EXPLORATION, ENCOUNTER, EXCHANGE IN HISTORY
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Exploration, Encounter,
Exchange in History
Using Multimedia Resources to Explore the
2016 National History Day Theme
T
Kim Gilmore, Senior Historian, HISTORY®
he quote below from Eric Wolf’s study of globalization was cited by Richard White in his groundbreaking work The
Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. In The Middle Ground, White offers
a trailblazing analysis of the complex patterns of cultural exchange that developed between the French and the Indians of
the Great Lakes region. White is among a group of scholars who have advanced our understanding of the terms of encounter,
exchange, and interaction between groups. His concept of the “middle ground” captures the delicate power balance between
groups during initial encounters, and looks at the ways these dynamics change over time. Rather than looking at power in a
single dimension, White and others urge us to consider the ways these encounters and the social relations that follow from
them transform. While this level of scholarship may be too advanced for most students in grades 6-12 to engage with in detail,
the core concepts have shaped history education and introduced a more nuanced approach to U.S. and global history that will
benefit students as they consider the 2016 National History Day theme.
“Human populations
construct their cultures in
interaction with one another,
and not in isolation.”
A
—Eric Wolf, Europe and the People
Without History
Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History provides an excellent
opportunity for students to explore interactions between individuals
and groups of people throughout time. Through this theme students can
examine the ways history has been made on both micro and macro levels
through interactions such as trade, cultural exchange, and long-term
encounters in which new societies and cultures are born. In this article,
I will highlight three ways students can use multimedia sources from
HISTORY® to inform their National History Day projects. The first avenue
is through a global history series titled Mankind: The Story of All of Us; the
second is considering short videos about world explorers and their voyages,
and the third is via the lens of “Big History.”
s students become increasingly media savvy, incorporating video into their list of research resources is an important way
to build their interest in a topic. In addition, video resources can stimulate ideas about content, sources, and technique
for students working on documentaries. HISTORY’s Mankind: The Story of All of Us is a series that covers a broad range of topics
pertinent to the 2016 theme. A central through-line of the series is to show the connections between human ingenuity and
social change.
For example, a short video on Roman roads powerfully illustrates the innovations that led to the expansion of the Roman
Empire. This one video clip can lead students to investigate the specific ways the empire grew through a series of many
individual encounters experienced on the ground level. In other words, this broader perspective can give students a framework