While for many students of history, most history texts, history courses, and innumerable History Channel biopics, history is all about the dead guys, for me its basically about dead women. Two incredible biographies have shaped much of my political, social, and economic ideology and therefore a good bit of my teaching I guess as well. The autobiographies of Emma Goldman, Living My Life, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Rebel Girl, have had a tremendous impact on my interpretation of history and society. Still, these works are for the most part useful for an audience of the first half of the 20th Century, not so much for your average high school student.
That being said there are ways to integrate these kinds of works in your classroom. You can use excerpts that pertain to particular periods that you and your students are studying or you could recommend these books to your more keenly aware and advanced students. What ultimately happens is your students become the disseminators of the ideas contained in the biographies because they know exactly how to translate them for their peers. There are also obvious alternatives to biographical texts such as documentary films, feature length dramas, and graphically illustrated texts. Concerning Emma Goldman there are a number of great resources such as the PBS documentary about her life, the award winning film Reds, and an illustrated book about her radical life.
Still, I find that my students appreciate the spirit of Emma Goldman and The Rebel Girl more than they actually appreciate women who have been dead for 70 and 45 years.
What biographies are important to you? Do these biographies impact your own perspectives on the world we muddle around in? How might you use these individual narratives in your curriculum? How will you "translate" your favorite dead people's lives for the modern era?
11 comments:
As a person who has not read as many biographies as a history major should have, take my comments with a grain of salt. I'm looking forward to hearing what Billy has to say (or what books he has to recommend).
Really the only biography that is coming to mind is one i read about John Wilkes Booth. While it didn't necessarily give me a new outlook on life, it did really peak my interest in the civil war, Lincoln, and the post-civil war atmosphere.
Like Rust has mentioned in regards to Goldman or Flynn, i see individual narratives as excellent introductions of ideologies or important themes in a curriculum. It allows students to see a prototype of a movement's ideas and provides a notch on which to build more knowledge on the subject. Just like reading Emma Goldman's autobiography won't provide students with a full understanding of the political and social movements like anarchism in the beginning of the 20th century a biography of MLK Jr. or Malcolm X will give students an excellent base of knowledge and an grasp on understanding some main players in the civil rights movement. Supplemental materials (like court cases or protest videos) will be needed to effectively provide students with a full picture.
Just like you wouldn't only show your students the movie Downfall and assume they have a complete grasp on Nazi Germany, Hitler, and the end of World War II, I don't see a single individual narrative as fully providing the students what they need.
That being said, i love the idea of individual narratives, documentary films, or feature length dramas as a sort of 'center of gravity' for a topic of theme. Give the kids something that's memorable or they can relate to their own lives, then build the knowledge from there.
As a genre I don't particularly like biographies as much as autobiographies. I think that's because autobiographies usually contain much more philosophy and reflection than biographies which can be burdened by the goal of objectivity. What's 'Downfall' Jesse?
This question has really forced me to try and think back through my education and think of what biographies I have acutally read. Unfortunatley, I don't remember many at all. Most of the books that I have read in the social studies realm have been larger commentaries on a certain period of history or event in history. The biographical type books that I have read that come to mind are memoirs from the Holocaust, such as "I Have Lived a Thousand Years" by Livia Bitton-Jackson. Just recently in Ad. Lit. I read "A Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos, which offers some interesting views on the world.
Even though I have not read many myself to date, I still plan to use biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs as a supplement in my classroom. I think thaty offer a lot that a textbook cannot and give a truer picture of what actually happened or what one person's view of what took place was/is. I realize that it is sometimes going to be hard for students to want to sit down with a book, so I will try to find videos or other ways to present the materials. One way that I think would achieve the effect of a biography type text on a student without them having to read would be through the use of interviews. This is especially true for teaching from the 1920s to present. The wealth of information that is stored within the minds of veterans or even just everyday people is amazing. Everyone has a story to tell and often times they are the best ones to tell it because they truly know what it was like, they lived through it. With an interview, students can feel free to ask questions that they might think of that I wouldn't be able to answer if they had just read something.
In my life I have heard the recollections of my grandfather as he talks about helping his father in the gas field when he was ten. While he didn't talk about it much, I could see the horrors of Vietnam in my uncles eyes before he passed away. I've also see my grandfather's eyes well as he looked at a telegram from WWII and told me that it was just like the one his mother got telling them that her son and his brother was killed in action. I've also had the chance to talk with ladies who worked in a local munitions plant who found it hard to breath between words because of the chemical Tetryl that was used in the production of mortar shells.
While I don't discredit the importance of reading biographical texts, I think that there is something special to be said for face to face encounters. It oftentimes leaves a deeper impression that lasts longer. Sometimes its the stories that aren't on paper; the memories; that paint the clearest picture.
Downfall is the first movie about Nazi Germany and Hitler made in post-war German. Its about the final months of WWII focused in Berlin, specifically the Bunker in which Hitler was holed up. You get to see him completely unravel mentally as the movie pans out.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363163/
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp1RXmM1-60
searching for the trailer i found the whole movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcqDe3_xCbA&feature=PlayList&p=FEF3B4234B6AD553&index=0&playnext=1
if you guys have not seen it, i would highly recommend it!
