Andrew Denning
University of Kansas
Andrew Denning is an associate professor of history at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses on 20th century Europe and on empire; his research focuses on the movement of people, things, ideas, and practices as a means to reconstruct transnational and global relationships, using the tools of cultural, technological, and environmental history—as in his recent article in American Historical Review on mobility in Nazi Germany. His new book project, Automotive Empire: Cars, Roads, and the Making of Colonial Africa, 1895-1940, argues that the technological and infrastructural imperatives of motor vehicles and roads in Africa shaped the administration of empire, social relations between colonizer and colonized, and the culture of the automobile in Europe. In addition to his first book, Skiing into Modernity: A Cultural and Environmental History (University of California Press, 2015), he has published articles in a wide range of publications, including American Historical Review, The Atlantic, Environmental History (winner of the 2014 Joel A. Tarr Envirotech Article Prize), Technology and Culture, and Central European History.
Assignment
Fictional Autobiography
“When students play with history through the eyes of first-person avatars and interact with virtual historical worlds, they build knowledge through experience and share their creations with one another and the world. Recognizing the potential of historical play, let’s join in the fun.”
“Deep Play? Video Games and the Historical Imaginary,” The American Historical Review, Volume 126, Issue 1, March 2021.
Compose an autobiography of your life between January 1933 and the Summer of 1939. Narrate the events important to your life and the lives of your family/friends, while maintaining historical accuracy in relation to the sketch above. The best autobiographies will create a believable cast of characters in your life, as family/friends of both sexes, various political leanings, and diverse ethnic origins, class backgrounds, and religious beliefs, will have very different experiences. You will also need to think through how your goals, ideals, and actions will change over these years, and how your own life will interact with the big historical changes roiling Germany in this time period. This said, your character MAY NOT alter the fundamental course of history (by assassinating Hitler, for example).