All through elementary, middle, and high school I was taught the Anglo-Saxon Euro-centric perspective of world history. Moving from William the Conqueror, we discussed Monarchies, Papacies, Crusades, Columbus, Pilgrims, and Settlers. It wasn’t until we got to World War II that we even really recognized there were other nations outside of Europe and North America (even then they were only mentioned tangentially).
At the beginning of my senior year of high school I deliberately asked my teacher if we could learn world history from another perspective (Asia, perhaps? The largest and most populated continent?). The response was a flat, “No, we’re not going to do that.”
At the beginning of my senior year of high school I deliberately asked my teacher if we could learn world history from another perspective (Asia, perhaps? The largest and most populated continent?). The response was a flat, “No, we’re not going to do that.”