Striking Parallels in History

Perhaps a future historian might write the following about the United States: "America's very overseas successes from WWII to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began to create internal tensions as presidents amassed too much power and prestige at the expense of Congress, poor Americans lost their houses and fell into debt, the old European and Asian allies became resentful, immigration policy became illogicical, and a government system developed to rule itself was strained by having to manage nation-building."

Here is what professor Gregory S. Aldrete wrote about Imperial Rome (The Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2004).
"Rome's very overseas success, however, began to create internal tensions as individual generals amassed too much power and prestige, poor Romans lost their farms and fell into debt, the old Italian allies and half-citizens became resentful, and a government system developed to rule a city was strained by having to manage an empire" (P. 8).

Aldrete's analysis applies to us as well as Imperial Rome and is somewhat chilling, yes? We can have an empire OR we can have prosperity and freedom, but we cannot have both.

Caesar's Legion--The Military of Imperial Rome Lives

Vercingetorix and Caesar

The western Roman Empire has been gone for close to 1700 years, but authors continue to release excellent books about the period. Stephen Dando-Collins' Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome can be found in paperback for a song. Dando-Collin's book (Wiley, 2002) takes us on an exciting historical journey through the end of the Roman Republic and Julius Caesar's dictatorship to the fall of Byzantine. However, the book concentrates on the forming of the 10th Legion under Caesar in Spain, Caesar's battles in Gaul, his invasion of Britain, the civil war against Pompei in which Caesar came close to losing, the next civil war in which Octavian was victorious, and the actions of the 10th in Judea, especially the destruction of Jerusalem.

Dando-Collins vividly describes army life--what it was like to be a Roman infantry soldier from 40 BCE to 100 CE: the technology of the weapons, the arms worn and carried, the uniform, the discipline endured, the recruitment procedures, and especially, what the battles looked and felt like if you were there.

Once the javelin struck anything, the weight of the shaft caused it to bend like a hockey stick where staff and head joined. With its aerodynamic qualities destroyed, it couldn't be effectively thrown back. And if it lodged in a shield, it became extremely difficult to remove, as the Helvetii [invading warriors from the area that is today Switzerland] now found.What was worse, in their case, with their shields overlapping, javelins were going through several at a time, pinning them together. With members of the [Helvetii] phalanx downed and others struggling with tangled shields, their formation was broken by the these initial volleys. Caesar gave another order. His flag dropped, and the trumpets of the first line sounded the "Charge." With a roar, the front-line [Roman] legionaries charged down the hill with drawn swords. After repeated attempts to free their shields, many Helvetii threw them away, leaving them virtually defenseless (pp. 18-19).

Another sample of Dando-Collins' eloquent and striking narrative, a description of the surrender of an enemy Gallic leader follows:

Without a word, Vercingetorix removed his sword belt and handed it to Caesar. Caesar accepted the sword, then passed it on to one of his staff. Vercingetorix removed his helmet, with its distinctive Gallic crest, and passed it over. Then his armor, richly decorated with gold and silver--attendants helped him out of it, and then this, too, he presented to Caesar, who in turn passed it to subordinates. Then Vercingetorix sat himself at Caesar's feet. There, in silence, he watched as his hungry, dejected troops came out of Alesia in a long stream with heads hung low, and piled their weapons and armor before the conquering Romans and were then led away into slavery. Finally, Vercingetorix, too, was bound with chains and taken away. (P. 60).

