One of the most fulfilling experiences of the last year was teaching history again. Building a course for my own two teenagers was challenging but also offered some unique and exciting flexibility. Between my understanding of their biggest knowledge gaps, a desire to set them up well for future social studies classes and getting an idea of their greatest interests I decided to design a course on modern world history and geography.
There was a lot of the traditional stuff. We started with the industrial revolution and waves of imperialism in the 19th century that forever changed the world. And we surely had to cover the world wars and the dynamics of global politics shaped by them. We memorized countries, features and capitals. We took tests, wrote essays and read books to track the major players and movements of these times.
In this unique setting I was able to call upon family history to help illustrate the major changes of the last 200 years. Ancestors on both of my parents’ sides follow a trajectory that reflects the changes of their time. Struggling farmers in Denmark and Sweden moved to the Utah desert where new land and opportunity awaited them. Our family’s well known story of Kristina, my great great grandmother, often serves as a touchstone for this moment. My father was able to tell her story with his sculpture and writing (more here). My mothers family shares similar stories of immigration to build new lives from the land.
Agriculture dominated the stories of these immigrant generations. The sweeping changes of the industrial revolution did start to create more stories beyond fields and farms. There were stories of temporary work to support the attempted mining operations in Mineral Basin. There was an immensely productive brick making operation in Pleasant Grove for 30 years that became one of the many victims of the Great Depression. One of the partners, my great grandfather, also took up photography as a hobby and documented much of the town’s life during that time.
While the focus of the photos seems to be on the people there is a strong story of both the essential foundations of farming, the long struggling grasps of Scandanvian traditions and many signs of the changing times. Among family portraits there are pictures of the new mill, sugar beet storage, the Union Pacific Depot and many other changes of the time.
Most poignant to me in reflection of my family in the context of history is the similar experience of my grandfathers. Both held onto land plots that had diminished in size from one generation to the next.They both put a huge amount of work into growing life from the soil each season. But the reality of changing time brought both of them to full time work at the steel plant. Built during WWII, Geneva Steel became an economic engine for the valley providing reliable income and fulfilling promises of the new middle class American dream. It closed in 2001 and much of the equipment was shipped to China, another thread common to the history we studied.
I don’t think either of my grandfathers pursued work at Geneva thinking of their place in the sweeping course of history. It was work. It provided for their families. And it also allowed them to hold on to their land just a bit longer. Milking cows, spring planting or trimming fruit trees always fit in around the timing of shifts at work.
Grandpa Walker passed away when I was 8 but I do remember how important his garden was to him. I have faint shimmers of memory from a family gathering to bring down the dangerously dilapidated barn. I certainly remember the fear of accidentally walking too close to the maw of sunken lawn swallowing old chairs, grass clippings and other detritus falling into the site of the old well. Grandpa’s love of the land always seemed honored when we gathered each August for the family party at aunt Leah May’s farm and home in Payson. Similar to my grandfathers, Aunt Leah May’s husband Bert supported his farming income with work as a mechanic around the valley. As he nurtured the roots of American agrarian culture he also glimpsed it’s global future when he was sent to Korea for 18 months of military service just a week after marrying my mom’s big sister.
I usually picture Grandpa Smith in his overalls. He spent a lot of time helping tend our family garden before it washed away in a flood (I was thrilled…no more weeding!). For years he kept picking and selling apples from his ever diminishing orchard. I remember the musty smell of the apple cellar and the excitement when grandma would make a cider freeze from their own fresh batches of cider. Grandpa cut down the last apple tree in his orchard before he passed away. Years before that his legacy was ensured at a family reunion when the t-shirt design featured “Smith Family Orchard.” It was in the essence of his identity. Our identity.
I suspect they would both be happy to know that in my young eyes they were farmers. In the march of history only one of nine children between the two families continued with a life so attached to the land. The next generation was full of college degrees and careers building businesses, balancing budgets and pursuing work in a broad range of careers. And the generation that followed, my generation, has only further expanded the diversity and complexity of life pursuits that reflects the opportunities of our age.
Nadia’s family provided many personal insights as well. One of her grandfathers was on a short leave from military duties when his fishing expedition was interrupted to watch from the hills as Pearl Harbor was attacked below. Her other grandfather’s long career in the US Foriegn Service took his family around the post-war world that often crossed paths of our studies. US influence in Panama suddenly became more interesting when our kids realized they might not exist had their grandparents not met and fallen in love in the Canal Zone of Panama.
Our own family’s adventures came into perspective as well. The scale of WWII was emphasized as we tied together our seemingly far flung visits to the Japanese internment camps in the Utah desert at Topaz Mountain, the beaches and hillside fortification of Normandy in France and Hellfire Pass dug deep into the mountain by prisoners of war to continue the railroad wound through the green tropical hillsides of Thailand from bridge over the river Kwai below. I hope understanding was deepened by recalling our opportunities to see the devastating scale and influence of a conflict that was truly global in nature.
As we started our history studies in August we spent some time examining Hans Rosling’s “Gapminder” graph of population, life expectancy and income. It’s a stunning illustration of the dramatic change in the world over the last 200 years. If the graph itself isn’t enough to catch your interest then watch Rosling’s TED video. He is infectiously giddy about these stats. His visualizations highlight world events as nearly all bubbles dip during the world wars or others rise, fall or grow at times we could connect with specific historical developments. This was “textbook history” of the whole world coming to life in graphics.
If that image provided the macro view then reflections on family provided the micro view. Seeing how the realities experienced by millions also built the real lives of individuals was powerful. At least for me. My kids rolled their eyes a bit when they sensed a story coming about great uncle so-and-so, insight from a visit to point-such-and-such, etc… But they listened.
I probably rolled my eyes too when I heard many of the same stories for the first time. Eye rolling is a teenage obligation. But I also listened obediently. And now I gratefully remember.