Call for Authors: Issues & Controversies in History
Type: Call for Papers
Date: June 29, 2016
CALL FOR AUTHORS
Issues & Controversies in History
Facts On File is hiring historians and writers on a freelance basis to contribute articles to Issues & Controversies in History,
a database in world history targeted to high school and college
students. Each article will focus on a specific question encapsulating a
debate or conflict in global history. MANY TOPICS ARE STILL AVAILABLE,
including Revolution, Slavery, Colonialism, Empires, War, and
Technology.
Overview
Issues & Controversies in History
places students at the center of the great debates and conflicts in
global history. It brings history to life not as a mere recitation of
names and dates but as a set of turning points where the future hung in
the balance and opinions raged on all sides. By exploring the issues as
the key players saw them, or, in some cases, as historians have
interpreted them, the database will build a deeper understanding of how
historical events and conflicts have shaped world history.
Goal
The goal of Issues & Controversies in History
is to present history as a dynamic process of controversies, conflicts,
and issues that people debated and experienced and ultimately made
choices about. The “issues and controversies” approach will help
personalize the engagement with global perspectives, reminding students
and teachers that world history doesn’t have to take a distanced point
of view, but rather can also be about linking local individual actions
and events to the larger global experience. Students will learn that in
spite of the vastness of the past, the daily lives of individuals also
comprise the building blocks of world history and that the choices made
by individuals—be they merchants, rulers, farmers, or slaves—have shaped
world history for thousands of years.
Format
Each article
poses a single historical question and is presented in pro/con format.
Some of these focus on specific controversies and events (e.g., Did
Constantine's conversion to Christianity transform the Roman Empire?
Should Tsar Alexander emancipate the serfs? Should La Malinche have
helped Cortés in the Spanish conquest of Mexico? Should West African
states have rejected the importation of European guns? Should Britain
and France intervene during the U.S. Civil War?). Other articles focus
on broader historical issues and comparative questions (e.g., Did the
spread of world religions benefit women in ancient societies? Did
resistance to slavery shape ideas of freedom? Were merchants or
missionaries more important in the spread of early religions? Did the
Mayan Empire decline because of internal dissent or environmental
change?).
Each article provides all the essential information to
enable a student to both understand the issue and its significance and
answer the question in specific world history contexts. Every article
contains an introductory highlight box summarizing the issue and the two
competing positions; a narrative essay providing historical background
of the issue/event; an argument section presenting both sides of the
controversy, with quotations from primary sources used as evidence to
support each position; a selection of primary sources (on which the
arguments are based and which are referenced and quoted in the article);
a chronology; a sidebar; discussion questions; bibliography; and a
“what if” section contemplating what could or might have happened had
the alternative side prevailed.
Scope
As a whole, articles
are designed with an aim toward achieving a narrative balance among
historical eras and the broadest possible coverage of global
geographical regions and peoples.
Contact
Facts On File is
currently seeking authors for this exciting new database, and many
articles are still available. If you are interested in being an author
or would like more information, please contact Andrew Gyory, Ph.D. at agyory@infobaselearning.com