ABSTRACT
What can a teacher do with the buzzing, blooming confusion that is world history? The problem is twofold. On the one hand, the subject is infinite. On the other hand, considerable attention must be paid to the heritage of Western civilization that shaped American institutions and made the country what it is. Mere confusion will inevitably result from an indiscriminate effort to deal with everything we know about the past; and if too little emphasis is placed on the world-transforming character of Western civilization throughout the past five hundred years, then our heritage from that truly remarkable epoch of world history will be inexcusably undervalued. As yet, there are no generally agreed upon models; historians have only recently begun to try to frame a coherent vision of the history of the world.
