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World
The study of history is sometimes similar to the lens of a camera. The historian’s lens examines in intricate details the complexities of a particular society in a particular period of time. While there is great merit in such close and careful scrutiny of a society, it sometimes leads to a sense that societies are cut off from larger historical forces, cut off from global neighbors. Of course, as “no man is an island,” no society is either. Therefore, in the study of World History, students examine the larger forces and connections that shape societies. Students of World History view the past through a sort of wide-angle lens. As the painter Wassily Kandinksy once said while musing about circles, “The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium." While the artist often differs from the historian, perhaps, the study of World History is a bit like Kandinsky’s understanding of the circle. The study of World History is the study of societies in contact with one another while unfolding within unique perspectives. It is the study of the big picture and the individual story. It is a camera with a finely crafted lens, a lens that can retain a wide-angle while still zooming in.
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