High School History Recap

Link to Untextbooked.

Have you ever heard about the East Bank Location Massacre on 9 November 1952? Neither have we. Dr Mignonne Breier joins us to talk about her book Bloody Sunday in which she uncovered the gruesome details of this massacre that upends the conventional apartheid narrative.

Here are some of the questions we consider:

• Why do so few people know about the East Bank Location / Duncan Village Massa...

In this episode, we get our hands dirty with some military history. Prof Timothy Stapleton of the University of Calgary joins us to discuss South Africa's turbulent past. We look at wars from the earliest colonial times to the end of apartheid.

These are the questions we try to answer:

• What is Prof Timothy Stapleton's connection to South Africa?
• Why do humans go to war?
• Is warfare irrational?
• How does the approac...

How should we combat misinformation in the history classroom? What does it take to stop misinformation at the outset? Dr Jon Roozenbeek is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and joins us to discuss his team's latest research on "prebunking" misinformation.

Some of the questions we try to answer:

• Did Covid-19 contribute to an increase in fact-checking?
• Did ...

Many streets and clinics bear Lilian Ngoyi's name, but who was she and what was the nature of her accomplishments as an anti-apartheid activist? Dr Martha Evans is working on a substantive biography of Ma'Ngoyi and joins us to share some interesting insights about Lilian's remarkable life. 

Here are some of the questions we try to answer:

• Why is Lilian called "the mother of black resistance against a...

Prof Bob Bain joins us, probably one of the biggest names in history teaching. This conversation brought a whole new dimension to what effective history teaching should look like.

Questions we set out to answer:

• Does Bob Bain play the guitar?
• Why are all historians, in essence, teachers?
• The power of that ONE inspirational history teacher/lecturer
• Why in the world would anyone want to study history?
• What is the purpose of s...

In this first episode of our fifth season, we explore the field of learning. Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel is a cognitive psychologist who specialises in how we learn best. She is part of an inspiring initiative called the Learning Scientists. She shares some of her valuable insights with us.

Questions we explore:

• Is there a trick or a secret to communicating "science"?
• What motivated Carolina to take up a special...

The following twitter post accompanies this episode of The Cradock Four.

https://mobile.twitter.com/valavoosh/status/1276826105740169218

The historian, Zikhona Valela, joins us to talk about the Cradock Four and, more specifically, misinformation around the supposed famous photo of the Cradock Four. Zikhona tells the story of the four men who were murdered on June 27th, 1985. How did it happen that two of the four...

Join us for a conversation with Prof Sean McMeekin on his new book Stalin's War: A New History of World War II. This is a very timely discussion in light of the unfolding war in Ukraine.

Some of the points of discussion:

• How is Stalin’s War different from the conventional Hitler-centric account of World War II?
• How is it possible to even write a new history of World War II 77 years after the fact?
• Is the way we teach...

Michael joins us again to challenge some widely held beliefs about the causes of WWI. The long-term causes of World War One are often conveniently taught using the acronym MAIN, which stands for militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. It is often argued that the presence of these ingredients in Europe made the First World War inevitable, or to use a term Michael taught us, overdetermined.  But by looking at each one of...

In this episode we explore Civic Online Reasoning in more depth. We are joined by Dr Joel Breakstone of the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG). This is in an effort to effectively fight misinformation. 

• Why is it called Civic Online Reasoning?
• What does Civic Online Reasoning have to do with history?
• How does source analysis and source evaluation relate to Civic Online Reasoning?
• What does expertise look like in terms of evalu...

Taylor Downing joins us again for another discussion - this time about his newest work entitled 1942: Britain at the Brink. The book and this discussion delves into the fateful year of 1942 when British morale reached a new low - military defeats abroad saw the British public lose faith in their leadership and it seemed as though wartime prime minister Winston Churchill was facing his darkest hour. Well, let me not spoil it here......

In this episode Prof Peter N Stearns of the George Mason University provides an overview of the Industrial Revolution. The 5th edition of Peter's book, The Industrial Revolution in World History, was published in 2021.

This is what we've discussed:

•  How does the perspective of a world historian differ from that of an economic historian?
• Why is the Industrial Revolution considered the single most important devel...

In the third part of the series, Dr Dooling tells us about the various ways in which the people of South Africa resisted the oppressive Apartheid regime.  Dr Dooling delves into the different political currents in 20th century South Africa, touching on organisations such as the the ICU, the ANC, the PAC as well as the various affiliated organisations such as the ANC Youth League, MK and Poqo. We also discuss a few of the pivotal ev...

At the end of 2021, we are very fortunate to talk to Dr Joel Breakstone of the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) about their Reading Like a Historian lesson plans and Beyond the Bubble history skills assessments. We also find out more about SHEG's Civic Online Reasoning curriculum which will greatly benefit history learners in identifying misinformation.

What we discuss:

• What does it mean to "read like a...

About a month ago, the University of Pretoria celebrated the life of Chief Albert Luthuli. At these celebrations, Prof Benda Hofmeyr gave a presentation on the philosophical legacy of Albert Luthuli with specific emphasis on his charismatic leadership style.

What we discuss:

• Why did a philosophy professor take an interest in leadership styles and specifically Albert Luthuli?
• How does a philosophical approach to studying ...

Join our history geek-out session with Kevin Manzel. Kevin is the senior director of content development at Wondrium. Colin and I are both big fans of Wondrium's history courses and use them as resources in our history classrooms.

We cover the following:

• What is a history geek-out session?
• How does Wondrium connect disparate topics?
• What is Wondrium and how did it develop over time?
• What are some of the history course...

William talks to the learning expert, Donald Clark, about the history of learning theory and about the best way to teach and learn history.

Questions covered:

• Where does Donald’s interest in history come from?
• How has the way in which we learn changed over time?
• Why is the invention of writing the “Big Bang” moment of collective learning?
• Why is the invention of binary or computer language such an important moment in the d...

In the second episode of the Apartheid Series we transition from the policies of Segregation in South Africa towards the implementation of Apartheid. In this episode Dr Dooling discusses some of the motivations behind the National Party's choice to put such a rigid system of racial segregation and separation in place. Topics such as Afrikaner Nationalism takes center stage as we look at why and how the NP won the 1948 election...