Chapter 3: Internationalizing the U.S. History Curriculum: From Nationalism to Cosmopolitanism

This chapter analyzes the traditional forces behind the nationalistic curriculum in the United States, which have intensified over the past 3 decades as an integral part of the then-ascendant neoliberal economic and educational agenda. As an alternative to this nation-centred curriculum, the author proposes a cosmopolitan curricular framework in which students see themselves simultaneously as citizens and members of their families, communities of interest, localities, nations, planet earth, and the biosphere. In this way students will come to see themselves as participants in many levels of communities, with overlapping rights and responsibilities. This cosmopolitan curriculum, balanced by continuing affection for place and country, is based on a global conception of social justice.