nations involved in the war, then a timeline spanning across the whole war is laid out in the middle of the chapter, focusing and expanding upon military strategies and battle, as well as the national effect back home. Here is where the Holocaust can be tied in a and solely excluded from the rest of the chapter. This event is so profound and essential to the study of human nature, that it deserves more than one boldened section in the text. Finally, once the war is completed following unconditional surrender, it is most important that the reader be drawn back in terms of perspective. This could be achieved with post war analysis and primary documents that include war stories, diaries, and letters- coming form soldiers, civilians, politicians, etc... Once this is complete, the chapter would be concluded with text regarding the rebuilding of the war, and a reflective period that allows the reader to take a look back and possibly see ways to avoid total and destructive war. WWII is so profound in itself that it can only be fully taken in with an extended chapter. It would be called "WWII and the Fate of Humanity".

The atomic bomb

I believe that the atomic bomb video does a really good job showing the facts and observations of the days leading up to the bomb, the day of the bomb, and the bombs affects. I also believe that they did a good job showing both sides of the bomb, instead of just the americans. Unlike the clip we watched in class, this video seemed unbiased because they used interviews which showed japanese and american opinions. The opinions are also very diverse. One man thinks that the atomic bomb was the right thing to do because it potentially saved thousands of lives, yet others think quite the opposite. Whether dropping the bomb was or wasn't the right thing to do, this video gives you enough information to allow you to decide whether it was right of wrong.

Atomic Bomb

I think that this video's main purpose was to show that the U.S. is remorseful about harming so many people. The way the video was presented made everything seem so sad. I thought the use of video and the word choice helped convey the message very well.

Arranging the textbook

Before we go into the chapters themselves, we should take a look at that bigger picture of the layout. I think it makes a lot of sense for these two chapters to be separated. When I think of WWII, I only think about the Holocaust and the targeting of the Jewish race. By designating a chapter to each aspect of this time, both the politics/war itself and the exile of the Jews seem to have great importance. While the Holocaust itself captures more emotion, we would be lost reading about that without all the historical events leading up to it, which is why I think there should be a great focus on the two. Although I would keep these chapters separate, I would have the Holocaust, titled "The Incomprehensible Truth", directly follow the chapter with all the politics leading up to it. This may sounds stupid, but textbooks forget that we are only human and the truth is, we don't remember everything we read two nights ago. Within The Incomprehensible Truth chapter, there would be a great deal of summary of what happened in the previous chapter. There's just too much detail to combine these two into one, but the Holocaust doesn't make sense without knowledge of the Nazi Party and it's effect on everyone else. 

Now, looking at the information discussed in chapter twenty four, we face a dilemma. We could either organize it by country, which is what the textbook has done. Within similar time periods, the book goes country by country. We could go another route and go chronologically. This way, the text would talk us year by year through the war. By doing this, we wouldn't have to keep flipping through the book to go back and forth to different times. When reading through the pages each night, it would be less confusing to go by time for we could form a timeline in our heads. But in the long run, I think it is more helpful to sort information by country/government. It is easier to flip through the book for dates instead of sorting all the facts into regions. If I were designing a textbook, I would sort the information overall by time and follow that order so that reading it each night made sense and people wouldn't have to skip all over the book for chronological order.  It doesn't have to be year by year but generally what war went before the next and such. Within these separations of time, the countries should be distinct as well; color coding, flow charts, etc. The overall goal is that when a student like myself could read each night going through history in order, but also be able to go back after they've read, link events of many countries, and compare them to others. This chapter would be called "World War II: How did we end up here?"

Distilling nearly two decades into two hours of reading.

Think about it. People who organize and write history textbooks have quite a difficult job. History is not merely the study of exactly when things happened and who was involved. History as a sequential series of events is quite easy to follow, but when you attempt to organize those events by some sort of category, the task becomes rather daunting.

Of course, this means that World War II is especially difficult for writers. Being a "world" war, there is no neatly packaged sequence of events happening in one or even two countries. There were actions occurring all around the world, with multiple interactions between many countries. If one were to organize the textbook in pure chronological form, the textbook would be, quite simply, anarchy.