Through its focal point, the history of the 10th Legion, the book closely reviews the major political events of the Empire from Caesar's ascension to the rise of Vespasian. Dando-Collins takes the side of the Romans in the first Jewish revolt of 66-70 CE--not surprising since Josephus, not the Talmud was the author's major source in this section. The Jewish freedom fighters are portrayed as foolish zealots, locked in a bloody internecine conflict when not fighting the Romans. Roman general Titus is portrayed by Dando-Collins as quite reasonable, giving the Jews holding out in Jerusalem plenty of opportunities to surrender with reasonable terms. Unfortunately, the revolt in Judea led to the destruction of the Temple, a tragedy still mourned by Jews today. Many of the survivors were sold into slavery, and Dando-Collins does not mention the thousands of Jewish prisoners that were exposed to wild beasts for the entertainment of the Roman masses (Laurence, P. 135). The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem may have been a disaster for Titus as well and not just the Jews. Roman historian Suetonius quotes a feverish Titus as confessing that he was punished with death for committing only one sin. Perhaps his disregard of Roman law, entering the Temple and Holy of Holies, and destroying the edifice was that one sin.

Dando-Collins has written other books of Roman and most recently, Hawaiian history, but Caesar's Legion is a good place to start for those unacquainted with the author and wanting to explore what life was like as a Roman soldier.

Bibliography
Laurence, Ray. Roman Passions; A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome.  Continuum UK, London, 2009.
Suetonious. The Twelve Caesars. Tr. Robert Graves, Penguin Books, Middlesex, England, 1975.

I Don't Know My Right From My Left

The following is a guest post from my colleague, classics scholar and philosopher, and accomplished musician (Sly Stone, Grateful Dead), Steve Schuster.

As I grow older, many things , that I once felt were simple, now seem to grow more complex. One of the political concepts I felt I understood as a younger person was summarized by the terms "right" and "left." As I learn more of the world, I find the terms less and less meaningful. I discover the terms are being consciously used to obfuscate clarity and to trigger "knee jerk" emotional reactions. Once one realizes that one is being manipulated, it becomes important to defuse the mechanisms used to perform the manipulation by understanding the process.

Trying to find a consensus for the meanings of "right " and "left" mirrors the difficulty in nailing down a consensus about the processes these simple terms supposedly represent. Before trying to analyze the implied meanings of our terms, it is worth trying to understand how and why we, and the holders of political power, use them.

Manichaeism pervades our public (and private) thought process. It is the nature of our physical brain process to reduce complex questions to bipolar simplicity to expedite finding solutions. However, the number of bipolar decisions we use to make up our perceptual models is dependent on our interest, our intellectual curiosity, and our training. We are trained to think in state run schools and many of us appear to be intentionally badly trained so that we use only very simplified and crude components in our political reasoning.

We are constantly presented with complex ethical situations interpreted in black and white, good and bad. Greys are not presented as options. There are pragmatic reasons that make this simple dualistic view of the world valuable to those in power. Those in power, in a democracy, must control public opinion in order to continue to hold legal power. Using dualistic concepts and terms makes a consolidation of opinions easier. It can create an illusion of a consensus where more accurate, more careful reasoning might present a multiplicity of opinions and choices that would be much more difficult to forge into a unified power bloc. By dividing all questions into only two possible answers, there will always appear to be a majority and a minority answer, rather than a number of nonaligned opinions. Thus , there can always be the illusion of a consensus in a pluralistic society, no matter how fragmented the true feelings of the citizens may be. "Right and left" are shorthand terms for polarizing the possible answers to all political questions. Unfortunately most problems are so complex that breaking everything into two opposing forces merely prevents a real understanding, much less a real solution.

Many of us believe that we can escape extreme distortions of right or left positions by finding a "middle/moderate" position. However, a reasonable position may bear no relationship to either of the polar views presented by the government and the media. It is as though one were offered the option of living in either Los Angeles or New York. Professing a desire to keep to the middle ground would suggest living in Omaha, while one's natural inclinations might suggest San Francisco or Atlanta to be a better personal choice. If the polar ends of the decision are presented only as L.A. or N.Y. C., the attractive options of S.F. or Atlanta are not presented as middle ground.

Since the forces and choices of political alignment are so complex, no one can long embody an unambiguous right or left position. An extreme position in either direction seems to take one full circle. Stalin, for example, seems a paradigm of the most extreme right and left. Recent reports of the attempted coup in the Soviet Union labeled those espousing continued socialized ownership as the "right" wing, and those promoting privatization as "left."

