1

Who is to blame for the outbreak of World War One, and why?

Discuss with a classmate or write an essay based upon some of the articles and your textbook

This question for students to discuss can be the starting point for considering responsibility and guilt in history. The question is deliberately formulated in a simple way; the idea is to stimulate simplified responses of guilt that can be elaborated by the teacher in more nuanced ways. In today's historiography nuances are beyond simple naming and shaming and guilt. Historians often argue that you should understand what happened from the perspective of those involved, so called historical empathy, not necessarily singling out victims and perpetrators. Yet history is often used in this way, which makes it important to discuss the importance of richness of nuances in history teaching. Furthermore, you can feel free to discuss whether or not we in today's society use history as a blame game and point out collective guilt towards for example other countries and people based on events in history.
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2

National historiography

a. Can you find any nationalistic tendencies in the texts from Germany and England?

b. What do you think is impossible to write about the war in England and Germany today?

Articles do not hold any direct pronounced nationalism. At the same time, it may be useful to get students to think about what one chooses to not articulate. How sharp a criticism is it actually possible to target against one’s own country in a popular history magazine? It might be of value to point out to the students how history is a construction and that it can be used and misused in a number of ways.

World War III?

What factors for a future World War can you find in the world today? Discuss what structural and personal factors that might spark another Great War?

This question can be used to sum up what students have learned about the causes of war, from a historical perspective. As a teacher it is important to make it evident that history does not repeat itself in an exact way. However, there are lessons to be learned, not least how structures and individuals can promote both war and peace. This question is also designed to stimulate students to look at the links between past, present and future, an ability often labeled historical consciousness. This question can easily be linked to the present European situation and the European Union as an attempt to preserve peace.

a. Select countries by clicking their names to the right. Start with selecting United Kingdom and Germany.
b. Pose a hypothesis on how life expectancy and income developed in the time period of World War I. What do you expect to find?
c. Click play and see the results. How do the results match your hypothesis?
d. Trail also Poland, Sweden and Spain. How were they affected by the war?
e. Try to link the statistics in Gapminder to the texts you have read. How do you think the impacts of World War I can affect historical writing?
f. Deselect all countries. Press play and follow the historic developments in the world. What do you find as interesting? Is the world becoming a better place?

Gapminder is a statistical tool based upon internationally reliable data. Of course data is missing and less reliable from some time periods and some poor regions. The trails of the countries will make evident how some countries suffered more than other in the First World War. Hence, memories from the war differ and in some nations they are stronger than other. Sweden was for instance much better off than Germany and United Kingdom in 1916. The memories of war are today weaker in countries not directly involved. The developments in the world show how the world is actually (when looking at statistics) becoming a richer place where people live longer, in almost all regions. Hopefully these are perceived by students as encouraging facts after reading about the horrors of war.