Yes, anarchy. In the timeline there would be an event about the buildup up Japan's colonies, followed by German aggression upon its neighbors, followed by Soviet communist reforms, and everything else that occurred. The most effective way to cleanly categorize World War II's happenings for a reader is as our textbook has done- by grouping events by regions (or "theaters" of action). However, some events- such as relations between Japan and Germany- spill over into two areas. The Holocaust section is a particularly notable example of this. Some aspects of the Holocaust are explained in the section about Germany's "Nazi-i-zation", while some others are explained in France's section, and while the rest are explained in the "Holocaust" section in the back of the chapter. Alas, the Holocaust section is very, very brief and provides no inkling of the breadth and depth of the Holocaust. The Holocaust section (in relation to the textbook) is written in a way that it feels like a dangling appendix- a half-hearted attempt at something that doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things.

However- as sad as it is- from the perspective of textbook-writing, the Holocaust simply cannot take up an entire chapter in a World History book spanning a thousand-someodd years. Alas, the Holocaust section could have been better done, but still must stay at its position as a "subchapter".

In general, I would have to agree with the scheme of the textbook writers' ideas. Organize by geographical location, or events from all over the place will cohese into one huge ball (-Gamer Reference Alert-: Katamari!) of dates and random times and places. In a few places, some categorizations could have been better done, but overall, our textbook is quite well organized.

If I wrote the textbook

If I were to write my own textbook, I would have combined the Holocaust and the World War II into one chapter. The way that the book has it now, splitting the two into different chapters, makes it confusing to read and makes the content seem more factual than analytical. When the events are not in chronological order, the only way to write them would be to write directly what happened in facts. When they are surrounded by the events that came before and after, analysis between why what happened when and how is easier to make. If I were writing the textbook, I would put all of World War II, including the Holocaust, in chronological order. There is no reason to isolate the Holocaust because it is not a separate event. World War II happened because of rises of different Fascist regimes in Europe. World War II mixed with these different regimes and the mindset of the European people led to the Holocaust. Everything that happened in Europe had effects on the people and the rulers that led to the next events that occurred. They all happened because of each other and are all connected

The Holocaust is also a very hard to absorb part in history. It may seem like isolating it, by giving it it's own chapter,  shows the importance and weight of the event. But because, even with a large understanding and knowledge of the Holocaust, it can be difficult to understand why it happened and how anyone could let it happen, the only chance and hope that any students can obtain a remote understand of the Holocaust, is to have thorough knowledge of the circumstances of when it happened. By surrounding it with all the events that led up to it, it makes it seem as understandable as possible. Even though there is no remotely acceptable and logical explanation for the Holocaust, surrounding it with the circumstances that led to it is the closest way to giving it a logical explanation. I would call my combined chapter "Nazi Germany's Impact on the World from 1939-1945" Nazi Germany is at the center of every conflict and circumstance of both the Holocaust and World War II.

Textbook Rewritten

World War II was comprised of many different counterparts.  It had a much more tangled system of alliances than WWI because many countries were split by the agendas of contending groups.  It also was the time period of the Holocaust and persecution of Jews.  Because the situation was so complex, I would not lump the entire years from 1933 to 1945 as one chapter named WWII.  Instead, I would have a chapter that focuses on the gravity of the Holocaust and a different chapter that is split into sections on the different contending parties in the war. I would also include a timeline at the beginning of these chapters to show how the events fit into the greater scheme of things. 

The chapter on the Holocaust would not only show what happened, but also follow individuals through their experiences.  Although some believe that oral history should not be considered history at all, I think that it is important to get more perspectives on the situation.  Often times when studying the Holocaust, we view it from afar, just as a historical event, because we are not given the perspective of the many individuals who have suffered unjustly.  Historical writing comes from a detached angle.  I'm not saying that textbooks should impose their views on people, but because what Hitler did was so heinous, seeing through the eyes of someone who was persecuted would be greatly beneficial.  By having this perspective, like they do at the Holocaust museum, we can follow them, and better grasp the gravity of it all through their experience.