The complexity of government makes a pure, unconflicted right or left position impossible to define, much less hold. Many seem to feel that a belief in the paramount importance of "the rights of property" precludes a support of the rights of the individual. It is odd that the same "right " which espouses freedom of the marketplace appears more likely to support constraints on the freedoms of speech, religion, and the press. A current anomaly of the Left concerns the recent attempts at gun control. Here the left appears ready to concede the individual's rights hitherto guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Another example of an anomaly is the relationship of the right and left with the military. While privatization of the military (or police) is a dream of only the most extreme right, a strong military, (which is after all an extreme of both common ownership and government control) is frequently claimed as a characteristic of the right. This espousal of a strong military also necessitates an intense redistribution of wealth by the government, from the many (taxpayers) to the few (large industrialists). This entrance of the government into the economic lives of the community is oddly not often objected to by the right. On the other hand we might also remember that the Vietnam "conflict" was conceived and pursued by the "liberal" segment of the government. "Liberal" Kennedy escalated Eisenhower's modest involvement. Lyndon Johnson, whose "Great Society" domestic economic policies were seen as socialist by the right , happily destroyed Viet Nam with the help of his Harvard "left" think tank, before Nixon continued the slaughter with his Harvard "right" think tank.

Realizing that while "right and left" do represent some sort of shorthand for generalizing predictable answers to carefully framed questions, nailing down the true characters of these amorphous terms still remains difficult or impossible. The innumerable anomalies created by the division of complex political thought into "right and left" renders the bipolar model functionally unsupportable. As the terms become less and less intellectually justifiable, the emotional intent of the terminology becomes clearer. Let us try to revolt against the prejudgments created by both the media's and our own internalized use of these terms .

Bringing Back High School Research Papers

Will Fitzhugh, in a thoughtful article, Meaningful Work: How the History Research paper Prepares Students for College and Life (link here), bemoans the lack of serious academic writing by high school students.

Much of the problem is lack of practice. The "focus on standardized tests and superficial writing skills has left educators with little time to teach students how to write serious research papers, and even less time to correct and grade them." The problem is worse in public schools, since those schools are most besieged by standardized testing. Somehow, however, educators must fine the time for academic writing or we set students up "for failure in college and in the workplace."

A greater proportion of students' lack of preparation comes from not doing enough rigorous reading. Teachers, starting in elementary school, must assign texts that allow students to acquire knowledge--that is, reading more serious fiction and nonfiction. (See E.D. Hirsch, Jr's blog on core knowledge here.)

To really teach students how to write, educators must give them examples of good writing found in nonfiction books and require students to read them, not skim them, cover to cover. Reading nonfiction contributes powerfully to the knowledge that students need in order to read more difficult material--the kind they will surely face in college.

Social Studies Teaching Resources on the Web

Use this resource, and you can put together a wonderful interactive lesson plan on most history and social studies subjects. The links have been checked (November 13, 2011) and are presented in no particular order. Just click the purple links!

The home page of Mike Spinrad's blog http://mikespinrad.blogspot.com

Bibliographic records of education literature, plus a growing collection of full text http://www.eric.ed.gov/

High school teacher Paul Ippolito's wonderful collection of PowerPoints on AP Economics and other subjects http://137.164.143.46/pippolito/main.html

A collection of primary resources for educators http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/

Library of Congress digital collections--a primary source bonanza--print, pictorial and audio-visual collections and other digital services http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html

More than 220 history PowerPoints http://pptpalooza.net/

History lesson plans written by Mike Spinrad and others http://www.sonoma.edu/tah/lessons.html

National Archives database http://aad.archives.gov/aad/

Center for Civic Education lesson plans http://new.civiced.org/resources/curriculum/lesson-plans

Bill of Rights in Action http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/blog.html

