The GET-It's Global Education Time project, lead by CISP and co-funded by the European Union, offers history teachers and students aged 13-19 an innovative school textbook based on the Global History approach. Written and published as part of the Get Up and Goals! project, the 3-volume "A Global History of Humanity" was edited by CISP and it has already been downloaded tens of thousands of times.
Why a Global History of Humanity?
To gain a deep understanding of the world we live in, with all its contradictions and complexities.
Moving beyond narrow, restrictive perspectives is essential to grasp and explore the profound interconnectedness that defines today’s historical context. This ability has been one of the key factors in the manual’s success. Its overarching goal is to promote a new narrative that transcends nationalism and Eurocentrism while fostering a cohesive and inclusive Europe in dialogue with the rest of the world.
A Textbook That Explains the History of Inequalities, Migrations, and Climate Change?
Most school textbooks still focus on shaping "the national citizen", someone well-versed in their country's history but lacking the tools to understand and engage with major global challenges.
This global geo-history manual takes a radically different approach, emphasizing:
- Strong interconnections between local and global events, as well as economic, political, and cultural factors across past, present, and future.
- A concept-driven methodology that prioritizes explanations of relationships, processes, and transformative changes over rote memorization of names and dates.
- Key contemporary issues as a lens for historical analysis: Each chapter, covering history from 70,000 BCE to the present, explores three recurring questions: What major forces have shaped inequalities? How have migrations influenced human history? How have humans interacted with climate and environmental changes?
- Dozens of original geo-historical maps designed to integrate temporal and spatial perspectives, making history and geography mutually enriching.
The textbook is available for free download in 12 languages, with identical content in terms of text, maps, and layout.
Authored by Eric Vanhaute, Professor of Global History at Ghent University (Belgium), and Claudia Bernardi, Professor at Roma Tre University (Italy), the textbook was developed with the support of a specialized teaching and design team. CISP conceived and coordinated the entire project.
In the picture: GET project activity in Poland. Credits @ GET.