The chapter that focuses on the war would be split into sections about each contending group, so that students are able to understand where each side is coming from and why the alliances have become so tangled.  By fully understanding the viewpoint of all of the sides, we are better able to understand the chain of events, and what sparked each outcome.  The timeline would be a reference point in the front of the chapter.

By separating it this way, we are able to see the situation more clearly.  To me, strings of events are interesting, yet it is more important to understand why they happened.  When we are able to see things through the perspective of the groups and people of the time, we are able to get a greater understanding of the past.

Textbook Organization

In my opinion, the way that our textbook organizes the WWII section is very confusing. It splits all of the countries into different sections and then within those sections organizes the events chronologically. If I were writing this chapter, I would have just organized the whole war chronologically instead of splitting up the individual countries and events. This way, readers of the chapter wouldn't have to jump around to different sections trying to find what happened in a certain year, and instead could just look at it in order. I also think that the Holocaust was not talked about enough. The book dedicated something like one or two pages to the description of it, however it does not go into any detail on the effects that this event had on the world. I would have split WWII and the Holocaust into two different chapters.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words; a Phrase is Worth a Thousand Pictures

Extra Credit Op:

Check out the cache of photos at the College of New Jersey's Teaching American Political History site. Unfortunately there's no working search function (or at least no search function that works when I try it), but if you follow the links to the images you can scroll through chronologically. Most of the images from 1938-1945 are related to WWII and the Holocaust.

You can select one of the photos I've linked above (I overlinked – you've got options), but I encourage you to scroll through and find one that really grabs you, gets your emotions going – for good or ill. Once you've found a photo, do some research. Find out what it's depicting, why it was a picture worth taking and remains a picture worth keeping. Post a link to the image here (or you can get fancy and embed the photo directly in the blog) and write a paragraph explaining the history behind the image and why it matters.

Textbook Organization

Because our Modern World History textbook deals with History from the 16th century to the the 21rst century, its section on World War II is organized by region rather than by chronological order to more fully deal with and explain the causes of the war. This works for most of the chapter; however, it leads to confusion in a few areas. Pages 696 to 703 deal with the war in Europe; pages 703 to 707 deal with the war in Asia. However, the end of the war is only described on page 703, and isn't even mentioned on 707. Pages 707 to 712 deal with the home front and other issues, and after 712, the effects of the war are described.

I would have included the home front section in the section describing the war in Europe, and the parts of that section dealing with Japan in the section regarding the war in Asia. Then, I would have put the section about Asia before the section regarding Europe. One other area where the textbook gets a little jumbled is the dates. It mentions many dates in the text and puts a few of them in random timelines scattered throughout the book. I would have compiled a timeline of every date mentioned in the reading and put this timeline at the end of the chapter, and then, I would have compiled a timeline of the important dates, and put this at the beginning of the chapter. I would have entitled the chapter "World War II: History Repeating Itself?"

My Textbook

If I were to create my own textbook, I would do it differently than the textbook we use right now. The textbook organizes the facts by country and individual chronological order. This makes seeing what was happening in different countries at the same time very hard. When someones wants to see what happened in two different places across the globe, the have to flip to different chapters of the textbook and write down the order on a timeline (which we did many times this year). In my textbook, I would organize the facts by chronological order of the whole world. This way people could understand what was happening in any country at a particular point in time. We would not have to spend extra time making timelines during class in order to get the idea of how different ideas were spreading across the globe at the same time.

Another change that I would have in my textbook is two different chapters regarding World War II and the Holocaust. The Holocaust wasn’t mentioned enough for what it truly was-the attempt to wipe out an entire group of people. Our book did not include many details and only had 2 pages on the Holocaust, when it changed the world in an unforgettable way. To make it stand out more and make it more significant in our mind, I would devote a whole chapter to talking about the details of the Holocaust. This of course would make the textbook even more boring to read because there was so much detail. My solution to this would be to make the textbook more fun to read (add funny pictures or something else) so that students would enjoy reading the textbook.