First Amendment Schools lesson plans http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/resources/lessonplans.aspx

California Learning Resource Network: links, reviews, digital textbooks, video, online courses http://www.clrn.org/home/#3

Social studies lesson plans and resources collected by Marty Levine https://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/

American Field Guide. PBS teacher resources http://www.pbs.org/americanfieldguide/teachers/

Council for Economic Education Economics and personal finance lesson plans
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/economic-lesson-search.php


Educational Communications Board: searches for websites, video and more http://www.ecb.org/

Digital History Reader for US and European history http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/

Digital History Classroom-tested lesson plans created by master teachers

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/lesson_pl.cfm

Drama as Superior Instruction

Your students are enjoying themselves, visibly happy, engaged and attentive. They are tackling challenging subject matter--the different economic philosophies of two 19^th century Europeans-- and they are focused. They are working together, on a dramatization, and you are standing off to the side, observing the process and assessing for understanding. It’s a memorable day in your history class.

Indeed, when asked to name what I learned as a student in my high school history class, I recall role playing a United States Senator. I can tell you all about that simulation that took place 32 years ago-- the political horse trading with the President, the pressure from the party leaders, and the post mortem analysis after the simulation was complete. I do not remember anything about my textbook or even the term papers I wrote in my 1978 U.S. history class, but I have remembered my role as a senator and the lessons my teacher taught with it. I believe that the mind is hardwired to enact and remember dramatic performance.

Drama and history are a good classroom mix if you enjoy excitement, combining "right side" emoting with "left side" analyzing, student-centered learning, group work, creativity, the study of literacy, and doing what comes naturally.

Students enjoy doing a task that comes naturally to them. And role play is very natural behavior during the teen years, the time for testing and discarding societal roles. Think back to when you were seventeen. How often did you daydream that you were completely self-actualized or someone else, perhaps a famous musician, a star athlete, an adored leader, a gangster, a beautiful sex goddess, a cool, handsome rebel, the life of the party, a rich and successful entrepreneur, or an outstanding scholar? When we use drama to clarify historical ideas, we use an educational technique that melds well with the psychological processes that our students constantly use throughout the day.

Gardner (1993) and others have criticized our classrooms for emphasizing verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical learning over other forms of human expression. Like singing, drama allows heart (emotional expression) to be combined with head (verbalization and linguistic meaning). Learning about the Battle of New Orleans through song or through the histrionic arts (drama) is fun in class, because we rarely learn through heart and head at the same time. Do you have trouble sitting still for 50 minutes? It was very hard for me when I was seventeen, near the peak in my energy level. Drama lets fidgety kids get up and move around.

What should be done with the shy student who dislikes participating in any type of public presentation or performance? These students will learn vicariously from watching others act and will usually be attentive and very interested to see how their “braver” colleagues do. On the other side of the spectrum, the student that is constantly disrupting class, looking to be the center of attention will love performing. You will transform this student’s need for public attention, usually manifested as self-defeating, immature behavior, into commendable, productive performance.

I use historical fiction to outline important historical, political, economic, philosophical, and moral questions. By fictitiously bringing together people of different places and eras I can better clarify and accentuate these historical, political, economic, philosophical, and moral questions. For example, as president, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon had very different backgrounds and political philosophies. They both presided over very controversial administrations. As far as I know they never had a serious conversation. So I created a dialog, trying to be true to their personality and worldview. In this dialog the characters show little liking for each other, sparks fly, and the student and teacher acquire a deeper understanding of Clinton and Nixon as well as an improved awareness of the characters’ differences. The characters boldly try to convince others of the correctness of their views. If that means trying to refute a rival’s opinions, using wit and humor, so be it. I placed together controversial and adversarial characters in these skits, creating as much entertainment value and learning as possible. Secondly, I often placed historical characters in the present. Haydn for example argues with a hip-hop artist and joins my students’ world. You can do this too.