Like Jesse and Melissa, I have to confess that I have not read that many biographies, and I feel sort of chagrined to realize that about myself! Somewhere between chagrined and inspired to do better. In fact, I’ve already added the Emma Goldman autobiography to my amazon cart (which is becoming heavily laden thanks to this course! – sometime we should also have a conversation about amazon, which I use all the time but I heard from an independent bookseller friend of mine that they are “weasels” and the biblio-equivalent of Wal-Mart) When I was in high school I loved reading any kind of history book, including biographies: Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, Lyndon Johnson. In recent years I read a couple of fascinating autobiographies by Thomas Merton and Frederick Buechner, both of them were influential on my spiritual journey.
But in answer to the original question, I do believe that biographical stories are useful for the study of history and particularly considering the age old question for historians of the person vs. the times. Which brought about the epochal events of the human story? Here is an issue I have always wondered about when we pay tribute to individuals. As an example, we give enormous credit to Thomas Edison for his many contributions to our lives. But did he really matter? If his great grandfather had gotten run over by a horse and buggy and Tom never existed, would we still not have electric lights today? Or would someone else have not invented it within a few years or weeks of Edison? (Weren’t there conflicting patents anyway?) Someone like Thomas Jefferson on the other hand seems more like a truly pivotal historical figure. How much different would our nation be without his influence?
Well, at any rate, I’ve already said more than I need to, considering I am such a lame biography reader, plus my Philosophy of Social Studies education paper still isn’t finished. Thanks for the movie suggestion Jesse – I’m coming up with a long list of movies I want to see thanks to this course.
Great points by all. It seems to me that autobiographical and biographical history really presents us with the old argument about whether our approach to teaching should be narrow and deep or wide and shallow. Perhaps any history course should include at least some discussion of particular individuals and their contributions if not some biographical text or film. It's one of the reasons why I usually show Spike Lee's Malcolm X (this year I guess is the exception). I decided to show Walkout, the HBO film about Latino / Chicano student activism in 1960's LA. Its more of a study of a group or movement rather than a particular individual although it does focus on one main protagonist.
Jesse, I happened to recognize one of Hitlers Lieutenants in the trailer. He looks like the same actor that played the E German secret police official in The Lives of Others. The film looks really good - I'll have to watch it this weekend.
Well Jesse let me tell you that i have read a few biographies in my day. Well im not really sure which ones can necessarily be called "good" or "historical" i tend to read ones that interest me. One that immediately comes to mind is Pete Maravich, which doesn't quite have the historical significance as Emma Goldman or Malcolm X it has significance in my life.
I find that because i came from a small town myself and always tended to be a bit of a dreamer, i enjoyed reading about the life of Pete Maravich. His dad pushed him throughout his life to be the best that he could be and my father was always the voice over my shoulder. It has effected my life as a christian also as Pete was a christian, and it is tough to find sports hero's that are truly christian people. So it has made me push myself in all things that i do and to try and go for my dreams, being a walk-on and graduating college something only my mother in my immediate family has done.
Since Pete's life is not that old it would be easier to integrate his ideas into my curriculum. Although im not really sure as of now exactly where he would fit into things. I guess i could always use him as an interesting tid bit to catch the attention of some sports junkies in my classroom. (and Jesse this blog is too small for me to mention all the others i have read :) )
I'm not sure but I think that Jesse and bje12 need to be put in separate corners for a while. I'm sensing some brewing animosity over our literary bona fides.
By the way Billy I loved Pistol Pete - he's the one who inspired me to whip that ball around my back when I could have more easily thrown a proper bounce pass or chest pass.
I am sasdly in the same boat as many of you...upon reflection I've realized I have not read that many biographies either.
Recently I have read the autobiography of F.W. de Klerk (for my sr. sem. paper which I'm sure you've all heard me complaining about) I agree that autobiographies can often be more interesting than biographies. You can learn a lot on a person just based on how they tell their story, and what areas of their life they emphasize.
I don't know if I can word this in a way that it will make any sence, but I also feel that if you are teaching a classroom about an individual, it is only "fair" to give that individual a chance to expalain their actions or beliefs through their own words. I guess what I'm saying is, I would certainly try to incorporate autobiographies into my curriculum!
During my reading days I have particularly enjoyed reading the biographies of Presidents. I tried to pick out biographical accounts of Presidents that were little known to better understand both their politics and the lives surrouding the men that made the decisions. Many decisions that were previously undecipherable are much easier to understand when you understand the decider. For instance the great white fleet is much more integrated into history when you understand the type of man Theodore Roosevelt was. I also really enjoy reading the biographies of famous generals, specifically Robert E. Lee. I am very interested to see what qualities these men had to allow them to lead willing men into battle.
It is really easy for students to see history as irrelevant to the world around them today. Past events are not nearly as exciting as the latest genetic advances they will encounter in science. However, by using biographies we can show students that the actors are living breathing humans just like them, and use the identification stance to make it relevant to their lives.
As refered to in an earlier blog, I would like to focus on the positive people in history. I want to pick morally upright people who students today can follow, perhaps using the theory of democratic humanism. I would also like to use a couple of hateful people so that students may see how easily facts are distorted to cause other people to hate.
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