Facing Decisions of War

I think NBC aired this piece on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bomb because, despite whether or not it was the right thing to do, it was still a momentous event in history that requires ample reflection. I do not condone the use of the atom bombs in 1945, however back in WWII, the circumstances called for a new rulebook. The threat of the Nazis made all moral codes appear obsolete in the decisions of warfare. In the eyes of the US Government, the bombs were a realistic counterattack to the horrors initiated by the Nazis. The Nazis killed millions, versus the bombs killed less than five hundred thousand.

The only aspect of this video that scared me was hearing an elementary school girl say that every time she hears a plane fly overhead she fears it will drop a bomb. I find it surprising that she would still fear such an attack when the war is long past. Does this imply that her teacher did not explain that the threat of another bombing died with the war's end? I can only hope that this kind of fear will not morph into a desire for revenge, or justification for strengthening nuclear warfare capabilities.

Textbook Organization

While I don't think that the organization of the chapter is completely nonsensical, I do believe that it would have made more sense to me to put more of it into chronological order. I like how it starts out by dividing into the major countries that participated in World War II and then explains how these important leaders rose to power and the different policies of each countries. This provides a clear background as to what exactly was happening in each country at the time, and because these events were not directly linked, it makes more sense to divide them by country rather than chronological order. But although the textbook starts off in a way that provides a strong basis for understanding the events that followed, I do not like how they start mentioning events like the Kristallnacht in the middle of this background section. It makes sense to talk about Nazi views on race, but it does not make sense to randomly include this specific event.
The textbook then mentions the lead up to World War II and divides it into events that occurred in Asia and events that occurred in Europe. Up to 1939, I think that it is fine to divide up the events that occurred in each of these regions, since they still were fairly independent of each other and thus can be compared side by side. But as soon as they both start trying to find a way to deal with the Soviet Union, it no longer makes sense to split them up, because they have the same goals. The Holocaust is also completely left out until the end, while I think it would make more sense in the section about the build-up to the war, since that is the time when it started.
Right after this, it goes into World War II, and Europe and Asia are still split up. This starts to become very confusing because many of the events become linked with each other and end up overlapping in various sections. The whole section on World War II should be in chronological order. So, I like the main sections the textbook is divided into, but within these sections, the information would be more easily understood if it was organized chronologically.
My title for this chapter would be "New Leaders, New World Orders, and a New World War"

Pride in Destruction

The people of the US were assembled in an immense crowd that acclaimed Japan's surrender in WWII. It was something to celebrate at the time because the US could have been in the place of Japan and completely destroyed. What I find heinous is the ignorance of the US civilians (at the time) on what exactly dropping the atomic bomb did to Japan. All they did was celebrate and take pride in the victory of the US. Had something like that happened to the US, civilians would not act so gratified about their actions. The bombing extremely affected the people's lives and still significantly has an impact on people now. I believe NBC decided to air this piece in 1995 because they wanted to show the US's rationale and explanation as to why the bomb was dropped since so many people are questioning and finding what the US did was very inconsiderate and what not.  

I think NBC aired this piece in 1995 to show the world that the U.S. does have regret about dropping the a-bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although some of the WWII veterans were saying how dropping the a-bomb saved millions of lives from being lost in an invasion, the way NBC portrays the a-bomb dropping and the effects it had make people look at th U.S. as a "nice" country instead of a "jerk" country who has no feelings for the lost lives of innocent people. To me, this clip tells people that we as the U.S. have legitimate feelings for what we did and for the lives we affected. Also, this video tells us about how much information the government kept from the people. At the end of the video, you see all the people celebrating in the streets only knowing that Japan surrendered. What the government did not tell these people is that more than 70,000 japanese people were killed in Hiroshima and even more in Nagasaki. Today, people would have known the affects of the bomb the next day.

