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North/Central America

The label on a vinyl copy of Strange Fruit. Circular label is red with Commodore: classics in swing at the top and the title Strange Fruit.
Source

"Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday (1939)

Based on a poem by Abel Meeropol published in January 1937, “Strange Fruit” was a song protesting the lynching of African America

A newspaper article titled big business banishes the flapper. On the left is a woman dressed as a flapper, and on the right is a woman dressed modestly in black.
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“Big Business Banishes the Flapper"

The “flapper” craze overtook the western world in the early 1920s and was spearheaded by young women intent on bucking cultural n

Thumbnail of a propaganda poster that features two Black men, one with his arm raised and the other resisting a baton wielded by a white gloved hand
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"Resolutely support the just struggle of the American Blacks!" Propaganda Poster, 1963

The title of this Chinese propaganda poster is “Resolutely support the just struggle of the American Blacks!” (Jianjue zhichi Meiguo heirende zhengyi douzheng!).

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Speech by U.S. Civil Rights Leader Robert Williams, 1966

American civil rights leader Robert Williams delivered this speech on August 8th,1966 at a demonstration in Beijing commemorating the third anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s “Statement

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Mao Tse-tung's Statement Regarding Racial Discrimination in the United States, 1963

Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung delivered this speech on August 9th, 1963 prior to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In it, he expresses support for Black Americans’ struggles against racial discrimination and calls upon peoples of the world to unite against U.S.

1844 Business contract between Richard P. Waters and his Omani-Zanzibari trading partner, Esau bin Abdul Rahman
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Business contract between Richard P. Waters and his Omani-Zanzibari trading partner, Esau bin Abdul Rahman

This contract represents how business was typically transacted in Zanzibar and throughout the Omani Empire.

First page of a letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate in 1834 on the expansion of US trade.
Teaching

Short Teaching Unit: The Omani Empire and the Center of the Emerging Global Economy, 1500-1850

This essay pushes back against European-dominated narratives of world history to suggest that the Omani Empire was a crucial space for the emergence of our present-day system of global capitalism.

First page of a letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate in 1834 on the expansion of US trade.
Source

A letter from U.S. President Andrew Jackson to the Senate Dated Washington, May 30, 1834

A letter from President Andrew Jackson to the Senate where the President discusses the possibility of extending US trade. Jackson was particularly interested in the potential trade connections with areas around the Indian Ocean. 

Large spreadsheet documenting each foreign vessel that arrived in the port of Zanzibar which kept track of things such as the origin, size, and cargo of each visiting ship.
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List of Foreign Arrivals in the Port of Zanzibar from the 16th September 1832 to 26th May 1835

This is an ostensibly mundane document that contains a tremendous amount of information for interpreting the global dynamics of this period of history, all while peering out into the world from the tiny island of Zanzibar.

Construction drawing of a social housing high-rise in La Duchère, 1960.
Teaching

Social Capital in World History: Lyon and Pittsburgh as Examples

Lyon, France, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are connected by the thread of social capital, or people power.  This essay situates social capital as an non-financial asset possessed by people who have little wealth, but who use a variety of strategies to facilitate community improvements.