Teaching World History as Mystery

Jack Zevin, David Gerwin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781135147464
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

Offering a philosophy, methodology, and examples for history instruction that are active, imaginative, and provocative, this text presents a fully developed pedagogy based on problem-solving methods that promote reasoning and judgment and restore a sense of imagination and participation to classroom learning. It is designed to draw readers into the detective process that characterizes the work of professional historians and social scientists ? sharing raw data, defining terms, building interpretations, and testing competing theories. An inquiry framework drives both the pedagogy and the choice of historical materials, with selections favoring the unsolved, controversial, and fragmented rather than the neatly wrapped up analysis of past events.

Teaching World History as Mystery:

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• Provides a balanced combination of interestingly arranged historical content, and clearly explained instructional strategies

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• Features case studies of commonly and not so commonly taught topics within a typical world/global history curriculum using combinations of primary and secondary documents

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• Discusses ways of dealing with ethical and moral issues in world history classrooms, drawing students into persisting questions of historical truth, bias, and judgment

eight
Secrets of Secret Societies

A dozen wise men can be more easily caught than a hundred fools!

(Russian proverb)

In this chapter, we invite you and your students to investigate some famous and some not-so-famous secret societies formed in the course of history (e.g., Figure 8.1). Secret societies, in our view, are a special form of human behavior that provides multiple, overlaying mysteries—both real mysteries and those that can be “manufactured” for the classroom. Here, we introduce each secret society so that you will feel on solid ground when it comes to teaching, but we will also provide you with manufactured mysteries for students in the form of authentic documents. The manufacturing takes the form of eliminating proper names, dates, and places from the documents so that students must engage in a search for context by reading cues, finding clues, and conducting their own (Internet) research.

Thus, the mysteriousness of documents will be increased as a way to engage students in historical inquiry. In other chapters, the mystery may reside in comparing sources, contrasting historians, examining multiple interpretations, or arguing theory. But in this chapter, the documentary evidence will first be presented as a kind of simulation that mimics the often fragmentary and eroded sources historians have to reconstruct on the way to developing an explanation or theory. Thus, our investigation of secret societies in history will proceed largely inductively: sources first, interpretation second, and comprehensive explanation or theory last.

Figure 8.1 Skull and Crossbones Secret Society at Yale University, c.1947, G. H. W. Bush Left of Clock. This secret society is based at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. The society’s alumni organization, which owns the society’s real property and oversees the organization’s activity, is the Russell Trust Association, and is named after General William Huntington Russell, founding member of the Bones’ organization along with fellow classmate Alphonso Taft. In conversation, the group is known as “Bones,” and members have been known as “Bonesmen.” Photo: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Yale Years, Archive # HS306.

Rationale

Each of the secret societies we have chosen plays an important role in history, and each produced a rather striking statement of principles often in the form of an “oath” or “constitution” or “declaration” meant to be spoken aloud at meetings behind closed doors, not for general consumption by the public. What makes secret societies so fascinating is not only their secretiveness but also the elaborate metaphors and allegorical language used to describe their goals and operating methods.

Secret societies usually develop in historical contexts in which there are deep-rooted conflicts between local populations and rulers. The rulers can vary considerably: some local and native, others dominating by means of conquests, armed might, and imperial hegemony. The societies often begin by fighting for good causes, at least in their eyes, but may turn into closed communities that wreak violence on those who don’t agree with them or who support the governmental authorities. Many also have more than one element of gore and mayhem (usually appealing to middle and senior high students), calling for sacrifice, bloodshed, and passion, usually directed against some set of authorities.

In today’s world there are actually quite a few secret revolutionary societies operating around the globe, although we usually refer to these as terrorist groups. Examples include Al-Qaeda, the Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, Euzkadi (Basque separatists), and Zapatistas, and perhaps the rather peaceful and persecuted Falun Gong. Many students may be surprised to discover that many secret societies begin with nationalist or religious freedom fighters who represent noble ideals in a repressive political atmosphere, but who later take on the characteristics of their enemies and slowly grow into radicals, revolutionaries, or terrorists. This has happened many times in world history, leaving us present-day folks with a very negative view of current realities. Perhaps the best example of this is the Mafia, which began as a nationalistic movement opposing foreign rule in Italy and morphed into a secret criminal organization, often exploiting and controlling the very people it once sought to liberate.

One of the mysteries we would like you to think about is why people are willing to join rebellious, angry, violent groups, even to the point of their own death and destruction, often taking their secrets with them to the grave. So although this is a rather gruesome subject to deal with, it is a topic we believe needs serious discussion and has wide application throughout great swaths of history. Despite (or because of) the nasty aspects of many secret societies, student interest should be attracted by the first-hand documentation, which in many cases rivals television violence and movie mayhem.

It is often easier to study groups that operated in the past rather than those working now because we have historical perspective. Where a group once seemed heroic, or darkly violent and menacing, we can see why it changed over time to act destructively within its nations, or even across continents. Distance helps us to view groups and actions more objectively, we hope, although once we get into the subject we may very well become upset all over again or maybe for the first time.

Defining a Secret Society

A big question to open with concerning secret societies is definition. Is any group of two or more people who join together and keep secrets a society? What size does a society have to attain to be considered? How many secrets have to be kept? Does the group need revolutionary goals or can goals be conservative as well? Does the group have to have political goals, or are social or economic goals sufficient?

Are street gangs secret societies? What about clubs, or sorority and fraternal organizations, like the Masons, the Elks, or Knights of Columbus? Can the group be local, or does membership have to be cross-national or international? In short, where do we draw the line on what we consider qualified secret societies.

For the purposes of this chapter, the definition will be opened and re-opened any number of times, drawing students into discussion as they construct their own working definitions. Along with questions of definition, we also need to consider the causes and conditions that give rise to secret societies.

Secret societies may arise for many causes, with varying social conditions and historical events contributing to their development. However, there seem to be clear, strong patterns exhibited by local, national, and international groups, past and present, that we may loosely characterize as secret societies. A test case may be Al-Qaeda, or Falun Gong: do these groups qualify as secret societies?

First of all, secret societies are most often found in what the organizers view as an oppressive and undemocratic political situation. Members of secret societies usually dislike or intensely hate the government in power, and join together to oppose it by means fair and foul. Because the situation is undemocratic, members of secret societies have little means to express their grievances or work for change. They are out of power, or never had any power. As conditions become worse and worse, and there is increasing persecution (particularly in the eyes of the members), these groups resort to violence, bombings, murder, warfare, and the kinds of skullduggery that are found in a potboiler mystery story.

But in history, there are examples of violent political conflict and persecution to fill many books. In the case of secret societies, many of the leaders and members were literate and did us the favor of leaving behind wonderful documents that were designed to induct people into membership, justify goals and methods (however scary), and outline organizational duties and responsibilities. In some ways, secret societies mimic clubs, exclusive g...