The Structure of the Textbook

Chapter 24 in the textbook is not structured chronologically. This would be a fine organization if the structure of the chapter actually made sense. However, the textbook jumps from one date to another usually without any sort of explanation or concrete connection. I agree with how it starts introducing key leaders and how they rose to power, but throughout the chapter's discussion of the progression of war with Germany there are passages about the path to war in Asia, and this combination can at times distract from both sides. In general, I think that the progression of WWII is a time in history that is too heavy with specific dates to not structure it in chronological order. In my own version of this chapter, I would have a section for war in Asia, then the rise to power of the fascist leaders and the progression of the war Europe, and finally the Holocaust. Within these sections, everything would be chronological. The chapter would be titled "A Time of Turmoil Throughout the World".

The Ideal Textbook

While I don't know if this would be the ideal textbook for most people, for me at least, the textbook would be better if it was written with everything in order.  While I do like the fact that there is a timeline that has all of the dates in it, and would put it in after every section to make sure people get a good idea on the separation between the dates and what was done in response to what, I think that it would be easier to read and understand if it didn't jump back and forth from Germany in 1934 to Japan in 1931.  In my textbook I would put everything all mixed in saying who did what, whether "who" is Japan, Germany, or the U.S, but all in chronological order.  For me, this would give me a little more perspective on what was going on when.

This would also allow the reader to have an easier time at going back to review.  Similar to the book, where if the timeline is after the section, then you know what is in that section by looking at what is on the timeline, in my book, the timeline will either be at the end of the chapter, or the different sections (sections broken up by date or by mood or actions of the war).  This will allow the reader to see, "Oh, this happened in 1934.  To get more information, I will go to the section about 1934."

Regarding the Holocaust vs. The War in General, I think that I would do it almost similarly to the book, where the sections are separate, but I think that I would devote more to it than our book does, because it is such an important topic.  Again though, I would try to present things in order, starting with the Kristallnacht, and ending with the end.  

While I think that our book gets the information across, I think that there are ways of making the information clearer and more understandable, as well as there probably could be a little more information added on some particular subjects.  There are probably many ways of doing this but I think that my changes would work the best.  (For me anyways.)

Edit: Title could be "I'll be home by Christmas."  While this probably applies more to WWI, you could probably say it in German based off of the diary of the german soldier in the book.  The second section could be:  "The Years of Broken People" again though in German, as a play on the Kristallnacht which is one of the first events to start off the Holocaust.

Homework, Tuesday March 17th/Wednesday March 18th

As promised the link to the video for homework tonight is right here. Please watch the one titled "The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb." And, of course, anything else that you'd like. Then post your response (prompt is on the assignment sheet) on the good ol' blog.

Textbook Format

The way that our history textbook is formatted seems very appropriate to me because they are totally different things. Although the holocaust is the main reason that the allied forces in Europe joined the war, it is a totally different thing, because the events that happened in the Holocaust are completely different than those in WWII. If you wanted to argue that they should be in the same chapter because one let to the next, you could make the same argument for many separate chapters in the textbook, because they almost always lead into the following unit. Therefore since the Holocaust is about Hitler and his reign and WWII is about a war throughout Europe, they should be in different chapters.

Textbook and Me

If I were the author of the textbook I would do things a bit different in terms of facts and events. First, the book does facts and dates in terms of events and big ideas. However, I would simply make all the facts, events, and ideas chronologically because I get confused when trying to make timelines and event sheets when we have read the events/ideas out of order. Also if you make the facts chronologically you can see what turns into what or the "domino effect" which creates abetter understanding what fell into what. The textbook uses a way to turn events and facts into big ideas which can be good for thesis ideas and essays so I see why the textbook portrays this style. Lastly, I think that the textbook should not have separated The Holocaust and WWII because there directly related and go hand in hand such as motives for the war and why people were fighting.

WWII/Holocaust...Separate?

When the textbook separates WWII and the Holocaust, it makes the Holocaust seem like a whole separate piece of history. To me, it does not make sense to separate the Holocaust with WWII. If I had organized the text book, I would have put the Holocaust together with WWII so they are taught at the same time. Although the Holocaust was catastrophic, I would not put it on its own pedestal because it did not occur in a totally different time period. Yes, the Holocaust was one of the most devastating events in world history, but I would teach it along with WWII.