Transcript
Frame Concept Introduction
The past is vast. How can we organize the massive amount of events and
sources in a way that makes it understandable and usable? Frames are a
tool that historians use to sort through, group, and think about long term
historical trends. In this course, we use three frames—communities,
networks, and production and distribution. These frames help us connect
events, people, and trends across era and enable us to create frame
stories that make the past meaningful.
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00:01 A good map, on paper or on your phone, is critical when traveling in unfamiliar
territory. Maps help you navigate a trip, locating your place on the Earth, showing
What are frames and how you where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re heading. And good maps
do we use them? provide just enough detail—and no more—to get you where you’re going.
Bob Bain, PhD, University
of Michigan But what if you’re traveling through time? What tool can help locate you in time,
Image bubbles depicting help you to “see” where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going? Are
students using maps on there tools we could use, like maps, that might help you as you start your journey
their phones; a map shows through the familiar and unfamiliar territories of world history?
the location of the Eiffel
Tower in Paris In this course, we think Big Story frames, or simply frames, will help as you
Moving timeline travel through history, mapping the trip our species has taken over hundreds of
thousands of years.
01:04 Like maps, the frames highlight important milestones or turning points on a trip.
But unlike maps, these historical milestones or turning points are snapshots in
Timeline highlights time, showing changes in how our ancestors lived, worked, organized themselves,
historical milestones: and connected to others. The frames in this course provide a way to get
American Revolution, meaningful pictures or answers out of a huge amount of information.
French Revolution, Haitian
Revolution, Bolivian War of A world history course cannot possibly tell you everything that happened to
Independence everyone for the entire history of the world, but sometimes it seems like your
teacher and your class materials are trying to do just that. Lots of places, lots of
A larger timeline fills up dates, lots of people, lots of events, and lots of ideas will come your way. And
with historical milestones there’s a risk that you’ll get lost in the details, losing your place in time, until it
and events seems like history is just one thing after another after another.
02:03 You need a way to connect what you’re learning, to find answers to questions or
ways to understand what it all means. The frames should help you to do this kind
The timeline returns, of work.
this time color-coded,
representing the Now, what kind of tool is a frame? By viewing the past through a frame, it should
connections that frames help you make sense of the wild diversity of history. It should help you use what
will help to define you learn about the past to understand our present and to anticipate the future.
02:29 (music playing) The three frames we use in this course are: Communities;
Production and Distribution; and Networks. The Communities frame looks at how
World History Project we’ve structured the societies around us, including the state and religion. The
Frames Production and Distribution frame explores how we have made and moved the
Bob Bain stuff we use every day. Finally, the Networks frame looks at how humans have
been connected to and interact with one another.
Now, these are only three of the many possible ways you could frame the past and
the present. But we think using these three will help you make sense of the details
you’ll encounter. They will offer insight into important questions about how the
events of the past have led us to the lives we live today. This, in turn, should help
you to think about and prepare for the future.
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03:23 How might the frames do this? For example, in looking at how humans changed
the communities in which they lived, the Communities frame might help you to
Protests throughout the understand the promise and limitations of democracy—yesterday, today, and
world; People fighting tomorrow.
for voting rights; climate
action; and democracy
Early agriculture; more In seeing all the changes we made in the ways we produced and distributed goods
modern farm equipment and services, the Production and Distribution frame might help you to think about
how work has been changing and what jobs might be available in the future.
a spoken word meeting, And using the Networks frame might help you to think carefully about the ways
a black-and-white photo new forms of communication—from spoken words to letters to telephones to the
of a letter being delivered; internet—historically changed society and to prepare you for the changes to come.
President Obama taking
a selfie with some
supporters.
04:07 (music playing) Each frame enables us to connect particular events and trends in
the past to those that came before and will come after. However, depending on
Using Frames which frame we use, we can get different but complementary answers.
For example, the transition to farming in the distant past and the Cold War in the
recent past assume very different meaning if we consider them as changes in
community identities, or economic systems of production and distribution, or
the networks of people and ideas. Of course, these elements of human life all
overlap, and so the frames also all overlap. But that’s okay. The past is messy and
complicated, and so are the tools we must use to study it.
04:56 Frankly, that’s why using multiple frames is so useful—each frame reveals
important information that other frames may not. After all, you need different maps
Topographic map, voting to help you see different territories, right? One map may be great for one purpose
map, road map but not so good for another. So it is with the frames.
The important thing to remember about frames is that they let you connect events
and people and trends across multiple eras. They create big stories over grand
sweeps of time, all the way to the present. Now, even though it might appear that
we’re studying each era separately, it’s very important to help you see bigger
patterns of change, patterns sweeping through all the eras, all the way to the
present. For example, consider—as we do in the Communities frame—that some
humans began living in cities thousands of years ago, but it was only in 2007—just
over a decade ago— when more than half of all humans were living in cities for the
first time.
05:59 Clearly, the history of cities isn’t confined to one era, nor is any other history.
Frames, then, are useful tools for understanding big changes in human history.
Drawing of a first, ancient
city, next to a photo of However, because they focus on big changes, they are not perfect tools. They
modern-day city public leave out more than they include. Indeed, frames look at events, trends, and long
transport histories through particular filters. None of them tells the whole story. It’s really
impossible to tell the whole of human history through any single story.
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06:32 Even as we use the frames, we’ll evaluate and modify them. We will test their
claims by asking critical questions about how well they guide us in thinking about
Questions: events of the past and the present.
“How have we structured
the way that we live?” By both using and evaluating the frames, we hope to improve our skills in
“How did we make and analyzing the stories we get from the past. This includes the frames that others
move stuff?” give us. We’ll test their claims using evidence and logic, considering the impact of
“How are we connected?” using one frame over another.
07:01 So there you have it. Frames allow you to construct histories that are usable
for interpreting the past, orienting yourself to the present, and preparing for the
Our three frames: future. They enable you to study a complex event from a particular perspective.
Communities, They allow you to generate big questions and to test them using evidence. They
Production and help you to perceive patterns that cross different periods. They can be modified
Distribution, and Networks through your own experience.
This is why we have designed this course for you to use frames, test frames, and
eventually construct your own frames for understanding and using world history.
