Editor's Message

Marc Jason Gilbert

     World Exhibitions and the Silk Roads have much in common, not the least of which is the diffusion of commerce and culture. This issue of World History Connected offers a Forum on each of these subjects. This dual Forum format is a first for the journal, but not the only "first." The Forum on Exhibitions offers the work of well-established scholars, while the Forum on the Silk Road features the work of younger scholars. Readers will judge as to where each article falls along WHC's editorial continuum of scholarship and the scholarship of teaching, but all offer fresh insight into these well-known topics in world history scholarship and classrooms. Guest Editor Peter Hoffenberg offers a font of teaching approaches to what instructors might think of as a subject hard into a survey format, while John Maunu, WHC's editor for digital resources, offers a compendium of annotated links to material useful for exploring the place of nomads on the Silk Roads during the Mongol era.

In the near future, World History Connected will explore the issue of global/world history and the significance or irrelevance of a perceived difference between the two terms among some scholars. It is also developing a Forum on new approaches to Oceania and the First World War in World History. World History Connected welcomes the submission of articles and reviews on these and any other subject that can advance research and teaching in the still evolving field of world history.

Marc Jason Gilbert, Editor
Hawai'i Pacific University

Marc Jason Gilbert is Professor of History and National Endowment for the Humanities Endowed Chair in World History at Hawai'i Pacific University. He can be reached at mgilbert@hpu.edu.